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Published: July 17th 2010
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Bab Bouj Loud A GREAT NIGHT OUT WITH MY HUSBAND
My husband decided he was going to take me on a romantic overnight vacation at a beautiful Bangalow resort. We first went exploring in Bouj Loude which is a section of the old Medina. After that we decided to catch a taxi. It was getting difficult to get a red taxi so my husband hired a white minibus to take us where we needed to go. (white minibus is supposed to be for many people and/or luggage) Our destination?! The Blue Diamond! (meooow!!) So my husband asks the taxi does he know where it is. and he responds (manly man ) of course! "I have been there several times, the ladies love it "(roar, roar!!). So we get into the bus. This dude starts turning on all these little electric light-up flowers that he has clipped to his car, he turns on american slow music, and a colorful, mood strobe light! I couldnt help but to bust out laughing. For those of you who know my husband the romantic music was killing him, and I laughed even harder when I saw the drivers face after my husband asked him to turn on the news.
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Radio Shack Morrocco :) The drivers face said: Young dude I am trying to help you out here, the news?. My husband said "I hope this guy knows your my wife, I think he thinks your some girl I picked up". This made me laugh harder still. So we finally pull into the parking lot of the Blue Diamond(after over an hour looking for it), my husband points and says "that's it"! I say, "The building with the big clown in front of it? This cant be it, please God" My husband says lets go ask. We get out, rap music is pumping, no one looks over 23 yrs. old, I see local people with bathing suits and towels--lots of them. isnt the blue diamond supposed to be exclusive I wonder. We go in and ask. The guy tells us that we are in the wrong place (thank you God) and gives us directions. We hop back into our love bug and journey on to find it....so much for the drivers previous boasting about how many times he had been there. We drove around and around and around...No one seemed to know where this place was everyone said the only place they new of
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clay mugs & jugs called blue diamond was that pool we went to. We went back to the pool. This time we got better directions, around the corner from the pool down this dark unlit, gravel road, into the trees...we see a gate to our left...the driver stops to ask the door man, the doorman says we have arrived, (there were absolutely no signs that would let you know this was the Blue Diamond, that would be too logical) he opened the gate and let us in and we see all the bungalows...looks like a really nice place. My husband checks us in, the restaurant is closed...we havent eaten...jump back into the love bug- back to the city- Mickey Dees!- back to blue diamond-Bid the driver farewell and we have a wonderful time at the blue diamond. It seems that the pools are part of the blue diamond. People can just go in and enjoy the pool activity. It was a very nice getaway. the following day we dropped my inlaws off to spend a relaxing evening there. My husband said they got teary when they saw the place. They loved it. It was so serene. My mother-in-law loved the big gate to keep
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little oasis in the Medina -Jasmine, lilac, sandalwood, olive soap, natural henna, kohl,....US- No money and all the ATMs were out of money until we got way on the other side (sigh) people out, lol. see pictures
DAR DBAGH
The following day we take the kids into the Medina to a place where they sell leather goods. A friend of my husbands family who owns a store there takes us to the back of another persons store and up a narrow winding staircase and out onto a roof so we can view the place where animal skins are dyed. (Dar Dbagh). It smells badly there and he gives us mint sprigs to sniff incase the smell gets to overwhelming. The view was amazing and I felt really bad for the people who had to work in that place. My husband said thank God that we went on the roof, because if we went the way the tourists go the smell is really really rancid. see pictures.
MEKNES
We venture by train to go to Meknes another city in Morrocco, we go to visit my husbands sick uncle. Each city has different color taxis. Fes & Casablanca has red, Al Jadida- white, Meknes- baby blue. I liked the train once we got to first class but we did have to walk through the second class and that was pretty bad tons
of people , very closed in, and people smoking! and as you pass through one car to another the door was open and your trying to maneuver around folks, I had to hold on to my Abdullah for dear life! see pictures
FES HISTORY
Fez is the oldest city of Morocco. As with other Moroccan cities it consists of two parts; the Medina and the Ville Nouvelle. Fez differs from other cities by its divided Medina which include New Fez (Fes-el-Djedid) and old Fes (Fes-el-Bali). New Fez was build in the 14-th century so imagin how old Fes-el-Bali (old Fes) is. This city was founded in the 9th century by the first Muslim dynasty to rule Morocco, the Idrissids. Since then Fez has always played a pivotal role in the history of Morocco, right up to the revolt against the French.
Fez-el-Jadid is an outcome of the glorious times in 1248 during the conquest of Fes by the Merenids and therefore it reflects a massive royal city.
Most Fassis -the people of Fes- continue to live in in the Medina-city Fes-el-Bali instead of moving to the Ville Nouvelle; the modern urban and more European city.
Fez is
no longer the capital of Morocco, and is not the biggest nor the most important town, but more than any other town it is immersed with the history of Morocco.
By now, most of the original Fassis who trace their heritage back to the time of the Andalusians have either moved to the Ville Nouvelle or to other cities like Casablanca and Rabat. The old medina is now crowded with rural-to-urban migrants and among the old families, very few still occupy their houses there.
MEKNES HISTORY
The history of Meknes is partly the history of Moulay Ismail. This great-grandfather of present day King Mohamed VI, reigned over Morocco with a strong hand. He made expeditions as far south as Timbouctou and regained lost Moroccan possesions in every direction.
The Sultan and Meknes were however most famous for their role in the international slave trade. Moroccan pirates caught European vessels every now and then and the Sultan had the europeans brought to his capital to work for him. Several attempts were done by European powers to get them back. The image of Moulay Ismail in the west is still very much tainted by this episode. In Morocco however he
is still widely seen as a Sultan, who may have had his rough edge, but was good for the Empire and got Morocco back on the map.
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Naima
non-member comment
YOU!
A beautiful photo of you :0 your colors match the inlaid too!