Last Updated on October 17, 2019
Bonjour drifters! Guess where I just got back from yesterday? Nope, not France! (Well, I was technically there for a layover). If you guessed Africa, you’re right! I’ve spent the past week and a half in Morocco, and boy was that a long trek to get there. I started by taking a 3.5-hour bus ride up to Seoul, followed by a 12-hour flight to Paris, followed by a 4-hour layover, and finally a 3-hour flight to Casablanca. Despite the long long flight, I was thrilled to mark this trip as having flown around the entire world! (I’ve flown from Paris west to the States, from Los Angeles west to South Korea, and now South Korea west to Paris!)
I did this trip with one of the other military spouses stationed in Kunsan with us. When we made it to Casablanca Airport, we were so happy to finally have arrived. Our first Moroccan experience, though, did not give us a great first impression. We went to a booth to get some Moroccan dirham (Morocco’s currency) out. We read that many places in Morocco, especially in the souks, did not accept credit cards and to be sure to have cash. Having told the clerk how much money I would like out, she told me that it would be best to do half on a provided bank card and half in cash. If places weren’t going to take my personal credit or debit card, why would they take a bank card? I told the woman no and that I would like it all in cash please. After a few more tries of trying to sell me on getting this card and me consistently saying no, she then began to mock me to her coworkers right in front of me “Ooo, I’m American, and you can just give me alllll the cash, oooo”. Thank goodness I was beyond exhausted from the trip and her mocking didn’t get my blood boiling too hot. I simply ignored it and walked away after getting my money.
Refreshed and optimistic, the next day we arrived in Marrakech. We checked into our riad, Dar Zaman, (our accommodations for the first leg of the trip), and it was beautiful (a little small), but the host was very friendly and helpful with everything. He carried up our bags to our room, then went down to make mint tea and cookies for us as we settled in before hosting a “map class”, where he sat down with us and a few maps of the area to give us all of the insider information of where everything was, what he recommended seeing and doing, and what types of things – or people – to avoid. Ready for a better experience in Marrakech than the start to our trip in Casablanca, I grabbed my camera and we headed towards the souks to wander around and do a little shopping. Not even two minutes down the road, a man stopped in front of me and yelled “God gives you everything” – I can only assume this was because I was American and had a camera around my neck. Luckily, after this incident, we were just prepared that most Moroccans did not like us. We expected the comments from this point on. They did start to get less offensive and just more of an annoyance to us, but we weren’t going to let it get in the way of our time in Morocco.
After shopping around and grabbing dinner, we decided to head back to our riad early for a good night’s sleep. This was when we encountered what we were warned about, guys telling us that we were going the wrong way. First of all, maybe this would confuse some tourists, but these guys have no idea where you’re going. They are just trying to confuse you, make you second guess yourself, and get you turned around and lost in the maze of souks so that you have to end up asking one of them for directions, where they will expect money for their help. Fortunately, we were warned about this at the beginning of our trip and refused directions or help from anyone throughout the duration of the trip. We definitely got lost many times, as like I said, the souks are an endless maze, but the best thing that we could do was just keep walking until we figured it out on our own. If you stop to look at your phone or a map, you are an instant target. We did this once or twice and even had children come up to us trying to see our map on our phone to tell us where to go to try to point us in the wrong direction. The locals, very quickly, became an incredible nuisance to us.
Unfortunately, the food in Morocco was not great. We both decided to go vegetarian while we were there. Not only did we want to play it safe in terms of not wanting to get sick at all, but we were also beyond grossed out by the number of stalls in the Medina that had the carcass of cows, lambs and chickens hanging for all to see. Most of what we ended up eating was couscous, lots of bread, and vegetable tagine (a local dish of roasted vegetables). The water is unsafe to drink in Morocco, so we had to not only use bottled water for drinking and brushing our teeth, but also take extra precautions when showering (do you know how hard it is to keep your mouth closed in the shower?!), and also when ordering food or beverages. Ordering anything with ice was a big risk, ordering foods with fresh produce that needs to be washed to be prepared, such as a salad or any cold vegetable dish, was not a good idea. Our food options were very limited.
