Marrakech madness

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Our guide book says Marrakech has "the world's most amazing city square: an open air circus of snake charmers, acrobats, musicians and storytellers". The doors of the airport bus open onto the night scene at Djemaa el Fna Square, and out we step into the bedlam.

Looking overladen and slightly uncertain, we are set upon by a pack of taxi drivers vying for our business in French. Life is all about bartering here and the haggling commences immediately. We think we've got a good price, but there seems to be some confusion about the address. We are bundled into the petit taxi and driven down dark streets before making a sudden turn into the maze of very narrow lanes at the heart of the medina, the old part of the city. They are only just wide enough for the small car and already choked with a constant stream of people, bikes, motorbikes, handcarts and donkeys. Its a riot of sounds, colours and smells.

The driver pulls up at an intersection apparently called a square, scratching his head and asking locals for directions in Arabic. Keith disappears with a passerby to attempt to locate our accommodation, leaving Tessa and me to guard our bags and deal with an increasingly impatient driver. Eventually Keith returns, reporting that we have to walk the rest. He pays the irate driver who short changes him, claiming extra payment for the wait. There's a bit of back and forth with bystanders joining in and as it gets more heated we decide to cut our losses and head for our riad, closing the door on the chaos.

Tonights accommodation is a bit more upmarket than we are used to - this sort was easier to book. The next morning we locate a much cheaper and better positioned hotel, an excellent base for the next three days of exploring the delights of Marrakech.

You name it, it's here. We choose two or three sections to explore each day from mosques to souks and are constantly entertained by the range of people and activities in this culture as they go about their lives. It's a photographer's dream and the camera is running hot capturing colourful moments. The place is loaded with other tourists who become part of the spectacle as well.

There are bright ceramics and light shades, colourful slippers, leather bags, wooden carvings, musical instrument makers, blacksmiths, fabric dyers, carpet makers, spice merchants and apothecaries with musks, animal skins and jars of unidentifiable items. We meet a pet chameleon who creeps along our arms in slow motion ogling us as he goes. And skilled wood turners creating a range of products without the use of electricity. The turning motion is created with one hand on a bow while the other hand together with a foot operate the chisel. We are amazed at their speed and the detail in the products.

We get to practise our school french with decidedly mixed results. Tessa delivers a well rehearsed French sentence only to get the French response "Sorry I don't speak English, only French, Spanish, Italian and Arabic". We start speaking 'Spench' - a really horrible mix of the remnants of Spanish we have recently used and vaguely remembered French. It seems to work sometimes.

Our evenings are spent in and around the square where food stalls are set up in the late afternoon. All sorts of weird and wonderful things are on offer from snails to goat tails and we sample a few of them. Every day we have a tagine and mint tea which become firm favourites and we love the beautiful olives bought for NZ$2 per kilo and the dates and nuts are to die for.

As we sit sipping our hot ginseng tea we watch a constant stream of 'green' tourists being relieved of their dirhams by snake charmers, monkey handlers, henna artists, musicians, dancers and people posing for photos in traditional costumes. Keith's favourite is the act with the magic moving hat, hidden underneath it an escaping hamster.

Everyone I meet wants to take me home, so often I have to hide in Tessa's bag. In the dyers' quarter of the souks she and Keith are transformed for a short time into the beautiful Fatima Tagine and manly Mohammed Couscous and I dance in the square with some traditional musicians and attempt to charm a spitting cobra. What a place.

We love the constant surprises, the variety and vibrancy of Marrakech!

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Photos

The world's most amazing city square
Djemaa el Fna

Ahhh the food!
Djemaa el Fna

My chameleon friend
Cute!

Wood turning
Not a Black n Decker to be seen

With Fatima and Mohammed
Dyers' quarter of the Souks