Morocco page 5

We got up early, cleaned up a bit and headed out to the marketplace. This is a crazy ass place man, so many people, so much chaos.

There were hundreds of small carts and stalls filled with a wide variety products, and hundreds of men selling all kinds of fruits, vegetables and spices, as well as several types of pottery and brass items, carpets clothing leather goods jewelry, you name it and you can buy it here.
There were ridiculous starting prices for everything, but you barter for a better price on everything, you never pay the asking price, never.

As we walked around the marketplace vendors would grab you by the arm and try to drag you into their stall and sell you their wares.
They would swarm around you, all talking at once, most of which we didn't understand, all insisting they had the best price for anything we might want to buy.
Their sales technique was more than we've ever had to deal with before, it was all quite overwhelming, and we just weren't accustomed to doing business in this manner, but you learn real quick, because you have to.

Us guys each bought a djellaba, [a hooded body length cloak] the guy wanted about a 150 or 200 Dhm, we bartered him down to 40 Dhm [about $10]
We headed to another area of the Medina where there were more shops down in the winding alleyways.

Another kid has now attached himself to us and wanted to guide us down into the Medina. We didn't ask for his help and we didn't want it, so we told him no thank you, but he just hung in there anyway.
As we made our way around the kid followed and tried to engage us, we ignored him hoping he would just go away, no such luck.

We watched some wood workers making all kinds of artifacts using these antique foot operated belt and pulley lathes, metal artisans tapping designs in urns and plates made of brass, copper and pewter, it was pretty cool just watching their process.
Eve was looking to buy a set of shish kabob skewers. I really didn't know why she wanted them; I think she just wanted to take part in the bartering experience; as I could never remember a time when we ever used them.
The guy wanted 12 Dhm, she bartered down to four Dhm. As deals go I guess it was a good one.

We started to head out of the Medina and back to the open marketplace. The kid was still with us even though we had completely ignored him the whole time. We were just about out and he says, "I want money",
I didn't want to give him anything and told him to "fuck off" because we didn't ask for his help, but he kept on bugging us and was now creating a scene; I caved.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out about 50 or so francs that I gave him, he took it, looked at it and said "fuck you", and threw it in my face.
KA-BAM! I flew into an instant fucking rage. My first reaction was to grab the little prick by the throat and smack the shit out of him, but given where we were that would have got me killed.

Now a couple more kids got into the mix, yelling that they were going to get the police because we wouldn't pay; but this was only after they picked up the money the first kid threw in my face.
I was so pissed off and told him he was just a "fucking ungrateful little prick". I turned on my heel and walked away into the crowd muttering to myself about what a fucking asshole he was...Yeah, I was really pissed off...
Once I removed myself from the situation it only took a couple of minutes to cool off; I'm okay now and ready to rock again.

We continued walking around the marketplace taking in all the various activities. There were a few groups of ethnic dancers displaying their talents, acrobats doing some tumbling routines, several snake charmers encouraging their cobras to entertain the onlookers.
Also in the mix were several brightly dressed water bearers moving through the crowd selling cups of cool fresh water for just a few francs.

Even though our focus was on trying to take in the entertainment going on around us, the vendors kept trying to get us into the shops to buy stuff we didn't want or need.
As well as watching the entertainers, the only other activity we're interested in at the moment was getting something to eat.

Somewhere along the way within the huge mass of people we lost track of Al. So now the remaining four of us moved on by ourselves.
We stopped at a small cafe' along the edge of the Medina, had some fried potatoes bread and coffee.
The coffee was horrible, espresso, way too strong, everything else was okay.
Just than we saw Al walking by, I ran out to get him, now we're back to five again. We went back to the hotel and just hung out for a couple of hours because it had started to rain again.


It's now early evening, were going back to the marketplace to partake in all the human activity, and to have dinner.
In the evening the open marketplace becomes a huge breadbasket where thousands of people go every night to eat. Dozens of food vendors set up their canopies, benches and cookers, preparing food and continually feeding the masses throughout the entire evening.
For the food vendors there were no breaks, no pauses, no sitting down for a smoke; just working their asses off until everyone is full.

