The occasional traveller

and this is where the picture are: http://www.flickr.com/photos/92508029@N00/

Departure and last thoughts

We spent the last few hours of our vacation in the sun on the terrace of Riad Souad. There is something surreal about being in the warm sun, overlooking miles and miles of flat roofs with satellite dishes, with the Atlas Mountains in the background, and the prayers resounding from one minaret to the next all around us. I can’t quite explain it. When it was time to go, we had booked a transfer with the Riad. It cost us 150 dirham I think, no messing about. Got to the airport, filled yet again another landing card, spent the last few dirhams we had (watch out, not all shops in the airport accept them, and if they do, they usually inflate the price by 10% on average), and away we went.

In terms of food prices, a tajine or a couscous will cost you 40 dirhams in places on Djeemaa el Fna and about half that if you go on streets a little less busy (see comment on part 2). A Coke will cost you 14 dirhams, a salad anything from 5 to 20 dirhams for the same things depending on where you go. Bottled water if you buy in the shops cost around 3 or 5 dirhams, double that in restaurants.

I liked Marrakech, but I would only come back for a longer period than 4 days if we had excursions booked. Obviously this was the first time away with Noah, so that was out of the question. My maximum would be one week, with 2 days of doing nothing, 1 day shopping, 2 days exploring the city and the rest doing excursions in the mountains etc… Obviously longer if you decide to go to other places like Tangiers or Casablanca. People are very welcoming and respectful, as long as you are too. Being in a Muslim country, I thought it was going to be a lot stricter than what I saw, but to be honest we behaved the same way we usually do.

So yes, I would recommend it for a long week end, ok with kids as long as you’re prepared. People are welcoming, the food is ok, and pricewise it is very reasonable. More than anything it is the feeling of being away from the day to day routine, but at the same time have the option to have familiar things around you: the French language for me, the TV.

It is also an excellent destination if you want to go travelling in India for example, but don’t know if you’ll cope. If you want to test yourself, go there, experience it, and whatever things you see make you uncomfortable or happy, multiply that by 100, and you almost get there.

Travelling with Noah, 6-months old.

So this was the most stressing unknown aspect of the trip: how was he going to be on the plane? Would he scream down? Would people just tell us to shut the kid up? Could we find what we needed once we got there? Would he get ill? What would we do?
Well, it went very, very well. He wasn’t scared on the plane, neither during the take off nor during the landing. We made sure he sucked on his dummy so his ears wouldn’t hurt and that he was either busy or asleep. We had brought all the formula, all the baby food pots and breakfast for 5 days, and 3 days worth of nappies, and some Calpol just in case. Once you get there, you can buy the nappies per unit and they really don’t cost much. I would definitely bring prepared pot food instead of relying on the local stuff, because you cannot know if and how your baby will react to the change. We brought a cheap pushchair that we use only when we travel on planes, so if it breaks, it breaks. And we also brought the baby sling as we expected the streets to be bad due to the cobbles. The cobbles weren’t too bad, but once you get in the souks or in the medina streets, it’s best to have the baby in your arms or in the sling, so that he’s not levelled with the mopeds exhausts, because they get quite bad and Noah had a really dirty nose, so it goes to show the crap he breathed. The good thing about Noah being in the sling is that people couldn’t touch them as much as when he was in his pushchair. Moroccans adore kids, and we had so many people pulling faces at him etc, it was great, but after a while it’s best if he’s left alone (let’s face it, you’d hate to have your cheeks pinched after a while).

Other places

For food, we’ve also eaten “Chez Brahim”. There are two places belonging to the same person, located within meters of each other when you walk from Riad Souad to the square.

The first one is the baker’s, or Patisserie. They have an outdoor terrace, and you can have your dinner there or in the room on the top floor. For some reason each dish is about 5 or 10 dirham less than the other “Chez Brahim” restaurant, a few meters further down the street. They have the same menus. Personally I prefer the one closest to the square, because you have live music that’s not too loud (can’t stand when you can’t hear each other talking), and it is much easier and comfortable to go there with Noah: the chairs are lower and more comfortable. In the first one you have to hold him and it’s just seriously unpractical.

Musée de Marrakech: now this is some serious architectural beauty. I will let you see for yourself on the pics I put on flickr. Just stunning. Entry is 40 dirham, and I think there was some weapons and contemporary art exhibition there, but truth be told, we were too taken by the building itself. It used to be a palace in the 19^th century, and it was all done up in the late 1990s. It is just “magnifique” and a nice escape from the busy streets of Marrakech.

