Tony and Liz's Travel Adventures: MOROCCO: Casablanca, Meknes

Casablanca to Meknes, Morocco

21 July, 2012

We weren’t sure why the delay in leaving Malaga, but it was interesting sitting in the terminal watching the other planes landing and taking off. We were supposed to depart from Gate 20 and there was already an Aer Lingus plane in the dock. Thinking that Air Maroc and Aer Lingus had some business partnership arrangement, we thought this was our plane, and like all the other passengers we waited patiently for boarding to open. Waiting, waiting, and still waiting. Tony joked about a particular plane that landed and berthed at another gate further down. It was a Dash 8 propellor twin engine, seating capacity of around 65 passengers, similar to the ones we would catch between Brisbane and Bundaberg. Still waiting and waiting for our plane. Thankfully we were in the air-con in the terminal because the outside temperature was 40 degrees.

Air Maroc Dash twin Prop

Then ‘Bing’ on comes the Boarding signal, at gate 8. What the?? We were sitting at gate 20!!! A little confused we watched as the Air Maroc staff ushered people down the gangway…….onto a waiting shuttle bus to take all passengers to ......the waiting Dash 8 prop. OMG - for a 2 hour international flight across the Mediterranean.

Now this would be scary you would think, but actually the flight was great. What was scary was about to happen. Australia has CASA for airline and plane safety, Air Maroc has NOTHING. For example, just before the plane was about to take off people had their window blinds closed, they had their trays down but the worst of all was this bloke directly across from Tony who jumped up as the plane was taxi-ing along and went to the back asking the crew for some (any) food and large bottle of water. They gave it to him! Then later during the flight when refreshments were being served this same guy was trying to help himself to the food tray and reaching in for even more sandwiches. Not sure why, because the sandwiches were also a health & safety issue ie. tasteless cheese, stale and hard and if used as a projectile could have caused some serious damage inside that plane.

We finally landed in Casablanca about an hour later than the allocated ETA. Thinking it was all for now, as we were hurtling on the runway at around 200 kms per hour we were suddenly thrust back into seats at about a 75 degree angle when the plane made a quick right hand turn into the tarmac towards our landing gate -wheels screeching and skidding all the way. We were sure that the passengers on that side of the plane were looking directly at the bitumen, if not the crew would have been a lot of cleaning up to do afterwards. Perhaps Moroccan travellers are used to this happening but for us it gave us a taste of the Moroccan driving habits….and it would only be a short time before we’d find this out. By this I mean after clearing through security, passport checks, immigration etc. our taxi ride to Casablanca would make up most of the time we lost through the airport delays…and it was still a whopping 40 degrees outside and this was around 7.30pm.

This was our welcome to Morocco and a further taste of our travel adventures. We weren’t sure if it was excitement or the onset of anxiety attacks but we were looking forward to 14 days more adventure and meeting our new travelling companions at a Welcome session with our Moroccan guide Yasine (or Yacceen) whose birthday is either in June or September – more about this later) then a group dinner afterwards. Our stay for one night would be the Moroccan House Hotel in central Casablanca.

Foyer of Morocco House Hotel, Casablanca

Now Moroccan House Hotel is another adventure on its own that we weren’t quite expecting (it was almost like “dejavu” and felt as if we were sitting back in Bobadilla train station again) ie. mosaic walls, staircases, internal atrium and fountain, just incredible in design.

The Boudoir

But wait…there is more… each individual suite is decorated in a different colour and style, not just any colour, but fluros – bold and the beautiful. My description is more like a boudoir and maybe a bit tarty. I’m thinking of maybe something similar in our bedroom back home (HaHaHa)

The next morning a buffet breakfast fit for a king or, queen, then at 8am off to Meknes with the Pack of 8, Me and Tony, Brian and Ari (Canadian and Mexican), Tony and Lynette (UK), and Mike and Rachel (US) and Yacine. Our new BFFs for the next 2 weeks along with Yacine and our bus driver.

