Sorry I can't put up pictures right now, this internet cafe does not allow it. I'll post them when I can. (On a side note, it's great to be back in the western world - Italy, where the non-Arabic keyboards have apostrophes ''''''')
So we had a couple of days to spare before we left Morocco and decided to go to this waterfall a girl told us about. We woke early and busted out ass to get to the bus station for the 8am bus, but wouldn't you know it - it was broke down. So we went back to our part of town and stopped in a local breakfast spot for some crapes and started bitching about the ordeal. A couple of American guys next to us overheard us and said they would be interested in going. So the 4 of us split a taxi and 2 hours later we were there.
Cascades D'Ouzoud was quite incredible. You'll get to see the pics soon. As a side trip we didn't even plan on doing, it was wonderful to get out of the big city. I've never been to a waterfall like this, you get right up on the edge of it, something you'd never get to do in America. We hiked down to the bottom and just stared in awe of it, 'till the thunderstorm hit.
The next morning it was time to head off, the Americans wanted to hang around anything day, but I found a French couple to split a cab to the next town. We took our last local bus ride, where 1 hour becomes 3. (Basically on the local buses if it's not full when it leaves the station, it will pick people up on the side of the road to make some money on the side. Of course these people often only want to go part of the way, so the bus constantly starts and stops. I'm sure many of you who have traveled have experienced the same.
Back to Marrakesh for one more night, the when hit the nightmare that was Marrakesh airport. Now I've been in a fair share of strange airports in the world, Nuang U, Rangoon, and Kiev to name a few, but none of them were ass disorganized as this piece of shit. How hard is it to put up a board with departure and arrival times an gates? This way a million people aren't flooding the information desk with, What gate is my flight at? Where do I check in? Fucking idiots - tighten up Marrakesh, how hard is it? Apparently it's too fucking hard for you and you want everyone to yell at you. But we made it out. Morocco was another world and there was more I wish I could have seen. We got to Milan late, the airport was an hour outside of town, so by the time we checked into the hotel it was 1am. I was hungry and asked the concierge where I could grab a bite to eat. He said the only thing that was open around there was a Moroccan kebob place!!! Well, it was actually Turkish, but I thought Moroccan sounded better, you know what though, it was damn good.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Marrakesh
Let.s see, where did I leave off. I know it.s been a little bit since I updated, but I just haven.t had the time.
After we Merzouga we spent a day in Er-Racchidia for a day so Ariel could rest up. Then we took a 12 hour bus ride through some incredible country and crazy towns, and around the Atlas mountains to reach the ancient Red city of Marrakesh. We ended up speanding a few days there and my opinion of it varied day by day. After the first day I thought it was an incrdibly vibrant city. I held it up to my favorites of Bangkok and Luang Prabang. But of course that wouldn.t last long.
Now, the square in the center of the old town (Djemma Al Fna) is pretty cool. Hordes of people, snake charmers, all sorts of crazies you could hope to see, really a bit of all of Moroco wrapped into one. At night the place really comes alive and you can get food from one of the hundreds of vendors for next to nothing, and it was some of the best food we had the whole time in Morocco. But try to but something other than food and you are in for quite a haggle. Everyone is doing the best to rip you off. I know what some of you are thinking, how is that different from Bangkok. Well in Bangkok we.re talking cents, and they do it with a smile. Not so in Marrakes, here.s a small example - we drop our laundry off with the hotel cleaning lady, the next day she wants $20 for it. Yes we should have discussed price first, and in the end I only pid $5, but even that was outrageous in a country where you can eat good for $1. This is just a small example, I could go on and on. A lot of Moroccans we dealt with we.re not good natured at all, which was quite different from the rest of the country with the exception of Fez.
Maybe it.s because Marrakesh is a little bit touristy, I don.t know. I still think it was a cool city over all, I would go back. There.s the usual fare of 1,000 year old ruined palaces, ancient Hammams (turkish bath houses), and the city has a cool look to it. But we had time so we took a little side trip...