Everyone seemed to be engaged in the feeding frenzy, those of us that weren't yet engaged were just waiting for an empty spot at the trough for a cheap and good tasty dinner.
Even though there was a very high level of noise from conversations and activity during the frenzy, you could still off in the distance hear the echoing chant of the Muezzin [crier] announcing to the faithful it was time for evening prayer; prayer time is something that occurs five times every day, everywhere.

On our walks over the next few days we had seen some rather disturbing sights.
There were lots of very elderly people in the alleyways dressed in dirty rags squatted down on the ground with arms outreaching, faces grimacing, begging and pleading for you to give them money.
Groups of filthy little children swarming around you tugging at your sleeves, begging for anything you would be willing to give.
I absolutely hated seeing this. It was hard to see it and not feel your heartstrings being pulled. I could have never imagined poverty and begging on such a scale, to actually see it first hand does something you.
I found seeing this side of life very unsettling.

It had been told to us as a warning, that it was important to understand a basic street savvy fact, and that is:

If you give money to a beggar who is part of a small group of beggars, which was the case in most of the alleyways, in only a few seconds you would be surrounded by several of them all tugging and pulling at you, wanting you to give them money also.
This would rapidly become a situation very difficult to get away from, so as difficult as it is to ignore what's right in front of you, and also having to be responsible for your own safety, you just walk on by and don't give.
This whole scene was very hard for me to learn to accept, it was a bit of a struggle for me, but I learned.

Poverty resulting in begging has always been a part of their everyday life. It's been a part of their culture since their very beginning.
The local people don't see the horror in that we do, to them its just part of their everyday life. They know for a fact that it's not part of our everyday life in the hope that you'll give them money.

This by far had the greatest culture shock impact on me, I hated seeing it; but it's everywhere, and you can't get away from it no matter where you go. You just have to accept it and learn to live with it because you know you can't do anything about it.


As we made our way across the marketplace toward the streets, we were hassled by young boys, some on foot, some on bikes doing circles around us, all asking for money and cigarettes. This didn't trouble me, it just annoyed me; just ignore them and they'll go away, but we know they'll be back the next time we're out.

We're now out on the streets several blocks away from the Medina, we're on a boulevard that was lined with orange trees on both sides, this is such a beautiful spot man. We walked around for quite awhile just sightseeing. Mel picked an orange from one of the trees but it was way too sour to eat.
It was beginning to get dark now so we headed back to our hotel.

Our hotel was originally built as traditional Moroccan residence, constructed in a square called a Riad. Originally it had no windows on the very thick outer walls and only one door to the outside; this was a security measure that dated back to the warring tribal days.
The inner walls of the rooms had windows and a couple of doors that opened into a courtyard surrounded by the building.

Inside the courtyard was a lawn and may have also had a few trees. In this way the occupants were able to enjoy the out of doors without ever having to leave the security of the building.
If we had a window we could have picked fruit right from our room.
The only openings we had were some holes in the ceiling, and I remember there were a few, but patched so it didn't rain into the rooms.

The rooms were long and quite narrow with very high ceilings and a small air vent near the top. There was a community bathroom at the end of a long corridor.
It had a stand up or squat down toilet platform.
If I remember correctly, the shower consisted of a pipe that stuck through a hole in the wall, if it was raining you could shower; the temperature of the rain determined whether it would be a cold or colder shower, no hot shower.

However, there may have also been a reservoir on the roof for when it wasn't raining. If there was water in the reservoir and the sun was shining you may be lucky enough to have a nice warm shower, but it's just one of the details I don't recall.
The building itself was about 600 years old, so was the plumbing I think.

The next day we didn't get up until almost noon, we all went out to get more traveller cheques exchanged but the bank was closed for lunch.
At the door were two soldiers standing guard, both holding old style Thompson sub-machine guns, and at the ready. This was the norm at all banks, government buildings and post offices.

