Magical Marrakech- Food, Palaces, Souks,The Square
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
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145
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Trip End
Dec 20, 2010
Marrakech, Morocco
Friday, September 26, 2008
I was very excited to be here and it was the enchanting vision of the Djeema El Fna famous square that first drew me to Morocco. That and the film Hideous Kinky starring Kate Winslet and situated in Marrakech in the early 70's. We took our time in finding a quiet room at the Hotel Sherazade so we could escape from all the hectic business of Marrakech but still be amongst the action in the old part of the city, the medina and near the famous square, the Djeema El Fna. Our room was a comfortable space to recover from the Sahara expedition and to wash the sand off and was located on the second floor of a triple decker roof terrace with some views. In the first minute of the first night we ventured out to the square, we were immediately hit by the frantic city pace as motorbikes zoomed passed us in the alleyway, vendors shouted for our business, a beggar mother nursing a baby begged on her knees outside our hotel and a guy whispered hashish into my ear. As the sun went down we saw our first snake charmer sitting cross legged blowing his horn whistle clarinet instrument until a cobra snake with its mouth sewn up rises up and dances to the music. They will drape snakes on tourists without permission first then ask for a fee.
I bought some overpriced dried apricots and we made it up onto a rooftop terrace for a tourist priced lemonade just before a hardcore electrical storm hit lashing lightning over the square and around the mosque towers, quite a special site considering it very rarely rains here. We watched as buckets of water hammered onto tourists heads. We put our emergency ponchos on and ran shrieking with joy in the rain through the winding alleyways leading back to our hotel all the while dodging touts, scooters and motorbikes. Most of the riads ( traditional Moroccan house or palace) have an open to the sky interior courtyard that rooms open out onto and we have often wondered what happens to them in the rain. The riads were originally designed to be inward focused which allowed for family privacy and protection from the weather, now many are hotels. The rain falls straight through the middle of the house into the central atrium courtyard space giving you the sensation that it is raining inside your house, a nice feeling. Strategically placed drains carry the water away. Morocco is great in the rain.
Our French hotel receptionist gave us one of the Grenadine fruits we have seen on the trees on our rooftop. The fruit is orange with a hard skin and contains pink coloured kernals that look like corn but taste quite sweet. The fruit is eaten or used for colouring the womens hair and the skin membrane is eaten for stomach complaints. I ate the fruit at breakfast the following day and the waitress showed me how to get the kernals out by tapping the fruit from the back with a large wooden spoon..
The next day we went out to the square and had some fun negotiating the food stall spruikers before choosing to eat at one of the traditional style, bench seat, locals stall where spiced tea was flowing freely and Moroccan men chatted away busily. The spruikers try very hard to engage with you by imitating what they think is an English accent and saying things like Lovely Jubbely! and Fish & Chips! and Bloody good! and do you want to see my house for sex? or much more crude. We chose a small goats (there was a large option) head, yes a whole head that the vendor cut up with a big shiny knife and served to us with brains, weird pieces of flesh and pieces of a hairy tongue, joy to that one but you have to do it once. The blokes at the table showed us how to eat it and a guy with no teeth tried to mutter his life story in Arabic to us..
Food options are interesting and great for grazers like me. The main square is a hive of activity from dusk onwards when many open air food stalls set up with steaming delights on offer plus dried fruits and nuts, freshly squeezed orange juice and sweets. The food stalls, lit by flickering lamps take over the square and the smell of their tasty dishes permeates the air. In Marrakech some nibblies we have tried are battered sardines, fish and eggplant, fried roti bread, soups and breads, petit fours, steamed snails, chipolatas, potato-egg-oil bread roll, and mudcake plus there is all the usual cuisine like cous cous and many dazzling arrays of tajine ingredients with the clay dishes displayed to tempt our tastebuds. You can fill up well for AU$5. The onion flat bread cooked up by all the little ladies on the street just before Ramadan break fast has been our pre-dinner snack everyday and for 3 dirham each piece you can't go wrong. There is a really cool mint tea guy who is always smiling and serves fresh mint tea from giant brass kettles. Two nights we have bought dinner for beggars and also ice-creams for the kids selling tissues.