After we Merzouga we spent a day in Er-Racchidia for a day so Ariel could rest up. Then we took a 12 hour bus ride through some incredible country and crazy towns, and around the Atlas mountains to reach the ancient Red city of Marrakesh. We ended up speanding a few days there and my opinion of it varied day by day. After the first day I thought it was an incrdibly vibrant city. I held it up to my favorites of Bangkok and Luang Prabang. But of course that wouldn.t last long.
Now, the square in the center of the old town (Djemma Al Fna) is pretty cool. Hordes of people, snake charmers, all sorts of crazies you could hope to see, really a bit of all of Moroco wrapped into one. At night the place really comes alive and you can get food from one of the hundreds of vendors for next to nothing, and it was some of the best food we had the whole time in Morocco. But try to but something other than food and you are in for quite a haggle. Everyone is doing the best to rip you off. I know what some of you are thinking, how is that different from Bangkok. Well in Bangkok we.re talking cents, and they do it with a smile. Not so in Marrakes, here.s a small example - we drop our laundry off with the hotel cleaning lady, the next day she wants $20 for it. Yes we should have discussed price first, and in the end I only pid $5, but even that was outrageous in a country where you can eat good for $1. This is just a small example, I could go on and on. A lot of Moroccans we dealt with we.re not good natured at all, which was quite different from the rest of the country with the exception of Fez.
Maybe it.s because Marrakesh is a little bit touristy, I don.t know. I still think it was a cool city over all, I would go back. There.s the usual fare of 1,000 year old ruined palaces, ancient Hammams (turkish bath houses), and the city has a cool look to it. But we had time so we took a little side trip...
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Back from the Saraha - Merzouga
What a trip. We.ve just got out of the desert. After a long overnight bus ride from fez we reached Rissani where we meet our driver who took us in a 4x4 to an aburage to chill for the day. It.s just too hot to trek our into the saraha in the middle of the day, so we chilled with the locals till about 5:30.
Then of course a sandstorm hit right when we we.re about to leave. The guide told us we should wait it out, but after 20 minutes he brouth the camels and said hop on. So we just wrapped up our heads in turbans and hoped for the best. It fucking rocked.
All my life when I thought of deserts I imagined endless dunes thousands of feet high in all directions. Just perfect dunes with no rocks or visible signs of life. I.d always been disappointed in the deserts of Arizona and California. Sure the Mojave has dunes, but plenty of rocks and scub bush. So needles to say I was pumped for this part of the trip.
Our guide Siad led us on the camels thru the dunes for a couple of hours to a berber villiage in the middle of nowhere. The Berbers are an old nomadic people not related to the arab population. We spent the night in a tent and saw the stars like never before. The only light was from the few campfires around us. Some Berber kids jammed out on the drums and invited me to play with them, Ariel got some good video of them. After some great dinner, I slept unbelievably. It.s weird for it to be so quiet, I.ve lived in cities my whole life.
The next morning we packed up and treked back to the auberage. The sandstorm from the previous day had wiped all the dunes of tracks and footprints. It was amazing.
We spent the next day in a strage town called ER-Rachhidia, Ariel was not feeling so hot so I didn.t want to put us on the long bus ride to Marrakesh. This town gets no tourists, so we got lots of stares, but it was nice to be off the tourist trail.
Well, that.s it for now. More on Marrakesh later...
Then of course a sandstorm hit right when we we.re about to leave. The guide told us we should wait it out, but after 20 minutes he brouth the camels and said hop on. So we just wrapped up our heads in turbans and hoped for the best. It fucking rocked.
All my life when I thought of deserts I imagined endless dunes thousands of feet high in all directions. Just perfect dunes with no rocks or visible signs of life. I.d always been disappointed in the deserts of Arizona and California. Sure the Mojave has dunes, but plenty of rocks and scub bush. So needles to say I was pumped for this part of the trip.
