When we were greeted by our lovely host, Samira, at Jnane Tamsna in La Palmeraie, it was evident that this place was as advertised – a natural oasis on the outskirts of Marrakech that was luxurious and blissful. The facilities and gardens were beautiful and we had five pools at our disposal.
The rooms were also stunningly done in Moroccan style but included air conditioning (yeah) and good WiFi!
After a nice lunch on the deck, we met a very pleasant couple, Clare and James and their two boys, Harvey and Ollie, who were 12 and 9. They were staying in Marrakech but enjoying the facilities here for a day as part of a five day holiday. They happened upon Jnane Tamsna somewhat accidentally because they had planned to go to another place but the taxi driver dropped them here after some roaming around and insisting they’d arrived at their destination. Lucky for us they could arrange a nice day package anyway and we could all have a play date.
The dynamics of a 12 year old boy with a 12 year old girl were interesting and, after playing for a while in the pool with the boys, Abby spent much of her time like this…
Harvey played with the other boys a good deal but also hung with us some as we enjoyed G&Ts by the pool.
Ollie and David found all kinds of things to do like playing frisbee in the pool (the 70 cent floatie figured prominently in the games), ping pong, Nerf gun target shooting, tennis and talking about Clash of Clans (they could speak the universal language of internet games).
Among the adults, once again the tie that binds is travel. Clare worked for an airline so had been about everywhere. James’ work took him to places like China and Clare took him along to many other places on her long haul routes. As with many parents, much of that was done “BC” (Before Children) but as the kids got older it resumes. In a great example of how small the world is nowadays, they have a friend in Portugal who they emailed from the pool to get dinner recommendations for our last night in Lisbon. Much appreciated! We also swapped other taxi horror stories and some of our experiences in Marrakech. They were driven back to their hotel by none other than our most reliable Hakim so we think they fared better this time. All in all a great afternoon for kids and adults alike.
After a pleasant dinner in the courtyard including Diva the dog and getting a pretty picture of Abby framed by the beautiful Moroccan doorways, we were wiped out and went to bed.
We all had about the best sleep of our trip here. The room was kept nice and dark by thick curtains and the gentle hum of the air conditioner not only kept the room cool but helped with the minaret at 5:30 in the morning.
After breakfast we all enthusiastically participated in a cooking lesson put on for us by one of the chefs here (Amil). He was right up there with Kyle at Sausage Tree in Liz’s eyes and we’re sure many other of the other ladies out there…
Samira also helped out with translation as Amil only spoke French (which only added to the allure).
After some initial prep work…
surprise, surprise we cooked… tajine! We did chicken with side salads of carrot, eggplant and zucchini. Jim and the kids basically chopped stuff while Liz did all the fancy manoeuvres and learned the recipes (for those who want to join us back home). She received many accolades for her skills by Amil and Samira.
The first step in the tajine was to make a marinade of parsley, garlic, onion and cilantro. The onion made Jim a bit nauseous so he had to go outside for air.
All of that went into a blender with a little water. The chicken was added along with some spices and lemon juice (which looked a lot like a lime). After putting in some chopped potatoes and lemons that had been cured for three months, the tajine was placed on a special stand with hot charcoals to cook. Voila!
Then we moved on to the salads. The first was kind of a fried eggplant dish. This didn’t turn out to be all that popular…
Then there was zucchini with tomatoes all cooked together which was the favourite…
Finally, the carrot dish was simple but good for those who like carrots…
And tah dah we had our Moroccan salads!
We had a final pose with Amil then the big unveiling at lunch. We hope everyone enjoyed it because we got less than we made!
The rest of the day was mostly spent in the pool. It was 41 degrees celcius (106 Fahrenheit) and very sunny (sorry to all of you at home) so even Liz got in. The only other activity beyond reading and napping was David and Jim having a few rip-roaring games of ping pong later in the day (David 3, Jim 1).
Dinner here is at about 8:30 so afterwards it’s pretty much bedtime for us. We’re all looking forward to another good sleep before a travel day to our last stop in Portugal. Only 7 sleeps left!
Yes, these are high mountains. As a heads up, if you don’t like pictures of pretty mountain scenery and rustic villages then we suggest you skip this post because there are lots of them in here. We’ll pause for a second while you consider that…
Ok, for those still with us, we set out from the serenity of La Pause on our drive into the mountains. As promised, we started to get our first look at the amazing mountain scenery including, in the distance, our first glimpses of the High Atlas Mountains.
We also got our first look at some of the wonderful mountain towns that have been built over the centuries. This is Berber country and they are a lot of things including resourceful. The buildings seem to be moulded into the mountainsides using adobe (a type of clay) and as we learned later are all interconnected to provide stability on the steep slopes.
On the way, we stopped at a real-live market in a town called Asni. Saturday is market day and Eyre (from yesterday) had suggested we stop and have a look. The hustle and bustle of this huge place was very interesting and we were the only mzungos in here as far as we could tell (although they don’t use that term here and there doesn’t appear to be anything equivalent).
Clearly we weren’t the only tourists ever to set foot in here however because the guy in this picture followed us around about half the time insisting he wasn’t our guide but he had jewellery for sale. Eventually he became disinterested but we had to get a bit testy.
We pulled into the town in which we were staying (Imlil) and Hakim dumped another surprise drop-off on us. Our hotel, the “Kasbah Toukbal”, is located on a hill above the town and is only accessible on foot with mules in tow to haul the luggage. We scrambled to organize ourselves and off we went.
Liz was still feeling a bit green so she was offered a chance to ride the mule after we were part way up the long, uphill climb. There is video that shows the many attempts she made to mount the mule while a growing throng of onlookers gathered. Unfortunately, the posting of this video has been blocked. The author is appalled at the censorship and will continue to fight for release of the video. If others want to join the struggle, please provide comment. The only evidence allowed to be posted is of this likely photo-shopped picture below.
We made it to the beautiful Kasbah and were invited to relax with a cold beverage and in this country that is of the non-alcoholic variety (except at La Pause where there is lots).
According to their website and speaking with the staff, the kasbah was established in 1995 after a British man purchased the ruins of the home of a local feudal chief. It was built using traditional building techniques by local labourers and materials and all by hand because electricity didn’t get here until 1997. The Kasbah is run in association with the local Berber community and a 5% levy is included in the accommodation and provided to the association.
The Kasbah at night
Views of the room
On the terrace
The cat
The location is spectacular (well chosen by its original occupant) at the foot of the highest peak in North Africa (Mount Toubkal is 4167 meters high) and overlooking Imlil Valley with its orchards of walnut, cherry and apple trees.
The Kasbah had some thought provoking writings in and around the place including a “Credo of the Peaceful Traveler” pictured below and wooden engraved banners installed around the four sections of the terrace that said:
There are many religions but only one God.
God will know them by their deeds.
Leave the world more beautiful than you found it.
Dreams are only the plans of the reasonable.
There is a book on display and a plaque on the front door that describes the renovation of the Kasbah and their mission. The book is called “Reasonable Plans” which we didn’t understand until we read the inscriptions above.
There is a main lodge in Imlil and another smaller lodge in a village called Ait Aissa in the mountains. You hike to the smaller lodge, stay over night then hike back to Imlil following a different route the next day. We had previously signed up.
We learned from the 840 steps to see the Monastery in Petra that we should ensure we had plenty of mule power. In addition to that, Liz was still unsure of how much she could walk. Being the trouper that she is, she still wanted to plough ahead so we upped the mule count from one to three and brought plenty of Pepto Bismol.
The next morning we were off with our guide Mustafa. Consistent with what we were told by the Kasbah staff, Mustafa explained that the first part of the hike would be uphill then after lunch we would be heading downhill towards Ait Aissa.
Being all energetic at first, we walked up the first bit.
Then Liz decided it was time to mount the mule but she managed it much more elegantly this time (if such a thing is possible with a mule).
