Fez, Sefrou and Cave Houses

---

Fortunately the train to Fezwas not nearly as crowded as the one we had caught from Rabat to Meknes and we ended up sharing an eight seater cabin with the Dutch tourists from the restaurant a few nights earlier and a local man Ahmed Ali who claimed to work in the tourist information centre in Meknes but lived in Fez. We probably should have seen through the story (if it was indeed untrue) but by the time we pulled into Fez an hour or so later, we had arrangements in place to be collected from Hotel du Maghreb at 1400.

At 1355 a Grand Taxi pulled up with Ahmed Ali already inside and we were whisked away to the suburbs to meet his wife and five year old son. I'd be lying if I said we were comfortable with the arrangement -accepting an offer from a stranger in a strange town can end up in disaster - but it can also end up being the highlight of any trip overseas. Jo was particularly nervous and I was beginning to have second thoughts.

Sure enough Ali's son came bounding down the stairs to greet his father on arrival and we were welcomed in for a mint tea (Moroccan Whisky). Ali put on some Arabic music while his son played up with this Walkman and other toys.

At 1630, Ali's brother showed up and drove us out of town toward the Atlas Mountains. We were shown through the medina and souq at Sefrou, a Berber town and then driven on to the small village of Bhalil where a visit to a cave house was arranged.

A small number of Bhalil's 1500 residents still live in caves cut into the rock mountain and marked by concrete entrances. The one we entered had a living, cooking and dining area with stairs cut into the rock leading to a small second room that held four thin single mattresses. Yellow paint on the rocks helped reflect the light from two bulbs hanging from the roof. The couple that lived there were probably in their 70s and had half a dozen family members visiting when we dropped by. Despite the interruption, they poured us a mint tea and discussed "village gossip" with our guide. The couple were clearly not very well off but seemed genuinely happy to greet us and have us visiting. This lifestyle and the set up of the caves simply blew me away - I was sure we could not possibly be further away from suburban Auckland than we were in that cave.

We arrived back at Ahmed Ali's place around 2000 having stopped on the way back to collect a bottle of wine for our hosts (Ali was Muslim... but "Not a very good one"). Dinner was to be tagine with couscous and thanks to Lonely Planet's "So you've been invited for couscous" text box, we had become experts in Moroccan table manners. Whilst waiting for our meal, Ali offered to let us watch the video of his son's circumcision but (to our immense relief) he couldn't find the tape - it was apparently on loan to a friend. We had to settle on a video of Ali's wedding. The only time I'd ever seen Arabic wedding videos was on TV news and it was usually interrupted by a bomb or some such similar act of terrorism so I was pleased to see and learn about the weddings with a happy ending rather than what the networks show. Ali looked none to pleased in some parts of the video however and Paul was prompted to ask if there were arranged marriages in Morocco. The answer was in the affirmative but we were assured this wasn't the case in this instance. Throughout all the time in the house, we barely saw Mrs Ahmed Ali - she was busy in the kitchen preparing our food.

We started a superb lamb and vegetable tagine at 2200 - a little later than we'd become used to eating but that only helped us enjoy it all the more.

We thanked our hosts and caught a taxi (with Ali) back to a bar around the corner from our hotel for what was meant to be a quick beer before bed. The waiter had barely cracked the tops off the first round of beers when the second round appeared - along with a plate of artichokes and fish. Sensing a setup I asked for the bill and feigned being tired. jo didn't have to pretend - she was all but out for the count at the table.

We paid for two rounds of drinks and left around 2330. Ali's neighbour was to collect us for a medina tour at 1000 the next morning. Ali sure seemed to know all the right people...

---