My friends Nick & Josh and I just spent some time in Morocco experiencing all the wonderful and challenging things that come with immersing yourself in another culture. Morocco is definitely very different to anywhere I have ever been before and although the trip was fantastic and we learnt a lot - there are a few things that would have been useful to know or be aware of before going.. So this post is going to be full of tips and tricks for making the most of being in this beautiful country as well as the things we did while we were there.
We arrived in hot, sunny Morocco, fresh off the plane and exchanged our pounds to dirhams - the two exchange places inside the airport before customs had the same exchange rate but one was really busy. The exchange places after customs had a slightly better rate. I'm not sure if this is always the case but if possible, compare the rate instead of just jumping in the queue. (Obviously once you've gone through customs you cannot come back through, but bear in mind there are other places to exchange your pounds within the airport.) (At this point I was already ill with severe period pain and had had a difficult flight, made worse by the fact that we had no sleep as we had to wait in the airport all night for our 6am flight.)
I had read online that you could get the airport bus (number 19) from the terminal to the main square/marketplace, Jemaa el-Fnaa for 30D but that if you wanted the cheaper option of getting the normal bus (number 11) to the square for 4D you would have to walk out past the taxis to the road and wait. We decided to give it a go. Unfortunately we didn't know which direction the centre was so we weren't sure which side of the road to wait on. We waited on one side and asked the driver of bus number 12 if we were in the right place and he told us to wait on the other side, so we crossed 4 lanes of traffic. We waited for a while but no buses were stopping on this side at all... and then we saw the number 11 pull up back where we had been standing... Of course by the time we had crossed back it had gone. We then asked the driver of the 33 bus and he said we were waiting in the correct place and that they were frequent... However, we waited for what seemed like ages in the blazing hot sun, weighed down by our bags and no bus turned up. (By this point I was feeling very weak and nauseous and just wanted to get to our Riad.) Eventually we decided to get a taxi costing us 100D which took us right into the square, quite near to our Riad. So the outcome of that is... the airport bus might be more expensive, but it is reliable and hassle-free. (Our friend Josh who arrived the day after got the 19 and said it was very simple.)
Nick and I spent the day catching up on sleep and staying out of the hot sun before we ventured out in the cool of the evening. We were lucky to be staying in a good Riad called Sindi Sud (recommended to me by my sister) located right near the square (see my review here). We wandered around the square, completely overwhelmed by the sights, sounds and smells. Traditional music, vendors selling their wares, shouting out to potential customers, snake charmers playing their pungis (instruments). We found ourselves being directed to the tanneries for the "Last Day of the Berber Market" by a man who said it was on the way to his home and he would take us. Naively, we followed where we were then greeted by another man, very well dressed in a pressed, white collared shirt who handed us generous sprigs of mint for our noses. We were given a guided tour of the tanneries ending at a shop selling leather goods and handmade carpets for a "good price, good price". Neither of us were ready to spend any money yet and the rugs were far too big. We declined apologetically before being pushed out of the shop. Our guide then asked us for 100D...each. And, being unprepared for this, we handed over our money before finding our way back to the square..
As a general rule, especially in busy, touristy areas like Marrakesh, if someone offers to take you somewhere, be it to the last day of a market (for some reason it is always the last day - fancy that!) or to your Riad or to the main square.. decline. Unfortunately a lot of the time, what seems like Moroccans showing generosity and good will is actually an opportunity for them to make money. We learnt the hard way, but didn't make that mistake again. It did make me a little sad to be so distrustful of people, and unfortunately they are just doing what they can to make a living, but when you're travelling on a budget every little bit of money counts! The best phrase that we learnt was "La shukran" which means "No thank you" or for very persistent vendors you can say "La la la" which means "No no no". We noticed that, as Westerners, if we continued to say "no thank you" in English, anyone hassling us would ignore us and keep hassling. However, as soon as we said "La shukran", and said it with confidence, they backed off. This made things considerably easier!