Next to drop (or ride) was David…
Then Abby… (with the proviso that no pictures or video could be taken. We took that to exclude group shots like the one below.)
And finally Jim (although this shot was slightly more awkward).
At that point, we were rotating between the three mules and happy that we upped the count.
All of this mule riding is more understandable once you see the picture of the road we traveled below. We felt for this group of people that were mule-less. We found out later that the route is over 15 miles and up and down steep mountain terrain. While we now wish we knew that in advance, we were informed that it would take over 5 hours so we guess it depends on how fast you walk (or mule).
We did get to take breaks now and again which gave us the opportunity to capture these Kodak moments (which were all around us).
As we carried on after the break, we found ourselves meandering through this “band” of mountain goats. They are housed in the pens pictured below with the little shelter for the herder. They had beautiful features that we hadn’t seen before. It was tricky taking pictures from a mule but we were kind of glad to be on one. On our way to Essaouira we saw some in a tree (but missed the picture) which apparently the goats do here too but no luck spotting any.
Jim noticed a goat at a distance with an odd orange thing in its mouth (which may have been an actual orange). He turned on the video camera just as another goat decided to challenge for it. Here’s video of another near kill…
Ok, not quite a near kill but David said that this was his favourite video of the whole trip. It’s possible it’s just because it was yesterday.
We got to an area they call the “saddle” (we’ll see why later) and had a great lunch including tea poured in the Moroccan style. Even the mules got a drink. This helped everyone tuck into a nap.
They gave us lots of time for lunch because Mustafah wanted to keep out of the peak sun. That gave us a chance to relax, read, to play frisbee (in the peak sun) and catch of couple of scenic shots including this last one of the backside of the mountain where we would be trekking next.
Things we went downhill from there both literally and figuratively.
We were told by the manager at the Kasbah that two kids could ride on one mule uphill but only one could ride per mule downhill. This was important for us because it can be still very difficult hiking downhill especially for a couple of hours in the heat. However, Mustafa said that the kids couldn’t ride the mules at all downhill until we get to a village further down when the trail flattens out. To give some sense for the distance, here is a long range picture of the village in question…
Here is a shot looking back at the “saddle” where we had lunch (to the upper left in the picture) with the trail we had walked down to the right (if you look closely)…
Note the trail still left for us looking forward…
You might be able to see that that is a very long way to go for little legs (or big legs for that matter). Especially those unaccustomed to long hikes, for example, those that spend a lot of time behind a desk.
We made it to a rest stop following behind the unfortunately rapid pace of Mustafa. From here, he pointed down into the valley to another village that was our ultimate destination as can be seen in this further long range shot. Shortly after that a near mutiny occurred accompanied by a large meltdown (to relieve the suspense, Jim is ok now) and it looked for a time that we might need to call in a helicopter rescue or something. Luckily, Mustafa relented as the terrain was flatter and up on the mules David and Abby went.
We were told later that other guides do let hikers ride down especially children. However, a big part was the expectation set by the Kasbah staff so we had a little chat with them when we got back as well. In any case, we had to make several promises to the kids that we would never, ever, ever do something like this again. We tried to explain with some limited success that misunderstandings happen and you have to deal with it, as has been the case a few times on this trip, but generally we’ve been pretty lucky. Maybe that sunk in subliminally somehow.
We finally got to Village #1 (that’s what Mustafa called it) and took a few discrete pictures because Mustafa said that the villagers don’t like to have their picture taken. Up close it was particularly amazing how they built these houses into the mountain.
After what was a painfully long walk up and down through the village (keep in mind that Liz and Jim hadn’t been able to mule since lunch), we could finally hop aboard. Mustafa said that one mule could take both kids and we could all ride but Jim kept walking as we thought that would be less painful than hearing the kids complain about being on one mule after that ordeal. That lasted for a little while until we turned a corner and saw this road up to Ait Aissa (our final destination):
So the kids were now sharing a mule.
You’ll note in the upper right corner of the picture above that the lens cover of Jim’s video camera is starting to droop and get in the picture. Our equipment is definitely showing the wear and tear of this long trip including Liz’s camera grinding while trying to focus. As this is being written and we’re discussing it, David offered the helpful insight that “Maybe there’s sand in it!”. Out of the mouth of babes. They’ll need a good cleaning but, for now, the picture below shows Jim fixing his camera then providing the clear shot of the lovely valley afterwards.
As we made our way up this final road toward the village…
we wondered out loud how anybody could walk this whole thing. We found out later when we met a family in the lodge.
After a final punishing climb up…
and a couple more pictures of the surrounding landscape…
and a huge shower (no picture provided), we went for dinner in the terrace. The family we met was from London and the parents had done this hike before. For some unknown reason, they thought it a good idea to bring their kids back here to do it nine years later. The kids clearly didn’t think it was so brilliant although due to sibling rivalry steadfastly refused to use the one mule that they had. They called it the “Mule of Shame”.
The hike back the next day would follow a different route. It started with a one hour hike uphill, three hours back down, a two hour lunch and a one hour reasonably flat walk (at least according to Mustafa) back to the Kasbah. That night we had a talk with Mustafa about how we would make the hike back more tolerable for all of us but particularly the kids. Here was the solution we came up with:
Ok, it wasn’t quite this luxurious but we hired a 4×4 Land Rover for the trip back (and forgot to take a picture of it). I’m not sure Liz and Jim have seen the kids more excited to get a piece of news then when we told them that we had arranged transport back (the kids in the other family turned on their parents). In fairness to our organizers, our itinerary had always provided for this option.
It is somewhat interesting to ponder whether we could have done day 2 of the hike if we could have used the mules down the hill after lunch. Anyway, it’s kind of useless speculation because what happened happened and we think the kids would have stayed put if we tried to hike on the next day. The cost of the transport wasn’t that painful so it was pretty much a no-brainer.
The next morning, we had breakfast on the terrace and Liz wore this racy Moroccan special provided by the hotel.
Mustafa joined us for the ride back in the nice air conditioned SUV and we suggested that a little air conditioning on the mules would be helpful.
On a weather-related note, it is raining today as we sit in the Kasbah and we are even more thankful that we aren’t out doing the second day hike. We are also happy for the people of Morocco because everyone has told us that they haven’t had meaningful rain for five months and it is impacting the crops. Here is a picture of a waterfall that is outside our window that normally runs full into the river below. Some blamed it on global warming but others in the family think the science is inconclusive.
The drive back provided some great views as well but the best were of the truck masterfully navigating the dirt roads that clung to the edge of the mountain. Some members of the family were scared. Others took video.
We arrived back at the Kasbah before lunch in one piece. We had a low key afternoon as illustrated by this list of agreed activities:
We managed to accomplish about everything on our list and fit in a couple of FaceTimes too. Tomorrow we’re off for our last two nights in Morocco to what is supposed to be a little piece of heaven outside of Marakesh called The Palmeraie.
First a kids health update – David and Abby are back close to 100%. Whatever David had seemed to pass quickly (no pun intended) and they both had probably the best sleep of the trip last night in the desert (slept in to 8:30 – some kind of record). Unfortunately now Liz seems to have a “bubbly tummy”. We seem to be passing something around but Jim doesn’t want this particular hot potato.
We made our way to the Agafay Desert and wondered how this experience would compare to the wild 4×4 ride we had through the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan. It didn’t.
La Pause is a little oasis in a ravine next to a stream. This was apparently how it was discovered – when the owner’s horse stopped to take a drink. There is no sand boarding or dune buggy-ing here. You just have beautiful surroundings, a very refreshing pool (for real in this heat), good food and, as we found later, good company with other people who are “glamping” (glamorous camping). You can also play “Wadi Golf” and they throw in a token camel ride for good measure as we’ll see.
We weren’t quite sure what our accommodation would be but we expected some sort of tent. What we got was a beautiful two bedroom desert cottage in Moroccan style. It also included an outdoor shower but this was a little too outdoors for us.
