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Published: February 13th 2011
Marrakech
The main MosqueOur first trip to the African continent started with an airport transfer... to the wrong hotel! There are two royal mirage hotels in Marrakech and of course we got delivered to the wrong one. And the reception said that our booking had been cancelled. Nice. So after a few dramas (finding a taxi, negotiating a price, etc) we ended up in the right place with our proper booking. Whew!
So the first thing we did was head into town and check out the markets. A total tourist trap of course, but still full of hustle and bustle and tonnes of locals doing their shopping too. The main square boasts everything from snake charmers (with their poisonous looking cobras!) to food stalls, stalls selling freshly squeezed juice, people selling knick knacks, kids selling biscuits, and everything inbetween.
The main markets nearby are just as crazy - narrow paths leading through markets, people trying to get you into their shops, and mopeds an bicycles trying to run you over all the time. Bargaining is ridiculous, they start at stupid prices and act real offended when you offer a reasonable price. I was trying to buy a top and the dude wanted
Marrakech
Renton on the top deck of the bus tour. $300 NZD, so I offered him $20 and he got all shitty ( I got sick of it and hardly bought anything). One guy got a bit silly and offered Renton 1000 camels for me, I mean really, I'm worth at least 4000!
Then we stumbled on the local vege and meat market, the best part we saw was the chicken meat on a shop counter out in the sun with all the live chickens in cages behind... mmm salmonella anyone?
The food stalls are cool though, they usually have a bunch of dishes cooking on a stove and you choose your tagine, which is usually veges and meat chucked in a tagine dish with a bunch of veges.
The transport here is different too, you have to negotiate a price before you get anywhere near getting into a taxi, and they are all tiny little cars like 1990's fiats or something. The alternative is to hire a scooter, which would mean certain death, or to take a horse and carriage. Horse and carriages are everywhere, we took one back to the hotel one day and it was neat, although looking at the state of the horses
Marrakech
Traffic mayhem! Good times. I am sure we were perpetuating animal cruelty!
We jumped on a bus tour to get a good oversight of the city and learnt lots about the history of the place, which was pretty cool. We also went on a tour over the mountains to the town of Ourzazate, which was about a 3 hour drive away over crazy windy roads. We passed through lots of cool little Berber villages, and the film locations for lots of movies such as The Mummy, Gladiator, Indiana Jones and more. We also got another camel ride - yay! Though we are happy to be alive as the driving was crazy, our driver drove really fast around corners and overtook on blind hills, so we started to get a little nervous when we were up in the mountains and it started snowing!
Its a whole different world here and it was great to experience it for a few days. Its time to pack up again and head back to London, and then on to Dublin!
Laters!
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Beta Matt paid to have them put the rose petals in your bed. He's just like his OM a real romantic. lol