The Adventures of Doug and Bec: Morocco

We arrived in Marrakech at about 10am in the morning after a long overnight train. Once again we disembarked into a huge new looking train station with cafes and shops and about a hundred taxis waiting outside for us! Once again we got harassed to take a taxi, but we just kept telling them our hotel had already booked a car for us, and they let us go through. Eventually we found a taxi that looked in good condition and the driver quoted a reasonable price (under $5 to our accommodation) so we headed off.

We decided to stay in a Riad rather than a hotel or a hostel. For those who wish to know, a Riad is a "small palace" and is basically a multi-level building that looks like a plain square building from the outside, but has courtyards in the middle. It is traditional for the Muslim people there to live in these types of buildings as they do not like to show wealth... so basically looks like crap from outside, but was amazing inside! We stayed in a Raid called the Cecil which was in a lane about 30 metres from the famed Djeema El Fna Square in Marrakech. As we were only planning to stay a few days we decided to stay right next to the biggest tourist attraction in Morocco.

After being allowed to check into our room at about 10:30am :) we had a bit of an explore of the Riad which had a beautiful roof terrace that looked out over the Square. Here we drank some free tea before heading out into the Square and the surrounding markets for some lunch and an afternoon exploring. Marrakech is definitely a must. It is such an interesting experience. The markets are amazing and stretch for what feels like kilometres in every direction of the Square, and sell everything from modern electronics to leather goods. We spent perhaps 2 hours just wandering around the markets. Unfortunately you do get fairly heavily harassed by some store owners to buy goods. I found that if I wore my sun glasses and walked straight ahead they did not bother us as much!

After a busy afternoon we headed back to the Riad for a rest (it was hot!) before heading back out to the Djeema El Fna Square. At this time we met up with the hotels tour operator and looked at various desert tours for the following days. We ended up deciding to to a 3 night, 4 day tour after staying one more night in Marrakech. The tour cost us about $280 for 4 days including dinner and breakfasts. The first night was to be in Zagora area of the Sahara desert, the second night in a hotel in a gorge, and the third night being in the large Merzouga area of the Sahara desert. After booking we headed back out for dinner.

At night the Square transforms into a massive festival like area full of food stall/restaurant where seemed to have popped out of the ether, surrounded by dancers, games, Henna tattooing, monkeys and snakes. When we arrived back at the Square we were handed monkeys each and got photos.... followed by being asked for 200 Dirham ($22) "to help feed the monkeys"... which we declined... eventually giving them 5 Durham (or 50 cents). It is a bit tourist hustle over there and they are known to get quite aggressive, so from then on we steered clear of the monkeys.

We decided to have dinner at one of the stalls in the middle of the Square. You couldn't walk within 100 meters of any of the stalls without the workers calling out to you are coming to show you their food. They are all regulated by the government and have stall numbers which they have used to make quirks to remember them, such as "118, it's never too late" while the neighboring stall tells you that 118 is "118, you pay a high rate"... It was quite an experience and we had a nice dinner of mixed kebab stick for about $6 each.

After dinner we found one of the many Henna tattoo stalls and Bec got a Henna tattoo on her hand. Henna is made from a plant extract and is brown in colour, but we had noticed some people with black tattoos. After some research we discovered that the black ones are actually fake and the chemicals can leave some scarring. Once again these are used as a massive tourist trap as they have books showing what you can get done, and both books have different Prices. An example is the one that Bec got was 80 Dirham but in the other book they were showing other tourists it was listed as 300 Dirhams!

Day two in Marrakech and we headed up to the terrace at our Riad for a free breakfast which included breads, honey, jam, croissants, orange juice and tea, before heading back out for a day in the Markets. We spent the first part of the day looking for scarfs to cover our faces while in the desert, and I eventually bought a nice light silk staff dyed in natural indigo blues. The shop owner showed us how to tie it in a traditional head band which can cover your face, and after a few practices we got it down pat. Our tour the following day left at 7am so we had an early dinner before having an early night.

Me up on the roof terrace where we had tea and breakfast

The roof terrace

One of the many Cous Cous meals

Horse drawn cart in the Square

Selling nuts and dried fruit. We bought a kilo of mixed nuts that were amazing. At first we were skeptical as they appeared to be covered in flies but on closer look we discovered that the honey roasted nuts were attracting bees!