Tasty tagines and mobbed medinas - a Moroccan medley

Nov. 6th - Plane and Train, and Train, and Train

Getting to Casablanca from Lisbon without a time-consuming detour through Spain left me with a choice of flying Royal Air Maroc or TAP, both pricey. I finally booked on TAP for about half price through Expedia, not an outfit I had used before. I was a bit nervous, since I couldn’t pull up my reservation on the TAP website, but everything went well.

Unfortunately, I was already in the line for passport control in Casablanca before I realized I needed to go back and pick up a form - maybe one of the announcements on the plane, which I couldn’t hear, was about that. Oddly, just beyond passport control, a uniformed guy was posted at the top of the stairs, checking everyone’s passport for entry stamps.

My flight wasn’t listed on the monitors for baggage claim, but I eventually tracked down my bag (on the carousel for Alitalia!) and at least the carts were free. I wheeled mine into an elevator and down to the bleak and cavernous railway station below the airport. Buying a ticket to Rabat I got the first hint that my halting French was going to come in very handy.

I had an hour to kill before the first train, so I went back up for coffee, having to put my bags through a metal detector on the way. When I finally boarded the train I was the only woman in my compartment, which had high-backed, dark brown seats that had seen better days. In accordance with instructions from both the ticket seller and the conductor, I got off at Ain Sabaa, and tried to find the connecting train for Rabat. I’m not sure whether it was my French that caused the problem, or the railway man’s hearing, but I wound up on a train going back to the airport instead! (“Rabat” vs. “aeroport”?)

I boarded my third train thinking I would have to try again to change at Ain Sabaa, but luckily it turned out to be a through train to Rabat, and one of the young women in my compartment, a student with an American fiancée, spoke good English. Full dark had set in by the time we finally reached Rabat, where the station was undergoing renovation and was a scene of mass confusion, and I really appreciated her help in finding a taxi. One with a friendly driver who used the meter, too.

I had found a good prepaid rate online for the Mercure Sheherazade - a little pricier than my usual hotels, but I wanted a comfortable start to the Moroccan leg of my trip. I wasn’t disappointed - my room was a good size, with a big, comfortable bed and a flat screen TV (but only sports programs were in English). With just three small table lamps, one of which I had to put on the floor so I could use its outlet for the fridge, the room was rather dark, but I subsequently found that most Moroccan hotels had dim lights. The AC didn’t work: I managed by opening the window, but I was there in November. The bathroom had been nicely renovated.

The hotel had a restaurant, and I was hungry. Turned out, the restaurant had good food at a reasonable price. This first night I enjoyed their calamari in tomato sauce and some excellent bread, and the beef and prunes tagine was tasty if a bit tough.

Interestingly, while a drinkable red wine was available, and I paid for it, it wasn’t listed on the printed bill. Good thing I had withdrawn plenty of cash at the airport and prepaid for my room, as the credit card link didn’t work.

Nov. 6th - Nov. 8th. Roaming Rabat

I used Lonely Planet’s guidebook for Morocco, but the maps were much less useful than usual, with too many no-name streets, or even missing streets. Worse, the scale seemed to be off. I kept thinking places were closer than they really were, and walked when I should have taken a taxi. This was an especial problem in Rabat, as the Mercure wasn’t in the center, and I got rather more exercise than I had intended.

I started this trip in Rabat instead of Casablanca partly because the budget hotel scene in Casablanca seemed grim, and partly because Rabat had more sights. Although it only became the capital in 1956, it began life as the Roman town of Sala Colonia. The Roman ruins are in an area that later became a Muslim necropolis, Chellah, and is now home to a colony of storks. The tour groups that infested the Hassan Tower seemed to skip this site, and I spent a peaceful morning among the trees.

The Hassan Tower, and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, were very close to my hotel, and so required much less walking. The tower is the still-lofty remnant of a mosque begun and then abandoned in the 12th century. It rises above geometrically precise rows of truncated columns, victims of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake - yes, the earthquake affected Morocco as well as Portugal.

On the other side of the columns the stark white cube of the mausoleum seemed stunted in comparison. The building, modern, lavishly decorated, and well-guarded by men in elaborate dress, housed the present king’s grandfather, who ruled only briefly after Morocco gained its independence from France and Spain, dying in 1961.

The best preserved relics of Rabat’s past are the walls of the kasbah, and its monumental gateway, the Bab Oudaia, also from the 12th century. Behind the massive walls I wandered along narrow streets, between buildings painted bright blue and white, terracotta flower pots on their doorsteps, to reach a windblown square. Below me to the right, the mud-flats edging the river Bou Regreg, below me to the left, the Atlantic, across the river, the huddled houses of Sale.

I have to say, I was not impressed by the waterfront in Rabat, which seemed to be suffering from a combination of neglect, industry and ill-planned development. I much preferred the scene within the walls of the kasbah, including the Andalusian Gardens and its outdoor Café Maure, although not the dusty Musee des Oudaia.

The Archaeological Museum held my interest longer, although I could have done without the skeletons. The man in charge insisted that I should take photographs of the Roman bronzes from Volubilis. He also told me that the “new” king now allowed people into the palace grounds, so I trekked over to take a look. I’m not sure what happens with the people on tour buses, but as a solo visitor I had to leave my passport at the police desk on the way in. The officer in charge seemed very concerned about my security -when I left he insisted that I put my passport back in my money belt, and that I carry my camera in my day bag rather than round my neck. Since I could only enter the (extensive) grounds, not the palace itself, I’m not sure it was worth the hassle.

Sitting on my coffee table, alongside the massive “Art and History of the Silk Road” (maybe I’ll finally get there this year) is “The Bazaar: Markets and Merchants of the Islamic World”. I was eagerly looking forward to the medinas of Fes and Marrakesh, but I certainly wasn’t going to miss Rabat’s. Due to my difficulties with the Lonely Planet map I started a bit further east than I had intended, but that gave me a look at the meat and produce section, very full of locals busy with their grocery shopping. I visited the rest of the medina on a Friday afternoon, which was a mistake - not many people were about, and some of the shops were shut.

Since the Mercure was out of the center, and had a reasonable restaurant, I wound up eating dinner there three nights running. In addition to the calamari, I really enjoyed their warm chevre on toast with salad, and a chicken tagine with preserved lemon. The grilled chicken with green beans was only so-so.

I had been very disappointed with the couscous I tried in Sicily, and ordered the Friday couscous for lunch at Restaurant el-Bahia, just outside the medina walls, with hopes that the Moroccan version would be better. It wasn’t. The lamb wasn’t bad, but the veggies were overcooked, and the couscous was still just a rather boring grain, with no spice in evidence.

Rabat gave me a gentle introduction to Morocco. Although the country seemed less developed than I had expected, the wide streets in the capital were dusty rather than dirty, and the hassles minor. I did have difficulty finding a functioning ATM, but my only other “housekeeping” chore was buying a ticket for the train ride back to Casablanca. Since I was perfectly willing to fight for my place in line, and I had written down what I wanted so as to avoid language issues, this was no problem. I was glad I had taken care of it the day before I left, unburdened by luggage.

Looking forward to more, you're reviving long lost memories.

Here you are, Femi. Anyone else reading?

Nov. 9 - 10 - Casablanca to Meknes

I thought I had reserved a taxi to take me to Rabat station, but apparently not. Also, it was Sunday morning and the street outside my hotel was deathly quiet (I know that Friday is the Muslim Sunday, but you couldn’t tell it from that street). Eventually someone went off and found a taxi for me a few streets away. In contrast, passengers packed the double-decker commuter train to Casablanca, and I was lucky to score a single seat at the top of the stairs with enough floor space for my pack.

At Casa-Port train station I avoided the taxi touts who met the train, and gave up on the taxi drivers just outside, who refused to use their meters and asked double the price I expected to pay. Instead I walked a few steps to the main street and located a more amenable driver. Admittedly, I had to navigate, but the price was right.

My Intrepid tour started at the Transatlantique hotel, which had garnered almost uniformly bad reviews on Tripadvisor. My last tour with Intrepid, in Lombok, had been at the “Basix” level, and having found it a bit too basic, I had opted for the “Comfort” level for Morocco. The Transatlantique was not an auspicious beginning. The Art Deco façade and the elaborate public rooms were beautiful, but as a hotel it was a bust.

The front desk staff took forever to establish that Intrepid was in fact using the hotel, and that I was on the list. The single room they sent me to was small and dingy, with French windows to the balcony that didn’t open and a shower that would get the toilet wet. No toilet paper, and getting some turned into a major exercise, even though I had fortunately brought my French phrase book along for the Paris leg of the trip, and could at least communicate what I wanted .

I did some minimal laundry and headed out in search of lunch. Once again, the Lonely Planet map turned out to be more of a hindrance than a help, and when I did track down the restaurants I was looking for they were either closed or empty (always a bad sign). Eventually I settled on Les Fleurs, near the medina, which served a good sole and fries and bad coffee.

I took only a quick detour through the medina, as I was expecting to spend a lot of time in the medinas in Fes and Marrakesh, and instead followed Lonely Planet’s walking tour. While I can’t think of a good reason to revisit Casablanca (big, noisy, dusty, modern) I did admire the 1930’s Mauresque (Moroccan Art Deco) facades in the city center, and I enjoyed some quality people-watching in big Place Mohammed V, where many locals were enjoying the shade under the trees, some patronizing the chick pea or hot tea vendors - the tea vendors carried big metal kettles balanced on portable braziers. Later I opted for an indoor snack at the Café Alba (listed in LP as female friendly), where I sank into a comfortable armchair and tucked into crepes suzette.