The cottage was up on a dune and provided beautiful views of the desert. This desert is very rocky but the areas around the ravine contain some nice plant life. We of course caught the sunset – wouldn’t want to miss that!
As advertised though, this place had no electricity, WiFi or other overly modern amenities. Lighting was provided by these cool “eggs” that were lit up at night throughout the whole place. They’re apparently from Ikea.
Abby trying to escape yet another picture!
We were given very brief instructions in broken English which was confusing at first but pretty much all we needed. We made it down for a great lunch but as we had eaten on the way, we got pretty stuffed being polite. That was ok though because we didn’t end up eating dinner until 10 pm later that evening for reasons discussed below.
It is smoking hot here (being the desert and all) so we spent some quality time in the beautiful water of the spring-fed pool. It was conveniently nestled under the shade of an olive grove and we have the pictures of the olives to prove it. We played frisbee as we always do and the kids abused Jim for his small but effective 70 cent floatee bought in Essaouira. Funny though how they ended up fighting over it in the end.
Afterwards we went looking for this golf course since evidence existed in our room that there was such a thing.
From the fractured instructions we were given it was either real golf or Frisbee golf but it was apparently near a red flag. We found it and couldn’t understand how you could play with anything other than with a frisbee so we did. Note the rather interesting water hazards that surrounded the “hole”.
Later, through a translator, we were told that this was the actual course but you played “Wadi golf” which supposedly meant that you were pretty much always in a sand trap. A brief Google search of this term however only turned up a Nick Faldo designed course in Dubai. First of all, we’re pretty sure we left Dubai. Second, we’re also pretty sure Nick wouldn’t let you play with a frisbee. So, we’re still not sure what actual golf they meant.
Abby, David and Liz also did some mini-mountain climbing and explored a pond. The only wildlife we found here were these very camouflaged frogs and a few turtles. We were told later that the turtles were of the snapping variety but we escaped unharmed.
The translations came from a fun couple we met around the pool – Gilly and Eyre. Although they are from London they both spoke French. Gilly is a private chef and travels all over the world cooking for the likes of members of the royal family, David Beckham and Bill Clinton (he really liked her breasts – chicken, of course!). Eyre travels extensively with his insurance brokerage business particularly specializing in all things tuna including the boats, helicopters, people, fish, etc. We sat around the pool over a couple of bottles of wine solving lots of the worlds problems but mainly discussing our various travels.
Eyre asked the question that many will and we’ll need to put some thought into: what was the favourite part of our trip? We think that will be worthy of a special blog posting later.
We’ll also have to visit a restaurant in Toronto where Eyre’s daughter works which we recall from the wine-induced haze as Byblos. He was there a month ago much like he’s been to seemingly every place.
We had lots of laughs for a long time and also had dinner with them. As a side benefit they could tell us what we were eating (surprise – tajine – they tajine everything here).
We stumbled back to our room with the egg lights as our guide. As luck would have it, the kids room had a couple of windows that provided for a cool evening desert breeze. As bad luck would have it, our room had only one small window that did not appear to be in the prevailing winds and we sauna-ed through the night. Liz was begging for the noise of Essaouira.
The morning brought the first sunrise that we (ok, Jim) witnessed over the desert dunes. This made for some nice colouring in the rocky sand and shows the outlines of the High Atlas Mountains in the background where we will be traveling next.
After an excellent breakfast by the pool which most of us could stomach…
…it was time for our camel ride. We had the chance in Petra but turned it down because camels couldn’t climb the huge hill to get to Prophet Aaron’s tomb. After this experience, we were happy with the mules. These are big clumsy beasts that seemed to have trouble navigating even small bumps or perhaps their riders lacked a certain flexibility – hard to tell.
The first trick was just getting up. They had initially told us that the rides were just for the kids but somehow Jim ended up being the first one on. We were warned to hold on and that was good advice. This is video worthy…
Liz and Abby fared somewhat better.
Then off we went for a 15 minute spin around the desert. The camels’ names, oddly, were Jacob and Schneider. We couldn’t communicate well enough to get an explanation for that. The camels were friendly enough but you had to decide when to take the risk of using the camera over the rocky terrain.
This video is worth it for the audio and David’s description of the impact on his butt…
The last step was the dismount. Jim had fun filming Liz until his camel went down on auto-pilot. The second picture here is of Jim’s dismount.
All of this left us an hour and a half late for our pick up with Hakim but we had fun on our brief stay. It was not recommended that we do two nights in this heat and if we did Liz would have made the kids swap rooms. Now we’re off for an exciting trek up the High Atlas Mountains.
Our last day in Essaouira was simply spent tidying up a few things we wanted to do: have fresh fish for lunch, make final purchases of a few things we’d seen around the souk and have one nice dinner in a local haunt.
We managed to make it out of our place by 2:30 and wander back to the port. A restaurant called Chez Sam (which was just about hanging off the edge of the pier) was recommended for the catch of the day. Sam was not very pleasant when we first walked in at 2:45 saying emphatically in broken English that we had to leave by 3:30 when they close. We figured this must be the best place in town. After giving assurances that we would be done, we got a table and enjoyed a nice port view. The kids and Liz had shrimp and she explained the functioning of these shrimp boats from her youth, many years ago, in the sound at Breezy Point. Jim took a recommendation from the waiter for whitefish with vegetables which was about the healthiest meal he ever had. Despite our waiter emphatically insisting we could take our time, we made it out the door by 3:31 safe and sound.
This bought us some time to wander around the port a little more. It was interesting to watch the shipbuilders at work in what seemed to be centuries old fashion.
From there we ventured back into the souk for that last minute shopping. Abby and Liz went into power shopping mode but Jim and David tagged along for most of it. Especially since two of the stops were to a nice bakery and another for delicious Nutella and banana crepes which took Jim and Liz back to their first trip to Paris (they were much cheaper here).
David was after a wooden box for his PlayMobile men which he haggled successfully for. Essaouira is known for its woodworking although we’re sure they’ve never contemplated this use. Jim was after his tacky tourist gift but couldn’t find one. It seems there is nothing tacky about this place. After a while, the boys gave it up but were way more confident about finding the way home. Abby bought a pretty scarf and showed up soon after them. So Liz was on her own to pick up gifts for Christmas 2016 or something (as many of us know, she thinks ahead and when 2016 comes around, we’ll regret it, won’t we?).
We have been trying to salvage the sleeping bags from Kenya so we have been carrying them around in big Ikea bags that used to house the clothes for the BACCA kids provided by our Danish friends. Liz is nothing if not resourceful (in addition to forward thinking. And smart. And funny. And purdy. And an excellent wife and mother. And, and and…). Anyway, one of the sleeping bags had to be sacrificed to make room for the loot from the shopping spree. We’re sure the cleaning lady will enjoy it.
Later, Jim found this picture on Liz’s camera so we’re not really sure what she was up to entirely.
That night we took what turned out to be a most excellent recommendation from our apartment guy and went to “Restaurant Sirocco”. After wandering through the medina, we found this terrific little hole in the wall that had great live music with what appeared to be some pretty traditional instruments (except for the electric guitar and microphone). Liz had the staple in Morocco, a beef Tajine, which is cooked and served in a ceramic pot that never seems to cool. Jim had a very unusual Pastille Poulet which is pastry stuffed full with chicken and covered with cinnamon and icing sugar. The sweet and savoury together were outstanding. All of this (as with everything in this town) was very economical, high quality, served by the most pleasant people and there is no dress code. Atmosphere, shmatmosohere (Jim is still trying to let that go.)
As we depart Essaouira we’ll leave you with a few more random shots of the town and us in it. We had a wonderful, relaxing stay and it is highly recommended for anyone Morocco bound. Abby probably summed it up best when she said it was like March break in Florida but with Moroccan flair. We didn’t get moving before noon, we went to the beach, did a little shopping, saw a few sights but generally soaked in the culture of this slow paced “otherworldly bohemian fortress”.
