Hotel Kasbah Sahara Services M'Hamid

... very well fed. There were 12 of us on the tour, apart from me there was 8 other Australians all between the age of 20 and 28 Lizzie was the only English representative although all the Australians were living and working and London! The last 2 people were a middle aged American couple who did nothing to challenge my general opnion and experince with people of this background. Waking up Monday morning was amzing having not yet been able to see our surroundings properly. We really ...

... and we knew we were in for a slow ride South. The better quality CTM bus was not due to leave for a few hours so we took our chances on the retro rig. Once it finally rattled away from the station and the usual arguements over seats and tickets, beggars on board etc had subsided we realised we were sitting next to a beautiful Muslim woman in full veil who had a bandage covered in blood wrapped around her head and keeping her mouth open like a gag. She was silenced and in ...

... for breaking the fast. There are black and white swallows darting around our heads and we have the best view of the sunset in the city. Nadine and Mareke go down to buy the Fes speciality of Bsara which is butter bean and garlic soup with chilli and olive oil on top and served through a funnel into a plastic bag, nice one. Next day we bought some fabulous Nougat from a guy here too. The prayers finally started to boom out over the city and the feast began. We are ...

... book called "A House in Fez" published late last year. We meet Sandy a couple of times (I have my first beer in Morocco with him) and are invited around to his riad, and sit around in the courtyard and have tea with him and another expatriate, Kleo (from Germany), who has also bought and renovated a riad, which she is running as a commercial venture - each bedroom has been beautifully and individually decorated (see the pictures) and the view from the rooftop terrace is fabulous. It's ...

... believe you. A few minutes later due east the sun has made sand of the Earth's rocks and I get my first vision of the Sahara's peaks and valleys. The driver points out a desert nomad to our right. I look at him like a creature because it seems no human could exist in this inhospitable terrain. Here you are like an ant under a child's magnifying glass. The heat will paralyze you, without relief from the wind. A ...

... adjacent au tombeau. Comme nous l'explique notre guide, c'est une sorte de "Lourdes" marocain. De retour sur la route, nous traversons encore une montagne (Jbel) et les premières dunes de sable apparaissent enfin (dune du Tinfou). Nous faisons alors halte pour la nuit juste avant M'Hamid, dans une très jolie Kasbah. PS : Toujours pas de batteries dans l'appareil... donc pas de photos.

At about 9 o'clock we awake to the brand new and unfortunately the last day here. We do some repacking in order to meet the 15kg baggage limit of Ryanair and the hotel room is empty again. Today we start the morning by exploring the vicinity of Royal Palace on SW of Fes el Bali. The palace itself is closed to public, but has a fabulous main gate near Place des Alaouites. In order to get as far as that, one has to pass a five-gate square of Petit Mechouar and then take some more streets ...

... the interesting mix of people amongst the 4 others with us.There was the Dutch man who had married a Moroccan and lived near Meknes, speaking Dutch, and fluent French and Arabic. And the Moroccan journalist living in the Netherlands who spoke Arabic and fluent English, Dutch and French. And the property developer from Fes who spoke Arabic and fluent French and English. Conversation was lively with animated discussion ...

For the month of June I will be living and working in Fez, Morocco. Then after a few Moroccan tourist attractions, I will be traveling to Pula, Croatia to stay with my friend Lindsay's family on a short one week vacation (for those that don't know Lindsay, she is my classmate in vet school and is one of the people that I traveled to Thailand with last summer. She will also be my future roommate starting this fall when we return to school). As in the past, I ...

... rippled by the wind. There was also this weird stippled effect which is what happens when it rains on sand dunes. Leaving Mr Iriqui in our coppery gold powdery dust we charged up the first 50m of the first really big dune - this took about five minutes of scrabbling, crabbing, panting, slithering, repeating above steps - then we had a little rest. We finally clawed our way to the top, dug our toes into the miraculously cool sand below the surface and inhaled some ...