Marrakech

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Having found the public transport to be consistently inconsistent during our Moroccan adventure, we were not surprised that out overnight bus did not arrive on time in Marrakech. We were very surprised to be pulling into the bus stop 40 minutes early at 0420. This posed a bit of a problem as we were none-to-keen to be out walking around town in the dark. Fortunately a bakery displayed an opening time of 0500 on the window so we stayed put at the station, eventually passing the time over bread, jam and hot chocolate.

It was 0630 when the sun started threatening the dark of night so we hit the streets in search of the main part of town. It was a good 10 minutes before the three of us realised that something was amiss and it became evident that we were walking the wrong way. We all re-checked the Lonely Planet map and still could not figure out where we had gone wrong... either the map had the bus station on the wrong side of the road or the station had crossed the road since printing. Paul (being into walking far more than Jo and I) was keen to walk so we left him to it and caught a Petite Taxi.

We checked out Hotel Ali briefly but the bloke behind the counter was a miserable sod and the prices he gave us were Dh60 over what the guidebook was suggesting so we continued the search and found Hotel CTM right on the main square Djemaa el-Fna. The room was pretty good (by Moroccan standards) and even had hot water - a bit of a luxury on our budget. I succeeded in missing out on the laundry duties by dozing off for a few hours and was more than pleased to wake around 1000 to the sight of my freshly cleaned clothes hanging out to dry outside the window. Paul had to book his overnight train back to Tangier so Jo and I bought a lamb sandwich from a vendor in the square and had it in our room.

On Paul's return we hit the souq for some retail therapy to help recover from the overnight bus. I picked up a Moroccan soccer shirt for Dh100 along with a few tourist trinkets for gifts. One bloke, who was selling picture frames made from recycled tyres, was a bit upset when we didn't purchase anything and demanded a cigarette. When I declined, he grabbed my arm and said... this is a word-for-word quote...

"Why you be so bloody fucking?"

"What did you say?" - Jo jumped to my defence (she's good like that).

This grabbed the attention of more than a few of the merchants close by. He tried to grab Jo and then me but we both pulled away. I said a few choice words and was relieved that none of the other locals took his side and let us walk away without further incident.

Hotel CTM had a nice balcony on the roof where we spent the afternoon drinking coke and coffee, looking down on Djemaa el-Fna and all its interesting characters. The square is probably the most famous location in Morocco with it's snake charmers, acrobats, boxers and assorted freaks all ensuring the tourist is not left short of action - although often short of cash. At 1600 on the dot a hundred or so food carts appeared from nowhere and started setting up for the night. It was quite an incredible sight.

Humour me, if you will, as I break all English rules and cross into the present-tense. It is now 1800 and I've been sitting here on the balcony, updating this blog for four hours, three cokes, four café au laits and countless cigarettes. The view and atmosphere is just - well it's too hard to put into words. You'll get a bit of an idea from the photos (when I put them up) but they will not do this place justice. The hypnotic music from the snake charmers, the smoke and spicy fragrances from the food stalls and the bustle of tourists as they are wooed by the vendors are melding to create a sensory overload. I may never get bored of this. Get here before you die!

Dinner was at a number of food stalls all over Djemaa el-Fna. The touts from each stall were on form - picking we were Kiwis and giving the traditional foreigner trying Maori greeting...

"Keeeee orrra mate"

or

"Jamie Oliver - he my brother"

I started with peppered snails (Dh5) with harira soup (Dh2.50) from two different stalls before the three of us settled on another stall for the main course... a combination of lamb kebabs, chicken and beef pieces (beautifully spiced) and potato fritters (Dh15). The food everywhere looked and smelt divine - perhaps the goats heads were one of the few exceptions.

It had been a fantastic day and we retired to our room with much anticipation as to what lay ahead on Paul's last day in Morocco.

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