The big event in the morning of our first full day in Essaouira was Abby waking up sick with a stomach bug. Spoiler alert – it took her a couple of days to get fully over it but she’s alright. Now, as we pack up to leave Essaouira, David has it. So far he has been immune to any germs on this trip but they seem to have caught up with him in our last weeks. All else being equal, the timing for Abby was pretty good seeing as how we were pretty much chilling out for 5 days. The timing for David not so good as we head out to the desert and mountains. Cross fingers!
That first morning, we all went to a previously arranged breakfast on a terrace that’s connected to these apartments. We’d bought breakfast food in the supermarket but we thought we would see what they had on offer. The terrace provided some more nice views but the breakfast provided too many carbs so we made it ourselves for the rest of our stay.
Our first outing was to visit the port. The scenery around the port was beautiful.
The first activity we watched were these guys in the surf hunting for muscles and urchins in the low tide. The sea here provides an abundant variety of fish due, apparently, to the powerful winds blowing almost constantly into the bay (and throughout the town). As we moved through the port we saw some pretty freaky fish although Essaouira lays claim to being the sardine capital of the world. Morocco is the largest exporter to Europe and Essaouira is the most important source.
One of the first things that strikes you (literally) are the huge flocks of seagulls. All the pictures of Essaouira on the web will show this scene and once we got close we realized what was attracting them – a huge feast of fish cleanings. There was plenty of opportunity to earn some good luck walking through here.
All you seafaring types would have loved this very active and colourful port. It is known as the “Port of Timbuktu” although it is unclear whether this is the Timbuktu. It was established to compete with Agadir to the south by a sultan in the 18th century and for a time was Morocco’s principal port that handled more than half of the international trade, particularly from Africa to America including the slave trade. While it has more recently lost its status because the water isn’t deep enough to handle large ships, it remains one of the major fishing harbours in Morocco. The small boats pictured below go out when it isn’t too windy but we’re not sure when that is.
The French language and culture are alive and well in Essaouira. French is spoken way more often in the restaurants and shops than Arabic. France was involved in early attempts to colonize Essaouira in the early 17th century. They signed a treaty with the sultan at the time giving France preferential treatment. The present city was built during the 18th century under the watchful eye of a French engineer. In the mid-19th century, Morocco entered into an alliance against France and Essaouira was bombarded and occupied by the French navy. They must have had inside information because the fortifications seemed pretty effective to us – Abby and David sure had any intruders in their cross hairs.
Another major attraction here is the beach. David and Jim went one day on their own while Abby was sick and we all went the next day (Abby got up and said “I didn’t throw up last night!” which seemed like a good sign to us). The main feature of this beach is the amazing, disappearing sand. When you arrive in the morning, here is what the beach looks like…
As the day progresses, things get a little cramped…
The incredible part is how beautiful the sand is even though it spends a good deal of time under water. The way the wind and sea interact here are something else. This also provides for one of Essaouira’s main attractions – wind and kite surfing. They dot the sky and the surf all over the place here. We took a pass on trying it because the kids were sick (or we were scared). In any case, it didn’t appear to be the place for beginners.
The kids had fun playing in the shrinking sand although they were occasionally up in each other’s faces. The beach police tried to keep the ever present football/soccer players in check although not even the horse seemed to intimidate them. The role of the beach police increased throughout the day as the beach compacted. Abby was pleased to be well enough to try the unusual flower shaped ice cream that they serve on the boardwalk.
The water was “refreshing” but provided for some excellent boogie boarding given the wind and the waves. Abby ventured out briefly but only Jim hit the surf for extended periods. The boogie board that we bought at the grocery store worked great although we seemed to be the only people with one. Maybe it’s a tourist thing?
The sunsets here were pretty spectacular as well and we stopped to watch it about every night from a different vantage point. Our favourite was probably on top of the wall facing directly west. The light of the setting sun made for a great view and pictures.
We are really enjoying our relaxing stay in our lovely Moroccan apartment. The only downside to this place is the noise at night. The windows providing the great views are also over a narrow street that has whipper snappers who are out past 10 pm. The walls very effectively funnel the noise of their shenanigans up to our apartment. We have threatened to give a few of them what-for.
We have one more day to wrap up in Essaouira then we’re off for some Moroccan desert and mountain adventures. We’re going back into an area with no electricity so we’re pretty sure there is no WiFi. We’ll be back to you in a couple of days!
We left our lovely riad in Marrakech at the civilized hour of 10 am and said goodbye to our most pleasant waiter/porter/guest service guy (unfortunately we never did get his name). We had a beautiful final breakfast in the one spot we hadn’t eaten yet – up on the deck.
The picture below contains an action shot of Jim publishing a blog post. Posting the blog usually comes down to some kind of wire and sometimes over breakfast. Note the keyboard – it is bluetooth and can switch on the fly between three devices. We looked hard for this before we left and debated whether we needed such a luxury item but it sure has come in handy.
It appeared that one of the many porters in the souk was unavailable so we rolled our bags out. A much less harrowing experience now that we were pretty much fully accustomed to the scene although we prayed that the wheels would hold out against the cobblestones of the medina.
We had a two and a half hour drive to Essaouria which was, according to our itinerary, “through constantly changing terrain” – true that. It was desert for a long time with these odd little villages here and there but as we approached the ocean it became greener especially with olive and argan trees. The horse and buggy seems alive and well (even beyond the tourist trade) alongside other more modern devices.
Argan trees are endemic to Morocco because they are very well adapted to drought and the other harsh environmental conditions of the area although they are now protected by UNESCO as endangered (we didn’t know there were endangered plants as well as animals). The oil that is produced from these trees is one of the rarest in the world due to the small and very specific growing areas. We asked Hakim if we could visit a shop along the way.
Hakim had a suitably touristy argan shop readily available. We were welcomed in and given the obligatory staged “The Making of the Argan Oil” presentation. Perhaps inevitably you grow cynical about these little displays although subsequent reading has found that this process actually hasn’t changed much over the centuries, particularly the cracking of the nuts. Apparently attempts to mechanize this process have been unsuccessful and it is still carried out by hand by these highly skilled and productive Berber women. What’s more, women in the area have formed co-operatives and with the tremendous growth of argan oil in cooking and beauty products and the rarity of the supply, it has given these women a really good source of income. Shame on us for being skeptical (at least some of us).
Anyway, we got to join in and take pictures (which we paid for but weren’t sure we had to). Because Liz and Abby did the spinning of the wool in the Kenyan community, Jim and David were enthusiastically enlisted to participate in this. Jim damaged three fingers trying to use this rock to separate the argan kernel from the shell. It is definitely a finicky process clearly mastered by the women. David practically tore a rotator cuff trying to use this device to extract the oil (this was reminiscent of stirring ugali). All the by-products of this process were used in various animal feeds including the shells and the cake left after extracting the oil.
Now that we have mastered the art of uploading video, here is one of the Berber ladies demonstrating their centuries-old craft.
Here are pictures of Jim and David struggling with the same although it was only a minutes-old craft to them.
We were of course taken into the shop and provided a snack of the edible oil product. We were told about all the other amazing uses for argan oil including that it cures about everything including diabetes and hair loss. Jim bought some.
We arrived into town to these people waving keys. We’re not 100% sure what they were up to but suspected they rented apartments in Essaouria. We found it hard to imagine that you would pull up into this town and grab some random guy off the street to rent from but it must happen because there were lots of them. We were swarmed when we first hit town but we were too stunned to get pictures. By the time we recovered we had driven on and we only found this one guy who looked like he wasn’t doing very well.
