Are We Really in Africa???

Ok so here we are in Marrakech with no hostel reservations, maybe not the smartest move but blame hostelworld.com. Walked around the city with Luis and Fernando - not our turtles but the Australian guys from the train. We ended up at Hotel Ali which was quite popular in all of our guide books and right next to the Djema al F'na (Bazaar). They didn't know if they would have room for us so we waited, a long time - finally they offered us dorm beds on the roof!!! We declined and told them to save us a room for tomorrow. So Fernando found us a place for 200dhm which sounded good, we took it and after meeting our first 4 cockroaches we decided to forget budget travel and upgraded to a more pricey hotel with the promise of no cockroaches!

The bazaar in Marrakech is a trip! people everywhere, food everywhere, snakes and monkeys everywhere! We decided to be cautious tourists tonight and just watched the scene. We saw some interesting events, acrobats, musicians, henna application, tarot card reading & child boxing - not as violent as it sounds - thank God. The food was an event in itself! stalls and stalls of fresh squeezed orange juice, tables and benches lined up with skewers of meat and other animal parts, vegetables and side dishes, and the favorite...sheeps head! The whole thing! We lingered long enough to take a picture and then ran before we got pulled onto a bench!

Interesting observation...the abaa is a sham! Sharmin went to an esthetician and the lady removed her abaa to reveal not much more than a bathing suit! Short shorts and a tank top!! Maybe this hijab thing is not so bad after all!

The next morning we moved to Hotel Ali which was good as the book said. We got a great room with a private terrace overlooking the bazaar. The only problem was with the breeze came the overwhelming stench of pee! Everywhere in Marrakech smelled like pee! maybe it is because of a poor sewage system or maybe it is the garbage but it's strong and almost caused some lost meals.

Today we ate. Sharmin was craving a chicken pastry - sweet and savory at the same time - the best thing in Morocco (debatable but who will argue with me?) We had to order it special and it came from another restaurant - interestingly, the other restaurant charges 80dhm for the same dish that we paid 40dhm for at our Hotel Ali - we should see what else we can get at a discount.

The bazaar tonight was earlier - or we found it earlier, however the snakes and monkeys were in full force and we got trapped. First the snakes - we made them swear not to touch us with the snakes but we got some good pictures. Then we got reeled in by the monkey men - this was not so easy to avoid as they put the monkey on you right away! 2 of them on Sharmin! Great pictures but we basically paid them to leave us alone! Total cost 250dhm, Snakes - 50dhm, Monkeys - 200dhm, pictures, facial expressions and experience of being ripped off priceless!

Back to the bazaar after cleaning off the monkey dust - really gross - sat down to try some meat brochettes - 18 skewers later we pried ourselves away from the table - too bad we weren't brave enough to try this yesterday! Sharmin found a cola bottle fishing game that she couldn't win at yesterday - today 5dhm got her almost 30 minutes of play and she finally ringed a bottle!!! Huge accomplishment! The prize was the warm bottle of coke - no thanks the picture was enough of a prize! Now we venture off to find some souvenirs in the back alleys of the Medina.

Ok so when we say alleys we mean a bunch of tents almost squished together and you walk among trash and goods for sale to find your way through to the things you are looking for. Finally with the help of a man - who wanted to trade shirts with Aamir in exchange for his help - we found the stores which sold tajines (and the main road) looked at a few but many stores were closed so we'll see tomorrow morning when we have more options. PS. Aamir still has his shirt.

Last stop before bed - crazy cymbal players with their crazy Fez hats - more pictures and possible lice infestation - there's a souvenir - unwanted but unforgettable.

Ok so today we leave Marrakech but we have to go back and buy the tajines. We take the long way around to avoid the snakes and monkeys - no plans of repeating last night! we find what appears to be the best selection of tajines and start selecting the ones we want - maybe we should have figured out a price beforehand but that would have been too sensible. So we decide on 8 assorted tajines and his price (open to negotiation) is 780dhm = 78Euro - obviously too high so Aamir decides to be the negotiator and starts at 400dhm - they go back and forth the salesman drops by 20dhm and Aamir raises by 50dhm - you can see where this is going. Finally we shell out 600dhm for some clay pots that you can make in high school and we run for the train hoping not to break our valuable merchandise. What we learned: NEVER take Aamir to an auction - EVER!

For some reason, everyone thinks Aamir is an Arab - nb. Moroccans don't like Arabs - this could explain why we keep getting swindled! To the locals we are worse than tourists! The last salesman kept calling Aamir a Berber man - I can only assume that Berbers are cheap.

Next stop Casablanca!