We spent most of the trip shopping around the medinas of Marrakech and Fes. Again, the locals got to be extremely annoying. We finally made a game out of it and started to count the number of men that would either make a comment to us or try to get us to stop in their shop on a 15-minute walk we took through the medina. Approximately 25-30 men. When we did actually stop in a shop, you had to really look around and decide if you wanted something or not, because the moment you ask for a price, you most likely aren’t leaving the shop without that item – or at least it will take a lot of effort. If you refuse their initial offer of a price, they tell you to name your best price. When you actually offer how much you want to spend, they make a disgusted look on their face and moan and groan about how low of a price that is for such a high-quality product. At this point, they usually try to uptalk their product either by taking a flame to the product to show that it’s “authentic” due to it being flame-resistant, or by telling you a story of how they spend so much time and effort making that product in their factory or warehouse. After the first few times of experiencing this, it becomes amusing to see what they will come up with. The trick is to stick to your price. Tell them that’s all the money you have, that you won’t go any higher, point out a flaw in the product if there is one. If they don’t match your price or get relatively close to it, just say no and walk away. At this point, they will usually follow you out the door and give you a lower price or say “fine” and match your offer. Then they will give you a high five or a hand shake to seal the deal.
One thing on our Morocco to-do list was to have afternoon tea at the Royal Mansour in Marrakech. We called many times for reservations, but either they wouldn’t answer or they were booked for the day. We decided to drop by in attempts to just browse the palace and maybe have a cocktail, but whoa! It’s a surprise you ever got us off the property. Morocco has a certain… stench to it. It’s definitely a dirty city. The moment you step onto the Royal Mansour’s grounds, the air smells so sweet and delectable, as if they infuse perfume into the sewer system and vents. Once we got closer to the palace itself, there was a security guard that checked our bags before allowing us to officially enter the property. We were in awe. The courtyard was beautiful and surrounded by multiple sitting rooms or bars, a restaurant, and multiple gardens. We ended up going out to the garden bar to grab a cocktail as we looked up the prices for a room – only $4000 per night…
On our last day in Marrakech, we booked a group tour with Get Your Guide to go on a day trip to the Atlas Mountains. There was a van that picked us up near our riad with the other travelers in our group, most of which were from the UK. We then headed to our first stop – camel rides! When we arrived, we were invited to sit in the shade under a canvas tent for some mint tea before getting on the camels. We each got a traditional Moroccan dress to put over our clothes, along with a scarf that was tied in our hair for us to cover our head. The camels were all attached to one rope and were demanded to lay down so we could easily get on them. A few of the camels would start grunting or screaming when people would get on… clearly, they were not into it. Once we were on, the camel would stand up and we began our journey. A man led the front camel, holding onto the rope to guide us, and there were a few men walking aside us to make sure the camels were all behaving and that everyone was doing okay. The ride lasted about a half hour – which was plenty for us. We were initially talking about going on a Sahara Desert trek, in which we would have been on a camel a LOT longer and would have had to sleep in the desert. We are so happy we decided against that idea.
After our camel ride, we stopped at a local market where local Moroccans go to buy their produce and meat, along with other random household items. It was an interesting experience, and we got a lot of looks from the locals who didn’t approve of us being there. Outside of the market, there was a “parking lot” of donkeys and mules who had most likely assisted the vendors in transporting their goods to the markets – or their mode of transportation. From what it seemed, many locals got around via walking or riding a horse, donkey or mule where they needed to go. Very few locals had cars from my perception.
Following the market, we made a stop at a roadside argan oil shop. We all sat outside at picnic tables and were brought baskets of pita bread and three dishes – one with argan oil, one with honey, and then one with a mixture of the oil, honey and argan nut (almost similar in texture to almond butter). I can’t tell you how much I missed peanut butter or almond butter (most countries outside of America don’t have nut butters it seems), so I really enjoyed indulging in the argan butter-like dip. After we ate, we went into the shop where local Moroccan women sat on the floor crushing and grinding argan nuts to make argan oil. Afterwards, they showed and demonstrated the products in the shop and the benefits of each. Mainly they are used to soften plus repair the skin and hair.
We were on our way to the Atlas Mountains for our last stop of our day trip. We stopped in a little town in the mountains called Imlil where we began our hike. We trekked past many little huts on the trail that were selling traditional Moroccan rugs. We stopped once we arrived at some small waterfalls with a seating area for travelers to rest for a bit. We turned around and then headed to a restaurant called Riad Atlas 4 Seasons, where we had reserved tables on the balcony overlooking the Atlas Mountains. It was beautiful! We had a Moroccan vegetable salad dish to start, then were served a vegetable tagine, followed by a fruit plate of melon and grapes (I was a little tedious eating them based on how they probably had to wash them, but took a chance and felt fine). We ended our day trip journey after the meal and had a two hour drive back to our riad in Marrakech.