We arrived at parking in the main square and good old Hakim wasn’t sure where we were staying. As no cars are allowed in the medina, Liz and Jim set off to find our place. We weren’t sure about leaving the bags with him and didn’t want to take them so we left the kids hostage. We managed to find the office, get the key and the owners son took us back and showed us the place. It seems he lives a charmed life because he carried nothing and let two kids and a lady haul their suitcases and backpacks from the parking lot, through the square and up two flights of stairs. We tattled taled on him later.
For our stay in Essaouria, we decided to do a short term rental of an apartment like we have done on previous trips. We are here for five relaxing nights and this way we usually get more space and we can shop for our own food and cook it in house. It is a very nice change of pace and our apartment fit the bill perfectly. It is a charming three bedroom refurbished from one of the old buildings just inside the walls of the medina with beautiful views of the sea through the arrow-shooting openings in the top of the walls (David wanted to launch a few Nerf bullets but we didn’t let him). The old stone is nicely incorporated in a cool, beachy sort of Moroccan theme.
Abby was very pleased to claim a bedroom of her own. David and Liz got pretty comfortable right away as well. Jim and David even pitched in with cooking! Making the toast here is quite complicated.
We have used the words “medina” and “souk” a bunch since we’ve been in Morocco without really knowing what they mean so we looked them up. A medina is a distinct city section found in many North African cities. It is typically walled and contains many narrow and maze-like streets. They often contain historical fountains, palaces and mosques. A souk is an open-air marketplace or commerical quarter in middle eastern and North African cities.
Essaouria certainly met all these requirements (as did Marrakech) as can be seen from varioius walking tours that we have done. As Sarah said, you have to explore every nook and cranny of this charming old town. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Centre, and as described by them, it is an exceptional example of a late-18th-century fortified town, built according to the principles of contemporary European military architecture in a North African context. It has been a major international trading seaport linking Morocco with Europe and the rest of the world.
Essaouria
Inside the medina
Inside the souk
Another fitting description we read is that it is an “otherworldly bohemian fortress at the edge of Africa”. in the late 1960s it was a hippie hangout that attracted the likes of Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones and Cat Stevens. Prior to that, Orson Welles stayed here during the filming of “Othello” which contains scenes from the streets in the medina. There is a bust of him located just outside the walls but sadly it appears that his influence has faded over the years.
We had lunch in a nice terrace with beautiful views of the ocean. We earned the view because you had to walk about seven flights of stairs straight up to get here. After lunch we were off to the grocery store so this would be our last lunch in a restaurant for five days. It would be a welcome break.
Shopping at a grocery store is one of our favourite things in any country. It gives you an interesting glimpse into local culture while presenting the challenge of figuring out how they work wherever you are. We remember way back when we were warned by Doug and Lynn not to overreact to the things we saw in their grocery store in Shimoda, Japan! We did pretty well – the only bumps we encountered were not weighing and pricing the produce ourselves (Liz and Abby had to run back and do this while we checked out) and Jim taking the picture at the checkout line much to the offence of the security guard. Maybe he thought we were casing the joint. We bought cheap, disposable boogie boards which we put to good use at the beach as we’ll see later.
Afterwards, Liz and Jim took a long walk outside the medina walls to find the only place that sells wine. We wanted to enjoy a glass over this amazing sunset outside our window. A fitting end to our first day in Essaouria.
It turns out we didn’t have to splurge to get the video capability. We just had to learn this thing called “You Tube”. And also figure out how to upload video from an iPad using an “app” called Capture. And discover how to convert Sony videos from AVCHD .MTS format to something that YouTube will recognize through another app called PlayMemories Mobile. And sort through hours of video to edit them down to a size that takes a reasonable amount of time to upload. Then, as they say here in the French Essaouria, “voila”! What else are we supposed to do while Abby recovers from another stomach bug? (she’s fine – off to the beach today) The conversion process does degrade the quality somewhat from the native high definition of the video camera but hopefully they adequately capture the moments.
Here are several choice videos for starters as we continue to sort through the rest. These are more in the action genre since that can’t be captured as well in pictures as we’ve said many times in this blog. Make sure you have your volume turned up as well. When amazing things are happening we forget the video camera is on and it makes for some entertaining audio at times as well.
First, as promised, the great wildebeest migration.
Next, we’ll go in a more chronological order and provide some video of our first steps into the Treasury at Petra in Jordan.
Here’s some video of that natural wonder of the world, Victoria Falls, with all its mist and rainbows.
How about these cute lion cubs with mommy in Luangwa National Park in Zambia.
And also our first leopard right outside our camp at Flat Dogs. Recall how another truck spoiled our chance at seeing a kill. Darn.
Then there were those cute Lujeri kids who followed us to the cold pools.
Speaking of cute kids, a couple of videos of the BACCA kids including this one of them yelling a lesson…
And all of us playing Octupus.
We also had that near death experience with that nasty jackal chasing that poor baby impala at Lake Nakuru in Kenya. Listen to the speculation on the impala’s fate at the end.
Finally (for now), we have video of that beautiful cheetah crossing in front of our truck in the Masai Mara.
If you have any favourites you recall that you’d like to see sooner than later, let us know. We do read all comments and they are always most appreciated! Enjoy.
After leaving Driss we will be guide-less for the next five days or so. This was a welcome break from the intensity for everyone.
That night we ventured back into the main square for the evenings activities (or bedlam). As night approaches, major infrastructure is put in place to provide facilities for large numbers of people to eat what appeared to be barbecue of sorts. It is most certainly safe but we decided not to partake. We have a strict rule against street food and this was a little too close for our comfort. (As a side note, it is now morning in Essaouria and Abby just threw up. Well, we tried.)
We joined a large crowd being entertained by a number of male belly dancers. It certainly wasn’t their talents on display but they were kind of entertaining. As another example of how seriously they take getting paid for a picture, we were probably four rows back when Jim instinctively reached up with his iPhone and took this picture (if you look very closely in the middle you can see the vague outlines of these guys). One of the belly dancers immediately bolted into the crowd asking who owes him a coin. Jim saw him coming and knew what he was after so dug something out. Whatever it was the belly dancer naturally found insufficient but only expressed a mild complaint before heading back into the limelight. Quite a scene.
We toured a number of the other shows which included what appeared to be story telling (we couldn’t understand), magic and children dancing. As we noted in the last post, the monkey guys and snake charmers are gone which is probably a good thing at night. We were now clearly gun shy about taking pictures, quite tired, still jet lagged a bit and we couldn’t understand them or break into the crowds so we left. No doubt an interesting spectacle – we’re not sure what qualifies as a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” although we are sure the UN can sort it out.
After the obligatory petting of the street cat on the way back, we crashed after a very long, full day in Marrakech.
In the morning we were looking for a transitional experience and needed to reflect a little so we had breakfast in the riad. This also gave us the chance to take a few more pictures of this pretty place and have a swing on the swing.
Jim, David and Abby spent much of the afternoon in the terrace pool while Liz went to the Hammam. The pool was small but still allowed for a rocking game of frisbee monkey-in-the-middle especially with the ability to bounce the frisbee off the walls. Liz said she could hear us out in the street on her way back from the Hammam. Whoops.
The pool was up on the terrace and had lots of beautiful views and places to lounge. It’s possible that certain members of the family are getting a little tired of having their picture taken.
The Hammam is an incredibly important part of Moroccan culture. As we noted previously, it is one of the five main elements of a Moroccan neighbourhood and all members of a family would visit at least once a week for 2-3 hours or more. This was not only a cleansing exercise but also a very social activity for the community.
Hammams can offer different services. Some are a simple as bathing for 10 dirhams, others offer saunas and/or varying levels of massage. Liz had a relaxing 2 hours at Hammam Ziani. It was a many step, extremely cleansing experience:
Step 1 – You are taken to the ladies side of the hammam (if you’re a lady) to get over your modesty. You are given extremely small black bikini undies and asked in French/broken English to strip down and put your belongings in a locker. No robes were offered. Fortunately Liz was the only client. It would have been quite awkward otherwise. When in Rome?