L-R: Ari, Brian, TJ, Mike, Rachel, Tony, Lynette and Yacine

But before we start talking about the travels, we should mention here that we arrived in Morocco at probably the most Holy time in their calendar year, Ramadan. We were to find out a lot more about Ramadan, Islam, the mosques and the symbolisation of the religion and how it plays an important part in the everyday lives of Muslims. We were intrigued with the "Call to Prayer" which could be heard across cities, markets and villages, the 5 pillars of Islam and that during Ramadan it was important we DO NOT take direct photos of people and to show sensitivity if taking photos in public. This was hugely difficult because there are situations that could only be captured on film to truly define a moment in time. In fact, there were a couple of times when focussing the camera that people would turn away before the shutter 'shuttered', or they would gesture that NO photos to be taken. There were also times it was the opposite - they would put on the biggest Moroccan smile they could.

There were also a few times when we encountered 'altercations' and very loud arguments, where Moroccon men would 'huff' up like a rooster without any punches or biffs from either party, then walk away (a good thing) as if nothing happened. When asking Yacine if this was part of the culture, he explained that because it was early days of Ramadan, people fasting combined with very hot temperatures, that their emotional levels rise. My explanation is that they are males....enough said!!

We were to find out at dinner on our first meeting night that Yacine had already been fasting for 2 days and his dinner, or should I say his “breakfast” is at 8.30pm. He hadn’t eaten since 4.30am that morning, not even taken water and this would continue until 18^th August. We were to also find out that many stores or mini Supermarches, which are generally open during the day would be closed. This might make it a little difficult for us “Westerners” to get lunch or an early dinner, so we had to prepare ourselves. We also had to prepare ourselves with a bunch of toilet paper just in case we haven’t got the stomach for Moroccan food. More about that later too.

Already at this stage we’d decided that this area of Casablanca is very similar to Peru, dry and dusty, people riding donkeys down the main street, motor bikes carrying 3-4 pigs on the back, Utes full of sheep in the back, but at least the heat was bearable. It had cooled down a little overnight with Casablanca only about 20 kms from the coast. But already we could see that this country was very different especially the language and from day to day we would never know which language would be spoken because of the diversity of the culture. We would experience French, probably the most spoken, Arabic, Berber and then every other language we have encountered on our travels, which included Spanish, German, Dutch and of course good ol’ Aussie English (LOL….).

We were only about 1 hour into the trip towards Meknes when I realised that I had left a very, very important item back at the Moroccan House Hotel – my USB’s with our IDs, photos and copies of other life saving documents needed for our extended travel. And it was only Day 1. My heart sunk, I checked everywhere – they WERE still back at the hotel. Yacine became the saviour. He phoned back to the Hotel and made arrangements with his contacts to have them sent on to Meknes. Not only was he devoting himself to the Holy Ramadan, but in my eyes he was Holy too. From that time on there was a standing joke, and a special intro each time we’d get on the bus. It would go something like this….. Yacine: Has everyone got their bags? Has everyone got their cameras? Has everyone got their Passports? And I would throw in: Has everyone got their USB’s? After a while we would add something new such as, Has everyone got their Husbands? Wives? toilet paper etc. Don’t laugh…we needed that toilet paper because the Moroccan food affected each one of us and swept through the group at different stages along the journey. Oh! Except for Lynette, but we found out her secret – she just wouldn’t eat particular foods, unlike us…When in Rome etc etc. We weren’t exactly sure what caused it. Was it the water, the Mint (Menthe) sweet hot tea, the Tagines, the Moroccan soups, the Rotisserie chicken dinners, the brouchettes? Who cares….it was all delicious!

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MEKNES

Our bus ride to Meknes, built in the 17th Century and one of the Imperial Cities of Morocco, would take around 4 hours. We would stop in between for a stop to buy some groceries for lunch and other supplies (ie. toot paper).

Meknes artwork

The "Old" city and medina (markets) of Meknes are fortified by clay brick walls which once upon a time housed the Royal stables (holding 10,000 horses), a grainery and the Mausoleum of Sultan Moulay Ismail, the cities ruler in the 1600s. our local guide, Abdullah was thorough in his description of the city and its history and rather than go into too much detail here the Wiki link below accurately describes the story of Meknes. We were all in awe of discovering the Souks (more markets), the huge Squares, Mosques and the Bab Mansour Gate.

