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Published: December 13th 2007
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Herbal Doctor
Local selling herbal medicine in Djemaa el-Fna Ryan air flight got to Marrakech at 930am. I met Daniel an American doing a Ph.D. at LSE in London at the Luton airport. We took a bus from the airport to the medina. The return ticket cost me Dhm30 valid for 2 weeks while a single was Dhm20. The bus ride took about 15mins. I had booked a hostel from hostelworld but that was very poorly rated. The only reason I booked it was so that I had an accomodation confirmation to show the Moroccan embassy in London. This was the cheapest hostel on the web for Marakesh. Daniel said his friends had recommended hotel Ali close to the Djemaa el-Fna square and we checked it out. Dhm60 for a dormitory you can’t quite go wrong, the people at the hotel were extremely friendly Hind and Miriam at the reception were exceptionally nice.
The best way to get to know any city is by foot and by just wondering around, so we walked all over the souqs getting lost, haggling in Marak is not as bad as India...over here they ask you to come and look and then they say maybe you will buy something....there was this guy who
Marak Shops
Handbag shops in Marak was showing us around saying that he wants to take us to his shop..when we got to the shop it was not his it was called the co-operative apparently open once a month and wow lucky us happened to come on the only day its open hehehe try that line on someone else...we had tea and the salesman was saying let me know what you like and we will start bargaining, I write my price then you write yours and we do like this 3 times and at the end of it if you are happy and I make a little profit I sell and be happy or else I dont sell and we are still friends....
At the end we didn’t buy anything so the guide kinda fellow now starts asking for money...he wanted Dhm50 but we gave 20.
There are shops all over the alley its amazing constant lines of shops. The general transport is not limited to bicycles and motor cycles they also have donkeys. They sell everything shoes, clothes, brassware, jewellery, spices, arts and crafts i can go on and on...
After much walking we ended up at Bab Doukkala close to the
Marak Shops
Clothes shops in Marak bus station and we sat by this little tea shop where we ate. I have now turned full vegetarian and it wasn’t easy finding food...hence I ate baked beans in a red curry called “Lubia” and a pancake called Crepe which is the “Gothamba Roti” equivalent in Sri Lanka. It was a superb meal and I enjoyed it thouroughly.
The atmosphere in the evening is so colourful and loud with drum beats and people dancing. So many street performers from snake charmers, dancers, women painting mehdi, people selling herbal stuff all kinds of salesman...The orange juice stalls are fantastic and it costs only Dhm3 per glass and soo many dates, dried fruit and spices for sale.
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