Step 2 – A lady takes you into a beautiful, marble clad room, you are asked to sit on a stool where you receive a light washing and buckets of warm water are dumped on you.
Step 3 – Off to the sauna you go for a 10 minute sit. It’s in a marble room with a lovely dome ceiling that has many small circular skylights. It is beautiful and relaxing.
Step 4 – Back to the bathing room where you lie on a marble table and receive a rough scrubbing and more water is dumped on you. The dumping of the water is actually quite nice.
Step 5 – Off you go for a most heavenly head to toe massage using loads of Moroccan argan oil.
Step 6 – Back to the bathing room for one last scrub and a hair wash (have to get that argan oil out of your hair) and a request for a tip which are not supposed to be provided. Signs are everywhere saying “no tipping”. The ladies ask for a tip then ask that you not to tell on them.
Step 7 – Back to get dressed and be asked for more tips in a hushed whisper.
Step 8 – You are taken into the uni-sex lounge to relax and have mint tea, read magazines, or dry your hair. Liz was lucky enough to have a small dog named Emmi come snuggle up with her.
All of this for a cost of $35!!!! Liz wants to go every day! Cleanliness is next to godliness, right?
As you can imagine, pictures are not allowed in the Hammam (not even for a coin) so we don’t have any.
Later that afternoon, we dragged ourselves from the beauty of our riad and went back into the main square and the souk. The mission was to go back to the clothing store Driss brought us to while visiting a few competitors along the way and getting some other gems.
We stopped in the main square again for some more quality time with the monkeys and the snakes.
Once again Liz was caught taking a broad, general picture of the square and a monkey guy came bolting over asking for money. We refused out of principle and after an unnecessarily heated exchange where we showed him the picture, the guy went back under his umbrella but warned us to “watch our camera”. We’re not sure whether he was merely suggesting that we be careful where we take pictures or whether he had something more sinister in mind but we thought that any threat was a pretty idle one. Nevertheless, this seems to us to be unfortunate behaviour to visitors and we think that somehow they must be just a little bit angry all the time.
We did spring for a better picture of the snake charmers (price agreed up front). We didn’t see any of the stereotypical cobras rising up out of wicker baskets to the music. They seemed to be riled up mostly by this guy with the backside of a drum. Not what we pictured but still sufficiently nerve racking.
We declined to actually wear the snake. Most in the family would have been ok with that but we could only take our support for the treatment of these animals so far. Nobody would wear the monkey either.
After exiting the main square we were back in the souk. We disappointed these two guys with what we were willing to pay for their picture.
Abby bought a couple of things including a magic box where finding the key to opening it is all the fun. She has also been searching for some time for a sketch pad and to her relief finally found one. We struck a good deal for that along with a notebook cover she liked – bargaining is a way of life here. The picture below is an action shot of the closing of the deal.
As we proceeded along through the clothing shops, Jim and David became burned out. They are just not the power shoppers that Abby and Liz are. The trick was for them to make it back to the riad on their own. Everyone in the family has their unique talents that are important at various times on a trip like this and directions are not one of Jim’s. This is solely the domain of Liz who, for example, mastered the Kyoto transit system in an hour when we visited Japan – an incredible feat. Jim couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag but David is showing signs of having inherited his mother’s gift so we decided to try and make it back. We loaded up on provisions including water, money and credit cards in case we needed a plan B along the way and moved out. David executed the detailed instructions provided by Liz flawlessly as Jim took pictures. Everybody’s roles were intact.
David and Jim crashed while Abby and Liz continued to power shop for a while. They were successful in buying some clothes although you’re always left with the feeling you could have made a better deal. When you go back to a place a second time, your bargaining power is diminished. Nevertheless, it’s pretty hard to spend even $100 here so not a fortune at stake.
Abby’s unique way of “shopping”
That night we lounged in the “living room” of the riad, had a light dinner of fruit, cheese and bread and played some chess with a few makeshift pieces. Note here that Abby is wearing the pretty dress she bought from Sylvie in Bagamoyo.
The next morning we had arranged a 10 am pick-up time for our trip to the beach on the coast – Essaouria. These are the sorts of times you arrange when you’re “at leisure”.
We spoke to cousin Sarah today as she and Hish, Adam and Aliyah happen to be in Morocco at the same time (as many of you know). It would have been great to get together given that happenstance but alas it is a big country and we are a five hour drive away from each other and a flight would be necessary to get together. Our itinerary is pretty much set so that is unlikely but we very much appreciate the invitation to Rabat extended by Hish and his family and hope you guys have a wonderful visit. Maybe we can get together the next time we’re both in Morocco at the same time!
A general note on the weather: Given it is a North American (particularly Canadian) pastime to talk about the weather and given we have had a few questions about it, we thought we would make a comment about the weather on the trip because we really haven’t discussed it that much throughout. The weather, in short, has been about perfect (sorry to those back home where we understand this isn’t the case this summer). We have had 2 or 3 days where it sprinkled a little bit for a few minutes particularly in Bagamoyo but that’s about it. In one case, it inexplicably poured for about half an hour while we were teaching one day but after the kids suddenly jumped up and screamed “Rain rain go away, come again another day” (we collectively pieced together what they said later) it did just that. It is clearly not the rainy season in Africa.
Some of you have commented on our clothing noting that we were dressed warmly in the mornings. Some days it was very cold in the morning, particularly on our first couple of stops in Zambia, but it would warm up by mid-day. Layering up was key and our zip-off pants very useful. In Sausage Tree, for example, we did an all-day game drive by starting out all bundled up, peeling it all off steadily throughout the day and putting everything back on again as night set in. At Siankaba, Jim wore the long johns he brought in the morning because it was so cold you could see your breath.
We think our timing was good because most of the places we stayed in Africa did not have any air conditioning so the cool temperatures at night made for good sleeping weather. We can’t imagine what it would be like in their summer – hot at night (and difficult to sleep) then insufferable in the afternoon. Where we had a pool or trekked to a pond, this weather made the water very “refreshing” but this was a reasonable trade-off for a good nights sleep.
The very hot places we’ve been were more in the northern hemisphere: Israel, Jordan, Dubai (we did comment on the tremendous heat there) and now Morocco. The good news is that these were the places where we generally had air conditioning. We are now in Essaouria on the coast of Morocco and do not have air conditioning in this otherwise amazing apartment we’re in but it is cooler here by the water particularly at night so quite bearable.
All in all it seems to us like an ideal time to come. Although we’re sure you could say that anytime of year outside of the rainy season where just about everything shuts down anyway.
We’ve been in Morocco for a couple of days and so far Jim hasn’t shown symptoms of any infectious disease from that woman on the plane. We arrived in Casablanca and were found by our driver safe and sound. We didn’t get to see any sights in Casablanca because our driver spoke very little English. Humphrey Bogart would have been very disappointed.
Our first adventure started upon arriving in Marrakech. Given the communication challenges we were surprised when we were dropped off in a square, our bags loaded onto old cart by an even older man and we were whisked through the souk and several the narrow streets to our hotel. The walk was a stimulating experience enough but add the fact that while cars aren’t allowed on the narrow walkways motorcycles are and it was pretty hair-raising (for those with hair). The motorcycle pictures were taken the next night after we’d become used to the whole scene.
But no matter what the hustle and bustle was outside and the external appearance of the buildings, the inside of our hotel was like Shangri-La. It was remodelled from an old “riad” which is a Moroccan house or palace with an interior garden or courtyard including a central fountain that helps with cooling. After our harrowing start, we felt the full impact of this design because it is supposed to provide a “transitional experience” and “encourage refection” (according to the all-knowing Wikipedia) which worked for us. We were greeted by the very lovely manager of the Riad Kaiss, Hayat, and offered traditional mint tea poured with Moroccan flair. As you can see from the picture below, a couple of us were recovering from the long flight and 3 hours of jet lag while at least one other needed some more time.