Palais de Bahia: we really enjoyed this. It is a very big palace with many, many rooms (around 150 rooms on one level if I remember), several gardens and patios. Beautiful architecture, built late 19^th Century. Again, a nice place to visit when you’re fed up with the hustle and bustle of the souks. Entry was 10 dirham, bargain! I’ll let you appreciate the pics on Flickr.

Jewish quarters: our favourite part i think. It is quieter, more laid back, people aren’t as in your face as in the other parts of the souk, and guess what: some shops even have price tags on them!! Oh I say!!! I wouldn’t go as far as saying we pay the same prices as the locals though. That just won’t happen, but at least it gives you a benchmark to use when haggling (sorry – comes with the job, I can’t help it).

After all this walking on the last day, we were too tired, so decided to take a horse drawn carriage back to the square. It is quite common out there, used as much by locals as by tourists, although yet again the prices must differ by I dread to think how much. We just wanted a ride back to the square from the bottom of the Jewish quarters. The guy offered us the whole tour – about 20 minutes he said, for 200 dirham, which works out at around £15/£17. We said we just want to go back to the square, so he said: How much you got? How much you want to pay? I said “nothing” but I don’t think he saw the humour, so we agreed on 80 dirham and that was that. There’s one thing I learnt on my travels, in particular in India, they hate it when their neighbours take money they could have had. So if you are really stuck on a price, start walking to the next carriage. Before you know it, the guy will have chucked you in his cart and you’re away.

Craft/business/haggling

People just cram in any hole they can find to run a business. Sometimes you see a doorway in a wall, filled with shoes, and an old man repairing them. You need to see it to believe it really. Same thing with cookware or carpenters for example. They seem to be able to produce incredible things out of nowhere, with not much at all. You will rarely see price tags. My opinion and experience is that you will be offered a stupidly inflated price, because they know you will haggle anyway. So if you are told 200 dirham for an item, offer 50, they’ll shake their head, walk off, they’ll call you back

Djemaa el Fna and the Souks

Djeemaa el Fna is the point of reference in the Medina. This is where the Koutoubia (main Mosque) is located, where you can access the souks, the market, the banks, the Muslim and the Jewish quarters and much more. As previously mentioned it took us about 15 minutes by foot to get there, with the help of Gerard: turn left, left, and right. Great!
The place itself is again a vast space, but very busy with snake charmers, market stalls (most of them sell dried fruits and fruit juice), people with monkeys (who do tricks), and the usual locals who try to make a living by looking weird and wonderful and charging you for just looking at them. The place is lined with restaurants and cafes and most of them have terraces that overlook the square. The ones we went to, that I can recommend are the Café de France (both restaurant and café), le Grand Balcon du Glacier (mmm, pizza! And great views of the place and its surroundings), and there’s a small place just before the gate that leads to Jewish quarter called café/restaurant Toubkal. I don’t know if it because they are not right on the place or not, but their prices are up to 4 times less than the places previously mentioned. I would recommend that one above every other place we’ve been to. They all serve the same food, so you might as well get the best deal.

The Souks. Where to start? I couldn’t possibly tell you how big they are, miles and miles of labyrinths, full of leather good shops, spices, jewellery shops, traditional Moroccan tableware such as Tajine dishes, teapots, glasses, trays etc. We went there in the morning, where it was less busy, traders were more relaxed. They still tried to flog us everything they could, but i think we did well: we ended up with a pair of red babouches (traditional Moroccan shoes – “Hey, have Adidas Berber for Mustapha”) for Noah, a bag and a belt. The best thing to do is to take a map of the whole town and pray for the best. I wanted to stick to our route, but Mark being a man “I know where I’m going”, we ended up somewhere (I still don’t know where we’ve been), walked for about 2 hours, trying to dodge the scammers. The locals are very good at spotting lost foreigners (the pale skin and the map kind of gives it away lol), and they’ll tell you: “I take you to the place”, and you end up in his shop. And miles away from where you want to be. And if you piss them off, as Mark did, as he lost patience, they send you the opposite direction. The best thing to do is to walk to a proper shop, and ask for direction if the employee looks decent and educated. You know that they won’t rip you off because they don’t live off what they can get on the street. This is what I did, and fortunately the girl spoke French. She sent us the right directions, but once there, we hit a wall. We were so desperate by then that a guy accosted us, and offered to take us back to the Riad. We thought it was a scam again, which it kind of was – he wasn’t doing if for free and, we gave him 4€ – but we got there. The problem is that there are no signs, and the streets all end up on other streets, and you just never see the end of it. I can’t stress how important it is to stay together, because you are pretty much at the mercy of the guy who is taking you back to the place. You could easily get mugged if you are not careful. So stick together, zip your bag and hide your cash. I must admit at some point I wasn’t feeling too clever when Mark was ahead of me with Noah (he thought I was right behind him), and the “guide” was pushing for more money (which to be honest he deserved). So I reached in my bag, and for some reason I turned and saw another guy following us, and it was obvious these two knew each other. So I stuck two coins in his hand and legged it. Maybe nothing would have happened, but stay safe and take precautions.

