Medieval carnival

Moving on to Marrakech

It may be fair to say that I’m not the only person that’s been fascinated by images of Marrakech.  So, it is with a bit of excitement and anticipation that I head there today.  I took a petit taxi to the Ourzazat bus station where there was a fifteen minute delay to the 0830 departure.

The scenery along the way was beautiful with snowy mountains.  It took about 4h30 including a lunch stop.

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Snowy scene on the way to Marrakech.

Overbooked

Upon arrival I took a petit taxi to the famous square, Djema Al-Fna, where my pre-booked hostel was located.  Or should I say, where my pre-booked hostel was over-booked!  They offered to shift me to a dormitory in an off-site location, or let me sleep on a couch in their dining room.  I really wanted to be in the particular area close to the beating heart of Marrakech.  So I put them on hold, left my bag with them while I went out hunting for an alternative.

A few places I checked out were full as well.  I managed to get the last room at the CTM (same name as the bus company) “Hotel”, if you can call it that.  It was an extremely basic place that wasn’t exactly clean.  The consolation was that it was cheaper than my pre-booked place (not that I needed to skimp).  But the location couldn’t have been any better.

I shifted over to the CTM Hotel, then relaxed over a coffee and lunch.  I had a chicken pastilla, which was a pastry parcel of chicken and sweet almond, dusted with icing.  It was quite nice but may need to be an acquired taste for some.  But I was wary of eating cold shredded chicken even though it had been reheated.

Amazing Marrakech

Djema Al- Fna is the famous in the middle of Marrakech which comes alive every day with snake charmers, traditional drummers, acrobats, story tellers, henna artists, boxers, games … and strangest of all, mini-golf.  At night when some of these activities give way to hundreds of stalls selling food.  A lot of it is BBQ, so it is like a medieval meat-fest carnival … and the smoke is something you’ve got to see to believe.

For dinner, I had a chicken kebab with pepppers skewered along with it.  It was a little dry but an absolutely delicious freshly squeezed orange juice made up for it.  I sat next to some Spanish girls and we had a nice chat, something I haven’t had a chance to do in recent days.

The other big attraction in Marrakech is the souq.  It is rather touristy but still full of character.  Things are quite reasonable for most of the visitors that Marrakech attracts but I beg to differ.  Let me explain in the next section below.

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Pricey Place

I find Morocco rather expensive … eg. a meal in a simple place will cost about EUR4-5.  I am not used to paying that kind of money in a third world environment.  You could eat in a fancy restaurant for that kind of money in Malaysia, or have three simple meals in air-conditioned comfort in Singapore (a developed nation).  I thought the reason could the number of French and Spanish that they attract, and they can afford to price things higher.  But I don’t think so … many locals eat at same kind of places.

Bathing Bother

Beggars can’t be choosers.  I grabbed the last room at the CTM Hotel after encountering a few places already full-up.  I had to take a Double without a bathroom (which was a tad more than a Single with bathroom, not that there were any available).  Further, the hotel only has cold water, so bathing in-house in a shared bathroom didn’t appeal at this time of year. Fortunately the room is equipped with a hand basin for minor washes.

The local hammam is only a few doors down and less than EUR1 to enter.  I feel like a local now, as some locals don’t have facilities at home and do rely on a nearby hammam for their hygiene.  In all my visits to hammams over nearly twenty years, I’ve never seen people expose themselves.  Modesty seems to be a rule everywhere but not here.

After my bath I invested in a hammam essential.  I bought my own scrubbing mitten, made from an abrasive material.  So is something like brillo-for-bodies.