Salaam Walechem
I woke up this morning, had a stretch and ah, a morning yawn and..
Walked out of my riad – you stay one more night? No, I check out today – 12 o’clock. D’accord. Merci, Au revoir.
I walk out and up the narrow road towards the main street leading to Jemaa Al Fna. Round the corner past a few ladies, covered in the Islamic gear. Head down to meet Calif and Abdul for breakfast.
The street is narrow and stone. Shops on either side are small, maybe 6 or 8 feet across and packed with goods. I pass a butcher and a fruit stand. People on small mopeds go by and people shrink up next to the walls to let them pass.
I’m going to meet Abdul and Calif, two guys I met the other day who are studying English at a language school here. They live here in Marrakech and have dreams of getting out to America. These guys love America and especially the rap music. ‘I need to get to America, you know homie?’ ‘P. Diddy, he was here, you know? I tell you the truth homie! He spends 1 million dollars for one night, he had a HUGE party in one of our palaces. He brought all the laides, He is a true pimp, belive me homie, you can google it , i tell you.’ Awsome.
I met these guys walking down the street where I live and at first thought they were the typical touts that just try to get you into the shops, but it turns out that these guys are halarious and just real cool people. They want so much to give us a good image of Morocco.
Yesterday we took a ride with them up to the mountians and hiked up this mountain through a series of waterfalls. Calif’s family was from there, so he knew the area. We were about an hour and a half outside of Marrakech. After the hike we ate Tagine and grilled chicken kababs, sat around and drank tea and chilled.
Getting back to town we went to an Herbalist where we picked up this black soap to go to the Hammam, the public bath.
The Hammam was really awsome. For about 1 dollar, you get in there and walk into a 3 room area. Increasing in strength, almost like a steam bath. There are all these Moroccan guys in there (in bathing suits) washing up with buckes and these gloves that are for scrubbing the skin.
So we get in there and there is a whole process to this place. We have 4 large buckets. First we fill them up and slosh the tile floor, the whole place is tile and really hot inside. Then we sat down and chill and sloshed some water over us to wash off. Then we rubbed this black soap all over us and once again relaxed for a minute. The stuff takes a while to set in.
After its set in we rinse off again then exit for a rest, because its too hot in there. Then after a few minutes go back inside. Abdul tells Oscar, the Mexican guy from Cali, to lay down on the floor. He then puts on this black glove thing and starts scrubbing him down. I have to leave because again its too hot.
When I go back in I lay down and Abdul lays into me with this black exfoliating scrub thing. He basically scrubbed my whole body front and back then rinsed me off with a few buckets of hot water. When in Rome…
After that we went to rinse with buckets of hot water, then mixing in some cold water, then finished off with buckets of cold water. Sitting in this hot steam room and rinsing with these buckets of cold water, it was so good.
I would have never had this experience of walking into this public bath place on my own. No way. It was such a cool experience though. This is daily life (or actually 2x a week life) for the people here. I got to experience what they do, the real people. I still get these moments of awe where I realize where I am and what I’m doing, and how far outside of the life I was living these experiences are.
I meet Abdul and Calif for breakfast, OJ and omlette and some bread. We’re going to meet at noon and head to Casablanca to stay with Calif’s brother and ‘cook some chickens, they are cheap homie! only 20 dirhams, we’ll cook so many chickens, ya , I tell you!’
‘You have to wake up and stop kidding yourself. Travelling around 15 countries or something. You have to settle down, be near to your mother and father, find a nice wife. I tell you.’
-Abdul
‘Konto Atajawalo Hawla Al Alam’ (‘I was travelling around the world’ – in Arabic)
The night before that we went out to an underground place that serves beers after hours. We smoked the cheecha, which is fruit tobacco or something like that. We chilled there all night and listened to the Moroccan music. Calif and company got us in and for free.
On my way to pack up my bag and meet everyone in the square. Get some train tickets and head to Casablanca.
Tags: Marrakech, Morocco, Travel, Tag Index
J
August 6th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
this is my favorite part of your trip thus far. steve said it right, you are describing everything so precisely… i’m right there with you getting scrubbed down in some public shower! i just can’t imagine you, doing that! ha!
August 7th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Amazing, its like I’m there with you even though I have to look on a map to see where you are talking about… Live it up!
August 7th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Glad you’re having a good time Ryan! Definitely sounds a lot of fun.
Speak to you soon,
Jess x
P.S – Love Abdul’s quote at the end – very funny.