We arrived in Marrakech feeling relatively well rested (compared to some other night buses we had) at around 8am. The station produced the usual gaggle of taxi drivers and hawkers. We had picked up another two gringos (Mark and Mark if you recall) but fortunately for us Swiss Mark, like most other Eurpoeans, spoke about 5 languages. Even more helpfully, the languages included English (to speak to us) French (to speak to all the Moroccans) and Italians (to speak to the Italians). So we had no trouble at all negotiating two taxis into town.

We then had the fun of trying to locate our hotel. Mark & Mark went off to theirs (but not before we arranged a date for dinner) and we set off in search of ours. For those that haven't been to Marrakech, it basically consists of a huge and fantastically amazing square where pretty much everything goes on, where there is a huge array of hawkers, fruit vendors, snake charmers, monkey men, gymnasts, shadow boxers, hand tattooists and gringos. Plus a fair amount of Moroccans too. Around the square, there are a tangle of narrow alleys that twist and turn and double back on each other, perfect for disoriented gringos fresh off the night train to get lost in, more often than not ending up in a dead end alley with someone offering 1000 camels for your girlfriend (as happened to Nato.. fortunately for Kato, he was holding out for 2000, having picked up a few bargaining tips from the Management Techniques of Attila the Hun, which he picked up from Woking library, a steal at 50p... but I digress).

Unsurprisingly, we were soon lost. Even less surprisingly, there were plenty of locals willing to help us. But we declined, in one case to the maniacal laughter of one guy, who assured us that we would never, NEVER find our hotel. Much to his disappointment, our American friends flagged down some passing gringos who happened to be staying at the hotel we were looking for and were kind enough to lead us there (without even asking for any dirham afterwards).

We had a delightful breakfast in the sun (finally! sun!) and then settled in to our new hotel. Then, showered and socks hastily hand washed (it was getting a bit dire for Nato), we went our separate ways and set about to explore Marrakech.

Which we found to be pretty, relatively clean and very interesting. And quite gringoey, with plenty of tourists around. Fortunately for us, they all seemed to look richer than we did so we were largely free of hawkers (or maybe it was Nato's socks..). We were looking for a side trip into the nearby desert managed to find one for three days that looked expensive and extremely gringoey. Not convinced, we went back to the square and got lost in the suq (the large market place), managing to come out with only a few purchases. The suq is not unlike Paddy's Market, but a little better organised, and the stall owners speak a little more English. As Mikey would say, the same.... but different.

Outside the market, Nato got attacked by some snake charmers. They draped water snakes over he and Kato, much to Nato's disgust, and forced them to take pictures (I was hiding in the pack and escaped mostly unharmed). He then tried to convince them to pay 100dh (10 euros) for the privilege of having been snaked, assuring Kato 'It's good luck!' . Yeah, for you maybe...

But we finally escaped (paying only 20dh... still too much) and retired to a rooftop terrace to drink bad nescafe and slightly better mint tea and watch the goings on from a more relaxed distance. There we met an Australian couple their honeymoon who had just driven in that day from Fes. So of course we questioned them extensively and arranged to meet them later for what was turning into dinner with a cast of thousands.

We met everyone and headed back to the hotel of Mark and Mark, which turned out to be an excellent hotel, offering free internet, hammam (traditional Moroccan bath), rooms with balcony and bathroom (and hot water) and a cheap buffet, which we opted to eat at (7 different kinds of Tajine! And cous cous!).

During dinner our Italian friends, Vanessa and Vito, outlined their plans for the next week which basically involved hiring a car and driving into deepest darkest Morocco, eventually hitting the desert near the Algerian boarder and then back to Marrakech. The car was pretty cheap already (about 35 euros a day) but as they had a bit of room left, they suggested that maybe we might like to go with them and make it even cheaper?

Not initially convinced (a week was a little more than we had initially planned to spend there), Kato and Nato then thought back to the expensive gringo tour of death and decided to take the kind Italians up on their offer.... after all, they had met so many Europeans all over the world, all of them speaking perfect English. They finally met a couple who didn't, it was only right that they spend a week driving around with them..

We decided to celebrate with a drink. This was no mean feat in Morocco, but we managed to find the only bar in town (except for Club Med). The guide book had described it much like the bar in Moss Isley (in the beginning of Star Wars) but we found it mostly full of alcohol starved gringos. At 60dh a beer, we only stayed around for one....