Blogs from Meknes, Meknès-Tafilalet, Morocco, Africa - page 4

Nous sommes à Meknes depuis deux jours sous une chaleur accablante !! Nous logeons dans un chantier où l'on a retrouvé plusieurs personnes du chantier de Rabat (cela nous fait bien plaisir!!). Le confort est total (douche et toilette séparés et des lits!!). Mais la chaleur est insupportable (43° ce matin, on imagine même pas cet après midi !!). Le soir de notre arrivée, nous avons visité le bassin de Souani. Hier, nous avons été à la piscine (!!!) bondée bien sur mais ça fait du bien un peu de frais !!! Le soir nous avons fait pas mal d'achats dans la médina (accompagnées d'un marocain pour la négociation!!). Maintenant il faut qu'on s'achète une valise !!!). 8 août : Valise achetée, woupi !!! Alors, on a rallongé notre séjour à Meknes, malgré la chaleur on ... read more

We took a turquoise petit taxi to the Medina area. It was just over 10dh, we beat the night-time double fares. We looked over a few hotels and Hotel Regina seemed like the best bang for our buck. It's 100dh/nite for 2ppl so it's really not much at all. Wanted to try a hammam but that didn't happen. Maybe I will get up early enough tomorrow. My hair is BEGGING to be washed, yuck, I know. Oualili is still on my list of places to see. Our hotel offers hot showers for 5dh. He told me the roof was closed when I asked but the lock is actually broken so you just slide it over and you can open the door. I like roof top views and the air, even though it's a bit tainted with ... read more

March 17, 2008 Today started off much earlier than normal. We woke up for good at 4:45 so we could go watch the sun rise. As much as it wasn’t fun to get up so early, I was soo happy when it finally came, because I went from one of the best night’s sleep to the worst in a day. The mattress was very uncomfortable, the pillows were hard, we had to share a blanket and sheet, and it was FREEZING! Even with my jeans, 2 pairs of socks, cami, tank top, long sleeve shirt, and sweatshirt (over my head, too) I was soooo COLD! I would wake up every couple hours trying to get warm and comfortable, but I never really succeeded. When we went outside to go, you could see every star in the ... read more

Today we both felt better and well enough to look around Meknes. Neither of us particularly likes the place so we want to see it so that we can leave. We began our sightseeing in the main square which was previously the only part we had managed to see. We dodged the café owners and dived into the covered market for a loo, around. The first row we went down was just packed full of stalls which sold the little pastries which look ever so colourful. We walked down amazed at the hundreds of different varieties and the hoards of wasps. We turned at the end of the row and found ourselves amongst the meat stalls. I made the foolish mistake of looking at the first stall and hastily looked away. I'm not overly squeamish but ... read more

The plan yesterday was to go to Moulay Idriss, one of Moroccos most important pilgramage sites Has apparently only been open to non Muslims for the past 70 years. It is about half an hour in a shared taxi from Meknes. Unfortunately, no one else seemed to want to go to Moulay Idriss yesterday morning, so I had to negotiate and hire a grande taxi for myself. According to the Book, it can sometimes be a little difficult to get back to meknes from MI, so I arranged for the driver to wait a couple of hours, while i looked around, then take me back. None of the mosques or monuments in Moulay Idriss are open to non muslims, but (with the exception of one annoying little dickhead who made it his business to try and ... read more