We were given a tour by Hayat and brought to our rooms. Whatever we pictured in our minds’ eye about Morocco was here – beautiful bright colours and designs and Moroccan architecture wonderfully restored. The kids needed a little restoration after our long travel day as well.
That night, Liz set out to get some food. She met a friend in the souk named Mohammed, who walked her all the way to the central square and what would come to be our favourite hangout, Snack Toubkal. Later he sold us some leather goods. For our first Moroccan meal, we had a picnic in our room using the most helpful bamboo travel utensils given to us by Cousin Laurie before we left on this trip. Many thanks Laurie!
Feeling somewhat refreshed in the morning after a very French breakfast on the terrace,
we met up with a tour guide, Driss, for a walk about the town. We are fairly guided-out after two months but we agreed to a one day tour with the next day, as they say in the travel trade, “at leisure”. Driss was a very knowledgeable and experienced guide who had clearly done this route many times before.
We started by visiting two palaces that were now museums. According to Driss, one (Palais Bahia) was built by the equivalent of the Prime Minister in the late 1900’s when the King was only 12 years old (he wasn’t allowed to act as king until he was 21) and the other was built by his brother at the same time. They took over 7 years to build and provide fine examples of Moroccan architecture and finishings. There was a harem that held his 4 wives (Bahia was his favourite) and another section for 24 concubines and also a riad. You can see from the pictures that they really do their ceilings and doors fancy here. There are influences in this country from all corners including Muslim, Christian and Jewish as you can see in the second last picture. This last picture clearly shows the kids reaction to the tour.
We wandered through the streets of Marrakech (all day) and we stopped at a bakery. Every community has five basic facilities: a mosque, a fountain, a bakery, a pre-school and a hammam (a Turkish-like bath). Historically, the people here bring their food already prepared and the bakery cooks it in their ovens. The macaroons we had were warm out of the oven and delicious. You can see from the picture that they really get into their work.
Next he took us to the Museum of Moroccan Arts (Dar Si Said). This was originally a palace or at least the house of a rich person in the 19th century. Now it not only provides another beautiful example of Moroccan architecture and finishings but also displays (albeit rather plainly) antique artifacts like clothing, jewellery, carpets and pottery. Driss explained that the guns are used in a performance called “Fantasia” where 12 village men in traditional clothing charge forward on horses and try to shoot these guns simultaneously. It is based on historical wartime attacks by Berbers (he is one) and now is performed during festivals and as part of show-based restaurants. The highlight of the artifacts had to be the hand-cranked children’s Ferris wheel although David liked the daggers.
From there we were off in a cab to the Majorelle Gardens. The gardens were created in 1924 by Jacques Majorelle who was a French painter, who died in 1962. Yves Saint Laurent acquired the property and restored it. The pamphlet said that it is “one of the twentieth century’s most mysterious gardens” and “it is a place of rare individual expression and mystical force”. We didn’t really feel the power of the force (David would have known). But it was a pretty eclectic collection of bamboo, cacti and other plant life intermingled with beautiful water features and a riad in what seemed to be pretty good feng shui (although we really have no idea). There was also a memorial to Saint Laurent, a display of his “Love posters” (sent as New Years greeting cards) and a small but interesting museum.
Monument to Yves Saint Laurent
Abby studying map for way out…
Abby getting her wish.
On the way to lunch he took us by Koutoubia Mosque which is the largest one in Marrakech although they have about 280 in total. As it was almost time for Friday prayers, he said that 40,000 people could attend. The minaret is over 250 feet high and no other building in Marrakech can be higher. It was completed in 1199 and its beauty has inspired many other buildings in Morocco and elsewhere. The parts of foundation that are remaining on the sight to the left were of a former mosque that was exactly the same but became derelict after the second one was built to correct a 5 degree misalignment with Mecca in the first ones’ construction.
We had some interesting insights into human and animal behaviour from the balcony of a cafe where we had lunch overlooking the main square. This square is called Jamaa el Fna and it is a “UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” site. By day it is filled with snake charmers, monkeys, colourfully dressed guys selling water and purveyors of fresh juice. By night, as we’ll see in the next post, it explodes into crowds of people eating and enjoying local acts of dance, storytelling and magic. It borders the famous covered “souk” and is just off the lane to the main mosque. What we didn’t realize or remember was that there was a bombing here in 2011 that killed 17 people. That wasn’t a highlight that our guide pointed out but the police presence is very obvious and there are many not-so-obvious tourist police dressed in plain clothes ensuring it is safe.
One thing we clarified more specifically this time was the sign that said “Obligatory Consumption” on our way up to the balcony for lunch. These things must be priced by the number of floors because our lunch here was about 2/123 times the cost of the Burj Kalifae.
We had good views of the goings on below including the carriage rides, mule carts, monkeys and snake charmers.
Given where we’d come from we were a little sensitive to the treatment of the animals especially the monkeys. A monkey on a chain would not have seemed so unusual to us if we hadn’t seen them so often playing freely in the wild, with tails still attached. Even though they stole two of Jim’s apples, we still felt sorry for them. David didn’t think Jim should blame the whole species for the act of two rogue characters. He’s probably right.
This exchange was particularly funny. This couple made the rookie mistake of not agreeing on a price up front for a picture with one of the monkey guys. After going through all the fun of setting up the photo and getting the shot (including fending off another monkey vendor), what the husband/boyfriend offered in terms of compensation was clearly insufficient (the first offer probably never is when not agreed up front). The inevitable argument ensues which serves to spoil the whole experience (or perhaps provide for a funny story later when things settle down). Serves them right for contributing to the mistreatment of animals. After the requisite feigned shock and awe by the monkey owner he went off to the next customer without further incident.
universal symbols for “give me more”
universal symbol “no more”
Ah shucks
Everyone here is very, very particular about getting “a coin” for a picture. As Driss said, it’s the best souvenir. And as we’ll see several times later, they can be very forceful about it. Pictures from the balcony seemed to come for free or at least no one came running up asking for anything but that wouldn’t have surprised us.
Later, the same monkey guy was literally reeling in children. This scene is a potential financial disaster to parents especially with multiple kids like in this case. Ok, maybe that’s overstating it but how many times do you have to tell your children not to run to the monkey guy? How many times? Huh? Huh?
After lunch we dropped into the Ben Youssef Madrasa which was an Islamic college founded in the 14th century and is now a museum. As required by Islam (and also characteristic of the inside of mosques), there are no paintings or carvings of humans or animals. All the gorgeous cedar, marble and stucco carvings are of inscriptions and patterns. The college had up to 900 students and the courtyard was ringed with dorms. This made for some fun pictures and gave the kids a chance to run around and experience life as college students in the North African Middle Ages.
We then went on to tour the souks with Driss. Some of the shops were closed today because Friday is the holy day (like Sunday – same as Jordan) but there was still a lot of hustle and bustle. In an example of their picture sensitivity, Liz and Jim both took broad, general pictures of this blacksmith-type iron area and a guy appeared yelling for coins. It must have been a slow day.
Driss’ definition of touring the souks, like many of these guides, is to visit the shops of his acquaintances (we’re not sure how the compensation scheme works in these instances). This included a clothing store, a kind of housewares shop and a carpet store. By this time we were exhausted so we drew the line at visiting an argan oil shop (besides Jim’s camera was about out of juice given the number of pictures taken so far). Liz had casually asked about this rare cooking/body oil made from the kernels of the argan tree and before you know it he had arranged a tour. We declined but this symbiotic relationship works because we went back to the clothing store the next day and bought a shirt.
The carpet presentation deserves special mention. It was given by a man representing a woman’s association. None of the women present because they make the carpets in Berber villages and they are just now getting the opportunity to learn English etc. (this struck us as odd). He stressed many times that this was not a sales pitch but as many times emphasized that the carpets come in a range of prices and they can ship anywhere. He really started to throw his carpet on thin ice when he rolled one right up to Liz and said “you must listen”. She didn’t think she had to but was polite about it anyway. In the end, there wasn’t really a hard sell and if anything it was somewhat comical.
