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...