Marrakesh - Day 1

Saturday, April 27

We had originally planned to arrive in Marrakesh on Saturday morning so we didn't have a place reserved when we arrived early on Friday evening.  (Have you noticed that most of our plans changed as we went along?)  We called into the Riad Nomades where we were booked for 4 nights starting on Saturday.  Luckily, they had an empty room and were able to accomodate us.  More on the Riad Nomades a little later.

So, Marrakesh.  I've been to many crowded hectic places in the world.  This one just might top them all.  The Riad Nomades is within the Medina walls and thus, shared a lot of similarities with Fes with its labyrinth of alleys and small stone streets.  Oh, and there was even more people than in Fes - crazy.  Cars are not allowed in, but bicycles, mopeds, and donkeys are and you share a small street that is often barely 10 feet wide.

On Saturday morning, we decided to knock out all the touristy visits and get them out of the way so that we could spend some time exploring on our own.  Plus, we thought it might help in getting oriented (it didn't).  First things first, we hired an *official* tour guide to take us around Marrakesh.  We weren't about to take any more chances with a random person.  So Ali came around to pick us up in the morning, and took us to see the Ben Youseff Madrasa, the Saadian Tombs, and the Bahia Palace.


The Riad Nomades is a small guesthouse run by a French couple - Pierre and Pascal.  Both were just amazing hosts who have setup a beautiful aged Moroccan style riad with an elegant 'je ne sais quoi' French flair.  This place is a true oasis and a welcome reprieve to the outside chaos that is Marrakesh.  The Dar Tazi in Fes was nice enough, but I don't think there was anything especially great about it.  But Riad Nomades was GREAT and I highly recommend staying with them.  The prices are reasonable and Pascal has a lot of great practical advice on what to do, where to go, how to shop, etc.

Ben Youseff Madrasa

Ben Youseff Madrasa

Ben Youseff Madrasa

Ben Youseff Madrasa

Like I was saying - crowded with many mopeds

One of the smaller prayer minarets

The Saadian Tombs

The Saadian Tombs

Taking a break back at the Riad Nomades

A note about food in Morocco: in a word - awesome.  The main staples of Moroccan cuisine are harira (a tomato based soup), couscous (Semolina wheat), bastilla (a sweet flaky pastry wrapped around meat) and tagine (a dish of meat with vegetables cooked at high heat in a cone shaped ceramic pottery, also called a tagine).  The one thing I did crave after awhile on our trip though was some fresh greens.  It was tough to find a place where I would trust eating salad and not regretting it later.  The meat in tagines and other dishes is often cooked with the previously mentioned spice - ras el hanout.

Dante And The Quest For Ras El Hanout, Part 2...

Speaking of ras el hanout...just before we went on the tour of the sites, Ali took us to an herboristerie.  Basically, it's a shop that sells fragrances and spices with the added bonus that many of these items will cure you of various ailments.  I'll blame this one on Dante, who decided to ask Ali what the price of genuine ras el hanout was.  Ali said that good ras el hanout was expensive - 300 dirhams for 100 grams.  A sinking look came across Dante's face.  See, we started wondering after we left Fes whether even the second place that Dante got some spice from, gave him genuine ras el hanout.  Now with Ali telling us that the prices were quite expensive for real ras el hanout, it cast doubt on the authenticity of both of Dante's bags of ras el hanout.

So of course, Ali took us to an herboriste, who was probably a brother, or a friend.  Regardless, he was almost certainly a source of commission.  If you're going to visit Morocco, you just have to accept that this is just the way things work there.  So the herboriste of course gave us this whole song and dance with all the various items he had for sale there.  And he showed us some ras el hanout.  It was un-ground and you could see the various spices in there.  So this time, not taking any chances anymore, Dante decided to buy the ras el hanout unground.  Both so that it would last longer, and so that he could see the contents of his spice, which was deceptively reassuring.  You know where this story is going don't you? 

When we returned to the Riad Nomades later that night, Dante overheard Pascal in the lobby talking with one of the other French guests staying on the floor below us.  The French guest sounded irritated.  Dante went over to the railing to take a peek and saw the French guest taking out a bag of spice.  Pascal took a pinch, sniffed, and shook his finger.  "C'est ne pas vrai!"  It is not real.  The Frenchman gathered up his spice with a look of disgust on his face and stormed out to return his spice to the shop.  Once again, a look of panic came over Dante.  He grabbed his now very large and heavy bag of spices and went downstairs to show Pascal.  I followed him down sensing I was about to see some drama.