I got back to the Transatlantique just in time to clean up before the first group meeting, only to find a note telling me I needed to move into a double room with another solo traveler! I was really annoyed - the front desk staff must have known this would happen when they sent me to a single room in the morning. Now I could stay put only if I coughed up 290 dirhams ($35 US). I heard later that this was a standard scam at this hotel.

Finally arriving, late, for the group meeting, I met the leader, Abdel, and the other nine tourists - my Aussie roommate, two solo male travelers, one a German living in Switzerland and one from Ireland, both paying the optional single supplement, and three couples. This turned out to be one of the most sedate tour groups ever - one couple, from Denmark, were elderly, and one, from Australia, spent a lot of the time on the sick list.

After dealing with the organizational details, we headed out for dinner, at the nearby Hotel Guynemer. We all sat in a row on couches in front of low, round “tables” - brass trays - which somewhat limited conversation. While I liked the salad, with green beans and cheese, my lamb tagine was mostly bone and fat.

Back at the Transatlantique, I discovered that the bad reviews had been spot on. First, the heavy bass from the hotel’s night club kept me awake, and then insect bites woke me up - the only bites I suffered anywhere in Morocco! Fortunately, I was able to extract my silk sleep sack from my bag without waking my roommate, and wrapping myself in silk defeated the insects. Breakfast, with watered orange juice, so-so coffee and pre-packaged cheese did not improve my opinion of the place.

Before leaving Casablanca, we toured its main sight, the Hassan II mosque. As befits a largely modern city (growing rapidly outwards with rings of apartment blocks and shanty towns) the mosque is new, having been built in the 1980s and 90s by the then king, mostly using “voluntary” donations - more than half a billion dollars worth. It is also huge: said to be the world’s third largest mosque and able to hold 25,000 people inside and another 80,000 in the courtyards. While it’s a showcase for Moroccan crafts, and elaborately decorated, I found it rather sterile.

Normally Intrepid tours feature public transport, but aside from the train ride from Casablanca to Meknes we "Comfort" travelers would do the whole trip in a private minibus. This train left from Casa-Voyageurs, further from the center than Casa-Port, and we spent nearly half an hour standing around (no empty seats) waiting for it to show up. Our first class seats were comfortable enough, but the compartment was short of leg room and storage space, and rather hot. And the scenery wasn’t very exciting until the last hour, when we started to see hills.

Our hotel, the de Nice, was reasonably close to Meknes station - the Danish couple took a taxi, but the rest of us walked. Clean, quiet, and without insects, it came as a relief after the Transatlantique, but was otherwise unmemorable. We went out for a group drink - my fears that alcohol would be hard to come by in Morocco were proving unfounded, although wine came by the bottle not the glass - and spit-roast chicken and fries.

Thank you so much for taking the time to post! I am leaving for Morocco in March, starting in Casablanca, so your experiences are a great guide!

Hello, SRupp - are you traveling independently, or with a group? Hope you have a great time. How long do you have in Casa? If I'd had longer I'd have gone to the Jewish Museum.

thanks for the post and photos!

Enjoying your report, thursdaysd!

Morocco is on my list for 2010 so I'm glad to see write-ups, which are hard to come by on fodors.

Can't wait for the next installment.

Please continue with your report - I would love to go to Morocco in the future so I'm very interested in all the details you can offer about your trip. It sounds like a fascinating place to visit.

OK people, here's the next piece. Photos for this are up at smugmug

Nov. 10 - Meknes and Volubilis

Moroccan history in Meknes

We spent a morning touring Meknes, once important as Morocco’s capital under Moulay Ismail in the early 1700s. I liked our guide, although some people seemed less taken by his opening statement that everything he would say would be a lie. Since I often do without a guide at all, I was just amused.

Lonely Planet, perhaps a slightly more reliable source than the Meknes guide, says that Moulay Ismail kept 12,000 horses (maybe for the “Black Guard” troops used to maintain his rule), and the walls of the stables and granaries built for them are still intact. Although the roofs have gone, the perspectives down the long lines of columns and arches are reasonably interesting.

Aside from the Hassan II mosque in Casablanca, all mosques and most other religious buildings in Morocco are closed to non-Muslims. Having been able to visit mosques unchallenged in several other Muslim countries, I found this a bit strange. However, the mausoleum of Moulay Ismail in Meknes is an exception, and we were allowed in to admire the tiles and see the Christian cross and Star of David worked into a couple of the panels.

Our tour through the medina featured a shopping op and lunch. For once, I quite enjoyed the shopping op - I hadn’t seen the damascening process up close before, and the shoppers were quick. For lunch we split between two hole-in-the-wall rooms - just enough space for the table and a bench - for camel burgers. General consensus: quite good, tastes like meat. And no ill effects.

Roman history in Volubilis

The area around Meknes is noted for good soil, producing grain, olives and grapes, all of which were very attractive to the Romans, who built the city of Volubilis nearby. Although Roman occupation only lasted until the late 3rd century, people continued to live on the site until the rise of Meknes. Unfortunately, the Lisbon earthquake largely leveled the buildings, although some restoration has been done by French archaeologists.

We spent part of the afternoon walking the streets between the low stone walls. Several good mosaics are still in situ, and the partially restored basilica is quite photogenic - and home to a few storks. While most Roman sites pale in comparison to Pompeii and Herculaneum, or to Rome itself, I was pleased to add another remote Roman location to Hadrian’s Wall, the most northern, and Conimbriga, the most western. Now I need to figure out which would be the most eastern.

Great pictures!
The intricacy of the tilework is amazing.

heya thursday - just found your post. Great stuff. Keep writing. I'm listening.

Hi dogster - nice to see you over here. Although I'm a visitor on this board myself. Unhappy guide story coming up - although just one day and nothing like your Bhutan debacle.

Great report and pictures.

I too am waiting for more.

From Merzouga which way did you go.?

Erfoud....Todra Gorge ...Dades Valley...Quarzazate...Marrakesh ??
then back to Casablanca?

or another way !

Hi Percy, thanks!

You're exactly right on the itinerary. This is the 2009 version of the trip - www.intrepidtravel.com.au/trips/XKP - although it's not exactly the same. We didn't go to Chefchaouen, and we stayed in Ouarzazate not Ait Benhaddou - wish it had been the other way round.

Here's a snippet - more tomorrow.

Nov. 10-11 - Fes: the Good Stuff

We were scheduled for two nights at our next stop, Fes, in a riad on the northern edge of the medina. Our minibus dropped us in front of the imposing Sofitel Palais Jamai, and we carried our bags through alleyways, down steps and across a narrow plank bridging a repair trench to reach the Dar Masmoudi (www.darmasmoudi.ma/en/). While I appreciated the riad’s lushly decorated public rooms, and the lavish and well-cooked meals, it was a long way from any night-life - aside from expensive drinks in the Sofitel’s bar. Again, I liked the big room I shared with my Aussie roommate - especially since she gave me the double bed and took the single herself - but the bathroom was cavernous and cold, with nowhere to hang anything (next morning I found some clotheslines, along with great views, on the roof.

Dinner that first night was far removed from burgers, camel or otherwise, consisting of a parade of different and delicious tastes. We began with lentil soup, accompanied by dates and figs and some sweet and crunchy item whose name escaped me. Then a collection of little dishes surrounded a bastilla - diced chicken wrapped in thin layers of pastry and dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon - much nicer than I expected. Chicken with salad and couscous with vegetables were followed by fruit. We ate in a side room, seated on plush couches, while a fountain played in the main courtyard.

Keep it coming.

I'm Lovin' it

Me, too! I always enjoy your reports, Thursday!

Why thanks, eks! In that case, maybe I should mention the Lisbon report from the first part of this trip - www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2&tid=35174288

Nov. 10-11 - Fes: the Not-So-Good Stuff

Fes, and especially its medina, had been near the top of my must-see list for Morocco. I wanted to wander the alleyways of the oldest and most revered of the country’s imperial cities, and see for myself the multi-colored basins that figure in all those photographs of the tanneries. While I was on a tour, and we would have a guide, it was an Intrepid tour, in my experience a company not given to planning shopping opportunities - over four previous trips I could count them on the fingers of one hand.

Some background: I’m not a shopper, and I really have enough stuff in my house. Perhaps I’ve done too much traveling over the last few years, but I have seen more than enough demonstrations of pot-throwing, glass-blowing, carpet-weaving, other weaving, paper making, etc. etc. I could probably give the spiel for some of them. I already have a carpet, bought in Turkey (and a photo of the silk one I regret not buying in Kashgar), and scarves and wall-hangings from Asia, I don’t need more.

I was really, really disappointed with the day. Aside from a lengthy lunch, we spent what felt like the whole day trailing from one demo-and-shop to another. Probably I should have quit after lunch and gone off on my own, but by that time I was thoroughly lost, and it didn’t really occur to me that the afternoon would be more of the same - it was listed on the schedule as free time. I expected the guide to orient us and set us free. How naïve...

The carpet shop was really the last straw - the “spokesman” for the “women’s co-operative” didn’t even give a good talk. At this point several of us complained to Abdel, the Intrepid leader, but he just got defensive and claimed it was impossible to get a guide to Fes who didn’t include shopping ops.