Having talked about persistent shop keepers and expensive surprise guided tours, I have to say that we did meet some truly lovely, genuine people too. And generally, once you get to know Moroccans they are wonderful and helpful. We made friends with Abdul who worked in a restaurant near our Riad in Marrakesh. He taught us useful phrases and recommended we visit the restaurant his brother Hakim works in in Fes (which we visited a couple of times - and it was good!) We would see Abdul pretty much every time we went in or out from the Riad. He was very obliging, always sharing mint tea with us and telling us terrible jokes in his very blasé and slightly distracted manner. We also met Ali in a dress shop in the square. A very sweet 19 year old boy (who looked much younger than 19); he was very helpful when Nick and I bought some nice traditional clothes, but continued to be helpful and obliging every time we passed his shop or came back to say hello. He was great at recommending places the locals go to buy things (like spices) and also helped me to get a good price for a full body massage at a nice Hammam. Ali had a particular knack for taking us down strange allies and back streets but we got good deals and had a nice time exploring.
My two favourite things about Marrakesh were the freshly squeezed orange juice served in real glasses, not plastic, for 4D and the Call to Prayer. The best part of our Riad was the split level roof terrace. We would go up there of an evening to sit and read or write, and watch the sun set. It was amazing to hear the Call to Prayer; it would start in one Mosque and then slowly but surely, spread across the city until the whole sky was filled with the sound of prayer. (Later in our trip, when we stayed in small towns and villages where there was only one Mosque, it was quite strange to only be able to hear the one chant.)
After a couple of days in Marrakesh, Nick, Josh and I got the train to Fes costing us 95D (second class) for a 7hr train journey. We managed to get seats - in second there are separate compartments with 8 seats in each, first come, first served. In first class you get a reserved seat but the ticket costs double. The journey was long and hot, and for much of it, very cramped. Lots of people and luggage in the aisles, many people sharing seats. Good preparation for India - doors and windows open, people hanging out. Moving about the train was near impossible. At one point I got up to try to go to the toilet and had to struggle past everyone and their luggage in the aisle. I got to the end where there were two big men who refused to let me past... Even when I said "toilet"or "toilette" they still refused. Well, I stood there awkwardly, busting for a wee, wondering what to do. Another man came along and I heard him say "toilette". I got his attention and said "me too, but they won't let me past". He took my arm and pushed both of us through, moved people out of the way and opened the toilet door for me. When I came out, he insisted on escorting me back to my seat, without using the toilet himself! (Chivalry is not dead!) I guess I should mention that the toilets don't drain into a tank, it all just goes straight onto the tracks... so don't use them while you're stopped at stations, and don't drop anything!
Personally, I preferred Fez to Marrakesh. It's less touristy, or feels less touristy. It feels more spacious than Marrakesh.. But, in saying that we didn't venture much further than the Medina in Marrakesh and we did in Fez. Perhaps we were still finding our feet. We stayed in fantastic Riad Baba - yet another beautiful example of Moroccan architecture, with gorgeous mosaics and a spacious bedroom with an ensuite and breakfast included. And the staff were super friendly ladies.
We really enjoyed wandering up and down all the souks perusing the stalls and observing the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I love watching the way people interact with each other. There is a great deal of affection and respect between Moroccans, but there is also this really jovial side, lots of laughter and shouting, but not in an aggressive way, though sometimes it is hard to tell. On our first day we visited Jardin Jnan Sbil where we spent time enjoying being somewhere so lush and green after the cobbled and paved jungle that is Marrakesh. This beautiful garden had a lake and fountains, orange trees, bamboo, cacti, roses and curly kale! We continued exploring, winding our way to Blue Gate where we had lunch at the restaurant our friend Abdul recommended. (Unfortunately his brother wasn't working that day!)
Eating vegan food turned out to be easier than I had expected. I ate a lot of vegie tagines, but that was okay! Josh headed back to Marrakesh for a night before he flew back to the UK and Nick and I stayed on in Fez. We discovered a fantastic place to eat and hang out in one of the little side streets in Fez. Cafe Clock has the most divine food (quite pricey by Moroccan standards, but worth it), delicious drinks, music, a cinema, cooking classes and the option to get some henna... Nick enjoyed a Lassi and a Falafel and I had Fresh Mint Lemonade (possibly the most delicious drink ever) followed by a delectable gazpacho soup with avocado on toast.
After our second day of exploring Fez we started preparing ourselves for our 4 Day Desert Tour. We were collected early in the morning by our guide Mustapha and driver Borak who are the most fantastic, obliging gentlemen. The desert tour packed so much into so little time - it is all a bit of a blur and I'm not even 100% sure where we went or on which day! The first day involved a lot of driving from Fez to the Erg Chebbi dunes, with stops at some really beautiful places on the way (including Ifrane, Arzou the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas Mountains, Midelt, the Ziz Valley Gorge, Erfoud and Rissani). We had the choice to add an extra day to our trip, which was a great decision as it meant we could actually relax and make the most of being in one place for a bit longer, rather than driving constantly.
