11th June - Marrakech

As there is nothing truck related to report I, Nicki, will tell you of our activities today!

 

We had an early start because we had booked a taxi to come and pick us up at 9:30 and take us on a tour of the city. This we thought was quite a good idea as Marrakech is a very extensive city with a lot to see, and he charged us 30 euros in total which worked out cheaper than all the taxis we would have had to get plus all the haggling each time…you get the picture!

 

Our first stop was the Jardin Majorelle, a small tropical garden laid out by a French artist, Louis Majorelle. The buildings were a vivid blur colour and the gardens contained many cacti, ferns, palm trees etc., with the idea that all five continents are represented. It was pretty and worth the brief visit we granted it.

 

Next we moved on to the El Bahia Palace which was built in the late 19^th century by a former slave, Bou Ahmed, who had considerable power in his time. However he was so hated that when he died in 1900 his palace was looted and his possessions were stolen by his slaves and servants. Each room has an intricately detailed mosaic ceiling with the odd stained glass window and fireplace. There was a central courtyard containing fruit trees which apparently the favourite wife had views on to. We wondered if he changed who his favourite wife was, based on performance maybe?!

 

Our driver took us on a small drive after this, past yet another palace and also the Koutoubia Mosque which is closed to non-Muslims. At one point he showed us a picture in a brochure showing the typical pink coloured walls around some important building, with snow capped mountains in the background and palm trees, all looking very lovely. He told us that just around the corner was the very view, which we could photograph, but when we arrived we saw a crumbling wall with a half-dead palm tree and no mountains! In fact the only view we had was of cranes and rubble behind this wall, oh well.

 

We were dropped off at the Medina Gardens which are free to walk around, so we walked down the central boulevard to a large man-made expanse of water. Various lighting effects we could see were rigged up and there was seating around the water, which suggested a light show probably happened at night, with fountains and the like. In the day however there was not much to see, so we wandered back to our taxi man.

 

Our last sightseeing stop was at the tannery. As we disembarked the taxi we were handed a handful of mint, which we thought a little odd. However as we progressed with our guide we realised why, the whole complex absolutely stank! There were lots of small houses, and some small houses on small houses, with various people working away in the dark inside them. We reached the centre which consisted of the big baths they wash the hides in. They were all filled with something different depending on what you wanted to do with your hide:  lime, saffron, and even pigeon poo (don't ask me!). It seemed pretty unhygienic if you ask me, apart from the dubious looking pools in the baths there was rubbish on the floor and people were living and working in very cramped conditions. For this reason we did not mind tipping one man for taking a photo of him treading his hide in a murky bath!

 

Now about 12pm we were dropped next at a café. We think that possibly the taxi man is friends with the café owner as it did not look terribly busy and involved climbing up some back street stairs to a possible roof balcony. However we were not terribly hungry so we headed off down a street, looking in the little shops as we went. We spotted a cyber café so used that for a while, before heading off to decide where to eat. There was a small square with a café so we decided to eat there, their speciality being tagines (a clay conical dish filled with a meat casserole, the traditional Moroccan dish). However as we were not that hungry we opted for an omelette, which although nice was just a plain omelette. We compensated with an ice cream after though!

 

Next we were driven to the main square in the centre of the city, with the distinct feeling we had annoyed the driver a bit for not eating in the café we were presented at! The Djemaa el Fna is the focal point of Marrakech, a large open space with street entertainers, musicians and food sellers, located next to the Souqs. That is where we headed first and as the square was still quite quiet we found the entrance easily. The souq was a typical maze of small shops and stalls selling anything from jewellery, clothes, bags, shoes, woodwork, metal work, spices, food, carpets, leather goods, perfume and dyed wool. We spent a couple of hours wandering around, taking in the smells and the sights, haggling for various items. David spent quite a while in one shop haggling over a wooden bowl which balanced on a stand made of four interwoven camels (the stand had been carved cleverly from one piece of wood). After some persuasion he managed to get the price down from 1000 Dirhams to 450 Dirhams, which he was particularly pleased about! We decided it was very entertaining for both us and the shop keepers to go through this haggling malarkey, although David was very concerned about how you never actually know how much something is worth, so you could have just been ripped of royally! Despite telling him my view that you should decide how much you think something is worth and then haggle for that price, so you feel like you have bought something for a good price even if you have been ripped off! The other thing we realised was that David can not haggle well with children, see previous blog entry about the banana girl in Senegal!

 

After immersing ourselves in the souqs we found ourselves sort of out of the action and seemingly down the backstreets. We wandered a bit more trying to find our bearings, but to no avail. David said 'I think it is just down here on the right', I said 'let's just jump in a taxi and take it back to the main square'. 'No no', he said, 'I'm sure it is just down here!'. Typical man, I thought, won't admit he is lost! After another five minutes I put my foot down and we got in a taxi and took roughly a ten minute taxi ride back to the main square, totally in the opposite direction we had been walking! That was the best pound I ever spent…

 

Once we were back in the square we sat down and had a drink. It was fascinating people watching, from the local Moroccans to the stereotypical white-socks-and-sandals tourists. We sat there for quite a while, before giving in to temptation and having ANOTHER ice cream from a particularly nice ice cream shop next to the café. Ice creams in hand we wandered around the square properly, observing the Berber musicians/dancers, the snake charmers, the monkeys on chains (I was not too happy about seeing them) and all the other street entertainers. We also saw some other stalls and shops we had missed on our previous round, before heading to our meeting place with the taxi at 6:30. All in all a busy day, a day of rest and relaxation is planned for tomorrow!