In addition, we had communication problems. The Fes guide would mention that it was “possible” to see certain things, like the synagogues and a museum, but not ask us if we “wanted” to see them. When some of us asked, late in the day, when we would visit the synagogues, we were told we should have done that in the morning. We did go back and visit one synagogue, but again I felt that Abdel’s loyalties lay with the guide rather than with the tour members.

I never did get to wander around the medina on my own, and promenading around with the group just didn’t have the same feel - my attention was more with the group than what was around me. I did find out just how narrow the alleys were, and how crowded, and see a number of the donkeys, shod with rubber from old tires to give them grip, that are the only method of transport other than feet.

And we did visit a tannery. Despite lots of warnings, I didn’t find the smell overpowering - perhaps the wind was in the wrong (or right) direction. Although working there must be a trial, the dying vats were a fascinating sight. And the day’s final demo-and-shop, at a place specializing in herbs, spices and traditional remedies, was quite interesting.

My opinion of Abdel didn’t improve that evening. We were on our own for dinner, and normally an Intrepid leader would either invite the group to join him or her at a particular restaurant, or at least make suggestions for where to eat. Abdel’s suggestion was that we eat at the riad again. Only after I consulted Lonely Planet, and a group of us got ready to head out to the Ville Nouvelle, did he suddenly become helpful, strongly suggesting a different restaurant and seeing us into taxis. The food at the Café-Restaurant Al Moussafir turned out to be edible, and reasonably priced (150 dirhams for two courses and wine), but in no way exciting. We finished the evening in the bar at the Sofitel, about which the best I can say is that it has a good view.

Well, an interesting conundrum. I've had a few guides like that in my day. Not any more. I can't think why.

But thursday, I'd be interested to know where you think YOU went wrong in this situation. What should you have done, in retrospect? Because in a way your dilemma was as much to do with you, the group dynamics, your understandable urge to be a 'good guy' versus your feeling of frustration. 'Cos if you turn rancid, then, of course, you're marked as the evil witch from then on - either by your fellow punters - or by the tour guide. Insult one tour guide - you insult them all. Then you get the worst room.

It's a no win - unless you're prepared to be a selfish sod and just say, 'I'm off - see you all later.' That's what I do. I don't care about the bloody group dynamics. lol.

dogster - oh, in retrospect, I should have bailed on the Fes tour after lunch - as I said I was surprised to find we were continuing with the demo-and-shop stuff. (We did the tanneries right before lunch.) I don't think it would have been a problem with group dynamics, more a hard time insisting that the guide give me some indication of where I was in the very large labyrinth of the medina. (I carry a mini-compass, so I suppose I could have oriented myself eventually.) Further thought suggests that the best place to bail would have been the ENTRY to the medina, but I was still giving the guide the benefit of the doubt at that point.

I don't have an especial problem with Abdel, he's certainly not the worst leader I've had, although this experience did leave me with a preference for non-local leaders.

And in a way, it's what you bought. The guide's clear assumption is that you will just like all the other wide-eyed innocents he deals with day in day out - not realizing that in the midst of his group is a woman who had 'been around the block' travel-wise. I have the same problem. If you buy a tour you get a tour - not an individual package. That's the deal, eh?

No matter - on with the story.

"If you buy a tour you get a tour - not an individual package. That's the deal, eh? " - oh, absolutely, and I switch to "group-mode" when I'm with a group. Problem here was that when I book an Intrepid tour I expect NOT to get stuck with demo-and-shop. But this was my first non-Asian tour with them. Trip I'm planning right now is a one month stroll through eastern France, entirely solo.

Dogster makes a good point in assessing what went 'wrong' or right with a trip. I put a lot of energy into planning my trips, but somehow something new and unforseen (that I may or may not like) always pops up. Nothing is guaranteed. There are annoyances and benefits that I get from both being in a group and traveling privately.

Hmm, looks like I go the dates wrong - Fes wasthe nights of Nov. 11 and 12.

Nov. 13th - Through the mountains to Midelt

Just seeing mountains in the distance can lift my spirits, so things really looked up for me as we spent the day driving through the Middle Atlas mountains. The scenery was wonderful, although perhaps not what first comes to mind when thinking of Morocco, featuring as it did cedar forests and snow-covered heights that felt more Alpine than African.

Ifrane, where we sat outside in the sunshine with our morning coffee, looked particularly European, even Swiss - very clean and home to an English-language university for rich kids. I could have skipped the next stop, where all we saw was a pair of elaborately decked-out horses for hire, and some sad looking Barbary apes picking over the garbage, but I enjoyed the small town where we ate lunch. One short and dusty main street held several cafes, a few food stalls - one or two on barrows - and a number of trucks. The top of one truck was a corral for live sheep, just down the street a butcher’s shop displayed the carcasses stripped of skin but with the heads still attached, and I lunched on lamb keftas - no place for a squeamish carnivore.

After more gorgeous scenery we arrived at Midelt, and the very fake-looking Kasbah Asmaa, our hotel. Our room came with a heater and a radiator, both welcome, as it got pretty chilly after dark. The hotel was 3 kms outside town, but it didn’t seem that we were missing too much in Midelt. We spent some time there after a visit to an embroidery workshop run by Franciscan nuns, mostly in search of an Internet café. After dinner at the hotel, those of us who repaired to the bar instead of going immediately to bed discovered that closing time was shortly after 10:00. Maybe things are livelier in spring and fall.

Very good

I am taking it all in !!!

Waiting to hear about Ziz Gorge , Er- Rachidia, and Erfoud !

Thanks for continuing to post

Sorry for the hiatus. Wednesday night I clicked "buy" on tickets for April in France (and no alcohol involved, dogster!), and am now spending time on itinerary and hotels.

Nov. 14 - Dune day

We spent the morning among more magnificent mountain scenery - the strata lines were quite remarkable and looked like plough lines or terraces from a distance. Most everyone else on the bus seemed to be asleep, but I asked for a few photo stops regardless. We were following the Ziz river gorge, a watery life-line in an increasingly arid area, and began to see palmeraies, where irrigation allowed for agriculture. Vivid green vegetation stood out against the dull beige of the dry ground, and the flat roofs of the mud-brick houses were covered with drying dates.

Both our coffee and lunch stops (at Er-Rachidia, I think) were fly-ridden, but had good toilets. I had been keen to try harira soup, a Moroccan specialty, but found the version at this lunch rather uninteresting, although I enjoyed the brochettes that followed. After lunch we continued south, out of the mountains and across progressively drier territory, on our way to the Sahara.

I had given quite a bit of thought to this part of the tour. I have the same problem with deserts I have with boat trips - exciting in prospect but boring in execution. I remembered looking forward to a bus ride across the formidable Taklamaklan in western China - and finding the six hours it took felt much longer. Riding the rails across the Gobi wasn’t any better. Still, with the Sahara so close I had to at least take a look. But, not, I felt, spend a night in a desert camp in November - I had spend a couple of freezing nights in a yurt in Mongolia, and didn’t want a repetition. So I opted for the “Comfort” tour and a night in a hotel.

We turned off the paved road south of Erfoud and started across the edge of the desert - dry ground with a blackish crust, broken by wheels and by camel feet to show yellow-brown dirt underneath. Pink hills in the distance rimmed the flat expanse. It took 40 bouncy minutes to travel 14 kilometers - and reach a lake! Apparently there had been heavy rain in the recent past, and the water hadn’t evaporated yet. It added a whole other dimension to photos of the sandy dunes.

The Hotel Yasmina had no power outlets, and no power during the day (a generator ran at night), but was in all other ways an improvement over a camp. It even had a swimming pool, and a few hardy souls from our group actually swam in it, despite the decidedly cold water.

Before setting off on our sunset camel ride we were served mint tea with sultanas and nuts. I had debated skipping the ride as the only other time I had ridden a camel, in China, had been painful, as the pole holding the stirrups had dug into my thighs. This time, however, with no stirrups and therefore no pole, I quite enjoyed swaying above the sands. I did not enjoy climbing the dunes, as my boots weren’t getting traction in the sand and I needed help from the guide. But the sunset was beautiful.

Thank you for posting your report and great photos. Your photos brought back great memories from our trip a couple of years ago. I'm on my way to work so will have to see the rest of the photos later. Morocco has such great color and intrigue that now--seeing your photos-- I want to go again! I enlarged and framed some of our photos from there to remind us daily of this beautiful country. www.pbase.com/pattyroth

Lovely pix, patty - thanks. I didn't get to Chefchaouen, but I visited Essaouira after the tour finished and loved it.

Nov. 15 - On to Todra Gorge

The Saharan sunset had been pretty enough that I actually got up at 6:30 to see the dawn, and didn’t regret it. The dunes flushed pink as the sun rose, and were nicely reflected in the still waters of the temporary lake. After a rather meager breakfast we retraced our bumpy path along the edge of the desert, before taking a sealed road west through hot and rather boring high country nearly as arid as the Sahara.

We ate lunch at Tinejdad, putting in our food orders at a roadside café before visiting the rather dusty Oasis Museum (www.elkhorbat.com/en.museum.htm), displaying artifacts from Berber life in three traditional houses. I liked the houses, but the principal effect of the displays was to convince me that I was very glad I hadn’t been born a Berber! It looked like a very hard life.

Back at the packed café we discovered why we had stopped there first: our food arrived after a short wait, but a nearby table of Americans left in a huff when theirs took longer. I had had a starvation attack on the bus (I have borderline hypoglaecemia, and carry protein bars for such emergencies) so I tucked into both a cheese omelet and chicken brochettes. I was already starting to get a little tired of menus that offered couscous, tagine or brochettes, and little else. But the brochettes were usually good.

