Night bus

Massage?

I have a night bus from Fes to Erfoud tonight, meaning that I have lots of time to kill in Fes today.

I started off with a further exploration of the old city, with an intent of getting a better photo of the tannery in better light.  The weather so far hadn’t been the best for photography with dull light.

Wandering around the old city, there were people offering massages, as I had noticed when I first arrived.  I hadn’t thought too much about it until a boy of about ten years of age groped his crotch and said “Massage?” to me!  And soon after his friend in his early teens said likewise but accompanied it with a masturbation gesture.  I did the Shooma (shame) gesture on them and they quickly disappeared.

Later, when an older man said “Massage?” to me, accompanied by some stroking action on his arm, I knew this wasn’t an innocent massage.  

I was quite appalled that kids so young would be into this kind of game, presumably for money.

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Jewish Cemetery

After a light sandwich for lunch I went to Fes Jdid (New Fes) to look for the Synagogue and Jewish Cemetery.  It took me a while to find and I got wet.  It was a tranquil sea of white stones, much like the Muslim cemetery.  

In my explorations this cold and wet day, I had to repeatedly return to the hotel for wees.  Since I had checked out already, the hotel’s open courtyard wasn’t a very good refuge from the wintry air.

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Moving on

After dinner, I took a petit taxi to Ville Nouvelle to catch my bus to Erfoud where I would be picked up for Merzouga in the morning.  Due to a mechanical problem, we had to change to another bus at the depot.  The first leg of the ride to Meknes, normally an hour away, took a total of 3 hours.