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Published: March 21st 2013
Morocco
Visa Application form from the websiteHi everyone, this is my first blog and writing about my travel activities. I've been travelling since 2008, when I first started to work as a Sales Executive for a multinational medical company. I was lucky to be given loads of opportunity to travel abroad for work and leisure. This first writing is about my not-so-honeymoon trip with my husband.
Morocco wasn't actually part of my honeymoon plan. I actually plan to spend most of my 6 days in Granada and Madrid. However, looking at the madness offered by Ryan Air, I accidentally bought a one way ticket to Marrakech from Madrid. I planned the whole honeymoon journey, 6 days , 3 days in Morocco and 3 days in Spain. Super hectic and I just don't know whether it is achievable when I drafted my plan. Anyway, Alhamdulillah everything went well and smooth! Thanks to the superb transportation system in both countries! ONCF and RENFE!
In this entry, I would like to explain from the very beginning of my journey. The first thing for a Malaysian or any other countries citizen to go to Morocco is to get the Visa from the Morocco Embassy of the respective
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Visa application form from the Embassy countries. Malaysians must have a visa to enter Morocco. It can be done by going to the website
http://www.moroccoembassy.org.my/. The application form must be printed and filled up before submitting it. Please get the latest info from the website. I printed the form from the website, however, upon arriving at the embassy, the receptionist asked me to fill up another form which she said, was the latest one. The processing days for the visa are 5 working days with the fee of RM83 ($37) for single entry.
My husband and I travelled on the 10
th of March. We took the 2am Emirates flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to Barajas International Airport Madrid (MAD). Transited in Dubai about 3 hours and reached Terminal 4 MAD at 12.30pm. Fuhhhhh. The total journey took us about 17hours including the transit times. Not just that, our final destination is actually Menara International Airport (RAK), Marrakech. From Terminal 4, we took the free airport shuttle bus to Terminal 1 to catch the Ryan Air plane to Marrakech at 3pm. After checking in, we went to the gate. The line was super long and still an hour to go before boarding! Whoaaaaaa! By
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Document checklist for the visa application the way, for anybody who haven’t experience the European budget airline Ryan Air before, this is it! No seats allocated after checking in, unless you book the hot seats with some fees. I should’ve done that. It’s the same with Easy Jet. The flight from Madrid to Marrakech took about 2 hours. There is an hour time difference between Spain and Morocco. I only paid €97.90 for 2 person to get on this Ryan Air flight to Marrakech. Fair enough.
Upon arriving at the RAK around 4.00pm, we did fill up a form before going through the Immigration Officer. There will be a Money Changer just after you pass the Immigration Officer. This airport is quite small, from the arrival gate to the baggage collection place is within few minutes. We change our Ringgit to 3000Dirhams which we thought will be more than enough for 3 days. After collecting our luggage, we headed outside to find a taxi to Riad Mouna,our Moroccan accommodation which I booked through Agoda. The taxi was quite ridiculous and he charged us 250Dirhams (€20) for less than 10 minutes ride. I’m not sure if that is the usual charge to go to the Medina.
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Form to be filled prior to arrival My husband started to babble and expressed his unhappiness. He hates liars and people who like to take advantage of other people. Is not that we don’t have money to pay, we just hate it when people are not sincere. Continue back to my story, he dropped us outside of the Medina, we seems lost and the place look rabbles. There were number of people who would like to help us with our luggage but they look scary. My husband decided not to rely on anybody and we walked inside the medina to find the riad as I brought the printed map. We walked scarily inside the medina, a lot of shops and people selling unique things and a lot of people standing doing nothing, a lot of beggars, and people offering you their kindness to show you the way to the hotel. Finally my husband asked a boy to show us the riad, and finally we found it! Guess what, the boy asked for Euros. Expected. I’m sorry this is something annoying to me because I live in a country where it is not necessary to tip people.
Anyway, when we reached Riad Mouna, it was such a
Riad Mouna
The bathroom relieve! Abdul Rhani was the receptionist who greeted us. We felt so relieve and comfortable. He was kind, helpful, can be trusted and sincere! Can’t help with exclamation mark because I was so relieve meeting the first humble, educated and sincere Moroccan. He changed our mind setting about Moroccan people immediately but still we always be careful and be extra cautious.
It was my first stay in riad. The look from the inside and outside is totally different! I guess it is the same with all other riads. The Moroccan designs are exquisite, exotic and lovely. I choose to stay in the second floor room as per booking. There is no elevator in the 4 storey riad. No big deal to me as I enjoyed climbing up the stairs looking at the beautiful decorations. We stayed in the Fenetre Double Room with a small window with the alley view.
We rest and took shower before exploring the busy square Jemma El-Fna, which is about 5 minutes within walking distance from Riad Mouna. The temperature was quite cold for us as we live in a tropical country that only has summer all year long. The heater in the room
Riad Mouna
At the top is the TV, the side doors lef and right are for the clothes storage, the centre door is the bathroom door. work but we can't really feel the heat.
We walked through the Medina and to the square. It was amazing, so many shops and people selling same things and food. The night market is really huge! We weren't able to visit every shop. However there are some sellers seems annoying to us because they were very pushy! I stopped at a magnet shop. It's a must to buy fridge magnet as souvenir to my relatives.
At 8pm, a guy recommended by Abdul Rhani, fetched us and walked us to the Petit Taxi stand to catch a shuttle that brought us to Chez Ali, a Hotel-Restaurant Du Folklore in La Palmeraie Marrakech. We paid per person about €45 for the transportation, dinner and show. It was quite a long journey to get to this place. We slept all the way because we haven't actually rest after our long long long flight. Before entering the majesty brick wall entrance, we were greeted by warriors with horses. What a wow impression! I stumbled looking at this place. This place looks good! We walked inside the building, greeted by some girls with costumes and a photographer took our picture, and I look
Riad Mouna
Fenetre Foube Room horrible in the picture haha, wasn't ready for a good shot maybe. Anyway, they printed the picture and sell it to us for about 20Dirhams. Along the walkway there were a lot of dancers by the sides dancing and singing (and screaming). Finally we arrived at the nicely decorated restaurant. I was sleepy and hungry, as it was already 9pm. The waiter served us the mint tea, Kus Kus, roasted lamb and fruits. Honestly, I don't like the food at all and my husband didn't even eat the roasted lamb and the Kus Kus at all. At that particular time, I really wish that I'm dining at Al-Rawsha Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. Al-Rawsha serve super tasty and delicious Mandy lamb you could have imagine. The food here is so underrated for us. While we were eating, group by group of dancer came dancing and singing Arabic song which I don't really understand. Some of them were quite entertaining but some were very very very annoying. There were about 6 groups performing, and I was really sleepy and annoyed after the 3rd group. I was relieve after they finished performing. We went outside , it was really cold. The horses show
Riad Mouna
The receptionist, Abdul Rhani were quite amazing. We enjoyed it so much despite the cold weather. The clock was at 11.30pm, I just can't wait to go back to my bed in Riad Mouna.
We reached Riad Mouna around 12am. A new guy replaced Abd Rhani. He acted weirdly by asking us to pay the accommodation bill at 12am. I was like, "Hello, I'm not checking out yet and I want to sleep." Something fishy about his action. We just told him that we will be paying it tomorrow and headed to our room. Good decision. There goes my 1st day of travelling. Phewwwwww.
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