2010
a Djellaba!
Well not if you don’t want to create confusion amongst all the people you will pass on the streets, police officers, rail officials and more importantly, older arabic women.
I have no issue with creating confusion amongst people; it stimulates discussion and always brings up a story, however when a nice older Moroccan woman in Sevilla, comes up with a polite “Assalaamu Alaikum” and my response was a polite “Wa alaikum assalaam” and then she smiles and asks me a question in Arabic, and my response is “I’m so sorry, that’s all I know” and her facial expression went from smiling to utter shock and consternation, I figure it’s time to take off the Djellaba.
She seemed so happy to see something familiar and my liking this Djellaba took that away from her, which wasn’t fair to her. That being said the entire bus from Sevilla to Lisbon was full but for three seats and while I had the hood of the Djellaba over my head, no one wanted to sit next to me, which was awesome for a 7 hour bus ride.
Two Canadian women managed to come up and ask me where I was from. I asked in perfect Trini english, “Why allyuh arksin’ me about where I’m from? What prompt allyuh to arkse meh dat? and the answer was … “Well you look like a large filipino or Hawaiian guy, and not really a Moroccan” … a couple minutes later, the three of us were having a coffee discussing while Charles Bridge in Prague is a tourist trap and how the women got completely scammed buying carpets in Casablanca (!) Why would they buy a carpet in Casablanca is beyond me … but when you’re on a tour bus, this will happen, since there is no real contact with the locals. However I now have a place to stay in Calgary, if I ever go back … ummm not really unless it’s for work. Couchsurfing in Canada doesn’t appeal to me … there isn’t the same allure of the unknown.
For now at 9.29am in Porto, I’m still wearing my Djellaba. It’s too damn comfortable … to hell with manners, I like my comfort. I think I’m only wearing Djellabas from now on. I have yet to take a picture with it … somethings are better left to the imagination or the horror story … you take your pick.
without even having to check, I know it means the following:
- Taxi drivers will not be on the road for a while
- The trains will probably not be running since the tracks will have water
- The ferry from Tangiers to Tarifa/Algiceras will not be running or will be delayed
- Finding a bus to take you anywhere will be a bit more difficult.
- Electricity will probably be cut off at some point
Something to think about, when traveling to Morocco in the winter season. That being said, if you’re not heading out, but in a guesthouse or home, it’s great, comfortable sleeping weather 
I can’t seem to escape Morocco. Everytime I plan to leave, there is some other gorgeous place that I have to visit and of course I don’t have unlimited vacation to travel the world, nor I am independently wealthy living off my parent’s trust fund.
I thought I would blog this afternoon about my lunch. Nothing fancy, just a platter of fried sea-everything for about 9$ CDN. Everything that I like in food, as well as bottled lemonade … why don’t they stop with the plastic and put all sodas in bottles?
All the prices on the board… divide those by 8 and you’ll get the Canadian equivalent. Now if I could give up my penchant for Wi-Fi based hotels, then I would be saving some serious money.
Just sunshine, fresh seafood and the white and blue of Asilah
Everyday on the road, offers so many opportunities:
- Being in a different place, raises your awareness about your surroundings
- Different places offer different scents, customs, culture and food
- Everyone you meet, offers a different perspective on the shared existence that we are all a part of. We all have a story, and every story is interesting, glorious and tragic in its own right.
Today in Asilah, I had the opportunity to meet a man with a story similar to mine in many ways, but yet turned out so differently in many other ways. In life, it is the obvious cliche to say that “Everything happens for a reason”, but when we do come to this realization, it seems to always catch us by surprise. In my time here in Morocco, I have had some of the most spiritually rewarding travel experiences; not just in terms of the seeing different places, had slow lovely death by Tagine de Kafta and discovering one of the most gorgeous and diverse countries but had the chance to meet and interact with some of the most interesting people.
Mohammed (I don’t even have his last name), met me the previous night when the taxi driver stopped by the shop that he and his friend Fuad were at for directions to Hotel Al Alba. Both of them jumped in the car and took us to the hotel, Mohammed introduced himself and left with Fuad on foot after. I have to say that I was not the most cordial or grateful for their help, since I was frustrated at the rail system, the “grand taxi” I had to hire and being completely cut off during the drive through the rainstorm; but this wasn’t their issue.
Heading out today in some glorious sunshine (it happens like that … torrential rain at night, clears into a gorgeous day time weather), I happened to run into Mohammed and Fuad completely by chance on the road to the Medina. Completely random time I left the guesthouse ( 12.31pm), they were coming back from prayers and I had the choice of the beach path or the medina road, and by choosing the Medina road, we ran into each other and they recognized me … I didn’t even remember them. He invited me to walk along to his parent’s house and that walk turned into a 12 hour adventure and learning session about the life of a small town like Asilah, discussions with shopkeepers about business, a defacto web design tutorial, discussion of the failures of Moroccan business, carpet sales techniques and strategy, tea, multiple breaks for prayer while I was left in shops and carpet shops by myself and more importantly some life lessons to make me appreciate the time and opportunity that I have been given.