Allah

We were all in awe of the inside of Mosques over the next couple of weeks and to find out the history of many including one that Abdullah took us into in Meknes. One of the features that captured our imaginations, and repeated around the walls was the way in which Allah is written in Arabic. After shown how the word is symbolised by the hand Tony went most of the way around each Mosque fitting his hand over the wording.

Abdullah in the stable of 10,000 horses

Bab Mansour Gate

You would think that would be easy to remember the name of the Gate because it was the same name as our hotel. Wrong and there is a story that goes with this! After a tour with our new local guide for the day, Abdullah, we were left to our own devices to navigate our way back from the Bab Mansour Gate to the Bab Mansour Hotel, after we had become disorientated in the Medina, in the souks and all the little laneways contained within. This Group of 8 was being tested. We really didn't know each other very well at all - it was much like a bonding session, and the only directions we were given was that the Bab Mansour Hotel was straight ahead in 'that' direction, about 2 kms walk.

Only in the country about 24 hours and it was already assumed we could read/understand French, Arabic or whatever other language to find our way back. It was funny - we were all trying to remember signs, landmarks and other names along the way. One that everyone remembered was the McDonald's - can you believe? We nicknamed it McMaronald's and it was open even with Ramadan. The sun was setting pretty fast and we all just wanted to get back to the hotel - safe !!

Which way to the Bab ??

We were also pretty hungry after the big walk, and it was "Breakfast" (Ramadan) time, and what a better time to have a rotisserie chicken which we all spotted earlier in the day. No sooner had we sat down, and these Chicken Shop guys just started bringing out baskets of bread, bottles of water, bottles of soft drinks, and half chickens with rice - NO ONE EVEN ORDERED ANYTHING, it was just placed in front of us. We'd heard stories about "fixing" a price before you buy, so we were a little anxious this had happened because it was just brought to the table. You wouldn't believe this feast cost us around $6.00 each !! Coincidently the currency for Morocco is the Dirham and is abbreviated as MAD. A very good description because of the way in which traders, touts and marketeers try to bargain down to an agreed price. Sometimes you would think they are MAD because of how cheap they would sell their goods for or sometimes you get MAD because of the way they try to badger you into buying something you don't really want. For me and Tony it was fairly easy because we were always mindful of the weight of our baggage and the time we have left to travel. There was no way we wanted to be carrying excess baggage for the next few months!

Meknes also the first city we were to have our first experience with the Markets. It also brought out the bargain shoppers in our Group of 8. Brian and Ari take 1st prize in this catergory as they were Christimas shopping for their families. And as is for Mexican families distant relations means anyone who is remotely related or even knows a relation is counted as family. So you could imagine their shopping list was exhaustive. I'm sure I heard along the way that they we considering buying themselves another larger bag for the gifts they were buying. By the end of the trip they had.

The markets are a world of their own and get even busier as the day goes on, even busier in the evening when those who have fasted during the day go out to shop for sustenance. We also found the each Medina seemed to contain a variety of "Quarters". For example, the metal working area, leather, meat, clothes and jewellery, spices, ceramics/pottery, carpets and shoes to mention only a few.

What we couldn't understand was how these people knew their way around the "souks". They were like mazes with tiny narrow lanes, houses, bakeries and shops contained within, crowds of people wandering in every direction and many of the buildings looking like they would tumble in at any time. Us 'westerners' have our superstitions about walking under ladders, and there were many occasions whereby we would be hesitant about passing under buildings, some built in the 16th and 17 century, now being held up by timber as shown in the next photo. There were many across the country like this.

Timber holding up walls in the Souks

Us 'Westerners' also have our saying that things happen in 3's.....on this day it was 3 happy things.
1. We found our way back to Hotel Bab Mansour safely and in good company.
2. We made our way around the Souks without the walls falling in around us.
3. We were on an adventure of a lifetime and if this day is anything like the rest of the trip, we are in for a real treat starting with Volubilis tomorrow - the most southerly Roman ruins in this part of the world.

The downside.... it was bloody hot, let's hope the air-con in the bus doesn't break down along the way.