For me, the camel trek into the desert was by far the highlight. After a morning of driving (out to the Algerian border to have tea with a traditional Berber Nomad and her 6 year old son Hassan) we returned to Riad Mamouche to get organised (ie. have lunch and relax by the pool). We set off on our Dromedaries (Arabian camels) a couple of hours before sunset and slowly padded over the dunes, awestruck by the expanse of orange open space and the clear blue sky above us. We were joined by another group of people on their Dromedaries and their barefoot guides. We wandered together for a while before going to our separate camps in the dunes.
Nick and I explored the dunes and watched the beautiful sunset before we went back to our camp. We were treated to an absolutely exquisite dinner cooked by our Dromedary guide (also called Borak). Unfortunately I already had a stomach ache and back pain. Borak was quite concerned. He made me lie down on my stomach and he did something to my back, some sort of pulling and pushing the muscle around my spinal cord. I lay down for a while and when I got up the pain in my back was gone. I tried to eat some of the steaming hot vegetable tagine he made me (which was absolutely delicious, making it even more disappointing that I couldn't eat it!) Unfortunately, I just had to leave it..
The night sky was just incomprehensibly beautiful. I have never seen anything quite like it. There are no words to describe it. Of course when given the chance to spend a night in the desert, one must spend some time lying on the dunes, alone, gazing up in pure wonderment. And so I did. I snuggled in to the sand, still warm, holding the heat of the day, and looked up. I saw a couple of shooting stars and then gradually, eyes flickering, I fell asleep.
We woke early and ventured up onto the dunes to soak up the blue pre-dawn stillness. I went off and sat by myself for a moment, and I think that may have been my absolute favourite part of the whole journey. Sitting alone looking out across the desert. No breeze. No sounds. It was a kind of calm and tranquility that I could never have imagined and cannot describe. I felt like I was on another planet... As the sun rose up above the dunes, we watched the Dromedaries grazing and one of the guides from the other camp praying. It was a really special experience. Then, we went back down the dunes to the camp, collected our things and began the ride back...
Another long day of driving ensued, but of course we had many stops along the way, passing through the Palm Groves of Skoura on the way to Todra Gorge and then through Kelaa Mgouna, also known as Rose Valley. We enjoyed our last night at Kasbah La Cigogne; again relaxing by the pool, listening to the Call to Prayer and eating yet another great vegetable tagine looking out at other castle-like-Kasbahs.
Our last day of the tour had more driving of course - Skoura to Marrakesh via Quarzazate. A morning walk around Ait Ben-Haddou World Heritage Site - one of the most incredible fortified villages on the old Camel Caravan route. Then we gazed out the window as the desert rushed past and we saw the pink salt mines on our way to the traditional Berber village of Telouet. After lunch in Telouet, we drove up into the High Atlas Mountains on the highest Atlas road pass (Tizi-n-Tichka) where we could see many villages in the distance, built on the steep mountains. Borak navigated his way down the mountains - many hair-pin bends - until we arrived back in Marrakesh. We thanked Mustapha and Borak and said our goodbyes before heading back to Sindi Sud..
The last couple of days in Marrakesh were hard. The main square is such a busy place but it's all the same. Too many Orange Juice sellers, too many dress shops, too many souvenirs stalls, too many snake charmers, too many musicians. Everyone is competing. We wandered around in the evening but ended up just heading back to the Riad. I think two days in the square is more than enough to get a feel for it (and to spend your money!) Nick and I were both a bit under the weather. On our last night I got food poisoning and was up all night vomiting. The next morning when I checked our flight I saw that it was delayed. We were scheduled to be arriving back in the UK at 2:30am. Thankfully, luck was with us and the wifi was strong enough for me to Skype call the airline. They managed to squeeze us on the earlier flight arriving in the UK by 8:00pm and they didn't charge us!
It was a hard day feeling tired and sick and dehydrated, not really having any plain food to try to eat and not feeling particularly confident about drinking the water either... But, eventually we were on the flight and 3 hours later we landed in the UK. We were pleasantly surprised to see Nick's parents waiting to pick us up! So wonderful to be driven home and not have to faff about with trains!
There are a few more things I wanted to mention briefly that would have been helpful to know before heading to Morocco..
