The First Week

Trip Start Feb 06, 2005

Trip End Mar 04, 2005

Loading Map

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Morocco Marrakech, Morocco
Sunday, September 23, 2007

It was the first week I was there that I realized that there were going to be problems when it was time to leave. As I had already felt as though I was at home. Unlike my vacation to Thailand that turned into an eight month teaching gig, I had/have work commitments in France as well as people I care about and what is frighteningly beginning to look like an actual home. You don't know this about me yet but I am a recovering commitment phobic which could explain the constant travel/living from country to country.

Anyway, as soon as I arrived, I sensed that moderate lack of organization that I missed from my previous lives in Asia. My senses were suddenly assaulted by all the sights, sounds and smells. All that said ironically, coming directly from France, not many experiences there were so overwhelming because everyone speaks French as well as most Moroccan food and a lot of artisan work we can find in France. It truly is a Francophone country equipped with all the major French TV stations and major services for French expatriates and travelers.

Basically what it comes down to for me is I really enjoyed the people and their approach of enjoying the process instead of the final result. We hear a lot of negative stories about Morocco especially in regards to making purchases, taking cabs and doing touristic endeavors. Yes, in general, if you look like a foreigner, it is assumed that you are rich and the natives may try to take advantage of that fact. But understand, even amongst each other, Moroccans haggle to buy just about everything, so its a part of their culture. You, the foreigner, will be expected to haggle as well but if you don't know the real worth of things you won't end up on the winning side. That first week, I definitely spent way too much money on everything. In fact not even the first week, it was like that the majority of the trip. It was only after I began to pay attention to the worth of things and being prepared to leave without the item or service I wanted that I began to feel that I wasn't getting ripped off.

This whole process of trying to shop in Marrakesh got me thinking about how there, the act of shopping is the experience not just the outcome of having whatever it is we want... One must discuss, have tea, discuss, then speak of price, have tea and finally agree on a price that will make everyone happy. In my subsequent trips I have found other activities in Morocco that celebrate the process of the "act" not "outcome"...that parallel the art of the deal in the souks of Marrakesh.