When we reached Tinerhir, our home for the next two nights, we had another shopping op, this time at a place helping handicapped children. Behind a posh façade a series of sad rooms were used to teach metalwork and needlework.

After checking into the comfortable Kenzi Sargho we set off for the high point of the day - Todra Gorge. Although we only saw it as the light started to fade, it more than lived up to my expectations. A crystal clear river ran through the gorge - had, presumably, carved it, although the rock walls loomed high enough overhead to make that seem fanciful. It reminded me of the Virgin River Gorge in Zion National park, and the Iron Gates in the Samaria Gorge in Crete, but here a paved road ran alongside the river.

This was home territory for Abdel, our leader, and we stopped for coffee at his nephew’s place, rather than the “foreign” operation across the river, and ate dinner at a nearby hotel where his brother was a waiter. The inordinately long wait for food (I suspect we were eating too early) was balanced by an impromptu drumming group, including Abdel, that formed after dinner. I could have spent the rest of the evening enjoying the high-energy beat of the drums, but most of the group wanted to leave. Instead my roommate and I wound up in the Kenzi Sargho’s bar watching soccer!

Had been saving this report for when I had more time, thanks for writing it up in so much detail. Very interesting read.

Great reading. Thanks so much for writing.

Nov. 16 - Coming Clean

I could have spent the free morning in Tinerhir on an organized hike - a strenuous one round the gorge, or a tamer one through the palmeraies - but I had woken in the middle of the night with cramp, and seemed to have pulled a muscle in fixing it. So instead I set off with my roommate to explore the town.

Lonely Planet dismisses Tinerhir as a “bustling mining town”, but I enjoyed the chance to see a less touristy place, and the break from the group. We wandered down through the market, which was mostly given over to shoes and clothes, and back up through the woodworking district, before agreeing to enter one of the two Maison Berbere souvenir shops. The mines here produce silver, the staple of Berber jewelry, and I bought a small - and eminently portable - silver Hand of Fatima pendent for a friend. These are said to bring good luck, and I felt that she was way overdue for some.

We recovered from the bargaining session over coffee on the main drag, where a guy at the next table asked to borrow my Lonely Planet so he could check the listing for his hotel. (It wasn’t very complementary!) Unfortunately, the place I had in mind for lunch was closed, and we were followed for some distance by the owner of the unsavory looking place next door, eager for our custom. Instead we gorged on thick and filling veggie soup and more brochettes at the Hotel Oasis.

The afternoon was given over to the hammam. The men reported that their side of the bathhouse was largely empty, but the women’s side was packed with females from toddler up to grandmother. It seems that while the men socialize in cafes, the women socialize while bathing.

I had experienced (I hesitate a little to say enjoyed) a Turkish bath before, but my two companions were novices. We all stripped down to bikini bottoms (or rolled down one-piece bathing suits) and joined the throng. The locals had brought everything with them - a small stool, soap, the harsh mitt used for cleansing, and towels, and bathed themselves. Our admission fees covered our supplies, and the attentions of the attendants, one an immensely fat (and strong) woman with breasts hanging to her knees.

We started in the hot room - hot enough to fog my glasses if I had kept them on - where we poured water over ourselves, and lathered up with a soft brown soap in a plastic baggie. After a five minute wait to let the soap sink in we rinsed off, and moved to the warm room and a meeting with the mitts. I was once again amazed at the amount of dirt that rolls off apparently clean skin when scrubbed this way. And by the amount of water the attendants threw over us. After a brief, soapy, massage, still more buckets of water finished the job. We staggered into the changing room to dry and dress and face the suddenly cold outside world.

Keep it coming
I am here reading .

You're torturing us thursday - we're dying to read more!!

Sorry Leslie - problem with neighbor, photos and weekend intervened.

Nov. 17 - Dades Gorge

I hoped to spend this morning in a 4WD heading for Dades Gorge off-road, but Abdel was firm that the route was currently impassable. Instead, a fairly short morning drive took us to the best hotel of the trip, the Xaluca. at Boumalne du Dades, but we stopped just long enough to drop our packs and book an afternoon massage, before leaving for the gorge.

If I had to pick one of the gorges, I’d opt for Todra, which is narrower and steeper and more spectacular, but Dades was impressive enough, and the drive up longer and more interesting. I didn’t think much of the kasbahs touted by the guidebooks, at least not the ones seen from the road, but I marveled at the mountain sheep and goats, happily grazing half-way up impossibly steep cliffs.

After all-too-short a time in the gorge itself we settled in on the roof of a hotel to wait for lunch, meanwhile watching some crazy cyclists laboring up a steep road and round many hairpin bends to reach the start of the gorge. After a brief rest they headed down again, while we enjoyed the food - I had the best chicken brochettes yet, tasting as if they had been marinated in yoghurt and spices.

I spent the first part of the afternoon on the Internet, wrestling with the fiendish French-Arabic keyboard. Abdel had mentioned that the group might spend the last day in Essaouria, as a day trip from Marrakesh. I was headed to Essaouria anyway, after the tour, and it occurred to me that in that case I might as well stay there and skip the last night in Marrakesh. So I emailed my riad to see if it had space.

You might think I had spent enough time getting wet the day before, but no. I showered when I got up, as usual. Then the massage proved more oily (and less expert) than I had expected, which required a second shower. And since I love jacuzzis I spent even more time actually immersed in water, before taking the third shower of the day. I have probably never been so clean!

Excuse me for interrupting your wonderful narrative but I'm wondering --
Sounds like you enjoyed the food. Maybe it got repetative but all-in-all you had no problems? Did you eat everything - uncooked veggies & fruit, etc.?
I had issues with my stomach in Egypt and then again in Peru recently (which may not have been from food in either case). Consequently I'm now feeling cautious about what I'll eat away from home. Paranoid might be the word but it's not fun to be side-lined on a trip.

Leslie - interruptions are no problems - it's nice to know someone is still reading this screed!

I used my Asian precautions when it came to water in Morocco - bottled water for teeth as well as drinking, and caution WRT ice - only in posher hotels. But I don't remember skipping salads. However, I don't seem to get stomach problems very easily, and YMMV.

I did wind up finding the food monotonous, but that may have been the places the tour took us. Tagines, couscous and brochettes showed up for lunch and dinner.

thursdaysd

That is what a lot of people say ,that the food gets monotonous and the menus is the same in most places,so your choice is limited.

Leslie:

I got very sick in Peru last year.

I was having Llama steak and fish and I think it was the fist.

Within 2 hours when I got to my room .. I was vomiting from 8 PM until 3 AM!!.. yes that long.

Not a FUN time believe me.

Carry on with the report thursdaysd,
I may not comment everytime ...but I am reading with interest.
Thanks

Nov. 18 - Film fakery

We didn’t leave the hotel until 10:00, which gave us some extra time to enjoy breakfast - good orange juice, and real cheese instead of pre-packaged triangles - and our comfortable rooms. When we did get started, we drove across rather boring desert, and I resorted to my iPod. (I bought the iPod before my spring trip to Southern Italy, and became a surprised but instant convert. I load books on tape rather than lots of music.)

We drove right through Ouarzazate, past plenty of interesting-looking cafes and restaurants, to a hotel on the outskirts. While it had a rose garden, a pool and a musician, we ate outside, and there wasn’t much shade. Then we drove back to town to visit one of the film studios. Ouarzazate had stood in for a number of different locales, in films such as Kundun and Gladiator.

I’m not quite sure what I had expected from our tour of Atlas Studios, but what I got was pretty disappointing. Our “guide” was boring, and the left-over sets in poor repair. While it was mildly interesting to see how much was façade and how little substance, this was one stop that signally failed to interest me - or anyone else in my group.

Rather than staying in one of the upmarket hotels in Ouarzazate (those film stars have to sleep somewhere) we drove on to Ait Benhaddou, and the second-worst hotel of the trip. Not that Ait Benhaddou isn’t worth visiting, I really enjoyed our visit to the Kasbah, but it should be a day trip from Ouarzazate.

To reach the Kasbah, clinging to a hillside crowned by a ruined fort, we had to cross a river - on stepping stones with sacks on top. I managed fine, but some people needed a helping hand. I didn’t make it all the way up - the steep slope leading to the castle looked too slippery with scree for me to trust myself coming back down.

Between a depressing, shabby, room, badly designed bathroom and scratchy sheets, I was already hating the hotel before breakfast, which included NO protein. I had to make a quick trip to a little shop round the corner for cheese and yoghurt.

What was the name of the hotel in Ait Benhaddou? Will make a note to avoid.

Your pictures of the movie studio did make it seem like it's not worth a special trip. Funny how many guided tours go there.

Leslie - the Ait Benhaddou hotel was the La Kasbah, but I really think you'd be better off staying in Ouarzazate instead.

I think I had confused the Ouarzazate film studios with the Tunisian location used for Star Wars (see asap.ap.org/stories/319404.s) which I had seen on the Amazing Race, so I found it especally tame.

Finally got a chance to go through your photos in detail. They're great for delivering a sense of place.

Thanks Femi - I'm still working on the Essaourira and Marrakesh galleries - they should be up soon.

Nov. 19 - Icy Imlil

We spent much of this day on the bus, cutting through the High Atlas mountains towards Marrakesh via the Tizi n’Tichka pass, at almost 7,500 feet the highest in Morocco. I had really looked forward to this drive, but was a bit disappointed after having seen the gorges. The views weren’t bad, but the pass was mostly a lot of barren rock. But the scenery around Imlil quickly cheered me up. The first snowfall of the year had dusted the mountains beyond the town, and trees clothed the nearer slopes.