The arrival and accommodation.

Ok, it is not quite that limited, but I think we must have heard: “want shoes? Look Adidas Berber” about 50 times, while we were shown traditional Moroccan shoes.

So here goes. We landed in Marrakech airport at 7.00pm on Wednesday, after a 3.5-hour flight from East Midlands. The airport itself looks very recent and is stunning, but unfortunately people are not allowed to take any pictures of what they call strategic points in the country. This includes airports, train stations, some buildings. Obviously you always have some uninformed people or just idiots who think they are above everyone else and try it on. That usually does not last too long, as let’s face it, it is embarrassing (and scary) to be shouted at by moustached officials in Arabic. Anyway, we are told we have to fill in landing cards before going through the customs. It would have helped to have been told that on the plane, especially as there are no pens available at all and everyone is walking around looking for pens. Officials just look like they want to bite you when you go near them asking if they have one etc… eventually we made it. Please note, you must have an address to make it through immigration. Fortunately I made a note of where we stayed. So we get our entry stamp in our passport and off we go. I had booked an airport transfer with the riad where we stayed. And what a good idea that was!! There are plenty of taxis waiting at the airport, but you would be very lucky to find one that will take you where you want to go. They’d rather take you to a place they know, where they’re probably on commission etc. We had this trouble in India, and there was no way I was going to be arguing with a taxi driver with a 6-month old baby in tow because he wouldn’t take us where we wanted to go, or worse, leave us in the middle of nowhere, or charge us a ridicule amount.

So the ride went ok, dodging the donkeys and mopeds and people. We first went through the New Town where the palace is, the Presidents’ gate – la Porte des Presidents. Very vast space, clean, landscaped, looks very empty, but then, you get to the Medina, or Old Town, and Oh.My.God!! People everywhere, donkeys, mopeds, stuff basically.

The driver (really nice guy) parked his car where he could, and we walked for about 5 minutes to where we stayed. After turning left and left and right for what seemed ages, and going through small streets, we got there: Riad Souad. To say it is an Oasis is not an understatement. It is owned by a French couple, Nathalie & Gerard, and opened in May 2010. There are four rooms, and we stayed in the Santal room, where the beds were brought together, and made the biggest bed ever!!! The room is beautiful, and as the rest of the riad, full of Moroccan features. The riad itself is clean, clean, clean!!! Pretty much brand new. Nathalie and Gerard really made our stay easier with small attentions that made such a difference – remember this is the first time we took Noah abroad on holiday, where we have no ties. So there was a travel cot in our room, they had turn the heater on (even though it was 20 degrees, to them it was cold HAHAHA) so that Noah wouldn’t get cold, and we had access to the kettle – when you have a hungry Noah at 6.00 am, you’re pleased to have it at your bedside. Their cook, Fatira, had prepared us dinner. She is a lovely lady, who adores babies! The riad also has a pool on the terrace. The terrace overlooks the Medina, and you can see the Atlas Mountains covered in snow in the distance, as well as the Koutoubia mosque and a few more. Riad Souad is located about 15 minutes by foot from the centre and its souks, but more of that later.

After our dinner we head off to our room, and sleep until…around 5.30, where Noah decided he would wake up in time for the second prayer of the day (that’s when you’re happy you have a kettle!). When monsieur is happy and fed, we manage a lie in until 9.30 (bliss).

Breakfast was served with fresh juice, bread, pastilla, and very, very, sweet mint tea. This is their national drink and they like it…sweet. A lot of Moroccan is sweet and there is a high percentage of diabetes, but it is no wonder. So this is pretty much the pattern we followed in the morning (I won’t bore you anymore with that). We enjoyed the sun on the terrace – temperatures were around 24 degrees which was fantastic and perfect for us, although we were lucky as usually this time of year is wet and much colder.