The next day we were to head to Fes via train. Though, there was one last thing on our to-do list in Marrakech – see Le Jardin Majorelle. This garden is right next to the Yves Saint Laurent museum but was originally purchased by Yves and Pierre Bergé when they discovered the garden and found out it was to be destroyed to build a hotel complex. Yves Saint Laurent found a lot of inspiration from this garden, and I can see why! The garden was absolutely stunning! There were so many beautiful, vibrant colors that made you feel like you were in a different world. We arrived to the garden the minute it opened, which is what I would highly suggest for anyone wanting to visit. We were one of the only ones in the garden for a little bit before crowds began to take over.
After checking out of our riad, we headed to the train station to catch our late morning train to Fes. It was about a 7-hour train ride. Even in 1st-class, it wasn’t ideal. We arrived and headed straight to our riad, Riad Jaouhara, where we checked in, had some mint tea courtesy of our hosts, and then headed out to the medina for dinner. Our riad was much larger than the one in Marrakech, but the hosts were not as friendly or helpful. We were happy to have a nice large room with views of the courtyard garden and pool, though. The room was lined floor to ceiling with intricate tile and woodwork, plus stained-glass windows, which were gorgeous when the light would flood in. We spent most evenings in the courtyard drinking mint tea before going to bed.
Our second day in Fes, we happened to be near the Chouara Tannery, which we weren’t planning on doing until the following day, but we decided to go ahead and see them while we were there. Actually, finding them was a whole different challenge, though. I had read from multiple blog posts that shop 64 had the best views. I can’t tell you how many streets we went down looking for shop 64. Eventually, an older woman hollered out to us asking if we wanted to see the tanneries. We were very skeptical, as we had learned to not trust the locals. After moments of contemplation and hesitation, we decided to follow her. She led us down a maze of narrow dark allies, twisting and turning down directions we would have never ventured down ourselves. After one of many glances at each other trying to decide whether or not to turn around and forget it, the woman brought us into her huge leather shop, filled with leather bags, backpacks, poofs, belts, shoes, and more. She spoke Arabic to a man and then handed us off to him who took us upstairs to their shop’s balcony, which presented a beautiful view of the Chouara Tannery. The man handed us leaves of mint to mask the smell wafting through the air, and explained the process of how they make the leather. Once we got our fill of observing this magnificent process, we headed back down to the shop to browse around before leaving – and yes, the woman helped lead us out of the maze, thank goodness!
To be honest, I think one day in Fes would have been enough. We were already out of stuff to do by the second day. Something very popular in Morocco is a hammam, which is a spa where you use a special black soap and get scrubbed down. We weren’t particularly into that idea, but were liking the idea of a massage! We found one of the top-rated spas in Fes and booked an appointment for a massage. Let me tell you…this was the Worst. Massage. EVER! Pretty sure the woman massaging me went to the bathroom right before and didn’t wash her hands, then she came over to the table where I was laying down and started taking out my hair out of my ponytail. I told her no and took it out myself. She then started down at my feet (which were filthy from walking around in sandals on the dirty streets all day). She worked her way up from my feet and then… onto my face! This wasn’t a simple temple massage. No. It was he rubbing her hands all over my face and eyes and it was so disgusting and uncomfortable knowing that my makeup was smearing all over the place, plus she just came up from working on my feet! She also was using a TON of oil that it was actually dripping off of me and all over my face and in my hair, as well. The massage was supposed to be 45-minutes long, but probably only lasted about 15-20 minutes, as they let us “rest” for awhile. Ummm, I can go back to my riad and sleep on our own bed… The massage therapists also kept whispering the whole time we were getting our massage. Just because our eyes are closed doesn’t mean we can’t hear you! After the massage, the massage therapists asked us how they did compared to massages we had in the states. We had such a hard time lying to them but simply wanted to get out of there to go back to the riad and shower. We told them they did a good job, had some complimentary tea and cookies, and then fled!
Our last day in Fes, we were ready to be done with Morocco, as we were all shopped out. We decided to look into other fun local activities we could do to waste the day away. We found a beautiful riad called Palais Amani, which offered activities from hiking trips to cooking classes. We opted for yoga in the morning and then a baking class in the afternoon. The yoga was a wonderful way to start the day. The streets were nice and quiet commuting to the riad, the air was still cool, and [most of] the obnoxious locals were still sleeping (a.k.a. not bothering us). We arrived and were led to the rooftop terrace of the riad, which was absolutely stunning. The sun was just peaking up over the buildings, which gave the filthy city of Fes a nice refreshing glow. Our yoga teacher was from Spain, but had traveled all over the world teaching yoga. She was staying in Morocco for a few months. We still wonder how in the world she is managing to do that and stay sane – one week was plenty for us! Though, we did notice that travelers who happened to have somewhat of an accent that wasn’t American were treated with a little more respect than us. The yoga class was great. There were only four of us total in the class. The only nuisances were the flies that kept swarming around us, and the awful awful smells of livestock starting to waft up from the Medina.