I can’t recommend Imlil itself, though, unless you’re using it as a base for skiing or hiking. There is nothing to do in town, especially after dark, other than shop. Three of us did trek up the hill to visit the well-reviewed Kasbah de Toukbal, and to be charged 30 dirham for a cup of coffee. (20 dh apparently being an entry fee!) Going up I discovered that I was even more out of shape than I had realized, I would certainly have needed one of the hard-working donkeys to carry my luggage had I been staying there.

We were staying at the Riad Imlil in town. Unlike the riad in Fes, this one had no glass in the windows, only shutters, and the only heat in the public rooms came from inadequate fires. Our bedroom had one radiator, which happily could be moved - we positioned it between the two beds, I dug out my silk sleep sack, and we managed to warm up enough to sleep. The next morning the dining room was so cold we all wore our outdoor clothes to breakfast.

Change of Plans

We were now scheduled to spend the last two nights of the tour in Marrakesh. Then I had planned to take a bus to Essaouira for two nights, followed by three nights back in Marrakesh. After Abdel had floated the idea of a day trip to Essaouira I had checked that I could spend an extra night there. No-one else wanted to make the trip, but I decided to skip the last day in Marrakesh and go anyway. I had intended to use one of the Marrakesh days for a trip to the Cascades d’Ouzoud, but the rivers had been low enough for me to give up that idea, there were no tour activities scheduled for our second day in Marrakesh, and I was more than ready to switch back to independent mode.

As it turned out, A, the Swiss-German, spent some time reading his guidebook, and decided to make the day trip after all, and I was happy to have his company. Since we also had three people needing tickets to Agadir, the bus stopped at the Supratours ticket office on the way to our Marrakesh hotel, and waited while we progressed slowly to the head of the line inside. One day and night in Marrakesh, and then I would be on my own again.

Nov. 20 - Marrakesh, Part One</>

Our Marrakesh hotel, Le Caspian, was comfortable enough, but I had been disappointed that it was in Gueliz, the new town, not the medina. When I came back from Essaouira I would stay in the medina - and discover that Gueliz wasn’t such a bad location! But after getting checked in we hooked up with our local guide and headed straight for the medina.

Plan A was for us to take a local bus, but the first was too crowded for all 12 people to squeeze on, and after a while without a second showing up we moved on to Plan B. Abdel wanted us to walk, but when that was shot down we took taxis. I actually did the walk a couple of times and it took maybe 20 minutes, and was a bit boring. The taxis were fairly cheap, provided you bargained hard.

We met up in front of the 230-foot tall soaring minaret belonging to the Koutoubia mosque (no infidels allowed inside), and walked down a tree-lined avenue past a large collection of horse-drawn carriages to Djemaa el-Fna, Marrakesh’s famous central square, where we ate lunch at a café overlooking the action. Except that there wasn’t all that much action.

In fact, I found the square altogether less exciting than I had expected. Perhaps if I had just gotten off a plane at Marrakesh’s airport I would have found it truly exotic, but after nearly three weeks traveling around Morocco, the sights were familiar and only the size impressed. The square (actually more of a butterfly shape) was big, but seemed to have plenty of open space, and to be not very full of wandering tourists. Water sellers I had seen, orange juice vendors I would see in Essaouira, snake charmers I wanted to avoid, and the souvenir sellers were offering the same goods I had already seen too often.

But I enjoyed lunch: given a chance to break out of the iron triangle of couscous, tagine and brochette I had a not very good tomato and mozzarella salad and a good chicken bastilla. Then the guide took us off for a tour of the medina (the old town), which in his mind meant the souk (the market). I almost (but not quite) felt sorry for the guide. It quickly became very clear that not one of us intended to shop. He couldn’t even get us inside the shops, as we all planned to visit later on our own, and just wanted him to help us get oriented. Worse, rather than visiting the museum, where the ticket admitted the holder to two other sights, we wanted to visit the Saadian tombs at the other end of the medina.

It actually took quite a lot of insistence to get him to take us to the tombs, but then we stopped at the Palais de la Bahia and the Palais el-Badi on the way. The Bahia was impressive, the el-Badi rather stark, and the tombs totally worth the long walk. Unlike el-Badi, to which they were once connected, the tombs were never plundered, and remain a testament to the brilliance of their 16th century builders. They glow like jewels in the drab setting of the medina.

After the guide returned us to Djemaa el Fna I took care of some business (ATM and Internet) before sharing a taxi to the hotel to get cleaned up for our farewell dinner - back on the square. Pedestrian by day, it glowed brighter at night. Little groups of drummers, lit by lanterns, sent a throbbing beat into the cool night air. The orange juice vendors had been replaced by stalls selling spiced tea. And rows of tented cafes filled the central section. Abdel picked one, and we filled the wooden benches set perpendicular to the cooking area. The food was varied although hardly gourmet, but the real entertainment took place in the “street” between the cafes, where bemused tourists were waylaid by eager touts for one café after another.

After a wander around the square, we walked back to the hotel, stopping at a bar in the new town on the way. The pop music and fancy cocktails were quite a contrast to the scene in Djemaa el-Fna. Back at Le Caspian I said my farewells to the group, and arranged for a morning taxi. A and I would leave for Essaouira before 8:00. The group tour had served its purpose and I had enjoyed the company, but I was more than ready to move on.

Oops, sorry about the bold type! I should have previewed.

Nov.21 - 24 Taking it Easy in Essaouira

Once again, ordering a taxi the night before hadn’t worked, but I had allowed time for that, and A and I arrived at the Supratour bus station in plenty of time for the 8:30 bus. I had to buy a ticket for my bag, but this didn’t seem to result in any additional security - the ticket was checked when the bag went into the hold, but not when it came out.
After an hour we stopped for coffee and toilets, and then as we neared Essaouira I started to see argan trees, and co-operatives offering argan oil products for sale. Argan oil is produced from nuts that have been “processed” through the digestive systems of the local goats, and I had read that the goats actually climbed the trees to reach the nuts. I don’t have any pictures to prove it, but I did see one, rather small, tree with goats in the branches! It was certainly the highlight of the bus ride.

I had no trouble finding my hotel, the Lalla Mira (www.lallamira.ma/en/index.html), although once again the Lonely Planet map seemed to diminish the distance I had to walk. I was taken aback to find a small group touring the hotel, probably drawn by the hammam in the basement (the oldest in town), or the hotel’s “green” policies, but otherwise I loved the place. I especially liked my four-poster bed (with curtains), and the green tadelakt walls in my bathroom. (Tadelakt is a lime plaster that gives an unusual finish to the walls.) For once in Morocco, my room had plenty of light, and the breakfast buffet featured natural yoghurt, goat cheese and eggs.

Essaouira came as a bit of a change from the rest of Morocco, too. Back in the Phoenicians’ day, the original settlement was a center for trade in a purple dye extracted from mollusks, and reserved for the elite. Much later, the Portuguese turned up and renamed the town Mogador, but the current layout, especially the much-photographed ramparts, date to 1765 and a French architect. Now, instead of soldiers, the ramparts are the preserve of tourists, and the old town is full of souvenir shops, restaurants and riads. In fact, although it’s on the Atlantic coast, the town feels more Mediterranean, and is a great place to slow down and rest up for a few days.

I spent one day touring around, and taking lots of photographs, with A, and another doing the same thing on my own. The seagulls swirling around the turreted fort, the bright blue row boats, and the narrow streets, were all irresistible. I even spent some time investigating the souvenir shops, and eventually tracked down the jewelry souk, near the meat and veg market (where the locals shopped) and bought another Hand of Fatima for another friend in need of some good luck.

I ate well in Essaouira, too. I especially enjoyed the small, friendly, family-run Les Chandeliers, where shrimp salad in spicy mayonnaise was followed by duck confit with excellent fried potatoes. Dinner at my riad included tender calamari and a wonderful cheese plate. Unfortunately, I can’t speak so highly of Elizar, an odd place that felt a bit like dining a private home - until a noisy French tour group showed up - and where the chicken tagine tasted good but was incredibly tough. The owner claimed it was because the chicken was organic, but I thought it was just not cooked properly. Tagines do seem to be generally tough - I don’t think there’s enough liquid to stew the meat properly.

So I had a good rest in Essaouira - savoring mandarin juice on the waterfront, watching the tide crash in over the off-shore rocks from the ramparts, curled up with the herald Trib crossword on a sheltered sofa overlooking one of the courtyards at my riad, and wandering the back streets. I figured I was now ready to tackle Marrakesh.

Okay , you are off to Marrakesh now !!!! waiting to hear all about it.

OK, people, I've finished fiddling with the photos. They're all up at kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/667854.

Loved the last pictures - the blue in Essaouira is breath-taking. Can't wait to hear about your adventures in Marrakesh.

Nov. 24 - Back to Marrakesh - a Gorgeous Garden, a Rotten Riad and the Stupendous Stylia

My last breakfast at the Lalla Mira was enlivened by a talk with an American woman who had been volunteering at an orphanage in Rabat. Then I set off for the bus station and a rather rattle-trap bus back to Marrakesh. As with the Rabat train station, I had to get away from the bus depot before I could find an amenable taxi driver.