One by one, Pascal opened each of Dante's bags and denied each one as being real ras el hanout.  "Daaamit", sighed Dante.  Pascal went to his own kitchen and brought out his own stash of ras el hanout.  We each took a sniff.  It had a rich wonderful complex scent, and in spite of the number of spices, you could smell the anise, the coriander, the cinnamon, amongst everything else.  It was the same olfactory sensation one got when a freshly cooked tagine was opened up in front of you.  

As for Dante's unground ras el hanout?  Pascal opened up the bag and took out the spices one by one, and found a grand total of about 15 spices - short by half.  Then to pour salt on his own wound, Dante hesitantly asked how much real ras el hanout cost.  I think he was secretly hoping that Pascal would say it was extremely expensive.  Without hestitating, Pascal declared...100 grams for 20 dirhams.  The first place would have priced 100 grams at 200 dirhams.  The second place would have priced it at 50 dirhams.  The Marrakesh herboriste priced it at 300 dirhams.  You start getting the idea of how difficult it is to accurately price things in Morocco, not to mention even just confirming that what you're buying is authentic.  

We talked about it later, and we marvelled at how difficult it was to just get a spice that is perhaps the most commonly used spice in Morocco.  It was almost like each vendor, having found an already ripped off tourist, took it as a challenge to see if they could prolong the con game.  It's hard to otherwise explain why they would go through that much trouble to con you with a cheap and widely available spice.

In the end, Pascal sent out one of his employees to retrieve 500 grams of genuine ras el hanout for Dante, at grand cost of...100 dirhams.  500 grams is a LOT of spice.  And in case any of you ever want to try this elusive spice, you can do it the easy 21st century way: Amazon.  

But as Ibrahim might say, at least Dante learned something about spices and got a good story out of it.

La Canaille

With Pascal's eye for interior design, our delicious breakfasts, and his nose for spices, it was obvious Pascal had a taste for the finer things.  So when he made dinner recommendations, we were ready to go with whatever he picked.  He made two strong recommendations, but both of them required reservations and were difficult to get into.  Somehow, he managed to squeeze us into both, though they were also very late reservations.  At the end of our first day, we took a cab to the first place - a French restaurant called La Canaille.  All I can really say is that the food was fantastic.  If you're going to Marrakesh, definitely book a table.  It's not super cheap compared to the simple Moroccan cuisine we had been eating up to this point, but we decided to treat ourselves and it was well worth it.  Maybe even a little over the top.  

Road Trip Through The Middle Atlas Mountains

Friday, April 26

Our original plans had us taking an overnight train from Fes to Marrakesh on Friday night.  We figured this way we could have one more day in Fes to explore and then get sleep and have the whole next day for Marrakesh.  However, at this point, we had had enough of Fes.  It was a nice enough visit, but our encounter with Mohammed had left us feeling a bit bitter about the place, and we wanted to move on to Marrakesh.

On our drive out to Volubilis the day before, we had discussed with Ibrahim the possibility of him driving us to Marrakesh.  Ibrahim had told us that the drive was very scenic and would take us through some interesting Berber villages in the Middle Atlas Mountain Range.   After consulting Google maps, we figured the driving time would be about 7-8 hours if we didn't make any stops.  Ibrahim quoted us a price of 2000 dirhams (about $230) and included stops along the way for siteseeing, shopping, and eating.  That sounded pretty reasonable to us, so we accepted.

After our encounter with Mohammed, it became very difficult to trust anyone and for a brief period, we even wondered whether we should trust Ibrahim.  But over the course of the day on our trip to Volubilis, it became pretty clear that Ibrahim was the complete opposite of Mohammed.  In addition to offering reasonable prices for all his driving, we were finding out that he had a very zen-like view on everything.

As we recounted our first few days, Mohammed's con, and how it was hard to tell what the appropriate prices were for everything, Ibrahim had an interesting perspective to offer.  He suggested that perhaps we were worrying too much about whether we could find cheaper prices elsewhere.  That we could probably always find cheaper prices, but that maybe we should just try to figure out what something was worth to us and then make that as an offer.  That way, if it's accepted, the merchant is satisfied because he accepted, and we would be satisfied because we offered a price we felt was worth it.  He then mused that while it was too bad we got conned, we learned something from it and it was a good story.  All excellent points, and it helped restore our own perspective on the first few days.  And if you think about it, it really applies to rest of life doesn't it?  The only person who can determine value, is you.

