You're Turkish? Baksheesh? Baksheesh?


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Africa » Morocco » Meknès-Tafilalet » Erfoud
February 23rd 2011
Published: March 11th 2011
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Street Musicians Street Musicians Street Musicians

playing at Yacout restaurant in Agadir during our breakfast. I gave them 20 MAD.
I am going to devote this entry, even though I am not finished writing about our trip to Morocco, to the lovely people of Morocco who will not hesitate to ask for money - for nothing. So many people in this country think they deserve money for doing absolutely nothing. Nada. Not a damn thing. And I am not talking about beggars who are homeless and hungry. I'm talking about people who were better dressed than Enis and me. Or working as traffic police. Or at the airport in passport control or baggage screening. SOB's they are and they really pissed me off.

Here are some of the experiences we had with people trying to extort money from us, although Enis was the real object of their interest. I don't know what the hell previous Turkish tourists did to make current Turkish tourists such a target, but it became very clear to us that Moroccan people have certain ideas about Turkish men, one of them being that they are rich and will just give their money away to people who clearly did not earn it.

While in Fez, one young man latched on to us while we were driving into the city to find our hotel, which we had no clue how to find. He was on a motorcycle and started talking to Enis in Arabic at a red light. Enis looked at him like he was nuts and drove on. At the next light, he was still there and switched to English. At the time, we didn't know how he knew we were tourists, but Enis soon figured it out. He noticed the license plate on the car said 'Tourists car' in big letters under the numbers! This guy asked us where we were staying and we told him thinking he would tell us how to get there. Instead, he told us to follow him. Fine. I'll tip him for that. It was a pretty good distance, but I didn't have any small dirhams. So we arrived at our hotel, very grateful, and he told us his brother is a guide and if we were iinterested, we could call him tomorrow. I took his number but said we probably wouldn't. Then I gave him 20 MAD, about 2.50USD, and a 5 USD bill. He asked for dirhams, which I understood because when you exchange money, you pay commission,
Baksheesh Man Baksheesh Man Baksheesh Man

in front of the mosque door in Agadir
so to change a small amount doesn't make sense. I apologized and said we had nothing else, which was true. So he asked for more!!!! More money!!! We shook his hand, apologized again, and went to our hotel. This wouldn't be the last time someone asked for more!


Our next experience with extortion was when we were driving through the desert on the way to Erfoud. We were in the middle of nowhere, nothing around except sand and scrub brush, and we passed a truck. A bit later, the traffic police told us to stop and pull over. Mmm. I'm having flashbacks of Hermasillo Mexico at this point. They ask for the rental car documents, Enis' driver's license, and then our passports. When they asked for the passports, I got angry. I knew what was coming. Then they asked Enis to get out of the car. There were three of them. I got very, very worried and more than a little angry. Two of them waited on either side of the police car and one sat in the driver's seat. They didn't speak English and were surprised that Enis didn't speak Arabic. Idiots. He told them Turkish people
Lovely WorkLovely WorkLovely Work

on the mosque door in Agadir
speak Turkish and are not Arabs. Duh! So the guy in the driver's seat told Enis he wanted 700 MAD, or about 90 USD. Enis didn't miss a beat. He said, 'Why?' So the guy drew a picture of Enis passing the truck and then told him he wanted 700 MAD or the papers for the rental car. Enis, once again, didn't miss a beat. He said, 'Well, that's a lot of money and we don't have it. We will have to call Casablanca.' They asked why. Heh heh. Enis then told me what they wanted as I couldn't hear or understand. So I said they clearly just wanted money to put in their pockets. They laughed. In Morocco, as in much of Turkey, women are invisible. Anyway, they asked why he had to call Casablanca and he told them I work there as an English teacher and we would have to call my boss, the big man, the man with big balls. Heehee. The two men standing outside the car looked at each other, said something the man inside the car, and they said we were free to go. And go we did. I was furious!!!!!!!! Sometimes Enis being
Yes, it is stop sign.Yes, it is stop sign.Yes, it is stop sign.

Enis didn't notice most of these. He didn't realize this said 'stop' and ran a couple of them before I told him. I thought he just didn't see them.
Turkish was a positive, sometimes a negative. We are not really sure why they let us go so easily without paying ANY money, but something Enis said or did or something they saw worked.

Next incident. We were in Essaouira, a beautiful seaside town, and about the enter the medina through one of the lesser used gates, and there was a distinguished looking man standing there in the traditional dress Moroccan men wear in winter. It is kind of a closed robe with a pointed hood, but no belt. His was very nice and clean. He was just standing there, doing I don't know what and when he saw Enis, he did a double take and held his hand out for money! Another time, in the Marrakech medina, a very well dressed woman with nice makeup did the same to Enis. Just walked right up and held out her hand! He didn't even see her, but I grabbed her hand and threw down. She just looked at me and I said nothing. This kind of behaviour put me off Moroccan people even more than their snobby attitude toward tourists.

