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

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Post tags: it's raining in morocco

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

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Post tags: lunch time in asilah, what to do in 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.

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Post tags: asilah medina, asilah shops, day tripping to asilah, what to do in 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.

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Post tags: asilah top 10, how much does it cost to get from marrakech to asilah, how to get to asilah, HOW TO GET TO asilah from marrakech, marrakech to asilah

Casablanca is world famous because of a movie, nothing more, nothing less. I’ve never seen Casablanca, the movie, yet I was aware of two things : the movie and Rick’s Cafe. In traveling through Morocco for the past two weeks, it was almost unanimous amongst my Moroccan friends that my time would be best spent in the mountains, gorges, beach or the desert. The mention of visiting Casablanca was invariably met with a shake of the head or “Why bother going there? There’s the Mosque and that’s it”

After a very full 36 hours here in Casablanca, I have to agree with my Moroccan compadres, but in the end, it is a mandatory day trip between Tangiers and Fez. Having met up with Casablanca CS-ers, Djaffar and Maroune in the lobby of the Sheraton, they proceeded to show me a side of Casablanca, that I would have never seen by myself and to prove that in this metropolis of 8 million people, that it wasn’t just about the Mosque, but that it was about the people and Casablanca being a representation of the rest of Morocco : the land of constrasts.

Starting the day with some tea at the Sheraton, after introductions and chat, it was off to the Mosque. It is truly an impressive sight, dominating the Moroccan skyline and a truly massive structure. The Mosque was built on reclaimed land, almost half of the surface of the mosque juts into the sea. I was told that this was inspired by a verse in the Qur’an stating that ”the throne of God was built on water.”

Part of the floor of this facility is glass so worshippers can kneel directly over the sea; an at night, the laser from the top of the minaret toward Mecca. Looking at the Mosque below at night, you can see the slums in the background contrasted with the opulence of the mosque 

The mosque being on water were features were specifically requested by Hassan II, who declared,

“I want to build this mosque on the water, because God’s throne is on the water. Therefore, the faithful who go there to pray, to praise the Creator on firm soil, can contemplate God’s sky and ocean.”

After the guys smuggling me into the mosque, claiming I was a Muslim from India in Arabic, we flipped off our shoes and put them into the plastic bags available at the door, it was off to take some pictures. Although, the guides say that the mosque is open to non-muslims, because the mosque is only open during prayer time, where only muslims can walk in, it isn’t really open to camera flashing tourists.

The mosque is huge and cavernous and pictures really cannot capture the space and dimensions inside.

So after walking inside for about 20 minutes, they eventually kicked us out, since they had to prep for the next prayer. Eventually, it was time for lunch and it became a long tedious search for something decent to eat. Around the Mosque, there is posh and there is less than posh. We were walking in the less posh direction – so finding a place that was clean and hygenic by western standards was my requirement.

Eventually we found a nice place that served us some shared tagines for a pretty decent price – we ate two three person tagines, had some drinks and the total cost was about 16$ CDN … how can you not love  Morocco for the food and the cost.

After lunch, it was time walk through the Medina and through the other side of town. What struck me was the similarity of the scene to Saturday market in Chaguanas or Port of Spain. People on the roads selling, food displayed, people eating on the side of the streets, arguments about price … also along the way we walked through part of the medina where many of the locals live, there were tons of boys and men, playing football in the Medina, something like the urban Basketball courts you would see in NYC, except the Zidane version. Walking with Djaffar and Maroune gave me a confidence, that I would have never had walking around by myself and I certainly would have never wandered into this part of town, even with my black and gold djellaba. (Note – no one except me was wearing a nice djellaba, most of them I saw were a bit dirty or made of different materials, so I still stood out like a sore thumb here)

After wandering the Medina for a couple hours, it was on for some tea at Cafe Souraz … the CSers love this place and I can see why.

Then it was on for drinks at Rick’s Cafe. This veritable high end tourist trap is a haven for Americans, who’ve seen the movie. To be fair, the restaurant is built for expats : good security, lavish decor, top shelf booze, a good expat friendly menu and endless loops and paraphernalia from the movie (with English subtitles). Note that there is no gambling in Rick’s Cafe … the bar just has the fake roulette table.

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Post tags: casablanca top 10, day trip in casablanca, hassan II mosque description, one day in casablanca, things to do in casablanca, what to do in casablanca

Heading into the Ourika Valley is definitely a nice, short day trip from Marrakech. Like many other side trips from Marrakech, the scenery is spectacular and the contrasts are amazing. The Ourika Valley spreads between the first foothills of the Atlas Mountains, extending along the Wadi River. Despite it being so close to Marrakech, this beautiful green valley is one of the most pristine valleys in Morocco.

Now on this tour, the itinerary really includes the following

• Coffee break at the tour bus company’s brother’s cafe
• Picture stops where you will be hassled by the touts selling chains, trinkets and other pieces of crap. Yes, I got it, you’re poor and you sell to help yourselves. Great, but I don’t need more dogshit in my backpack, I have dirty drawers in there, but “Shukran” anyway.
• Mint tea. Now anyone who is experienced in Morocco, knows that “Mint Tea” is free, but with it, comes the obligation to look at shit you don’t need. Looking is free, but if one recalls the expert Moroccan sales technique, see the Fassian carpet salesmen, you shouldn’t accept tea, unless you’re looking to buy stuff.
• Lunch at another cousin’s restaurant
• Finally, the waterfalls and browsing through the “Lovely Berber village”, which is nothing more than a glorified version of Laventille in Trinidad i.e. Slum!