Last time i wrote on this blog was the 2nd of December 2008, before we were heading back to Goa for New Year. Since then, life took over and i pretty much forgot about the blog until about 30 mins ago, when i received a post saying how good it was to get real life information. And it all came back how much i enjoyed writing on here. So there. I am back, with a new element in the mix: Noah, 5 months old apple of me and his dad’s eyes (remember Mark?). He had his first passport at 6 weeks old (looks well cheesed off on it), and he’ll probably be able to pack his own rucksack before he can walk. So i will be sharing me experiences on travelling alone, as a couple, and with a baby in tow. I have been to Budapest, Holland, Belgium, Germany since i last wrote on here, and we’re off to Marrakech in January for some winter sun. So i will no doubt share all this, and hopefully you will enjoy it and find the info useful.

Sorry, just so excited. We are heading back to Goa on 31st December, staying in Colva for 2 weeks. Last time we were there was in November 2006, and we missed it so much, and go so annoyed with the English summer, that we saved our time off and booked our holidays. Obviously every one i spoke to is a bit apprehensive for us as we go via Mumbai, and following this week’s events, it is understandable, and i must admit it was quite upsetting to see the pics of Leopold’s Cafe, the hotels and the train station, but there again life goes on, and personnally i feel safer in Goa than i would in London or Paris. So my questions are: how are things in Mumbai for those of you that have been in transit through the city? and are there any gigs worth going to around Colva on New Year’s Eve/Day? any recommendations would be welcome.

Thanks

PS: so pleased to be back ;0

Woke up this morning, got a lovely tan, felt on top of the world!!!! Opened the shutters, gorgeous weather. From our balcony we can see both the mountains and the sea. We had breakfast there and after slapping some serious suncream on, we made our way to the pool, where we spent the whole day – I know, not very adventurous, but it was just soooooo relaxing. At about 6.15pm we took the bus to Kos, (1.80 euro one way – passes once an hour). The journey lasts about 20 minutes. Kos really is a lovely, lovely city. Full of shops, bars and restaurants with a small port. We went for food in a greek taverna called Ouzeri (if I remember – will check tomorrow). Nice food, good service, highly recommended. We are now back at the hotel where I am writing this from. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow, but on tuesday we are catching the boat to Turkey for the day. Until then we shall enjoy the sun and maybe hire a quad to go around the island. Bye for now.

Good evening/morning all, it has been such a long time since I wrote on this blog, but this is because i haven’t really been anywhere worth mentionning. We are now in Greece (my first time) on the island of Kos, which is part of the Dodecanese group of islands, and I love it. We arrived yesterday after a crap flight from Manchester that got us at 2.30 / 3.00 in the morning. Thankfully we had the transfer sorted through the travel agent so a bus was waiting for us to transfer the various holiday makers to the different resorts. My experience of package holidays started with the Canary islands, which is probably the worst place to start as all it is is just a factory where bucket loads of tourists flog to get the best tan, the best sunbed, the most drunk, and the most sunburnt. A few years ago, I went to Portugal on the same “format” of holiday, but it was nowhere near as bad. And I must admit this one is pretty brilliant too. I was a bit scared, as after backpacking, I used to think package holidays were shit. But truth be told, it quite nice not to have to worry about how to get to the resort, whether a room will be available, will we get ripped off etc. We arrived at the resort at 4.00am, in the small town of Tingaky, and are staying at the Fili apartments. It really is a nice quiet resort (we’re not too hot on the 18/30 club), about 9km from the main city of Kos and 2km from Tingaki’s town centre. The hotel itslef is made out of several self contained studios, all very clean, really well kept grounds and 3 spotless pools (one of which for toddlers). The custom is mostly very young families or older people (mainly heavy scottish drinkers, one of them being a girl in her 30s who has got the broadset accent ever – i thought she was dutch!) or young couples like us. During the day it is really laid back with all kinds of music playing, there’s also a pool table and a “babyfoot”, or table football. The food is dirt cheap and there’s plenty of it. I must admit that I felt really bad, when after some sleep we got up and went to the centre, ordered breakfast at la Scala on the main square, I coudn’t say thank you and good bye in greek. I am just not used to this and felt really rude. After nosying around and doing some shopping we went back to the resort and just crashed on the sunbeds until 6.00pm. In the evening we stayed in the hotel bar and had food and drinks. Just a nice way to spend a Friday ;0