The land of souks, kasbahs and moonlit desert nights

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We flew the King's airline into Casablanca and took the train ride to Fes,the oldest imperial moroccan city in the north (800 AD) . We explored the medina (old city) and the souks (bazaars). It is an experience to get lost in this labyrinth of narrow streets with shops selling carpets to spices to leather goods. The streets are bustling with locals and tourists trying to get the best bargain and ofcourse, the ever reliable donkeys carrying merchandise to every nook and corner of this old, unchanged city.. Probably very similar to how things were 1200 years ago, except for the tourists !!

Volubulis, close to Fes, is the largest and best preserved Roman ruins in Morocco. We spent a day visiting the ruins that has impressive monuments like the Arch de Triumph, capitol, baths and stunning mosaics that have survived 2000 years. We stopped by in Meknes to have some mint tea by the Imperial palace and explore the local souks. The meknes region is known for its grapes and we bought a good bottle of Cabertnet Souvignon du Meknes.

It was time to get to the great Saharan desert dunes. We had a long 9 hour bus ride from Fes to Er-Rachidia. The bus ride had a travelling salesman, pitching the latest chinese medicine and rubbing balm on everyone to prove its effectiveness. In the meantime, a old local woman beside me was noxious and was holding a cut onion to her nose for the next 6 hours. We had people clearing their throats and spitting on the aisle. At some point, the bus driver sprayed pinesol along the aisle to get rid of all the foul smells in the bus. Overall, the bus ride was entertaining as it goes through some beautiful scenery and combined with some soothing arabic music , it was well worth it. From Er-Rachidia, we jumped on a shared taxi that hurtled through the moonlit desert, with rai music blaring, to Merzouga, a small village on the edge of the saharan dunes.

After watching a spectacular sunrise over the gigantic sand dunes and exploring the village, we jumped onto our camels and headed into the desert. After a few hours on the camels, we arrived at an oasis in the middle of the desert with sore buttocks.We watched amazing colors of the desert sunset and as night fell, we enjoyed our cabernet souvignon watching the stars and the gigantic full moon. It is a night i'll remember for a long time. We had some tagine for dinner and slept in Nomad tents. The night brought in strong winds kicking up lot of sand. Couple of times, it was scary as our tent partially collapsed due to winds. Early morning, after watching another beautiful sunrise and simple breakfast, we headed out of the desert on camels back to merzouga.

From the desert, we headed to Todra Gorge. We stayed at the bottom the gorge, which is at the end of a valley filled with palmeraies and berber villages. We spend a day hiking in the gorge that offered spectacular photo opps. and then, spent half a day for an unforgettable experiennce - Carpet shopping !! Everyone visiting morocco will go through this long negotiating ritual. You are served mint tea , given a lesson on different types of carpets, shown the weaving process and then, one after another carpets are pulled out for you see. The moroccan carpet seller is the ultimate salesman and uses all sales techniques, some of them unethical, to help you part company with your money. We spent a long time bargaining and eventually bought a couple of carpets we liked.

From Todra gorge, we rented a taxi to drive through Kasbah (old chieftain palaces) country visiting Oarzazate and made our way to the southern city of Marrakesh. We stayed in a beautiful Riad (old palatial townhouse) in the medina and immersed ourselves in the famous Djemaa el-Fna, a huge square filled snake charmers, open air food stalls, acrobats, dancers, singers, jugglers and storytellers. Djemma el-fna is bustling with activity into the wee hours of early morning. We spent a day exploring the Saadian Tombs, Dar es Said Museum and sunset at Menera gardens. The Koutubia mosque and minaret in the medina is spectacular at night. One evening, I dressed up in local wear (Gandhura I purchased in the souk) and headed to a cafe to try some "shisha" (Hookah) and drink some mint tea and met couple of friendly local people. Another evening, we treated ourselves to a royal treatment at Palais Gharnata. We went to a old 14th century palace for a 1000 Dirham dinner. Set in a fastastic imperial ambience, with plenty of good food ( salads, Coucous, Tagine, Pastisse etc. ) and excellent wine flowing, with arabic music and belly dancing in the background , it was an evening to remember.

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