I had wanted to stay in a riad in the medina for my last three nights in Morocco, and after much reading and thought, I booked the Dar Silsila. Although it didn’t appear in any of the guidebooks I consulted, at the time it was number four on Tripadvisor, with many favorable reviews and only a couple of bad ones. I had enjoyed very good results using Tripadvisor for Italy, so I looked forward to a luxurious stay and attentive service.

My first clues that all might not be well were the draconian cancelation penalty, and the lack of clear directions. But I didn’t expect to cancel, and I was able to figure out the location while I was in Morocco with the tour group. I suspect most visitors arrive from the airport using transport arranged (at an inflated price) by the riad.

The taxi dropped me at the Koutoubia mosque, a major Marrakesh landmark, and I walked into the medina down a busy commercial street. But then I turned into a narrow alley way, fronted by blank walls, that turned and twisted, and eventually went through a tunnel. I couldn’t help wondering how I would feel walking back to the riad after dark on my own.

The staff at the riad were clearly not expecting me, despite the email I had sent confirming my arrival, but eventually they found my paper work, and told me that my room wasn’t quite ready. We had some trouble communicating - unlike the staff at the Lalla Mira, they only spoke French, and apparently our accents weren’t compatible. Eventually I was taken up to my room, but instead of letting me settle in, my guide insisted on taking me up to the roof and trying to sell me a hammam and massage.

By this time starvation was setting in, so I walked over to the Djemaa al-Fna and picked a café with a view of the square. After lunch I took another taxi north to the Jardin Majorelle - an oasis of shade and calm, with a small but good museum housed in a brilliantly blue villa. The Koutoubia gardens, which I checked out on my return to the medina, seemed rough and unkempt in comparison. The Dar Silsila’s apology for a map had included a reference to the Stylia restaurant, and on the way back to the riad I made a reservation there for dinner - with the help of neighboring carpet seller who saw me hesitating in front of the closed front door. (I took a look at his carpets, but was more impressed by his building.)

Back at the riad, I was met by the owner. His first words? “You need to pay in advance”. In cash, it turned out. In euros. Since he never asked for my passport I concluded that he had no intention of registering me and therefore of passing the tax he was charging me on to the government. I didn’t have three nights worth of dirhams, never mind euros, and told him he’d have to wait. I also declined dinner, a hammam and a massage, and got a less than reassuring response to an enquiry about a transfer to the airport on my departure.

I retired to my room, where I discovered that just as the attentive service hadn’t materialized, the accommodation was far from luxurious. For starters, there was no glass in the windows, only wooden shutters, giving a choice of daylight with outside air - distinctly cold during my stay and no doubt impossibly hot in the summer - or inside air with inadequate artificial light.

Then, there was nowhere to put anything - no luggage rack, no drawers, just one small triangular shelf in a corner cupboard, and a rod with a few coat hangers in one corner. Nor was there anywhere comfortable to sit, the one round purple chair clearly having been chosen for form rather than function. After I reached down to put some paper in the ridiculously small trash can, housed in a cupboard under the equally small and shallow sink, and scratched my arm on the door badly enough to draw blood, I left for dinner in no happy mood.

The Stylia turned out to be a tourist restaurant par excellence, but so over the top it amused me. I was led by a costumed doorman to a table at the back of a huge, columned, room, where rose petals were strewn on the dark red carpets, and on the embroidered table cloths. A small fountain played in the middle of the room, an eight-sided dome rose in the center of the ceiling, a mosaic-walled alcove adorned the back wall, and the chandeliers dripped colored glass. Two robed musicians played strings and drums beside the fountain, and the waiters were dressed in white with black cummerbunds and pointed black slippers.

I shared all this magnificence with a couple of other women, eating together, a small, all-women tour group, and three men in a corner who seemed to be regulars. The carpet-seller had mentioned dancing girls, but maybe they are saved for larger audiences. The food, while not as elaborate as the room, was really quite good - a pigeon bastilla that would have been better if the pigeon had been boned, a lamb tagine with cumin and lemon, and couscous. When I left, I was escorted down the Stylia’s alley to the main street by a large gentleman in a swirling cloak, only to head up the even quieter and darker alley opposite on my own.

Great, great report!! Morocco was one of my very favorite trips and your fantastic photos and report bring it back

Thanks laartista! Alas, while I'm very glad I went to Morocco, I don't think I'll be back - unless I develop a yen to do some serious hiking. But I'd be more likely to head to the Himalayas for that.

Nov. 24 - 25 - A Decision

I made it back to the riad having encountered nothing worse than my own imagination, and was admitted by a young man I hadn’t seen before. (The Silsila doesn’t hand out keys to the front door, and expects you to put your unnumbered room key in a drawer when you go out.) I went up to bed, only discover more problems to add to the list in my last post.

The stained glass above the doors and windows let in too much light, and there were no drapes to cover them. The bed consisted of two mattresses: one was flat, but had a tilt to the middle and put me right in front of the stained glass, the other was a set of hills and valleys, quite impossible to sleep on. The pillows were stuffed with some kind of rubbery substance. At first I thought an annoying clicking noise came from the two large hot water tanks hanging from the ceiling of my bathroom, but I finally traced it to the heater above my bed, and had to turn it off.

In the morning the large shower head delivered a gentle mist all over the place, rather than a steady stream in any one place. The shower curtain didn’t go all the way round the shower, there was nowhere to put soap and shampoo, and the wall was dirty. When breakfast consisted of a small orange juice, coffee, and NO protein, and the staff apparently wanted me to eat it sitting on a sofa instead of at one of the tables, I had had enough. I couldn’t face two more nights.

Note that all these problems are things I would have put up with if I were paying budget prices, but I wasn’t, and I had just come from the lovely Lalla Mira, where I had paid much less for much more. I collected my guidebook and went out to find something better.

I started at the Dar Catalina, which had been on the Silsila’s “map”. They were full, but the doorman took me round the corner to the Riad Hasna (www.riadhasna.com), where I was offered a big, comfortable room, with carpet, drapes, and lots of shelves, for the same price as my miserable room at the Silsila. The roof terrace held a small swimming pool, not that important in November, but the large sitting room was filled with deep armchairs and warmed by a cheerful fire, very important in November! Sold.

om my! That bed sounds like the one I've been sleeping on for months in Florence, I swear I awake every day with a sore neck. The new place looks nice. Look forward to reading more.

Yes, the Riad Hasna looks fabulous. Dar Silsila would be such a downer. Hard to trust Trip Advisor lately - so many fake, inflating reviews.

Thoughts on Tripadvisor....

The Riad Hasna isn't even ON Tripadvisor! When I got home I looked a little more carefully at the Tripadvisor reports on the Dar Silsila. Of the most recent 50 "most favorable", almost all were from one-time posters! And after I put up photos of my room, other posts went up with enough photos to push mine off the front page.

Then there's the fact that owner got to reply to my review (tinyurl.com/63oqme), but I couldn't reply to his post, in which he actually lied - e.g. "When this guest arrived she said she was not happy with her room as it was smaller than she had expected." - totally untrue - that's one complaint I didn't have!

He also wrote: "She had sent me her comments in an email implying that if she did not give her a refund she would post her comments about my riad on Trip Advisor." - I sent him one email, in reply to his rather threatening email to me, and my only reference to Tripadvisor was: "...to find that the hotel in no way matched the descriptions I had found on your website and on tripadvisor.com."

It's particularly annoying that Tripadvisor won't take any action. I asked them to review the Silsila, as did another couple who were staying there at the same time, but it's still the 6th most popular hotel in Marrakesh.

Yeah, I tend to use trip advisor for their reviews less and less. I do like the forums though.

Thursday, I have really, really thoroughly enjoyed reading your lengthy and lively description of your journey to Morocco! Adventures--and mis-adventures--enjoyable to read here in the winter in Maryland as I plan a trip to Morocco for early fall for my husband and myself! And your pictures, as well....a wonderfully complete "picture" of all you saw! We are perhaps not as adventurous as you, and are looking at a private tour for the two of us with guide and private car. I have so far sent an email and got a quick reply from Morocco Travel Agency, based in NY and Morocco. Will have to follow up with request for actual references, I think, based on what you've said here about reviews!

Interesting your comments on the responses from the owner of your final Riad in Marrakesh......and a word to the wise, I think, on the positive comments about it, in that not all "reviews" here can be assumed to be REAL reviews by guests!

In any event, thank you again for your delightful report on your recent trip! And if you have any further gems of advice or suggestions, they will be much appreciated!

KathyN

kathyninmd - thanks for the kind words! Although I haven't actually finished posting about my trip - I've been working up to the worst part of the Silsila stay!

I would definitely be careful about who you hire in Morocco, and do plenty of checking, but I hope you have a great trip anyway. Is this your first trip to Africa/outside US or Europe/to less-developed country?

Thursday - I will continue to watch for your posts, then! We have been to Europe a number of times, and the Caribbean and South American (Ecuador and Galapagos) but never to Africa or any Muslim country, and we're very excited.

Tell me, please, if your can; did you feel that carrying your camera attracted more attention, or are the people so used to seeing tourists with cameras that you were "just another one"? I'm looking forward to taking many pictures, and have read several places of having to pay the people for photographing them, particularly in Marrakesh.

We will be going in late September/early October (just after Ramadan), so I suspect it will be a bit warmer than it was when you were there, but we are hoping it will be past the real heat of summer. I guess "layers" is always the best way to pack?

