The rip off in Merzouga Part 1 of 3 - Unimpressive Merzouga village

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The guy at the reception told me that there is a tour for 2 nights 3 days where they did the two gorges near Tenehir and the Marzhouga desert which was costing Dhm1050 or Dhm850 without a camel ride. The French couple was doing it and they required a 3rd person. Even though I heard from the French couple yesterday that they had met travellers who said it was good I felt the price was a little steep and could not spend 3 days on a tour. Instead I thought I will do it on my own.

Woke up early as I had to catch the bus to Tenehir took a taxi to the bus station and bought a ticket to Tenehir, while in the bus I decided I can't be bothered walking through the gorges hence told the conductor that i'm going all the way to Erachidia which is the main town after Tenehir. I met a lady called Malika from Morocco in the bus who spoke very good english and who does English-Arabic training programs for the American Peace Corp in Tangiers. Malika told me to go and meet her cousin in Merzouga because he was quite well known and that he was the "Nurse" and to go and ask for Mbarak.

I got to Erachidia and there I met this local guy Hassan at the bus stop who said they were looking for one more person to go to Merzouga in a grand taxi. So I asked the price for which he said Dhm50 and I said ok. When I got to the taxi it was me, Hassan and a friend of his. They said one more woman will get in later. I thought it was a little strange but carried on. A lady did get in later on but what was strange was it was she and me the only fare paying passengers. We got to a city called Rissani Southeast of Erachidia and then on to Merzouga. It was quite late when we got in around 630pm. While in the car Hassan asked if I wanted to do a desrt trip and I asked how much and he said Dhm900 and I said no way that I am a student from Sri Lanka and I can’t afford it.The taxi straightaway went to a hotel called Soliel Blue.

When I had to pay the taxi, I gave a Dhm200 note as I didn’t have any change. Hassan took the note and went inside the hotel and said not to worry he will pay the taxi and give me the change. Afterwards the taxi left.

I didn’t realise but the map on lonelyplanet was at a scale of one is to 20kms so even though in the map the hotels looked nearby in reality they were quite far away. Hassan said that this is a good place and its his relations. Warning bells should have rung by now but when he said its only Dhm40 I was like that’s fine, a nice double bed and the place was a converted berber house. Hassan said if I wanted to do a desert trip I should ask the owners son and pointed at this guy at the hotel.

The hotel setting was as follows:

There was one tall Moroccan guy who was constantly with a Swiss lady, they looked like a couple as they occasionally hugged and seemed like they had been there for a long time. There was another another Moroccan guy with an American lady who seemed like 15 years elder than him and they were clearly a couple holding hands etc. When she spoke to me she mentioned that her son was coming to Spain to spend 2 weeks; that’s how I kind of figured her age. They were clearly travelling together and had come on that same day. There was Hassan and his friend who came from Erachidia. Then there was another guy who was constantly behind like an opening in the wall and then there were two other guys who I didn’t know and the owners son (atleast that’s what I was told).

The evening was peaceful, I was hungry so ordered an omlette as that was the cheapest thing in the menu at Dhm25. It took a long time and I said I will have it later and that I wanted to go to the village to check my email. The supposed owners son said wait its almost ready and I said ok fine but it was quite clear that they had not even begun preparing it but I kept quiet.

After eating we went to the village about a 25min walk. On our way we stopped by at someones place which Hassan said was Mbarak’s place but when we knocked the person in the house said that Mbarak had gone to Rissani. All this was in Arabic and Hassan was the translater. We went to the internet place and sfter emailing, Hassan said he had paid the internet charge of Dhm2 for 30mins and we went back to the hotel. The people in the hotel were playing drums and I was also asked to join. I haven’t played a drum in my life and was quite shy to make a fool out of myself. The American lady encouraged me to play and said we are all friends here and not to be shy and start playing. When I started the guys at the hotel taught me a few beats and it was nice. Afterwards I had a chat with the bosses son and he said that if I want to do a camel trip, just for the night where I will see the sunset and sunrise from the dunes for Dhm400 and if I wanted to do one night and one day where I will also see 4 more villages and get back in the evening the next day it will be Dhm700. He said he will give a discount as I was a student from Sri Lanka.....bull shit....I said I will think about it and let him know tomorrow and I went to sleep.

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