As for the day, Mohammed took me around his Asilah, telling me about the beautiful, clean Medina and the architecture of the houses, the lost art of weaving and tile making, his sadness at the loss of innocence of the Asilah that he knew to the foreigners buying property and converting them to guesthouses and the changing landscape that accompanies vacation property development.
Walking through the town is to appreciate a slower, relaxed pace of life, not unlike what we have in the villages in Trinidad, but even that is being lost with ever increasing urbanization. Walking around the medina is to appreciate the the old, restored houses with their special doors and Zellige tiles. (Zellige or Zellij is terra cotta tilework covered with enamel in the form of chips set into plaster. It is one of the main characteristics of the Moroccan architecture). Having Mohammed there to explain the houses and the restoration work was something that really helped me to appreciate the work that goes into these houses.
Asilah is a city of Art, with the artesans display their work everywhere. Simple clean lines, brilliant blue hues everywhere contrasting with the stark gleaming whites. It really is a picture perfect little town … for now.
Walking through the town with Mohammed and talking with the shopkeepers from the business-like Adbel, who has ideas to improve his situation but lacks the foresight and exposure to execute the vision that he has to Omar the affable Carpet salesman who has changed from the “Fassian carpet animal” that we have all grown weary of, into a more mellow, relaxed salesman who wishes to see change in the carpet selling ritual from the whole haggling drama into something more modern but is constrained by customs of his business and of the customers.
What is still amazing, is the trust that people here still have in each other. Closing the shop for 20 minutes, for instance, simply involves putting a wooden stick diagonally across the door and trusting that your neighbour will watch your goods for you. Living in Toronto or even going back home to Trinidad, this isn’t something that we have any longer, and it makes me sad that there are no future generations that will ever know that innocence.
After talking all day, it was time for tea and simple dinner … then time for more chat and story swapping …
No matter, where I travel, our stories of love, life and just being in the shared consciousness even if we’re not aware of each individual in it, are invariably similar. It’s just funny to remember that while sharing bread and chat with a man from Asilah.
Every day on the road, can’t be wonderful news experiences, great stories and picturesque backgrounds that should appear in travel magazines. Getting from Casablanca to Asilah has now become a war of attrition, since I have re-discovered that if there is any significant rain in Morocco, it has the effect of paralyzing most modes of public transport. In Toronto, 2 inches of snow can cripple the city, whereas in Montreal 12 feet of snow is a normal day in the park, different people react differently to weather conditions. The rain that I am seeing here, would be a day in the park for most Trinis, yet in a country of contrasts, the rain makes things work in super slow motion here.
Getting from Casablanca to Asilah normally requires getting the train, and it simply drops you in the Asilah train station. Add any rain, and your options become infinitely more complicated. Today’s weather rerouting mean that I have to take the CTM bus from Casablanca to Tangiers, then find a “Grand taxi” that will take me to Asilah and hope that the “Grand Taxi” will drop me off at the hotel that I have booked. In a stroke of good luck, the CTM station happened to be around the corner from the Sheraton Casablanca.
If one attempts to compare getting around Morocco, to getting around Spain/Germany/England etc, then you’re in for a rude awakening. Everything here runs on Moroccan time, so things leave on time but arrive “late-ish” – time seems to disappear on transportation here.
Typical way of getting from Casablanca to Asilah
- ONCF Trains leave 4 times daily from Casablanca and stop off in Asilah (1st class fare is 210 dirhams)
Atypical way of getting from Casablanca to Asilah
- ONCF trains to Tangiers leave 5 times daily (6 1/2 hrs, with no stop in Asilah, then head from Tangerville train station, on another train back to Asilah (Bad weather creates a condition where they cannot stop at Asilah … this defies logic … but I’m in Morocco)
- Take CTM bus from Casablanca to Tangiers (5 1/2 hours in good weather, 1000 hrs in bad weather – 130 dirhams), once in Tangiers, negotiate with a “Grand Taxi” and prepare to be herded like cattle with a couple other Moroccans into an old, beige, beaten up Mercedes Benz and enjoy the ride. You can also negotiate like me, and pay 200 dirhams to jump into a taxi, avoid the rainstorm and be at your hotel, nice and warm in time for dinner.
The other thing one notices when traveling at night in Morocco, is the lack of street lights and any sort of illumination on the highways here. It’s a normal part of driving here – which is why foreigners shouldn’t attempt to drive here until becoming reasonably habituated with the Moroccan social contracts of driving.
