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Published: January 30th 2020
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Day 11. 30
thJan (Thursday)
A rather quick blog as I want my bed!
Got up 7:30, had breakfast with Mike. 2 birds came in, manager said they come every morning for breakfast! Mike went off to the Kasbah again, for guided tour this time in order to test his French. I dozed off for half hour then packed bags. Mike came back and we decided to check out and make our way slowly to bus station, stopping at corner tea room on the way. We both had milky drinks, me coffee, Mike chocolate. We refused the bottled water as were carrying enough to see us through. At bus station I weighed my bag in and we waited 10mins until allowed on bus. Nearer the back this time so better suspension.
We set off on time 12:30 and went towards Taroudannt, very deserty, to a mountain range and across it, watching herds of sheep supposedly grazing on the small shrubby plants there (I called them hedgehog plants). After a few hours we stopped for a half-hour break and I tried to buy some salted peanuts but my French and acting skills were not up to it. Afterwards Mike told
me the name which is Kaka-wet which I now remember due to it’s dirty nappy connotations, pour sal, for salted ones. As we arrived in the Sous Valley the desert changed to forest quite quickly, mainly olive and orange, with what looked like small pumpkins in many fields. All quite lush.
We arrived around 5pm and as we were looking for our hotel we were approached by Ahmed who walked us to it, all the while extolling the virtues of his uncle’s artisan-ship in making inlaid boxes. We thanked him at out hotel (Hotel Tiout) and he refused the 10Dh offered by Mike (in hope of larger rewards later methinks).
Bit of trouble checking-in, although they had my details via Expedia. We had to wait 20mins for manager to come who spoke good English (thankfully). Using Booking.com in India all the hotel bills were paid automatically upon arrival, from my credit card. Here we have had to pay cash in Marrakech, Ouarzazate and now here! I wanted to pay here by debit card as we had paid cash at Ouarzazate and were getting low on Dirhams. But the machine had run out of paper! “No problem, pay tomorrow”
from manager. We dropped our bags in our rooms and headed into town for a meal. Who should we meet but Ahmed (who Michael said he had seen passing us on a motorbike). Ahmed made out it was a chance encounter but it was a set-up, he really wanted us to see the house of the Shah of Iran’s bride, we wanted to eat. Harder to get rid of him this time, but we managed it! He is the only tout we have met here. We found the 2 squares here and noted the various shops around them for future reference. We went in one cafe and had some mint tea, the owner gave us some broth to try (which was quite nice) but we ended up with croissants! Warm handshakes as we left with a ‘mercy beaucoup’. We found another place and got chicken nuggets (for Mike) and a tuna panini (for me) both with chips and both of us having an orangeade, as no hot drinks. When it came to pay I gave the lad 100Dh note and he gave me 30 change. We left there and walked to the next square when the lad from the restaurant
caught up to us and thrust 40Dhs in my hand! He had gone to get change as we left. We then saw the 2 teenage girls who had been in there and they asked if we had got our change (in very good English) also the other guy at the restaurant as we passed it shouted out to us about the same thing. Only in Morocco!
We got back to our hotel and I managed to pay our bill using my debit card.
Now off to bed as this has taken ages….
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Amy Friedman
non-member comment
Trick question!
Spot, of course, is a cat.