If you are planning a trip to Morocco and will be going through Fes, I HIGHLY recommend the services of Ibrahim Hammani.  His phone number is 061-832-0104 and his e-mail is tax-driver@hotmail.fr.  His prices are reasonable and his advice is priceless.

Our trip south started in a Berber village where Ibrahim took us to visit and have breakfast with an elderly couple who lived in a small cave...

We made a couple of stops for scenic viewpoints...

Azrou - Berber capital

There's an interesting little town in the Middle Atlas Mountains, called Ifrane, which is nicknamed Little Switzerland.  During the wintertime, it's a ski resort.  The French established the town in 1929 and built it up with Alpine style houses.  What's remarkable is that there is almost no evidence that you're in Morocco when you're in this town.  We only stopped for a bathroom break so here's a borrowed photo courtesy of the internet:

During the drive, Ibrahim also stopped to pray at a mosque in a small village.  We didn't mind waiting since the scenery was so nice outside...

After 12 hours (we stopped a lot), we finally arrived in Marrakesh, where we sadly had to say good-bye to Ibrahim.  Ibrahim set us up with a friend of us, Rashid who would later drive us to Ouazazarte and Essaouira.

Our zen Muslim driver, Ibrahim

Volubilis, Moulay Idriss, and Meknes

Thursday, April 25

Today was our side trip outside of Fes.  Thankfully, it turned out to be a straightforward siteseeing day.  Ibrahim picked us up early to take us out to see the Roman ruins of Volubilis, followed by a visit to the mountain-side town of Moulay Idriss, and then Meknes.

Lake Barrage Sidi Chahed - an artificial lake (created by a dam) on the way to Volubilis

Volubilis

The Romans obviously had an appreciation for breathtaking landscapes

The House of Orpheus

Moulay Idriss.  I didn't have any great shots from Moulay Idriss so I borrowed this one from online.  (Credit: The Guardian)

You will almost inevitably do a lot of shopping while you're in Morocco.  However, if you can resist, hold off until you have been calibrated to the appropriate prices for things.  We found that the best prices were actually to be found in Essaouira, our final stop.

Everything you see tends to be sold nearly everywhere you go.  This includes ceramics, scents, spices, leather goods, jewelry, rugs, and woodwork.  The only two exceptions we found were the Damascene metalwork in Meknes, and the brass/copper metalwork in Marrakesh.  So if you see something you like

Damascene is a type of metalcraft made by hammering thin threads of silver (or other soft metal) into a harder contrasting metal - in this case, blackened iron.  The result is quite striking and the only place where we found a lot of it was in Meknes.  One store in Essaouira had several pieces.  This was Dante's favorite craft and when we couldn't find any in Marrakesh, he regretted not getting more while we were in Meknes.  Ibrahim had told us it was not found anywhere else in Morocco and it turned out to be true.   It actually makes sense when you realize that Damascene is not originally a Moroccan craft.  For whatever reason, Damascene craftsmen just happened to be in Meknes.

Damascene (Credit: Someone else's blog)

Lunch at a terraced restaurant that Ibrahim recommended - YUM!

Where are we?

Beef - it's what's for dinner

Cats waiting in line at the butcher shop

Moulay Ismail Mausoleum

Traditional Moroccan doorways in the Moulay Ismail Mausoleum

Moulay Ismail Mausoleum

Fes - Day 2, The Long Con

Wednesday, April 24

As we parted ways with Mohammed the day before, we had agreed to meet with him the next morning for additional "touring" through the Medina.  In truth, we were half hoping he wouldn't show up since the day before didn't seem to be on the up and up.  But Mohammed figured he had us on the hook.  Sure enough, as soon as we walked out, he found us.  We just didn't have the heart to tell him to go away at the time, but thought maybe he could at least lead us to a couple of places we wanted to see.  Ed had identified a couple of historic sites in his Lonely Planet guidebook that seemed to be the major attractions in Fes - the Nejjarine Museum of Wood Arts and Crafts and the Bou Inania Madrasa.  Taking us to those places seemed like a simple enough request, right?

At the time, we didn't know unlicensed guiding was illegal, thus even if Mohammed wanted to show us the real places, he couldn't.  But like I said, we didn't know that at the time.  To make a long story short, Mohammed took us just about everywhere *but* those places.  He took us to some random madrasa and a large riad claiming that it was where we wanted to go.  Meanwhile, we thought we were seeing famous UNESCO World Heritage sites.  (With no tourists.  Zero.  Zilch.  Zip.  Nada.)