We had a pretty hairy start to our morning the day we were leaving. We went to the wrong terminal. My flight reservation said Terminal 3 and we actually needed Terminal 1. It was 6:15 AM and no taxi to be found anywhere and no shuttle bus. We went outside and this little man who was cleaning quickly understood our problem even though he didn't speak any English. Believe me, he caught on a lot quicker than most people in Morocco who did speak a bit of English! He didn't care what language we spoke. He piled our luggage on a trolley and took off running to Terminal 1! No one stopped him! No security, nothing was going to stop this guy. He smelled desperate tourists with money! Security even raised the road block so he could get the trolley under it. He pushed that trolley all the way to Terminal 1 on the road and we couldn't even keep up with him. We didn't realize how close the terminal was or we could have done it ourselves, but when we were being driven to T3 it seemed like a long way and in the middle of nothing. So I fully intended to tip this man 100 MAD or about 13 USD. And I did. And he asked for more!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me????????????? I said, 'Please don't completely destroy my faith in the Moroccan people. Just shut up and take the money.' Of course, he didn't understand and I did not give him more. When he reached out for more, I just shook his hand and left him standing there completely disallusioned. I felt the same way he did, but we weren't out of this country yet. Oh no. There is more.

This last event really takes the cake. We were leaving Morocco. Finally. It was a good trip but we were ready to leave. Enis had done some business while we were here, so we had almost 60 kg of stuff to get out of this country and were hoping they wouldn't make us pay. Now, most airports outside the US make you scan all your bags when you enter the airport. This one was no exception. I went first and then they asked Enis what was in the big bag. He said textiles. They looked at his passport. They said, 'Turkish?' He said, 'Yes.' And they let him go. I couldn't believe it. So we checked in, checked our bags, and then had to fill out a departure card. One of the men who scanned the bags rushed over and wrote the date on the cards for us! How helpful! He completely ignored me. We said thank you. He asked for 'baksheesh'. I kid you not. Baksheesh is Turkish for tip. B*******! Enis said no, pointed out how skinny he is, and said he was a poor Turk. Well played. He left us alone. On to passport control! There were two people in line and two booths open out of only 3 booths. We went to the one on the right. The man on the left motioned for us to to come to his booth. Enis noticed him looking around a lot. So we went to his line. He was looking very shifty and looking at the guy in the other booth. Enis got suspicious. Told me to go first. I had no problem. While I was there, he tried to go to the other booth where we were originally and that guy told him no! So he went to this guy and this guy asked him where he stayed in Casablanca. He couldn't remember the hotel name, so he called to me and I told him. The passport guy didn't ask me that. So there was some discussion and then he let Enis through. Enis told me he asked for baksheesh!!!!!!!!!!! Unbelievable!!!!!! The supervisor, who was smoking, caught the guy asking and told him to stop. At least we think that's what he said. At any rate, we got through without paying any baksheesh.

I was so stressed at this point and it was so hot in the airport we were both sweating bullets, angry, and just ready to get the hell out of Morocco. And we did just that. We both vow never to return. Don't let this deter you, but keep your wallet close and don't give your money away!

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13th March 2011

Amen
That is what happened to us and why we decided that Casablanca was our least favorite stop. We, Linda Grissom, Pam and I, refused to pay the extra when the taxi dropped us off at the ship. I felt bad but now I don't. Thanks for relieving my guilt.
12th April 2011

baksheesh and bribes
Hi Ive enjoyed reading your well written experiences here - its such a true and potential series of events that I can totally believe ffrom throughout my 8 years in and out of Morocco!! When I travelled with a Moroccan fiance we were always stopped whenever we were in my rental car - but not if in his familys work car - so many many times! even though they may have asked for, as my fiance said, just small amounts of money for eg 'coffee', 'a cigarette' it would just get to the point of intolerable! If we drove off to places we didnt know for hotels that accepted us together we would end up having to pay a lot more for our accommodation so travel costs were often quite the upper end of my budget, along with other costs and then to add paying to just be there ie just because they saw us coming we should pay them some money!!?? many times we did manage to get through the checkpoints without paying anything as my guy was an excellent talker and not stupid but elevated pulse rates for the anger management. If we managed to unluckily have a light stop working, even just an indicator light that was an opportunity for more requests for money to pay for driving illegally! so we were always on the look out for that sort of thing too. Once I was speeding - I know I was - but the driver in front of me was too! We watched the police stop her and talk to her for less than a minute - but me, of course I got a lengthy ticket and lecture procedure - on and on about my licence, car papers and so on...and a request for 400 dirham cash - which am sure went straight into their pockets instead of the ticketing system. My fiance had an uncle and a cousin who were police - and very very nice - it is a pretty accepted fact that police in Morocco are not very well paid - but I do think that tourists and tourism are getting more respect in Morocco - the push for 10million tourists is helping - and for sure tourists and tourism in Morocco deserve a lot more respect too - and I think the country and its people got a knock on their heads to think about that with the recession that has affected tourism and the much needed income into their economy the last couple of years and even again with the events of the riots in Tunisia and Egypt. My present (and unintended!) Moroccan boyfriend has his own car...they can see his number plates - so we NEVER get stopped!! We have happily stopped and asked police for directions and so on and still never got asked for money...so it is a 'looking like a tourist thing' I would pretty much unfortunately say - but it is still one of my favourite countries and I still feel home when I am there and I miss it when I am not there!! and please do think about the lovely people who ARE there who will do good and kind things without any thought of reward or return!! ( I very sadly read once of an event where a bus of foreign tourists was stuck due to flood waters and a village took them in - that generally means they were poor and living subsistently dependent on seasonal provisions and harvesting and having to take care with their supplies to last through the year - they fed the tourists with all they had, including all their special almond harvest, and the tourists ate and left without giving them anything in return - and left the villagers with hardly anything to look after themselves....)

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