a full circle
So we found ourselves back in Marrakech after our whirlwind bus tour of Morocco. And it was lucky that Matt and I had decided to just do the hop-on hop-off bus on our first day in Marrakech and generally just wander aimlessly around because we did quite a few tourist activities on our last day of the tour.
We were met by our tour guide, who was a student in Marrakech, at our hotel. (I’m not sure whether I’ve mentioned before, but our hotel was in the Medina, or the old city, within Marrakech). From there we started walking to the Palais de la Bahia, where we had our tour guide take us around. It was pretty cool, but full of people. We did find out though that they have been using the courtyard below in the new Prince of Persia film that’s due for release in 2010.
This area of the palace has been used in the upcoming Prince of Persia film.
After the visit we went walking through the Souqs, looking at all the interesting shops and we actually got taken into a Pharmacy where they showed us a whole range of natural remedies and spices. Matt and I got some meat-seasoning type thing that I can’t really remember the name of now. We walked through the various sections of the Souqs, like the leather section.
Section of the souks - I can't remember which exactly
We were left in the Souqs, but Matt and I had appointments to get a Hammam later on in the day. They separate the men and the woman, so my Hammam was at 4pm and Matt’s was at 5pm.
It was wonderful, but a little expensive. Not the up front price itself, but it was only after the baths selection of the Hammam was over that I realised that I was supposed to tip the girl who helped me. She actually took my bag out of the locker and stood there while I got my wallet out, so I felt a little uncomfortable as I checked to see how much money I had.
From there, I was then lead into the massage room where I had an hour massage. I definitely felt relaxed after that and the masseuse didn’t even hover waiting for a tip.
That night we went back to have dinner in the marketplace, which was nice but very similar to the night before. It was a quick ordeal but we then had a cup of tea and a strange tasting cake at a little stall where the main salesman was a young boy. He was very funny and also very fast to warn us about the other children playing around the market that would try to pick our pockets when we weren’t looking. We hung around, playing football (soccer) with him with a rolled up piece of paper until he got told off my his dad (who was behind the stall) and we let him get back to work.
The next morning, we said goodbye to many of the other tour members after breakfast as many of them were heading back to home and work. Matt and I headed into the Souqs again for an extreme shopping experience. There were so many amazing things and while I could have brought heaps of things like tagines, I couldn’t see myself lugging them around for the rest of the holiday so I refrained from buying anything.
Matt managed to get us a “tour” of the tanneries, which consisted of three guys playing tag team to walk us in circles and then tried to sting us for £20 for the privilege. Lucky, I didn’t look impressed through the entire excursion so they realised quickly that they weren’t going to get much else out of us than what we had already offered and let us get out of there.
We had an early night that night as we wanted to head off to Casablanca early the next morning and I was wreaked.
You’re nearly there readers – only one more Morocco post to go now!