Our guide Siad led us on the camels thru the dunes for a couple of hours to a berber villiage in the middle of nowhere. The Berbers are an old nomadic people not related to the arab population. We spent the night in a tent and saw the stars like never before. The only light was from the few campfires around us. Some Berber kids jammed out on the drums and invited me to play with them, Ariel got some good video of them. After some great dinner, I slept unbelievably. It.s weird for it to be so quiet, I.ve lived in cities my whole life.
The next morning we packed up and treked back to the auberage. The sandstorm from the previous day had wiped all the dunes of tracks and footprints. It was amazing.
We spent the next day in a strage town called ER-Rachhidia, Ariel was not feeling so hot so I didn.t want to put us on the long bus ride to Marrakesh. This town gets no tourists, so we got lots of stares, but it was nice to be off the tourist trail.
Well, that.s it for now. More on Marrakesh later...
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Fez Scam and back up scam
Upon arrival to ancient Fez, I was expecting a bit of a hassle. Everything I heard and read about it suggested that the most aggressive touts would be waiting for me right when I got off the bus. So when we were approached before we even got out of the bus station, I wasn.t to surprised. Now I.ve been scammed quite a bit in my travels, so I usually can deal with it. Right away the guy.s giving me the Where do you want to go? Oh that place, it.s full. Oh you.re meeting people there? I think I picked them up and took them to a different hotel. Oh, you are sure, then we will take you. I should have really known something was wrong when he got in the cab with us. So I.m pointing to a place on the map to the cab driver, but only the unwanted guide will speak to up. He says, well it.s the old city I can.t take you all the was there, I.ll get you close and then you can walk. Great a back up scam. So they drop us off and introduce us to a guy he claims works for the ministry of tourism, oh he will take you it.s no problem he says. Sure I.m thinking. So we start walking with all our stuff and of course it.s unbearably hot, the guy goes on and on about the old Jewish section we are walking through like it.s some kind of tour. I.m more than worried that this will be a wild goose chase and will be completely lost if we don.t fork over some money. After about 20 minutes we end up at his restaurant, so this was the scam, but at least he didn.t want any money. So we finally make it to the ancient medina, in the part of town we want to stay, but now we are totally out of energy. At least no one got our money.
Now Fez is really old, and it looks and smells it too. This was a complete contrast to lovely Chefchaouen. There was a lot to see, but most of the fun was just wandering around the ancient medina streets which are more than a thousand years old. No cars because they are so narrow, but it.s hard to avoid getting lost. Which the next day would lead to a an unwanted tour scam. This involved a guy showing us a tannery, which by the way if you don.t know how leather is made, let me tell you that it involves large amounts of piss and shit. We didn.t really ask for this tour, it just sort of happened, but it was fine, and we got to see plenty of stuff we never would have on our own. The food was not as good here and I got a little ill, but it was not like my previous trip experience. So we ended up staying an extra day and chilling out, the we headed off to the Saraha desert...
Now Fez is really old, and it looks and smells it too. This was a complete contrast to lovely Chefchaouen. There was a lot to see, but most of the fun was just wandering around the ancient medina streets which are more than a thousand years old. No cars because they are so narrow, but it.s hard to avoid getting lost. Which the next day would lead to a an unwanted tour scam. This involved a guy showing us a tannery, which by the way if you don.t know how leather is made, let me tell you that it involves large amounts of piss and shit. We didn.t really ask for this tour, it just sort of happened, but it was fine, and we got to see plenty of stuff we never would have on our own. The food was not as good here and I got a little ill, but it was not like my previous trip experience. So we ended up staying an extra day and chilling out, the we headed off to the Saraha desert...
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Chefchaouen 2
Get your ass to Chefchaouen Morocco.
I thank all those who recommended it too me. This little town is perched up in the Mountains surrounded by green valleys. It.s by far the most peaceful place I.ve been to on this trip. The picture is the view from our room. On our second day we went for a hike to a small waterfall. We were led to believe that this was going to be a nice little one hour hike. Well, if you call nice crossing a river on foot about ten times, a fair amount of rock climbing, and some intense elevation. But it was worth it, I.ve tried to upload some pics, but this computer is not the greatest and everything is in French. This place was just lush qnd beatiful.
