Morocco
Trip Start
Jul 07, 2008
1
40
226
Trip End
May 27, 2010
Rabat,
Morocco
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Asilah, Sahara Hotel
Cool and cloudy
It's Friday and we've been in Morocco 3 days. We left Tarifa, cycling to Algeciras to check for post (there was none) so onto the first ferry bound for Tangier. A couple of hours later we hit the hustle and bustle that is Tangier. First impressions as we hit the port was the utter chaos that surrounds every move. You definitely know that you've left Europe. Smells were overwhelmingly of somewhere different, a mixture of sewers, shish kebab and sweat. The traffic was completely mad, everyone cutting everyone else up and there was absolutely no giving way to cyclicsts - welcome to Morocco.
We failed to find the Hotel Victoria (although the very next day we came across it while wandering) but we did find the Pension Palace. The Medina is a series of small lanes and that;s where we wanted to stay, Pension Palace was not, as it's name suggests, a palace at all, however, it was conveniently placed across from the very nice Bar Central which is a great place for a coffee and the loos are exceptionally clean, worth paying extra just for that.
I think I've had a virus or something because for the past 4 or 5 days, I've been feeling pretty yuck and yesterday it all came to a bit of a head and most of the day was spent feeling sorry for myself. My head felt like it was in a vice and I just generally felt horrible. Today, it's loosened up and it feels like sinusitis, still, at least I can move my head now without feeling as though my neck and shoulders will crunch too much. So, we just wandered around Tangier and got used to the fact that we were somewhere different.
Dave has been writing his blog (and yes, I mean writing in pen) and has yet to put it down electronically but I think he is going to mention about getting well and truly ripped off the first night, so I won't steal his thunder. In terms of costs we're a bit horrified at the prices. The room we had in Tangier cost us 150 dhiram a night (14.6 to the £) and the lovely little room we have tonight is costing us 136, so it's around the £10 mark. Now I don't mind AT ALL paying what we're paying here at the Sahara, it's very very clean, and well run all in all rather lovely. The place in Tangier was not great, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. We're looking at staying at Moulay Bousselham, and the cost is probably going to be more like 500 for the night. On top of which, our food (of course we're not cooking for ourselves)
costs have soared. Not wishing to go on too much about money we're just shocked at how much everything is costing. It remains to be seen whether we stay in Morocco as long as we had planned, given the level of satisfaction taking everything into account, so watch this space.
We've arrived towards the end of Ramadan, where Muslims fast for daylight hours. No food, no water, no cigarettes and no sex. You can imagine how most of them are feeling by the time sundown comes along. and particularly now on day 25, I think they have another week to go then it's the Eid, everyone gets to celebrate, it's a bit like our Xmas. Yesterday we ate in a traditional restaurant in Tangier. Just before sundown (when the street lights come on and the Muheddin calls everyone to prayer) the restaurants set out the tables with bowls of Harira soup, a hard boiled egg, dates, salad and bread. People come into the restaurant, take a seat and wait for 'the off', so that's exactly what we did. The food was lovely and we didn't feel ripped off at all, can't say that for the other meals we've had in Morocco.
So to the cycling. Fifty kms today, dead flat (pretty much) straight down the N1. There's nothing on the road, oh except a Metro cash and carry, a few dilapidated hotels and the odd bus and taxi stop. It's nothing to write home about in other words. Apart from the odd glimpse of the ocean, which is beautifully greeny blue and the beaches which for the most part are golden and completely uninhabited unless they have been earmarked for development in which case they have great big fences round them.
Asilah is a lovely little place which I'm sure is heaving in the summer, I really wouldn't want to be here then. The medina is really pretty and has some good paintings and grafitti (which I've photographed and hope the pics come out). There are a lot of places for sale in the Medina, it is my view that this is an up and coming resort which could make some people a lot of money in the future.
Laters
