Plenty Time Shopping For Jester Shoes Mate
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
153
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Asilah,
Morocco
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
I'm not sure if i wrote about this but a few days ago we were both covered in horrendous itchy bites that appeared overnight all over our bodies. We suspect that they came from little creatures, probably bed bugs or worse critters that were living in the wet camel blankets we used on Camel Trek II in M'Hammad. Bastard camels. Damn you Grumpy Bum Burp-A-Lot and No Nostrils Dinosaur Breath. Jamel and Aziz have made sure we will never forget them.
We had the knowledge that there is a train network that runs from Casablanca up the Atlantic Sea coast to Asilah. However, since we have recently reached the self-given status of extreme hardcore independent backpackers after our Camel Trekking episode, us fools chose to journey on one of the worst bus rides of our entire trip.We like to be close to the people. We were too close this time. A major brawl erupted on the bus as it was leaving and continued for some time
jester shoes
. The seats were designed for hobbits. The bus was ridiculously hot and the local Moroccans must have been cooking away dressed in layers of dressing gowns, stockings, jellabas and turbans. There were some small windows and a sun roof window but nobody opened any. That icky crush of humanity feeling started to creep in. Mono Loco was suffocating. I got Slippery Sam the pillow out and we tried to sleep and detach from the nightmare. We are still baffled as to why the muslim people do not open the windows on the buses. We did the sinful thing and stripped off to our singlets. It was that or pass out in the heat. The bus rolled slowly towerds Casablanca and stopped at every town and for everybody on the side of the road who even looked like they were going to scratch their nose. Once in Casablanca we walked across the bus park onto a connecting bus and thankfully that was all we saw of Casablanca. Men were in punch ups and the whole vibe was very aggressive. Once in Asilah, a tout took us to a room in the unmarked Hotel Fatima that had good views to the ocean and was in the medina. We ended up in a shoe store after we spotted some fantastic jester clown shoes with large curled up toes hanging from strings out the front of the store. More delights were found inside including the perfect pair of leather sandals for mum. Well made shoes in coloured leathers. Finally mum scores something. We spent nearly two hours on the store and had two guys running up and down a ladder leading to the roof in order to bring us different colours and sizes
fishing
. We are sure this was the best shoe shop in Morocco. We bargained for 6 pairs and got them at a price very close to what we wanted to pay. Is 6 pairs shoe fetish territory? The deal was done by us putting on an act and feigning leaving the store after all the guy's hard work in finding us the perfect shoes. Then we told him it was all the shoes or none and he feared losing the sale altogether. We paid a fair price. Our negotiating skills are good now that we have done all the shopping we intend to do and been severely ripped off of course. The next day we hit the little beach and listened to music on the ipod. I successfully scavenged on the beach for some scraps of the beautiful, kaleidoscopic designed, Moroccan tiles that are used all over town. Of course the dreaded small town stalkers got wind of us being in town and before we knew it we had an entourage of blokes practising their English and trying to give us tours of the town. We considered taking a donkey to Paradise Beach just out of town but then realised that there would be more stalkers there and we wouldn't be able to swim in the inviting, turquoise water because it is not the muslim thing to do. Unless we swam in clothes. I tried on a few designer jellabas. By the way, i have a kaftan now and have started to live in it. It is full-length forest green and brown with a hood and i think it will be useful in Egypt.
People in town were preparing for Ramadan to end by stocking up on all the foods and goodies. Donkeys pulling carts laden with produce rolled into town and we decided to roll out and get settled in Tanger before the country grinds to a halt for the end of Ramadan celebrations.
You would think from reading the blogs that we have not enjoyed Morocco at all because of the challenges of travelling independantly here but it has been one of our favourite countries and there really is nowhere else like it. Once you learn to navigate the people then you start to see the best of them and they start to treat you better and you start to really like them.
So, we stitch the Moroccan loop up by ending up in Tangier where we started and from where we will fly out to Cairo, Egypt to continue the ride.
Ramadan me off! Hurray!!!
