Marrakech Morocco

Trip Start May 01, 2007

Trip End Apr 29, 2008

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Flag of Morocco Marrakech, Morocco
Monday, May 28, 2007

The sun is brutal here. It's like a weight pushing down on our shoulders. Even in the evening when the temperature isn't too high, it still feels like the sun is about 10 feet over our heads.
Marrakech is a very alien place to us. The Bazaar Jemaa-el-Fna (in the centre of the old walled city, basically the heart of their town) is full of performers, merchants and food vendors. The areas surrounding the Jemaa-el-Fna contain hundreds of "souks" (shops) selling everything from meat to electronics. The area is a complete maze - we had to be very careful where we went, or we'd have to pay a local to guide us out again. Even a sideways glance at a souk owner will have him running over trying to get you into the store. Bargaining is the name of the game here, which is tough to get used to. Each shop owner will start off at a ridiculous price, and you have to cut it to about 1/3 what he wanted, and go from there. We both found it to be pretty uncomfortable. The grand Mosque Koutoubia is across the street from Jemaa-el-Fna, and the call to prayers can be heard blasting from the tower several times each day.

Pollution seems to be a massive problem here - I'm pretty certain that they still use leaded gas, and just about everything on the road needs to be tuned up. Walking down the street, there is a constant cloud and stink of exhaust. Kind of unpleasant. The traffic here is nuts too. 50% of everything on the road are mopeds, and most of the drivers don't wear helmets. Crossing the street is a bit hairy, but we just did as the locals do, and that served us just fine.

01 Henna

We're finally getting the hang of it.

Everyone wants money here. Every single person selling something in the Jemaa-el-Fna (even story tellers, or a dude dressed up in drag dancing) wants some dirhams from us. We figure they think because we're white, that we're rich (if only that were the case!) Some people get very aggressive asking for money, which really grates after a while. Terri put a few of them in their place, in classic Terri style. There are a lot of beggars on the streets as well, mothers carting their kids around asking for money, blind men, crippled men. It sort of makes me wonder if the King, in his massive walled palace, really cares for his subjects at all. Terri actually saw one little boy sitting in a wheelchair as we were walking through the souks. The boy was smiling and kicking his feet while sitting in this wheelchair, but when he saw Terri watching him, he immediately slumped over, began to moan and pretended to be handicapped. We cracked up about it.

In spite of the beggars and vendors all vying for a piece of us, we did have a great time in the evenings in the Jemaa-el-Fna as we made some good friends. Elke and Dieter (a nice couple from Belgium - hey guys) kept us company at dinner and gave us some good travel pointers. We also made friends with a few locals, Mohammed, Sayed and Jamal, who worked at the food vendor we ate at for all three nights. Those guys were fantastic, and were only too happy to help us out, and sit and chat to practice their English.

Moroccan food is bloody fantastic.

02 Grand Mosque

Everything we had here was excellent (thanks to Mohammed for steering us in the right direction.) Mint tea (aka Berber Whiskey) is a staple here, served with every meal. We can't get enough of it. At Mohammed's food tent "mint tea and ambiance are free."
Mohammed taught us a few phrases in Arabic - here they are, spelled phonetically (of course):
Hello: Marhabat
Good bye: Ma Salama
Thank you: Chon Cra
Good luck: Had Si-eed
Happy dreams: Ah Halem Si-eeda
Tomorrow night: Radin Masa-n
In exchange, we taught him the English words "sleepy" and "tired", since he only knew them in French. What a guy...

Next step for us is a trek out into the Sahara on camel back - thanks to Matt and Carolyn for suggesting that one.

The Sahara Desert:

So we were picked up early Thursday morning May 31st in this beat up Land Rover, with quasi-functioning seatbelts. The driver didn't speak a word of English. Seriously, not one single word. Arabic and French only. Apparently my French is worse than I thought, because we couldn't understand each other at all. Also on our tour were this great Aussie couple Jacqui and Patrick who we became quick friends with. It was just the four of us, plus the driver we couldn't communicate with, in this Land Rover. Good times.

Day 1 consisted of driving through the Atlas Mountains. The views were STUNNING. Deep reds, yellows and all sorts of other colours in the mountains. The valleys were lush with vegetation (which we didn't expect at all.) What was really cool were the number of towns built right onto the sides of cliffs, of mud, rock and cement.

03 Mohammed

We visited a Berber village (which is apparently on the UNESCO World Heritage list) that has been used as the settings for several movies (the latest and greatest being Gladiator.) We stopped for photos of long green valleys and tall mountain peaks. We spent the night in a charming hotel in an area called "The Valley of the Roses" and had some traditional Moroccan food for dinner and breakfast.

On Day 2 we made an early start and visited another Berber village. We had a tour through their fields, then went into their mud buildings to meet a family. The mud buildings have to be repaired every three years, as they melt during the rainy season. The heat came on relentlessly after that, and didn't let up until well after sunset that night. We made it to our base camp at the very edge of the Sahara early that evening, and mounted up on our camels for the trek out into the desert where we spent the night. Riding a camel is a pretty cool experience. They are actually really nice animals, that I found myself liking a lot more than any horse I've ridden. Patrick was riding the camel right behind mine - every time we stopped, his camel would nudge and snort on me until I scratched the top of his head. Now, the camel's hump presented a bit of a problem. I suppose it takes some getting used to, but Patrick and I both had some comfort issues with it. Riding through the Sahara Desert on camelback was completely surreal. It was awe-inspiring. Definitely something I never thought I would do.
We reached our camp (a circle of tents) after about an hour, and set ourselves up in our tents. The big activity at camp (other than dinner) is to climb up this huge sand dune to watch the sun set. It was no easy feat, but worth the effort. At the top of the tallest sand dune around in the Sahara Desert at sunset, I proposed to Terri, and SHE SAID YES! For pure romance, I doubt there would be many better places or times than that! We all had dinner and Berber Whiskey by the light of a kerosene lamp inside the circle of our tents, then got some shut eye. Along with some others, Terri and I decided to sleep outside under the stars, and a super-bright full moon.

Very early on Day 3, we woke up to see the sunrise, then saddled up for the hour long camel ride back to base camp, where they served us breakfast. The rest of the day was all business as we drove 10 hours back to Marrakech.

The trip into the Sahara was absolutely phenomenal, and exceeded our expectations many times over (Matt and Carolyn - bloody good suggestion!) It was definitely the highlight of our trip so far. Next stop for us, along with Jacqui and Patrick, is the port town of Essaouira (Ess-O-Where-A).

Stay tuned...