- Tipping and hidden costs: when budgeting for your travels, always allow more money than you think you will need. This is a given, but I struggled a little with the currency and value of money. Firstly, when you exchange your money you will probably be given quite big denominations (100D or 200D notes) which can be hard to break - change seems to be a problem everywhere! Secondly, we didn't seem to get coins very often. Perhaps it was just because of what we were buying, but I would have found it a lot easier to have more coins rather than notes. Maybe if we were better organised we could have gone into a bank and swapped some of our notes for coins. (We found that exchange places won't do that.) Also, on one occasion, at Riad Baba we had to pay tax on top of what we had already been quoted for the room. This was fine, but something to be aware of. A lot of places also only take cash and although there are some ATMs around it is better to be organised and have a stash of cash as well. As for tipping, in a lot of places we just rounded the bill up (maybe this is why we didn't have many coins!) but similar to travelling anywhere, if we were really happy with the service provided we would give more. This was also the case in the Riads. Read here for more info.
- Bartering: When we first got to Morocco I did not understanding bartering at all. The theory? Sure, but not in practice. Moroccan's like the hard sell. I am clearly not Moroccan, so whenever I showed an interest in something, shop keepers would always start high. Our guide told us that we should always halve the price they are asking. But that is not always the case. It really depends what you are buying. I got a beautiful Moroccan dress for 250D. That price included alterations to shorten and hem it. The asking price was 400D. Too much. After some to-ing and fro-ing we eventually decided on a price, but I had started at 150D. I also bought a small rug from a little stall out in the desert. Again, he started at 400D. He was harder to bargain with and it got to the point where I left the stall three times and each time he followed me out, until eventually he took my initial offer of 150D. For Nick and Josh, they also ended up leaving shops and being followed out. You just have to remember, you don't really need anything and its okay to walk out. And it's quite fun. I did have one experience where I had offered 50D for a necklace and then decided that 50D was still way too high and 10D would have been more appropriate. The shop keeper was asking 400D. He offered 40D and when I still said no, I had changed my mind, he grabbed the necklace, threw it down and stormed off. I was afraid to insult him by offering a price too low, but in touristy areas, shop keepers will always try to sell for more rather than less so be prepared.
- Tourists: something I found difficult was how disrespectful (or just uneducated) tourists can be, especially in touristy centres like Marrakesh, where there are lots of Westerners. I made an effort to research the appropriate customs and expectations with regard to what to wear and what behaviour is acceptable. I covered my arms and legs and wore a head scarf and I didn't get hassled at all. I did observe some Western women being ogled at and, I guess you could say, harassed, and they were usually wearing minimal clothes (minimal by Moroccan standards - short strappy dresses, tank tops, shorts, etc). Apart from protecting yourself against the sun, it is polite to keep you shoulders and legs covered. A head scarf is not necessary (not all Moroccan women wear one) but I found it useful. We had an experience when visiting the lovely Berber nomad and her son Hassan out in the desert that left us feeling a bit sad and embarrassed to be tourists. Our guide and driver had taken us out to have tea there and we had spent the time chatting and playing with Hassan. It was lovely to see him interacting and enjoying the company as it is just him and his mother. He does not go to school or have friends close by. Unfortunately, their camp is right on a main route through the desert and just before we left 3 big 4x4s pulled up and about 12 people got out. They walked right over to the camp, taking photos and posing and looking in all the different tents. As soon as they arrived, Hassan ran away and hid. We were so blown away by these Westerners walking straight in and snapping photos. There was no regard to the fact that this was Hassan and his mother's home. We were so embarrassed that we got our things together and left straight away. Our guide Mustapha told us that there are some very different types of tourism in Morocco...some more respectful than others.
- What to bring: less is more! I brought more clothes than I needed. I must have left half of what I brought in my bag the whole time. All I really wore was 2 pairs of trousers and 3 different long sleeve tops. I washed my socks and underwear each night and they were usually dry by the morning. In saying that, we still only had carry on luggage and bought lots of things, but I hate lugging around things and not using them! Also, the less you have, the less options there are so you don't have to think about what you're going to wear each day and you have more time to go out and enjoy yourself!
All in all, our trip to Morocco was fantastic. There were definitely many challenges but we also got the opportunity to do and see some truly amazing things and places. Below are some photographs I took. Unfortunately my camera started malfunctioning before we even got to the desert so all desert photos are taken on my phone. But you cannot capture the memories! The photos are just reminders really.
Enjoy xxx
