Just got back to London from our 5 days in Marrakech - it was totally and utterly not what I was expecting. Partially because I left all planning until the 3 hour flight there at 5am in the morning and partially because the Moroccans have the best publicists in the world.
I was expecting a country covered in Moroccan tiles, gorgeous palaces and French/Moroccan food galore. Key points that managed to escape me prior to arriving:
- It is in Africa
- It w the middle of summer
- It is a third world country
- It is a Muslim country
The entrance to our Riad (a Moroccan B&B). Smell of open sewerage and lots of mangey cats. I didn't take a photo of the gang of youths hanging outside the door (for obvious reasons). Note the look on Booba's face.
Ive been told that there are places like this all over Morocco, and that everything happens behinds closed doors.
The streets of Morocco however were a completely different matter. Apparently only servant women go out onto the streets in Marrakech, except for special festivals etc, because it is so dirty and very .. ahem, full on. All the women wear head scarfs and most wear full burqas.
Donkeys are used a lot as transportation, and not looked after well, much to Booba's distress.
The tourism industry is the second largest in the country and it employes a mere 400,000 people out of 34 million. The unemployment rate is really high and young kids will ask for anything you can give - Booba gave away cans of coke with 2 sips left in and half drunk bottels of water on numerous occaisions.
Taxis
The "big square" is the central point of Marrakech - where food stalls, snake charmers, chained monkeys and boxing 12 year olds get together to hawk their wares. If you look n the middle you can see the charred remains of the suicide bombing that occured last year killing 17 tourists.
Lonely Planet guide tell me it is the busiest market in the world. It was too full on for us - we preferred the quieter souks.
My favourite part was the orange juice sellers (1 glass was 4 dirham or 30 pence). After the second day and the "food issues" set in, Michael and I lived off this orange juice.
On our second day we went in search of the Ben Youssef Mosque and the Koutubia Mosque (built in the 12th century). We got waylaid by a man out to fleece us and general confusion as to the difference between a leather handbag market and a tannery. We ended up a few kilometres out of the city here, where animals are skinned in vats of water and then the skins treated.
It would have been more fun if a) we didnt have to pay a large sum of money to the guy to show us there and back b) we actually wanted to go there and c) a group of 12 year olds hadn't of told me in english that i had nice tits (wearing jeans and a loose shirt buttoned right up).
We finally found the mosques and discovered that in Morocco non-muslims aren't allowed in. They were still gorgeous on the outside.
We loved hearing the 5 times daily call to prayer ("allah ah akbar" - "god is great"). There are 5 requirements to be a Muslim:
1) pray 5 times a day
2) make a pilgrimage to Mecca once in your life
3) believe in the existence of the prophet Mohammad and there being only one god
4) devote yourself to charity
5) Ramadan the month of fasting (no food or drink for a month during the 16 hours of daylight) each year
The mosques were so full people prayed on the streets outside the mosques. Lots of people couldn't afford the bath mat sized mats to pray on so people used either a spare pair of pants or cardboard boxes.
Inside a converted mosque (now a school). One must wash one's feet and hands before prayer.
Beautiful tiles
I found that there were two types of tourists - the type who stayed in large hotels and caught taxis to and from the tourist sites and who dressed completely inappropriately in short shorts and singlets. Generally they didnt get harassed as they stayed only in the tourist areas.
Then there was us + a few other crazies. We walked everywhere and got harassed a lot more. The moment we were out of the tourist areas it was quite unpleasant being female. I was called a slut in english, spanish, and I'm pretty sure French (my french is terrible). It was very intimidating even though I dressed in jeans every day and long sleeved loose fitting shirts the whole time AND I had Booba glued to my side glaring at people.
The spice market where Booba bought me a lot of very expensive saffron not realising exactly how expensive it would turn out to be.
The scarf souk
The ceramic souk
Mint tea on the roof at the Kasbah.
The highlight was definitely the hamman and massages we had on the third day. a 1 hour sauna followed by being loafed to death and then a 1 hour massage followed by swims and mint tea. Bliss.
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