Chefchaouen has had the best food, nicest people, and most relaxing atmosphere so far. We could have stayed much longer just to hang out, but we have more to see. Right now we.re in Fez, which as ancient as it is, has been a bit of a pain in the ass. And it.s also really hot, but I.m used to that on my travels.
I thank all those who recommended it too me. This little town is perched up in the Mountains surrounded by green valleys. It.s by far the most peaceful place I.ve been to on this trip. The picture is the view from our room. On our second day we went for a hike to a small waterfall. We were led to believe that this was going to be a nice little one hour hike. Well, if you call nice crossing a river on foot about ten times, a fair amount of rock climbing, and some intense elevation. But it was worth it, I.ve tried to upload some pics, but this computer is not the greatest and everything is in French. This place was just lush qnd beatiful.
Chefchaouen has had the best food, nicest people, and most relaxing atmosphere so far. We could have stayed much longer just to hang out, but we have more to see. Right now we.re in Fez, which as ancient as it is, has been a bit of a pain in the ass. And it.s also really hot, but I.m used to that on my travels.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Barcelona - Bar scene vs Club scene
Well, I.ve had quite an ordeal.
Please forgive the mistakes, I.m in Tangiers and the keyboard is completely different.
First off, Fed Ex can not always be counted on, but most of you probably know that. My much anticipated ATM card is finally in my possession after a trek to the industrial zone far outside of Barcelona. Of course it dosen.t work, but I.ll get to that later.
The Bar scene of Barcelona is incredible. All kinds off cool hang outs. Our first night there we meet up with Ariel.s friends from high school and one of their super hot roomates. Isn.t it always the case that your with your girlfriend when your surrounded by women? I was the first to go home at 3:30am, the girls came back at 5. Just like Madrid, this town never sleeps. The difference is that the crowd is younger, more hip, and far more attractive in Barcelona. If clubbing is your thing, go to Madrid, if you like to actually talk to people and hang out, go to Barcelona. On the second night we went out for a birthday party for one of Ariel.s friends. She took us to a non-touristy part of town which was even cooler than the first night. Every place we went was awesome. Great drinks, good tapas, cool bar tenders who hung out with us. Iwish this would of made Barcelona really wonderful for me, but I was constantly worried about my financial situation.
Everything that could have gone wrong; did go wrong. The bank forgot to send out my fedex for a whole day, it got held up in customs, they driver couldn.t find the address, I had to miss my flight to Malaga and get one the next day for only 6 times the price, and I had to journey to the middle of industrial nowhere on a series of cabs and buses. Only to the find out that I can.t use the card as an ATM, only a credit card that I have to use inside of a bank to take a cash advance on - albeit without the cash advance fee. Thank you Washington Mutual, You.ve only made me stress the fuck out everyday of my vacation. But alas I.m finally over it and refuse to let it ruin my trip.
So we finally got the hell out of Barcelona this morning. After a flight and a bus ride we made it to Algeciras at the bottom of Spain. I then decided to take the cheap Moroccan slow ferry as opposed to the quick Spanish one. Boy would I regret that. It was supposed to take 2 hours, it took 4. Then when we arrived we had to wait an extra half hour for a passport control guy to show up, while all the Spanish ferries have a guy on board during the whole trip. But we.re finally here, now waiting on a bus. I heard that Tangiers was shitty and dangerous and that I should avoid it, but that.s the shit I love. But they we.re wrong, Tangiers is great, I like a little hassle, as long as it dosen;t involve my money.
Pictures very soon, I.ve got to catch a bus.
Please forgive the mistakes, I.m in Tangiers and the keyboard is completely different.
First off, Fed Ex can not always be counted on, but most of you probably know that. My much anticipated ATM card is finally in my possession after a trek to the industrial zone far outside of Barcelona. Of course it dosen.t work, but I.ll get to that later.
