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Published: February 12th 2010
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We arrived in Marrakech and we welcomed in a truly Moroccan style: by being haggled, hassled, and asked for money! I love it already!!
We met a girl from Hong Kong, YiYi, at the airport who was incredibly agile off the bat at haggling with our taxi driver to get to Djemma El Fna, where our riad was. We would have taken a bus, but I forgot to print out directions, and Moroccan maps don't really label street names! So we got ourselves a "reasonable" taxi fare for the 3 of us and we were off to central Marrakech! The drive itself was a mind blowing experience. Lane lines were more of a recommendation than a rule. Horns were more of mandatory signal, seeing how every car, motorcycle, and motorized cart that nearly hit us as it also made its way down the road honked at us as we honked at them. Along the rose-lined roads, I saw: horse-drawn carts, motorbikes, cars from all decades in all conditions, women in headscarves driving motorcycles, donkeys pulling goods, trucks pulling donkeys, stop signs in Arabic, billboards of King Mohammed VI, and so much more. I was tired, but my eyes and mind
were wide awake.
When we got to the square we had no clue where to go. So we just walked. With our bags and our useless maps, we were walking targets. We were approached by everyone. Standing on a sidewalk street (that ended up being 2 minutes away from our riad), we blindly decided to wander down alleys in the opposite direction that one of our proposed guides told us was "his own shortcut." Keith and YiYi were a bit apprehensive, but I was loving it. We wandered down several alleys, not knowing at all where we were going or what we were looking for. None of the small little alleys had street signs. In fact, there weren't streets, just space where there wasn't a building or a stall full of Moroccan goods.
We finally made our way to a corner that looked the same as every other corner we had turned. A young man approached us, asking us where we were going. We finally caved, just wanting to put our bags down -- we could have walked all night not knowing where to go! We told him: Riad Rahba. He took us 100 meters to our riad.
I had to kind of laugh. We spent 30 minutes weaving through the bustle of the medina, and when we finally figured we'd accept help, it was right under our noses. We ended up tipping the young lad 10 dirhams, though he wanted more. C'est la vie... he didn't take us very far!
Upon checking in, we learned that our riad (which was beautiful, by the way) organized excursions out to the desert. We were tired, a little overwhelmed with the chaos of Morocco, and unsure of the train we were planning on taking the next morning, so when we heard the price was just about what we had budgeted for anyway, and that our new friend YiYi wanted to go as well, we just booked a 3 day, 2 night excursion with our riad. In hindsight, it was probably the best decision for us at that time.
With our desert plans secure, Keith, YiYi and I ventured off into the medina for just a taste of the world-famous Djemma El Fna. It was spectacular: food vendors trying to persuade you into their stalls with promises of "free tea" and "the best service," snake charmers enchanting their snakes
with their music, bands of drummers, hypnotists, story-tellers weaving folkloric yarns in Arabic and French, and crowds of locals and foreigners.
We eventually were pulled into a food stall and had a delicious meal (for about 5 dollars!). We walked around the square a bit, but didn't want to venture too far since we knew we'd have to get up early to start our Sahara excursion the next morning. So on that note, until next time... GOOD NIGHT FROM MOROCCO!
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