Later on, we navigated our way back to the Palais Amani for our baking class. It was just us two for the class. We were greeted with mint tea and cookies before starting. We then headed up to the rooftop terrace where we had yoga that morning, and found a nice set-up on the floor of all of the ingredients we needed for the class. We learned how to wash our hands the traditional Moroccan way with a tea kettle and bar of soap, then had to tie scarfs in our hair to cover our head and hold our hair back. We kneeled on a pillow on the floor next to our ingredients and bowl, and followed what the Riad’s chef was doing. She would speak to the experience coordinator, who was accompanying our class, to translate to us what we needed to do. We started with making a traditional Moroccan bread, which was very simple to make. Once we had the dough ready, we wrapped it in a cloth, put it on a board, and walked – with the boards on our heads, as the locals do – to the local neighborhood oven for them to bake the bread for us. The riad does have ovens, but supposedly many bakers come to the neighborhood oven to bake their breads since it gives it a smoky flavor. We dropped off our bread and then headed back to make our cookies. The cookies were a little more complex to make. They were a lemon coconut cookie with a hint of orange blossom, which we used on our hands to roll the cookies. Once the cookie dough was complete, the chef put those in the riad’s oven and we headed back to the neighborhood oven to pick up our bread. The worker baking the bread was an older tiny man. He saw me taking pictures and asked to pose for a picture of him baking the bread because he was so proud of the work that he did – it was adorable!
We headed back to the riad and were directed to the beautiful courtyard where an older man (the riad’s nightguard) was sitting on the floor making mint tea for us. He showed us how to make it and how to add in all of the ingredients properly. We sat there sipping tea as we waited for our cookies and bread to arrive. One of the employees of the riad told us some history of the culture. The sugar they use for the tea were molded into blocks of sugar that needed to be hammered to break apart. When a couple is married, each guest is required to bring two blocks of sugar to wish them a sweet marriage – these aren’t small bags of sugar! I can’t even imagine receiving that much sugar! The riads were all designed for the wives of the owners of the riads. Many men were allowed to have four wives along with as many girlfriends on the side that they wanted. When they would move in with their wives, they were not allowed to step foot outside or look out the window onto the town, so they created an outdoor space inside for them, hence the beautiful courtyard gardens each riad has. Each courtyard has four separate garden areas that represent each season of the year (haha or each wife?), with a beautiful fountain in the middle. I would have liked to have been able to talk to these “nicer” locals more about the history and questions we had, but our bread and cookies arrived. We indulged in our creations and then headed to the rooftop terrace one more time to enjoy a “last-night in Morocco” cocktail and appetizer before heading back for the evening.
Our last day in Morocco, we woke up happy to leave. One week in Morocco was a bit too long for us. We felt as though we saw most everything that Marrakech and Fes had to offer, and were getting quite exhausted from all of the rude locals – especially the men. We took a 4-hour train ride back to Casablanca and headed to the airport. Unfortunately, we had to end our Morocco experience on a sour note. The cab driver that took us from the train station to the airport was extremely rude. Of course, he initially tried to up the price of what we were promised for the cab ride, and when we arrived at the airport, he didn’t pull over to a drop-off spot, he stopped in the middle of a one-lane road and told us to get out there. Unexpected, we did not have our cash ready yet. So, we started digging through our wallets to get the cash out while he aggressively threw our bags out of the trunk and got back in the front seat as I was handing him the cash and grabbing all of my belongings from the back seat. The moment my hand moved towards him with my cash, he snatched it out of my hand, threw it at the dashboard, turned around and screamed at us to get out of the car. Granted there were cars behind him honking, but I’m sorry, whose fault was it to stop somewhere that wasn’t a drop-off location? He sped away almost before the door even closed, and we walked into the airport in complete shock and confusion of what just happened. We were sooo ready to get out of Morocco. We had an amazing, eye-opening experience visiting Morocco and are glad that we went, but, honestly, we don’t think we could genuinely recommend that others visit the country. We both have such a bad taste in our mouths of how we were treated that it sort of overshadowed the good experiences that we did have on the trip. We also believe that supporting tourism in Morocco is complete nonsense if tourists will be treated the way we were. Without tourism, Morocco would be hurting, as they make over $6 billion in tourism revenue (statistics from 2016, and probably much larger now). Take our advice or leave it, but until next time, Go Catch the Drift! (Just not in Morocco) LOL
Ta ta for now, drifters!
XO,
Kylie
Missed last week’s update? Check it out right here!