On our way out, Liz and Abby were invited to sit with a woman who was making carpet. It seemed pretty staged but she had skills. She insisted that I take a picture and of course asked for a coin.
It was a long day (and walk) but filled with a great overview of Moroccan culture, architecture and art. Later we got up the energy to go back to Jamaa el Fna at night but we were definitely looking forward to our day at leisure tomorrow. More on these in the next post.
The next morning we planned to head out to the mall. On the way we took some pictures of the amazing, Vegas/New York-like skyline.
A few things of particular interest were the extensive tramlines (who needs a subway Rob Ford?), the huge new hotel being built (actually it will be three hotels) and the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at over 180 stories (the tallest, at least for now – Saudi Arabia has one under way that will be over a kilometre tall). The tram line seems to run right in front of the new hotel – those rooms will be offered at a discount. It also blocked many pictures so maybe there is something to be said for a subway.
The Dubai Mall has over 1,200 stores requiring a computerized guidance system that provides you with the route to whatever store you select. It includes an ice rink, aquarium, water falls, theme park and an entire shop dedicated to camel paraphernalia. And this isn’t the biggest mall in Dubai – that title belongs to the Emirates Mall that also provides a functioning ski hill. A day at that hill cost more than the annual membership at Alpine so we passed.
To our surprise, the mall also contained several iconic Canadian establishments including Tim Horton’s and Second Cup. We would have taken pictures of American originated stores but that would have been about 90% of them. One of the stores we actually wanted to visit was the Apple Store but unbelievably there wasn’t one in the mall. Steve Jobs must have stayed at the Westin.
The first and most important mission was to take care of some basic needs – haircuts and mani/pedis (the latter for the ladies, just to be clear). We had been given a recommendation for a good hair salon in the Dubai Mall by a couple who live here that we met from the other Intrepid group (at least while they were still talking to us). Liz and David were overdue for a hair cut. Abby was growing hers out to sufficient length to donate for a cancer wig (for the third time). Jim, well, his is easy – a number 2 all around with his clipper (no salon required. His typical travel cut is a number 1 but Liz won’t let him).
Below is David’s haircut that resulted from the boys having to go to a different shop and therefore being left unsupervised. Also, while the mani/pedis were going on they were again left on their own to go shopping. A Nerf gun and related bullet vest were the result of that folly. That was lucky because they were tempted by the Spiderman edition #123 that was in this collectible store for about $3,000 but decided that a picture with Thor and the $10 Nerf gun was safer.
We went for lunch at the massive food court that provided opportunities to eat at many familiar establishments. The line at McDonald’s reminded us of the trucks lined up at a cheetah sighting in the Masai Mara.
We had thought we might enjoy a real live movie theatre after two months but there was nothing good playing. We’re not sure that Captain America ever makes it here. In any case, Abby and Liz weren’t done the complete makeover – they had to finish off with make-up and other things they weren’t telling the boys about so once again they were on their own. That left a difficult decision – ice rink or Sega Zone. Dad was a little disappointed when David chose the arcade but not entirely surprised. David didn’t feel he could turn on the jets sufficiently in that small crowded ice rink full of beginners to really make it fun.
The kids area was huge with full-on amusement park rides. We spent our time driving race cars and shooting zombies much like we would do at a similar place at home but it was a fun way to kill an hour. We also drove bumper cars that would probably be illegal in North America.
Selfie on go-carts
The only picture we have of the girl’s time in the mall is the finished product next to some jewellery that we could never afford. The boys are not sure exactly what went on but they sure did look purdy.
Before dinner, we went outside to watch the famous Dubai fountains. Again, they’re like the Vegas ones at the Bellagio except it only lasts for about 2 minutes. We were thankful because that’s about all you could take in the heat and the water spray evaporated before it could hit us. This is another thing better on video but Jim never got around to upgrading the site. Better luck in Morocco. It did provide an opportunity for a close up of the Burj Khalifa where we would be going for dinner.
We finally had dinner at “Atmosphere” on the 123rd floor after great confusion over how to get there, the dress code and the minimum spend required for a window table. Eventually we had a very expensive dinner with a somewhat good view although the sunset was on the other side of the building. Their world record reflects the sky high prices.
view of Dubai Mall from top
The Dubai fountains
Later, when we suggested to the concierge that they should point out more clearly the cost of a restaurant before recommending it, they supplied us with a driver and a brand new 700 series BMW to tour the town on our last night. That’s Dubai.
The next morning we were determined to hit the beach. That lasted about 20 minutes. The sand was unbearable and the water like a hot tub – it should come with warnings.
We moved to the pool and had a nice morning/afternoon including a free lunch (instead of the free dinner on offer from the first days debacle). The humidity wasn’t quite as oppressive today and you got the odd breeze that was refreshing. Nevertheless we spent most of the time in the air conditioned water. Liz also spent a good deal of time trying to match-make Abby and this boy from Poland. He was sooooo cute and, believe it or not, he is a world champion jet ski racer for kids aged 10-12. He comes to Dubai for two weeks at a time to train so his parents must have some bucks as well – what a catch! Liz got distracted chatting with a couple from the UK and the fledgling romance faltered. Abby recovered quickly – not sure about Liz yet.
The stray cat in Dubai came around again but all we had for him was a pat so he left quickly. We also got another good skyline shot in the daytime. It appeared to us that these buildings were mostly hotel and residential.
That night we hopped in our chauffeured BMW and visited a couple of sites. The first was a modern “souk” where they sell really overpriced gold and other tourist stuff. In fact, if you want a gold bar, no problem, just get it from a machine! Abby and David enjoyed playing with the (free) bubbles.
Our driver told us that the hotel next door is 7 star and includes manmade canals for taking gondola rides (Can you say “Venetian”?). We asked what else it takes to get 7 stars and he said, among other amenities, solid gold ashtrays and a helicopter from the airport (which is a half hour drive away). This is if you get the Presidential Suite which is $100,000 per night. This isn’t the best hotel though – the Atlantis people built one and you can get a room under water with your view being the inside of an aquarium that includes 14,000 kinds of fish.
Next we went to the beach boardwalk to find a casual place for dinner where our shoes would be acceptable. The influence of Disney was everywhere including these pretty amazing sand castles and this cute little princess. We had some good pizza and went back to the hotel to prepare for a very early morning pick-up for the airport.
The car for the airport picked us up at 5 am for a 7:30 flight that is to last 8 hours before landing in Casablanca, Morocco. However, our adventures in Dubai were not over. First, we endured the long line at McDonald’s because it was the only place for breakfast but unfortunately they didn’t serve breakfast. Nothing like a quarter pounder at 6 am. Next was getting on the plane where they didn’t board a massive number of people by row and didn’t monitor the size and number of the checked bags. Bedlam ensued – it was something to watch but we felt for the flight attendants. The woman sitting next to Jim hacked into her hands the entire flight then hogged the arm rest. He didn’t want to touch it anyway.
All of this capped off what you may have gathered was a very up and down stay in Dubai. The best phrase that Jim could come up with to describe Dubai was from his first year economics class – a “castle in the air”. Somehow unreal. For sure their oil-powered growth is outstripping their ability to keep up and we kept using the word “dysfunctional”. They are so reliant on expatriates and the inevitable turnover that results it seems difficult for them to maintain stable, experienced, well trained staff. This was confirmed by several manager-types that we ultimately had to speak with. Also, as we said in the last post, we most certainly experienced culture shock – you can’t imagine a bigger difference between where we had come from for a month and a half and where we were for three days. A thought occurred to us that it would be interesting to see what would happen if the ultimate battery was finally discovered and all the raw material for it’s energy was in Africa. We’re not sure we’d wish that on them.
thenewtonsinafrica2014 