At the riad, Ed took out his guidebook and had a puzzled look on his face.  He showed Mohammed the photo that was in his book.  Mohammed nodded his head vigorously and said, "Yes, this is museum!"  We looked around at the empty riad with scaffolding all around us.  To put it mildly, it was very unimpressive.  Suddenly the absence of tourists became rather conspicuous.  Travel note:  if you visit touristy places, you should expect to see...tourists.

Sometime in the afternoon, Ed started to become really suspicious.  He was looking into his guidebook and he saw very little evidence that we were visiting the places that we were supposed to be visiting.  Finally, Dante and I looked at the photo as well.  This was the first time I had seen the photo of the Nejjarine.  The photo we saw was of a building with impressive arches and intricately carved wood panels.  Ed was right - it was quite obvious from the photo that the building we were standing in, with its simple plain ceramic walls was NOT the Nejjarine.

By now, it was late in the afternoon and Mohammed ran out of excuses.  So as Ed pressed him about taking us to the places we wanted to go, Mohammed became belligerent and started raising his voice, "Why you do not trust me!  I am not an animal!  I am not a donkey!  I take you to where you say you want to go!".  Things were a little heated and we walked on in uncomfortable silence.  Gradually, Mohammed led us towards the outside of the walls of the Medina and back to the larger streets where he hailed a cab.  We quickly each gave him 200 dirhams each and said goodbye to him.  $69 USD was way more than he deserved considering the whole thing was a con, but we did get to see quite a bit of the Medina, and it was a good amount of exercise.  So as far as cons go, it wasn't a complete waste of time and money.

This is Mohammed.  If you see this man in Fes, ignore him!

Fes bakery

Narrow alleyways!

Fabric weavers

Wood carver

We thought we were in a world famous madrasa.  It wasn't. 

Using the Lonely Planet guidebook, we took the cab to the Bab Bou Jaloud - the Blue Door - where we finally made our way to the *real* Bou Inania Madrasa and the Nejjarine Museum.  As we stepped through the Bab Bou Jaloud we saw a steady stream of tourists - the first we had seen since we arrived - and we knew we were finally in the right place.

The path to Bou Inania and Nejjarine

Finally, the real thing.  Bou Inania Madrasa

The Nejjarine Museum of Wood Arts and Crafts

Dante And The Quest For Ras El Hanout

As Mohammed led us through the Medina during the day, we stopped by a local souk (marketplace) where Dante was looking for a Moroccan spice called "ras el hanout" for a friend back home.  Ras el hanout is actually a blend of different spices and it can be slightly different depending on where you buy it, but they all should contain at least 30 different spices.  

A spice merchant quoted Dante a price of 500 dirhams for 250 grams.  Dante bargained it down a bit and ended up getting the 250 grams for about 300 dirhams.  250 grams is a LOT of spice.  It never really occurred to any of us that the spice merchant might not be selling us real ras el hanout.  But as we were walking down the alley towards the Bou Inania, Dante spotted a spice merchant that had a copy of a Lonely Planet guidebook page posted outside his store that recommended a spice shop as selling genuine ras el hanout at a price of 100 dirhams for 200 grams.  In retrospect, we don't really know if the page he posted was in reference to *his* spiceshop.  We also didn't know if it was really from a Lonely Planet guide since Ed's book didn't have that page at all!  

The difference in price was obviously quite upsetting for Dante, and that was when he started wondering if he even got real ras el hanout.  So he pulled out his bag of spice and showed it to the merchant, who shook his head and pointed to his bucket of unground ras el hanout and then took out a scoop of ground ras el hanout.  The color was different with a slight brownish green color and a rich complex scent, in comparison to Dante's first purchase of a reddish color spice that this merchant claimed was just one or two spices - cayenne and curry perhaps.  So Dante ended up buying another 200 grams.  He wasn't happy about the first purchase, but he felt at last that he was getting genuine ras el hanout.  Or so he thought...to be continued in Marrakesh.

*************

Later that night, we returned to the cafe across the street to eat dinner and watch as Bayern Munich destroyed Real Madrid.  At first we thought there were quite a few fans of German football, as quite a few people were cheering the night before for Borussia Dortmund, and then on this night, quite a few were cheering for Bayern Munich.  We then realized, it was simply Madrid fans cheering for Dortmund, followed by Barcelona fans cheering for Bayern.  "The enemy of my enemy...".  We were just happy to be in a country where we were surrounded by passionate soccer fans.

Chicken bastilla