Arabian Nights pt 1

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Arriving in Casablanca 3 hours late and arriving at 1am didn't give me a lot of time to experience the city. After waking my roommate for the trip, I slept well and woke up the next morning to introduce myself. Her name is Sarah and she is from Sydney. I am travelling with a company called Intrepid who do adventure travel. Our group is 12 people and I am the only American (thank shiva) all Aussie and English, and finally our tour leader, Margeaux, who is French.

The first few days were a whirlwind, traveling by train to Rabat (the capital), and Meknes, famous for its handcrafts.

As the group was getting to know each other a bit more on the train journeys, I revealed my profession, and suddenly everyone had aches and pains, where there were none previously!
This has actually worked in my favor, because I have been getting many free meals along the way!

In Casablanca we went to tour a Mosque, the world's 3rd largest, with space for 7000 worshippers inside and another 12,000 outside. The money was donated mostly by the King, and also the people of Morocco. No expense has been spared, marble from Italy, titanium doors from Russia, and a marvelous Hamman in the basement for cleansing before prayers.

The muslim call to prayer happens 5 times per day. Sunrise, midday, sunset, and two in between. The first 4 last about 10 minutes, and the evening one is 5 minutes. I find this a bit humorous after talking to several people about the rituals, and many people only pray in the evening, because it is the shortest one.

Many of the people I have met so far either do not go to Mosque anymore, or only go once per week (friday the most holy day, prayer is one hour at lunchtime) or they pray many times per day, but still drink beer (which is forbidden). The call to prayer is done over loudspeaker and is very cool to be wandering through the souk (market) bargaining for jewelry and hear Arabic chants in the street.

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Comments

[ronnie]

intrepid!
Gig, I had no idea you was traveling with Intrepid! I have been wanting to book one of their adventures for years now. When you get to SF, which I am excited to see you, and I promise I wont ask for a massage, well ... maybe :), but I digress, I am excited to hear how your experience with them actually is. What trip style did you choose?

[maribel]

love your adventure... you do a great job at depicting what you're experiencing! it all sounds very colorful and exciting! may the force be with you and may you continue raking in those free meals, magic hands!