We now had some time to kill so we headed to a cafe' in the Medina for lunch. We had eggs and fried potatoes. The eggs weren't cooked very well and were quite greasy. After eating we went back to the bank and got money exchanged.

I started feeling sick, had to be from the greasy under cooked eggs. When we got back to the hotel I got sick as a dog. Eve stayed with me while the others went back to the marketplace.
Later that evening Eve went out with the rest of the gang to the market for dinner. They sat in a stall and had ka-bebs with bread and mint tea, and as per usual, it was good and it was cheap.
Eve brought some food back for me when they returned but I don't remember what it was, I ate some and managed to keep it down.
It's time to go to sleep, hopefully I'll feel better in the morning.

It's now morning and I do feel better, much better. Got up, got dressed and headed out into the maze of alleyways that lead to the marketplace and streets.
None of us have had shower for three or four days, but I don't believe any of us were willing to use the community shower even though we all so desperately needed one.

Eve and I decided to go to one of the more up scale hotels in the area for a night. We all walked over to the 'Hotel la Marrakesh, a very nice place, expensive by Moroccan standards, $16. a night.
We got a room on the fourth floor. Once we got settled in we were going to bring everyone else up for a shower.
Just then the phone rang which really surprised us. It was Mel, he was in the lobby, he said they wouldn't let visitors into our room.
We went down to talk to them for a few minutes, told him, hey, sorry man, there's nothing we can do. They left and we went back upstairs to our room and a really comfortable bed.

Shortly thereafter there was a knock at our door, I thought it was a hotel employee.
I opened the door and it was the gang. They had found a side door that was unlocked so they came in and sneaked up to our room.
Al had brought a bottle of wine with him, a nice gesture, but it was so awful we only drank enough for a taste.

Everyone took advantage of the the sit down toilet, the first one we had seen since we got to Morocco, it was great. Never thought I'd get so excited about a toilet, but I did, we all did.
We all had a much needed shower, hung out for awhile and smoked some hash. Some time later they all left, and we took a nap.

It's dinner time. Eve and I went to the dining room and were a bit stunned when we walked in.
There were 30 or 40 people in the dining room. All the women wore nice dresses and high heels, almost all the men had suits and ties, the ones that didn't wore open neck shirts and dinner jackets.
Then there was us, Eve with her running shoes, checkered slacks, hippie hair and floppy hat; me with blue jeans, sneakers, long hair, leather hat and jean jacket; what a contrast we were.
We looked so completely out of place that I'm sure it looked quite comical. We may have been their idea of what "Beverly Hillbillies" are.
We also got some not so pleasant looks from a few patrons as well; but we didn't give a shit; fuck'em, our money was just as good as theirs.

We had a real good dinner, it was expensive but I didn't care. After dinner we went for a walk around the neighborhood.
We didn't venture too far because the people out and about were mostly young local guys, and I just didn't want to be a target tonight, so we ended up going back to our hotel and crashed out for the night.

First thing in the morning we had another shower; we didn't know when we were going to get a chance for another one so we took advantage of it. It was also great to spend the night sleeping on a nice comfortable bed.
We gathered up our gear, checked out and headed back to Hotel du Sud and hooked up with everyone else.

This was going to be our last day in Marrakesh. We went to the bus station to get tickets to Agadir. The bus wasn't leaving until 6:30 so we had the whole day to kill; so back to the marketplace we go.

We cruised around in the stalls and shops. Eve got a deal on a really nice leather purse. Her and the vendor had been working each other for a better price, in the end, she got it for 27 Dhm [7 bucks] another real good deal; the quality of this purse was quite good, as it lasted her for several years.
We hung out for a couple hours than back to du Sud.
It was soon time to catch the bus. We gathered everything up, probably smoked the last of our hash and headed off to the station.

Without a doubt Marrakesh is the most exciting city I've ever seen. For me, our stay there was like something out of an Arabian Nights adventure.
I'll never forget how fantastic it was...a total blast...and of course, the best part of the whole experience for me was riding the Marrakesh Express; it was so awesome man.
It's been an experience I'll always remember.

On to our next stop, Agadir


Page #5

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