Current mood:

enthralled

Mannic Marrakesh, Mon 25th - Sat 30th June 07
Argh, brain running out of writing power, but still have almost an hour of internet time let and fell I should make use of internet time whilst its available.

Marrakesh was amazing and interesting and very different from any where else I've been and did take a bit of getting used to :)
The first indication of this was my shinny British Passport was well scrutinised, and I actually got my first stamp in it! I don't think we're in the EU anymore toto :) Our flight was delayed, but fortunately our driver was still waiting at the airport to pick us up. We climbed into the back of the old BMW a bit tired and travel weary. The journey to the Riad (guest house Morocco) was our first culture shock. Driving along a shared road where indicating and staying in one lane appears to be an optional extra, with motor bikes and scooters going by with up to four people on them. We sat and stared in a bit of amazement, until the driver got to the old town and parked when the car could go no further, an which point we had to get out and Walk through the madness. By this point it was dark, and the Medina in the old town was a maze of narrow dirt allies with scooters and people and donkeys and carts and horses and mooter bikes and strange smells and sounds and a general crush of people, even at 9.30 at night. I walked along trying not to lose sight of the driver walking in front of me or Jen behind me, clutching my unlocked day pack with my passport etc in the top front pocket. I am so very, very glade we got an airport transfer, other wise we would have Never found the place. One you know where you are its fine, but otherwise its down a street and an ally way and around a corner and an unmarked, unlabeled door . . .

Inside the Riad was a world of loveliness and calm from the hustle and bustle of the Medina. Breakfast included, air conditioned room with our own bathroom, a pool to cool off in and friendly housekeepers happy to make you freshly squeezed OJ or mint tea when requested, or who come to your room and give you an extra bottle of water without being asked when you arrive back at the Riad after a long, hot day.

After a day or two we were fine - got our bearings of where the Riad was and were strolling around barley battering a eye lid about all the hustle and busle around us. As a couple of solo females without a guy with us we did receive quite a lot of attention, however after a few days we realised about 9 out of 10 people were being genuinely friendly and weren't trying to pick us up or sell us anything. We did get called 'Gazelle' a few times, and there were a few passing comments about 'beautiful' or 'beautiful eyes' etc however these were easy to ignore, somewhat akin to being wolf whistled at by a builder and never seamed to be delivered with any maliciousness or intent.

Of an evening the main square in the Old Town of the Median is like nothing you've ever seen before. Total madness. Snake charmers and guys with monkeys and women doing henna and market stalls and juice stalls and acrobats and drummers and dancers and story tellers and grillades sending the enticing, wafting smell of food and drifts of smoke over the whole lot :) A couple of nights we ate at restaurants over looking the square and were able to watch it all from afar. Having said that we did have dinner there one night, and went for a walk through the madness. Loads of people, but again felt very safe and not threatended in anyway (occasionally just a bit tired of kids trying to sell me those creepy wooded snakes). The people from the grillaids in the middle are a laugh. We did the circuit and they all came over with their menus, asking us were we were from, promising their food was the best. They seamed to know a bit about every country - things that have apparently filtered through to Marrakesh from Australia are kangaroos, in a while crocodile, and dingo ate my baby. We ended up eating at a place with the guy who made us laugh the most by claiming to be Jamie Oliver's son :) We did think about trying to eat where the locals were, however they all seamed to be sitting around the one's with skinned sheep's heads on display (ew, although maybe this was a ruse to keep the tourists like us away, and they then got out the real food from somewhere else. It worked on us in any case and we ate else were . . .).

The souks or covered markets were an experience in and of them selves. I found haggling to be surprisingly easy and dare I say even fun. In each shop you would have a 10 - 15 min chat, being showed different items, admiring colors etc before you even got to asking the price, which is where the haggling begins. They would come out with some very high figure like 600 Dh, and you'd counter offer with maybe 200. After a few mins you've generally reached a price somewhere in the middle, maybe a bit less if you're a hard bargainer like me :)When you're haggling in the local currently its also easy to forget the conversion rate, and that in hind site it was probably not worth haggling down the last 25 Dh or so (about £1.50.) 1000 Dirhams or Dh is only about £60ish or €100 or $100 Aus - so much mental converting over the week!. I didn't go toooo over board, and only ended up getting a few bits - a lovely, big, blue star shaped lantern, a big shimmery, stripy blue bed spread type thing, a couple of cute bracelets and a gorgeous hand carved box covered with Moorish patters and my name in Arabic on the inside lid :) Needless to say with the exception of one bracelet all these items have now been put into storage at my friends place and will not be going to Italy with me :)

What else, what else? Did some of the usual tourist stuff like a couple of royal palaces, some tombs with cute feral kittens and a bunch of places who's names escape me right down. The YSL gardens was nice (you know, the big fashion guy), all lovely cool shady bits and pretty plats framed with bright blue buildings and fluro yellow pots and a ponds filled with lazy, fat, bright orange goldfish(sounds weird, but it really worked). The Moorish architecture was gorgeous, as always, lots more beautifully carved roofs etc, although I think we did get to the point where we were like, yup, another stunning example of beautifully carved wooden ceilings and archways, next! A few places of note were the central square in the Musee de Marrakesh with its three fountains and stunning but slightly odd big carved wooded thing hanging from a complected canvas awning\covering in the centre and the main palace, not the second one we went to that was meant to be a 'museum' but looked like a bunch of old stuff stuffed into a few cupboards to me . . .

Oh and trying to cross a proper road felt like taking your life into your own hands. There were pedestrian crossings, which the cars appeared to stop at if they felt like it, and mooter bikes and scooters etc almost never stopped at. Craziness. We'd be looking at the map going 'oh bugger does that mean we have to cross Another main road if we go that way?). Although having said this Jen is an Awesome navigator and I don't think we got lost once, even in the Median, quite a achievement in my opinion.

So that was Marrakesh. Crazy, manic, different, intriguing and yet some how strangely alluring all at the same time. Was a bit sad to be going at the end, but looking forward to Italy and the next adventure.

Cheers
S.