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

KathyN

Kathy - I strongly recommend that you read either Rough Guide's "First Time Africa" or "Lonely Planet Read this First: Africa". Actually, I'd suggest you read the Asia titles as well, as I think Morocco is a bit different than the rest of Africa (although I've only been to Egypt myself). You will need to take precautions regarding food and drink that aren't necessary for Europe. You should also check with a travel clinic (or start at wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/default.aspx)

WRT photos, you should not take pictures of individuals without permission, and should be somewhat careful even with street scenes. Apparently many people in Morocco, especially women, object to having their photo taken (come to that, I don't like it either!). Personally, I won't pay to take a photo, but I suppose that's your choice. You will stand out because you look a tourist, regardsless of whether you're carrying a camera.

You'll probably get lots more advice if you start your own thread.

Nov. 25 - Held Prisoner by the Dar Silsila

Back at the Dar Silsila I packed - with nowhere to put stuff I’d hardly UNpacked - located enough euro to pay for one night, and headed down to check out. Or try to. The cancellation policy says that if you cancel “0-10 days” before arrival, you’re liable for the cost of all the nights you booked. But I hadn’t canceled. I showed up on time, I found that the accommodation in no way matched their description, and I didn’t feel obliged to pay for the nights I wouldn’t use.

The Silsila staff insisted I had to pay for the other two nights. When I refused, and said I was leaving, the largest member of staff rushed to the only door, locked it, and stood in front of it. I was trapped.

I was alone, in a foreign country, physically threatened by people who didn’t speak my language. Fortunately, I was just a little bit more angry than I was afraid. I was also entirely incredulous! What on earth did they think they would achieve? Were they going to march me under escort to the nearest ATM? And I had already given them my credit card details when I made the reservation.

I sat down on a chair in the lobby and agreed to speak on the phone with the owner’s agent (the owner wasn’t around). After I made it clear that I didn’t intend to pay for the nights I wouldn’t be using, the agent said that he would call the police. But when I replied that I thought that was an excellent idea, and that if he didn’t call the police I would, he suddenly changed tack and offered me a different room. He actually thought I would continue to stay at the Silsila after the way they had treated me!

I did try to call the tourist police, having finally found the number on my tourist map (not in my guidebook), but I couldn’t get service on my cell phone. So I waited. I travel with a convertible backpack, so I was wearing my luggage, and I knew that eventually someone would want to come in, or go out, and my jailer would have to open the door.

I’m not sure how long I waited, it seemed like a long time, but finally there was a knock on the door. The woman guarding it considered her options, then opened it. I jumped up, pushed my way out and set off up the alley. There was no pursuit.

OMG- that is some scary shit! Not sure if I would have pooped in my pants or gone DeNiro Taxi Driver on them, you handled it well. That said I would definitely report them to the tourist board. Is there a tourist board? Must be right? This is the riad that has good reviews on TA? Unbelievable!

It was scary, laartista! Fortunately (or not), I tend to go quiet and retreat when threatened, rather than flaring up - I'd probably not have lasted long in the early days on the savanna!

BTW, I've added a few pix from the Dar Silsila to my smugmug gallery - kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/667854.

I had thought about reporting the Silsila to the Moroccan tourist board - I figured they'd at least be interested in the fact that the Silsila never registered me, and therefore were probably not going to pass on the tourist tax, but then Christmas intervened. Since Capital One has upheld the Silsila's charge to my credit card, I'm now annoyed all over again, and may get around to it.

Wow. That is seriously crazy. Trip Advisor is really not to be trusted, in my opinion. And what about Capital One - they are not taking your side in this? Was the charge for the full reservation or just one night? That might make me reconsider getting one for an upcoming trip. My bank charges the 3% foreign conversion fee but I've had them reverse a charge on a shady overseas purchase before so I do have faith in them.

I guess after the fact it's at least a good story to tell!

Leslie - I had paid cash (euros) for the one night I actually stayed there. I should have put a stop on the card I had used for the reservation, but I was traveling and didn't. The Dar Silsila put a charge through for the additional two nights. I disputed the charge, but Capital One allowed it on the basis of the reservation form I had signed acknowledging the cancellation policy. I just don't think I canceled, as I showed up on time, and left because I found the place sub-standard.

I certainly don't think Tripadvisor is to be trusted for Marrakesh! I did find them more useful for Rabat and Essaouira. Now I'm sure where to trust them.

Boy Oh Boy !!!!

What an experience.

Don't know how brave I would have been !!

Glad you made it okay except for the charges. What is Capital One ?

Capital One (capitalone.com) is believed to be the only source for credit cards with no foreign transaction fee. In addition, mine even gives me 1% cash back, or you can get miles.

Wow! I think I was holding my breath as I was reading the last entries. As I said before, I had a lot of trouble with various hotel staff on my trip.

I rely rather heavily on tripadvisor when planning my trip, I'll be paying much closer attention to those reviews in the future, and reading with an even more skeptical eye.

Kathy, as for taking pictures of the people, most locals were unwilling to have their picture taken, unless it includded the possibility of a sale or money departing my pocket by other means.

I don't think I will be returning to Morocco either, but in reading rave reviews, still wonder what I missed or where I went wrong.

Thanks so much for your report. I had been thinking about taking Intrepid's Comfort trip to Morocco and then traveling on my own to Essaouira for a week or so. I have real doubts now after reading your report! As a serious photographer, I'm drawn to the country, but really, the Intrepid trip does not sound good.

I have traveled with Intrepid before (overland Thailand, Vietnam, Laos) and liked the Original style trip though a few of the accommodations were truly scary: they don't sound too much better on Comfort.

Anyway, many thanks for the wonderfully detailed observations and the fine photos. You may have saved me from a not-worth-it experience!

WhitePelican - I've traveled with Intrepid in Asia, too, and aside, possibly, from the Transatlantique in Casablanca, none of the hotels in Morocco came close to the worst in Asia! (Although the absolute worst was on a Basix level tour in Indonesia.) I don't really think springing for Comfort over Original is worth it, and Comfort group was very sedate.

I think you can definitely do Morocco on your own, but the tour makes getting to the desert and mountain easier. If I were going back I might look into a private car and driver for a couple of days, especially for the desert, but I'd also go with buses and grand taxis.

Nov. 25-27 - Marrakesh - Final Days

The staff at the Riad Hasna fed me tea and biscuits, and handed me the registration form to fill out myself (that’s how I know the Silsila couldn’t have registered me without seeing my passport). I drew some deep if shaky breaths, unpacked, did a little laundry, and regrouped. I had lost a morning , but I still had a day and half to spend in Marrakesh.

Naturally, I explored the medina (the old quarter), starting with the tourist-filled souks (the main market sections). I found that the souks overflowed with the same souvenir goods I had seen for sale across Morocco, hawked by somewhat more persistent salesmen. While they weren’t as in-your-face as some I’ve encountered, a few of them actually touched me to try to keep me from moving on. After the third or fourth time this happened, I actually slapped the hand of a young man who was holding on to my arm - hard. He let go, and I noticed a nearby stall-holder laughing his head off.

Away from the souks, the alleys were quieter, and the shops further apart. They were also more interesting. I didn’t buy, but I did revisit the carpet-seller who had helped me with the Stylia. Once again, I didn’t buy a carpet but admired both the carpets and the beautiful building (we had an interesting discussion about real-estate prices), and this time I was escorted up to the roof by a henchman. I duly tipped my guide, and noticed the seller checking with his employee to make sure I had done so!

I also did a round of the tourist sites - finding them easily in the north, and getting rather lost in the south. (Don’t trust to the Lonely Planet map!!!) The buildings I visited were beautiful, the museum exhibits more missable. Once again, at the exhibition of African artifacts in the Maison Tiskiwin, I realized how hard life in the desert could be. I also realized, again, that my taste is for Europe and Asia, not Africa or Latin America.

On the day I escaped the Dar Silsila, the weather turned bad on me, and I spent a wet and windy evening eating dinner at my new riad, by the fire, a meal that included a rather good chicken tagine with olives and preserved lemon. The next day I abandoned the medina and took a taxi back to Gueliz for some excellent French food at Kechmara. A great salad with nuts and cheese and grapes, and duck confit with julienned veggies, served in a modern room with minimalist décor, made a pleasant change.

But for dinner on my last night I went back to the Djemaa el-Fna, although not to the stalls in the square itself. Even sitting by a brazier on the partially enclosed terrace of the Café Argana, I shivered a little in the penetrating night air. After yet another tough tagine I wandered among the little groups on the square, trying the spice tea (nothing special), tapping my foot to the beat of the drums, and discovering that tipping one of a drumming group didn’t keep from me being dunned by other members.

The next morning the young man in charge of the Riad Hasna, the only staff member with any English, drove me to the airport, for two-thirds of the price the Silsila would have charged. He was wearing standard western dress, and told me that men didn’t normally wear djellabas, that was for women. Only tour guides and souvenir sellers wore them for the tourists. I could see that was true in the cities, but I wasn’t so sure about the countryside.

I had allowed time for traffic jams, but the ride to the airport went smoothly, and I checked in early for my Easyjet flight to Paris. I was glad to have visited Morocco, but I was ready to leave.

Sorry that Morocco did not win you over to add Africa to your favorite places. Do you think particulars of your trip - some so-so lodging, the ugliness at Silsia, the forced shopping -- played a big role in that or was it just the overall feel of the country? Would a different type of tour or traveling alone with a driver instead of the Intrepid tour have made you appreciate the country as a whole more? Or is it just that your tastes lean to Europe and Asia?