But those aren’t the right questions to be asking when one is attempting to day trip from Marrakech to Ourika Valley. The questions that you should ask, should include the following:

• What time does the bus leave? Between 9 and 9:45 am. Moroccan time is elastic time, do not expect to leave on time.
• How long is the drive from Marrakech to Ourika Valley, EACH WAY? : About 1 – 1 1/2  hours.
• Will you have to change buses? : No. One bus should take you there
• If the bus is late, do I get a refund or apology? Fuck no, to both questions unless you start shaming people .. which I have no problem doing in public. See previous article …
• Will I have a choice in seating? Hell no, unless you’re first on the bus or you politely suggest to the tour conductor that you will accept nothing but a front seat, by yourself.
• Will there be stops for lunch? Absolutely but only at the pre-determined restaurant. I brought my own lunch, and I was ok. I did buy some tea and coke, to be polite for using their plates, cutlery and stealing some tea meant from some French people.
• How much will it cost? If you book at your hotel, you will pay between 400 – 500 dirhams for this trip. If you walk into the souks, you can bargain and I paid 200 dirhams.

But the most important questions when taking this trip are:

• Are the old people on this bus, aware that going to see the Waterfalls involves an uphill 30 min hike?
• Are they aware that it is cold and their rheumatism might flare up?
• Are they aware that there is snow feeding the river, and that snow is cold, and that is cold snow is feeding the river, then the water will be cold. If the water is cold, then the air will be cold … i.e. it is going to be cold. Are they aware?

Failure to ask these types of questions will result in serious rage, Wajang behaviour and possible death and dismemberment to drivers and maybe the old people on board.

Aside from the itinerary, the Ourika Valley is a lovely place to drive through and if the weather is great, there would some great photography available.

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Post tags: day trip to ourika valley, Ourika Valley Day Trip from Marrakech, setti fatma waterfalls

I do crazy things all the time … or seemingly crazy things all the time, but crossing swinging bridges should really never be one of them

Note the gaps in the bridge and the “planks”

One could say that the Berbers cross these bridges all the time and that they never seem to be in mortal danger with these bridges or the fact the bridges don’t cause them stress. I’m not Berber, I’m a rather large Trini, whose  mountain goat skills are severely lacking.

Would you feel safe when you saw thin sticks of wood underfoot like this???

Would you???

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Post tags: bridges in the ourika valley

<Me … in full Wajang mode> What the hell is dis shit? Wha’ yuh mean that it cold, and the other people don’t wanna climb to the waterfall? Which part of my problem is dat? I paid for ah tour, and the highlight of today’s tour was climbing the waterfall, otherwise you all taking to me some shithole Berber village (something out of Laventille, really …), then attempting to take me to your brother restaurant for ah shitty tagine is not really fair and respectful to me. It ent my problem, your manager didn’t explain to the white people that the waterfall requires some flicking hiking … they think everything is convenient.

<interjects British guy> Hi there, I understand that you’re upset, but you can’t make 13 other people wait here, while you head up the waterfalls, it’s not fair to us either.

<me … changing back to Canadian accent> Hi there, I don’t really understand why you’re inserting yourself in this conversation. Are you the driver or the manager of the tour company? I didn’t think so … you have your viewpoint and I have mine. While you and your wife were making everyone else wait this morning, I didn’t complain. I didn’t complain when your wife bought extra herbs there from the vendor, I didn’t complain when your wife had a bad reaction to the vegetarian tagine … do you think no one else here understands English? This is for the driver and the tour manager to figure out, which they will.

I think it’s best you head back to the back of the bus, please and thanks.

<British guy> That’s a very inconsiderate and selfish view you have there.

<me … reverting back to wajang mode> That’s a very high maintenance wife you have … do you see me saying anything to you about it?

Part of traveling in Morocco is to get used to the time here and understand that the people here operate on “island time” just like Trinidad, except with one bad quality … their concept of “island time” also involves another Trinidadian concept called the “set up”. A “set up” is when someone fails to show up, is so late that you had to leave or promises something and fails to deliver as expected.

For the past three days, I have been the victim of “Island time” and a couple “Set ups”, and right now my patience is wearing very, very thin. Mix ups are part of traveling and dealing with your issues with grace and civility will work 98.9% of the time, however since this was the third set of mix-ups with this tour company, someone had to collect the “iron”.

However in Trinidad, lowering yourself to acting like this, is considered very bad form, but it is also considered necessary to get what you want/need/require when the powers that be, are ambivalent to your plight and issues. For a true expression of “Wajang” in Trinidad … one only needs to look at this video from Rachel Price. For a Trinidadian definition .. see here

Anyway, enough ranting, time for Casablanca.

