Red lights of Marrakech !!!!!

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Yesterday, I came back to Hotel Ali and after having a much needed proper shower after two days, walked about did my emailing and went to bed around 1230am...it was good to see Nouri again who was going to leave the day before but as most relaxed slow traveller are, he was still there...

I, woke up around 815am did the three S's had breakfast and called Aziz's friend in Marak, Hussain and he said he will meet me in 1.5hrs. I went to email and burn a dvd in the meantime. Its 3 days being in Morocco and I have already taken over 900 pics. I hope 300 a day won’t be my average. I first went to a Kodak shop and the guy tried to rip me off. He said that he doesn’t have a DVD burner and can only burn CD’s and for 2.5Gb i wil need 4 cds and each cd will cost Dhm40. I went to a cyber cafe did my emailing the girl there made a mess out of the downloaded photogtraphs. It was going to take another 30mins to finish, I left as I had to meet Hussain. By this time Hussain had come and gone although I went back in exactly 1.5hrs, I think there was a communication failure because he doesnt speak English and I got the guy in the reception to speak with him in Arabic.

Called Hussain again and he was kind enough to come back and see me. Aziz gave me Dhm150 to give him and I gave him that too. Hussain and I went to the market to buy a Djaleba its sort of woolen material overcoat with a hood. You get the ankle length as well as waist length types.

The guy in the shop said Dhm350 and after Hussain spoke went down to 250 200 and finally 150. We said we will look around, went to the next shop and bought it for 120 and the guy in the shop said that Hussain is my visa essentially saying that since he is Moroccon they cannot charge tourist prices. I asked a few local people that I had met buses at somestage and they said it costs around 100-150 so I guess I paid a fair price.

Hussain asked me to call him when I get back on the 11th that he will take me around because I was leaving to Ouarzazate (pronounced “Warzazat”) later that day. After Hussain left I went to another cybercafe to make a dvd and there while the dvd was being burnt there was this Moroccan girl with her hair covered and face open who was looking at me and I was also giving her a look ;-) after finishing with the dvd I went to pay. The girl looking at me started talking to me…..

Conversation was as follows:

Moroccon girl: You Pakistan
Vaj: No
Moroccon girl: You Indian
Vaj: No
Moroccon girl: Then?
Vaj: I am Sri Lankan
Moroccon girl: Your name
Vaj: Vaj
Moroccon girl: You have nice eyes
Vaj: You have beautiful eyes too (Not really but I had to carry on the chat)
Moroccon girl: Meet after habibi
Vaj: Why after lets go and do coffee now
Moroccon girl: Call me after and gave her number to me
Vaj: Call you after when
Moroccon girl: Call me after 1 hour habibi
Vaj: Ok

Its funny all the time people ask my country in that same order and when i say no to both they are taken a back a little and as a third option they try England for which I say no again and say I am Sri Lankan. They have even tried Bangladesh.

So I actually called her after one hour and she asked me to come to a hotel in the Marrakech Ville Nouelle (In the Marak new city) and I said if you want you come to my hotel, I ain’t coming anywhere else. Yet another whore.

Faisal from work who was in Marak for 3 days and texted me asking me to meet him as he was going to be at the square so i went and met Faisal and his friend and we walked about the square and the shopping areas.

I, went back to the hotel and had a chat with the receptionist who is a lovely English speaking traditional girl and related to her my story and I asked her why is this and she was like this is a big problem in Morocco where women are looking to get rich quickly, also trying to find a way out of this country and wanting soo many material things. Its really sad considering there are soo many beautfiful girls only to find out that many of them are tarty. I remember yesterday Youssef telling me that the beautiful girl with a lot of cleavage used to be his girl friend and after they broke up she had ended up becoming a tart. I can only believe what he says no actual proof.

Afterwards I went back to my room, got my things freshened up and left to the bus station. I got there at 1615 and found out that the bus is at 1800. So I went to a shop got a Crepe and Lubia and had mint tea. I went to an internet cafe and went back to the bus station at 1730. Yasmin Vadod a friend of mind who works for Lufthansa called me up and said that someone has hijacked my skype account and is chatting in French. This is the internet place that I went to before taking the bus. I will get to Ouarzazate at 1030pm and I have no idea where I am going to stay. I was told Hotel Royal is good lets find out.

Got to Ouarzazate at the forecasted 1030pm, it was cold and the bus station is far away from where the action is. I had to take a petit taxi to hotel Royal which cost Dhm5.

Hotel Royal is a nice place, the gentleman at the reception has a sarcastic sense of humour. When I asked him if a single room was available, he said dont know lets find out and looked at the board where all the keys are kept.

He said every type of room is available and which one do I want and I selected a singleroom without a bathroom this cost Dhm46. The WC was adjoining my room so it felt like en-suite but not really.

I had a bottle of smoothie which I had bought in london and which was in my backpack. I think probably due to the pressure difference while we were passing high altitudes especially while passing the Ourika Valley in the southern area of the high Atlas the bottle had exploded and I had smoothie in 75% of my stuff in my backpack. I spent a good two hours cleaning my clothes and backpack and later the room smelt like a smoothie :-)

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