The Bar scene of Barcelona is incredible. All kinds off cool hang outs. Our first night there we meet up with Ariel.s friends from high school and one of their super hot roomates. Isn.t it always the case that your with your girlfriend when your surrounded by women? I was the first to go home at 3:30am, the girls came back at 5. Just like Madrid, this town never sleeps. The difference is that the crowd is younger, more hip, and far more attractive in Barcelona. If clubbing is your thing, go to Madrid, if you like to actually talk to people and hang out, go to Barcelona. On the second night we went out for a birthday party for one of Ariel.s friends. She took us to a non-touristy part of town which was even cooler than the first night. Every place we went was awesome. Great drinks, good tapas, cool bar tenders who hung out with us. Iwish this would of made Barcelona really wonderful for me, but I was constantly worried about my financial situation.
Everything that could have gone wrong; did go wrong. The bank forgot to send out my fedex for a whole day, it got held up in customs, they driver couldn.t find the address, I had to miss my flight to Malaga and get one the next day for only 6 times the price, and I had to journey to the middle of industrial nowhere on a series of cabs and buses. Only to the find out that I can.t use the card as an ATM, only a credit card that I have to use inside of a bank to take a cash advance on - albeit without the cash advance fee. Thank you Washington Mutual, You.ve only made me stress the fuck out everyday of my vacation. But alas I.m finally over it and refuse to let it ruin my trip.
So we finally got the hell out of Barcelona this morning. After a flight and a bus ride we made it to Algeciras at the bottom of Spain. I then decided to take the cheap Moroccan slow ferry as opposed to the quick Spanish one. Boy would I regret that. It was supposed to take 2 hours, it took 4. Then when we arrived we had to wait an extra half hour for a passport control guy to show up, while all the Spanish ferries have a guy on board during the whole trip. But we.re finally here, now waiting on a bus. I heard that Tangiers was shitty and dangerous and that I should avoid it, but that.s the shit I love. But they we.re wrong, Tangiers is great, I like a little hassle, as long as it dosen;t involve my money.
Pictures very soon, I.ve got to catch a bus.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Madrid - The arrival
Well, I´m back on the road again and I managed to not return to south east asia. I had a lot of hassles yesterday which I´ll minimize here so as not to sound to negative. First off - if you have a washington mutual ATM card GET A NEW ONE BEFORE YOU COME TO SPAIN!!!!! Otherwise you might have a painful couple of days waithing for your new one as I am. Luckily I have another bank account to hold me for the time being. Oh, and the hotel had not received our resevation, but it worked out.
But on to Madrid. It´s nice I guess, pretty, safe, lots of ham, and the city dosen´t wake up till 10pm. I´m once again travelling with Ariel - her first coments on the city were "Isn´t it nice to not be accosted by touts every five seconds. No one´s bothering us at all." And that´s just the problem for me - I´d gotten used to it, actually looked forward to it. It´s just too tame for me so far. We´re headed to Barcelona next to hang with a friend of Ariel´s, but I´m thinking of skipping Granada in the south to get to Morocco faster. But I´m not talking about Madrid - I don´t really know what to say. Lots of old buildings, museums, the usual Euro capital fare, except they stay up all night and eat a lot of ham. A relatively low level of prostitutes, at least in the areas I´ve been to. (Which is quite a bit since I tried about 30 different atms at various banks)
But on to Madrid. It´s nice I guess, pretty, safe, lots of ham, and the city dosen´t wake up till 10pm. I´m once again travelling with Ariel - her first coments on the city were "Isn´t it nice to not be accosted by touts every five seconds. No one´s bothering us at all." And that´s just the problem for me - I´d gotten used to it, actually looked forward to it. It´s just too tame for me so far. We´re headed to Barcelona next to hang with a friend of Ariel´s, but I´m thinking of skipping Granada in the south to get to Morocco faster. But I´m not talking about Madrid - I don´t really know what to say. Lots of old buildings, museums, the usual Euro capital fare, except they stay up all night and eat a lot of ham. A relatively low level of prostitutes, at least in the areas I´ve been to. (Which is quite a bit since I tried about 30 different atms at various banks)
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