I'm curious to know how you liked Egypt - not that they are the same - but did that kind of culture not wow you in the same way Morocco failed to? Maybe you did a trip report for that I could search for...

Anyway, welcome back, & thanks for the great report & pictures!

Leslie - no, I didn't do a trip report for Egypt - that was back in 2000 before I started writing trip reports (those for the early 2000s are at www.wilhelmswords.com.) I enjoyed the market in Cairo, and the Coptic area, and the mosques. I loved some of the temples, although I'm afraid the pyramids left me cold - great big piles of great big stones, no spiritual vibes at all. I got, as usual, a bit bored on the boat down the Nile, although I enjoyed the short boat trip at Aswan (think it was Aswan!). I don't remember being all that excited by the food, and the museum in Cairo obviously needed a major renovation.

I don't think it was the tour that failed to turn me on to Morocco - the time I spent on my own didn't really turn me on to the country, either.

But I can't quite put my finger on why Asia attracts me more than Egypt and Morocco. It can't be that they're not "First World" countries - Cambodia is a whole lot poorer than Morocco, and I loved Cambodia. It can't be the architecture - I loved the Alhambra and the Taj Mahal (and other Mughal buildings in India). It can't be that there isn't activity out on the street, because there is. Maybe it's the people? Maybe it's the food? Maybe it's a sense of diversity, of possibilities, of excitement, that I get in Asia that I didn't get in North Africa? (And would that be related to religion?)

And I don't know that I've written Africa off altogether, although Tunisia certainly moved further down the list. I doubt that sub-Saharan Africa, or South Africa, or Madagascar, or Ethiopia, would feel the same as the north. But I'm not especially attracted to safaris...

I haven't been to Asia yet (China trip coming up in November) so I can't compare at all. I think Egypt moved me so much because it was the most 'exotic' place I'd been. And I grew up loving the whole King Tut story - the museum tour came through when I was in school and I was hooked.

The Muslim culture and the desert - big parts of what made Egypt so different from home I guess - are making me want to visit Morocco. Altho', again, wrong to compare them - apples & oranges I suppose.

Hmm...it will be interesting to see how Morocco speaks to me. I will definitely be doing it on a tour so that will limit some of the experiences but I wouldn't feel able to enjoy if I had the worry of doing it independently.

Thanks again for writing a fascinating trip report.

thursday -
doing prelim planning - trip not until May or June 2010 - but thought i'd ask your opinion --
One of the tours I'm looking at is with Isram. It spends 11,13,or 15 nights. The difference is an optional 2 extra days in Marakkesh at the end and then another optional two in Essaouira.

It seems like Essaouria is lovely - and different enough from the other areas that it would be a shame to miss. But I'm on the fence about going for that long. Might be difficult to get enough time off at work. If we did have to miss it would you think that was a huge mistake or not a big deal?

Also, the trip finishes in Marrakesh. You only get one afternoon and one full day/night there before heading to the airport. Doesn't seem enough. Would 2 more days be pretty much required to see it fully or is 1.5 enough if we only went for the 11 night package?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Leslie - Essaouira is lovely, but it's also very touristy. As in, it felt less "Moroccan" than other places, in so far as a tourist can tell. Parts of Marrakesh also felt touristy, but Marrakesh is bigger, and you really shouldn't skip it. However, if you're pushed for time, I'd say that 1.5 days could be enough provided you're getting a good look at other places as well.

I haven't encountered Isram before. Where dd you hear of them? Which of their tours are you considering? (I have a prejudice against outfits that play music at me when I access their sites, but that's me...)

If you're into the planning phase, now might be a good time to start your own thread - you'll get more input that way.

You're right - I'll start a thread. It's the isramworld section of their site (the music is not the only annoyance on their website - it's not stellar). The Splendors of Morocco tour.
Itinerary is the basic circuit, I guess: Casablanca, Rabat, Moulay Idriss, Volubilis, Meknes, Fez, Midelt, Erfoud, Todra Gorges, Ouarzazate, Zagora, Ait Ben Haddou, Marrakesh. And optional Essaouira.

I like what I've read from others who've used them. Heard about them here or maybe frommer's. I like that they guarantee departure with only 2 signed up.

Biggest decision I think will be if we should use the first-class hotel option or superior first-class. I'd rather be in nice riads than chain-like hotels which some of the superior hotels might be more like (also not close in to medina). But I'd also rather pay a couple hundred extra to have nicer hotels than not - so I'll have to think about that.

Sounds like we can probably skip Essaouira.

Thanks for your advice.

Thursday, thanks so much for this report. I love your honest reporting of both the good and the bad -- this is so helpful for those of us considering or planning a Morocco trip in the future. (I'm in the thinking-about-it phase for 2010.)

Thanks bniemand - it's always nice to know people are reading!

Leslie - can you ask Isram for some sample hotel names? And although I liked sleeping in Essaouira you could always do it as a day trip from Marrakesh if you ran out of things to do there.

They do give the hotel names. For ex. in Marakkesh the superior is Royal Mirage Deluxe & the lower first class is Riad Mogador or Atlas Medina. In Fez superior is Jnan Palace and the lower is Zalagh Parc Palace. All seem to be nice but not in the heart of it and definitely chain feel not anything special.
I don't know how much flexibility there is with Isram if you told them you would like to try a certain riad instead - haven't gotten that far in the planning yet. But maybe they work with you if you have a request.

Thanks again - and good point about the day trip to Ess. - if we stay the extra 2 days in Marr. we could do that for one.

Wish I could edit my last post. I looked on tripadvisor (after saying they are not reliable!) and those hotels I listed sound pretty bad. So definitely unless Isram lets you choose different places I wouldn't go with that package.

Leslie_S - clearly I'm going to look at TA reviews with great skepticism after my experience with the Silsila, but I would put more credence in bad reviews than good ones. Aside from ones that are obviously from people who booked a two-star hotel while expecting five-star comforts!

Thursdaysd- -- I wanted to ask your opinion on something if I may - don't know if you're still checking the Morocco board in general or only your own posts so I'm writing here instead of a new thread.

I'm setting up a trip - the usual circuit - a few days in Marrakesh then a few in Fez with 5 days in between including a night in a tent in the desert. Also considering a day trip from Fez to Meknes and Volubilis. If we do it with this same company/driver, we'd be doing that the next morning after we arrive in Fez (assume late arrival in Fez after driving all day from Merzouga). It's not cheap (2000 dirham for just my husband & myself) and it's another day of a lot of driving. So I'm trying to discern if it's worth the trip.

I asked if we could have one day between the desert and the Meknes/Volubilis trip to just hang out in Fez but that would mean the driver spending the night & losing a day, etc. so I guess the answer is no. We could always schedule a day-trip with another group - through the riad we're using in Fez so that's an option to avoid doing it in the time-frame our current driver would recommend.

So the bottom line is -- did you feel Meknes & Volubilis is worth the trip? Having seen Roman cities in Ephesus & Jerash (spectacular) I don't know that I have that strong of an interest in Volubilis. But I hate to be short-sighted when going all that way & not taking advantage of the opportunity while we're there. I've already cut Essaouira out of the itinerary.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Leslie

Any thoughts? Thanks.

Well, I'd be more inclined to keep Essaouira and drop Volubilis! And if you're seeing Marrakesh and Fez I don't know that Meknes is a requirement, either. Why don't you start a new thread with your proposed itinerary, and post a link here? I don't know how many days you have total, which might affect the answer.

thursdaysd - took your advice on a new thread
http://www.fodors.com/community/africa-the-middle-east/planning-morocco-itinerary-any-advice.cfm

Maybe we'll spend one of our free days in Marr. doing a day trip to Ess. and miss Meknes/Volubilis.

Hi - I am also a senior single woman that has traveled a lot, mostly with family and not a group. I am leaving for Morocco the first week in May. I am using OAT (went to Vietnam with them last year and was very good) but doing my own international air. I plan to spend a few days in Ess. before I return to U.S. so appreciated your info. Also want to try to go to a few other cities in that area but it may be too expensive as a single???. Leslie, interesting about your trip to China this fall. I was signed up to go in May but only 6 people on a 30 day trip so I chickened out and will try again this fall. I really want to do two specific areas - the silk road and the ethnic area around Lijing. I have been to major cities but all of the tours include Beijing and Shanghai so not many choices.

Hi Susanne - hope your OAT trip goes well - I hated them when I used them for Thailand, but I know a lot of people love them. I didn't find Morocco that expensive as a single - the Lalla Mira in Essaouira was very reasonable, I thought. Be very careful where you pick if you stay in Marrakech, though!! I usually start with Lonely Planet or Rough Guide for budget places, but you can check Fodors or Frommers for their value picks. Which towns are you thinking of?

If you've already been to China, have you considered going solo? My third trip to China was seven weeks on my own, and included the Lijiang area. (Some of the TR is at www.wilhelmswords.com/rtw2004, and I'm happy to answer questions.) There are also some TRs from independent travelers to China on the Asia board - eg. see http://www.fodors.com/community/asia/beijing-for-beginners.cfm and http://www.fodors.com/community/asia/back-from-21-superb-days-in-seoul-beijing-shanghai.cfm. Have you looked at Intrepid for China?

Susanne - our China trip is with Viking and includes Beijing & Shanghai and the touristy route in between (Yangtze cruise). I am certainly not the brave, independent traveler most of you fodorites are! Some places I just need that comfort of a group tour.

Will you please post about your trip to Morocco when you return? This board is so slow and the tripadvisor board makes me crazy to use -- there are TONS of posts that should be deleted.