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Post tags: island time in morocco, set up in morocco, wajang in morocco

So another thing you learn in a Muslim country is that the appearance of doing something is as important as actually doing something. Hence one of the customs I knew about in Muslim countries is that taking pictures of the mosques and military establishments are prohibited. One has to ask permission to take pictures first before doing so.

However if you’re driving in a van, just normally taking pictures and the police/gendarme happen to see your camera, they automatically assume that you’re taking a picture of them. This is a real bitch of a problem for a couple reasons:

• They will stop the bus, and pull the bus driver out and tear him a new one
• They will rattle off French/Arabic and broken Eng-rish at you
• They will seize your camera and look for “proof” of your photos – now at this point, you realize how helpless you are, cause if you did accidentally take a picture of their office or them, then you are in some deep mess.
• If they have your camera and decide to threaten to dash it to the floor cause you insulted them, you really can’t do anything about it
• They automatically ask where you’re from, and if you answer Trinidad, they think that you’re a threat. When you show them a Canadian passport, they ask why you said Trinidad. Then one might answer that you said Trinidad because you have no clue where it is and you might think it was American.
• Making sarcastic jokes to Moroccan gendarme is not recommended according to the Surgeon General of Morocco. It is not also not recommended for the health of your camera in their hands and it is not recommended because you might have to pay Baksheesh.

However, if you stand your ground and refuse to pay the Baksheesh, demand your camera and demand that they call the Canadian embassy immediately, since there was no picture of them or the gendarme office on your camera, so they can’t charge you with anything, but maybe being an unobservant dumbass enjoying the marvelous scenery and being so taken with it, that you didn’t notice the police check point – they will back down.

Like anything else, if you stand your ground, they will smile, the sharp words will tone down and they will laugh, hand you back your camera and let you be on your way.

Moral of the story : Always know where you are. Always know your rights. Always stand your ground, if you’re right and don’t flinch. Always know that they fear any embassy call, even in the depths of the Atlas mountains.

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Post tags: can you take pictures of police in morocco, moroccan customs

Stories of Morocco always include the Souks of Fez and the pulsating rhythms and energy of the Djemma el Fna but they don’t stress of overall beauty of the Morocco, especially when any walk outside Marrakesh has the backdrop of the snow capped Atlas Mountains.

Walking through the Djemma, there were tour companies that advertised available day trips and of the choices I had, which included

• Day trip to Essaouira
• Heading the Atlas Mountains
• Day trip to Ait Ben Haddou
• Day Trip to Ouarzazate through Ait Ben Haddou
• Ourika Valley with the Ouzud Waterfalls

After consorting with my Moroccan connection, I decided that I would do the day trip to Ouarzazate. This sounds wonderful as you drive through the snow capped mountains, gazing at magnificent scenery, navigating through twisting ,winding mountain roads, admiring picturesque Berber villages set in the mountains till you get to the red rocks of the Ouarzazate with its film sets for Star Wars, Gladiator and Lawrence of Arabia.

The pictures look amazing don’t they? The weather looks amazing doesn’t it? You couldn’t ask for better photographic conditions on a marvelously, sunny day, right?

Yes! Yes ! No!

But those aren’t the right questions to be asking when one is attempting to day trip from Marrakech to Ouarzazate. The questions that you should ask are the following:

• What time does the bus leave? Between 7 and 7:15 am
• How long is the drive from Marrakech to Ouarzazate, EACH WAY? : About 4 1/2 – 5 hours. Anticipate more like 5 hours
• Will you have to change buses? : If no, then this is awesome, but since you’re attempting a two day trip in one day, you will have to probably wait at Ouarzazate and change bus companies.
• If the bus is late, do I get a refund or apology? Fuck no, to both questions unless you start shaming people .. which I have no problem doing in public.
• Will I have a choice in seating? Hell no, unless you’re first on the bus or you politely suggest to the tour conductor that you will accept nothing but a front seat, by yourself.
• Will there be stops for lunch? Absolutely but only at the pre-determined restaurant. If you refuse to buy lunch, then you might have to walk for 5 mins … it was amazing to see people pay 80 dirhams for a Tagine, when I walked 5 mins away and paid 25 dirhams.
• How much will it cost? If you book at your hotel, you will pay between 500 – 800 dirhams for this trip. If you walk into the souks, you can bargain and I paid 250 dirhams.

That being said … the trip to Ouarzazate IS NOT a day trip. You’re spending 10 hours in a van, winding through roads with insane curves, through the mountains. You will have about 3 hours of total time where you are not driving. Unless you have a decent camera and are in the front seat to take great pictures while moving, you are going to have a miserable time.

On the bus, going to Ouarzazate, there were two people doing this day trip, while everyone else was doing at least a two day trip to the mountains. The other person who was day tripping with me, had to suffer for 10 hours in the back seat in the middle of two other people.

If you have two days, the drive through the countryside and to tour the film sets, then this is a wonderful two day trip, but rushing this in one day, is only for the sado masochists.

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Post tags: day trip to ait ben haddou, day trip to ait benhaddou, day trip to Ouarzazate, how much does a day trip to Ouarzazate cost, how much for day trip to ait ben haddou, how much for day trip to ait benhaddou