One of the busiest squares in Africa and the world, the colourful Djeema El Fna square attracts some enterprising Moroccans who perform things like acrobatics, fortune telling with ouiji boards, henna hand art, palm readers, home made carnival gambling games, storytelling, playing instruments or costuming up for rapt tourist crowds. There is even a guy who sells dentures and teeth on a little table. All the performers charge alot of dirham to take pictures of them in action and are infamous for chasing tourists quite agressively for a few dirhams. Our favourite rip-off is the guys in long goats and Fes hats with tassles attached to the ends playing the hand cymbals and spinning their heads so the tassles spin around their heads, they do this for two seconds in front of someone then ask for money. At night time there are ladies of the night prostitutes in this space as well as hash dealers. These people have been a tradition in the square forever. Beggars shuffle around, mainly the elderly, women with children or the blind and disabled. We give to some. Horse and cart rigs line the edges of the square waiting to take people around the city, we should have made more use of these guys because we did alot of walking in Marrakech and got lost many times. The people of Marrakech where many different styles of clothing but the ettire is generally a kaftan dressing gown and some kind of head covering or hat. Pixie hoods are popular as are beards and jewish hats. Some women wear full veils, some wear half veils. Some of the modern city girls have shortened the kaften over trousers and still wear the half veil but team it with fake designer sunglasses and bags whilst zipping around on new scooters. Funky, satin fabrics are hip and happening. The leather shoes are popular. There is a comfortable leather shoe they all wear that comes in different coloured leather and they call it the Berber Adidas shoe. We find the square more interesting later in the night when the tourists have gone to bed and the locals are out eating and chatting, this gives a more authentic Moroccan feel to the city. We have seen lots of agro and near fights between men in the streets. It seems to be a part of the culture and most of it is for show. The square is loud although we can't hear noise from our room. The sounds of horses hooves, snake charmer horns, motorbikes, cars, excited shouts, drumming, cymbals and shouting and chatter fills the air in the square and you can't help but get carried along with the magic. It was once the site of public executions but Djeema El Fna is now the beating heart of the medina.
Henna tattoo art is popular here as a temporary form of skin decoration. Henna is typically applied during special occasions like weddings and festivals and is usually drawn on the palms and feet. The patterns drawn are typically quite intricate and the color is reddish brown and can last anywhere from two weeks to several months depending on the type of the paste. The artists here are a little dodgy and we have decided to give them a miss afters eeing some foreigners with horrendous designs up their arms. The artists in the square will quickly attack you by trying to paint you with henna applied from syringes before you have time to stop them then ask you for money.
One day we saw the sad site of men taking monkeys on chains from a trolley for the purpose of parading them to tourists, sometimes getting them to jump up on peoples shoulders. They also transport the monkeys on the handle bars of their bicycles. Maybe this is why the men were trying to collect the Barbary apes in Azrou, looks like the same species of monkey. I refuse to give these people any money or attention so i snipered shots of them from a rooftop above.
We chose to take our time to soak up the magic of Marrakech and found another reasonably priced hotel with killer views onto the square from the roof, great for ignorant tourist watching which always makes for a good laugh. Large tour groups run by tour leaders wearing Fes hats and carrying flags seem to have a hard time crossing the road Frogger style. The locals of Marrakech zoom and buzz around town including through the narrow medina alleyways and streets by means of all kinds of transport. This includes motorbikes of all kinds, bicycles, scooters, tuk tuks, donkeys, horses or in trailers sometimes with the whole family riding together. Anything and everything is transported by bicycle. Whilst in the medina exploring you have to constantly watch your back for traffic. Just before the break the daily Ramadan fast is the worst time to be crossing the road because everyone is speeding to get home in time for their dates and eggs snack. The view from the balcony is like a never ending street theatre parade and we get the full panorama so there is always something new happening. We did alot of people watching. From our balcony we can see four of many mosques in the city. At prayer times during the day (normally three times but during Ramadan it is more frequent), many people run to the tower, take their shoes off and pray for about fifteen minutes before going back to work. If they can't make it to the mosque they pray in their stores or homes.
Another day we visited the Musee de Marrakech and the 14th century Medersa Ben Youseff (university) and had a great time lounging around the palace buildings and trying to get in as many people's photos as possible. I got my newly purchased teapot out and used it as a prop and pretended to pour tea onto peoples heads from a window above. Classic is picking on tourists day. The university had some good examples of stucco decoration and the museum was housed in a beautifully restored 19th century palace called Dar Mnebhi. There was some interesting contemporary Moroccan art in exhibition. There is a 12th century Ali Ben Youseff Mosque too but like all of them, is closed to non-muslims.
After taking half a day to locate them, we visited the Saadian Tombs that were not discovered until the beginning of the 20th century. They have been preserved just like they were during the glory days of the sultan princes. Inside there was an overload of Zelij (Morrocan tiles) and some beautiful decoration although not much else to be found. Whilst looking for the tombs we became extremely lost thanks to an annoying teenager who pointed us in the wrong direction after we refused to take him on as our guide. We ended up in the vibrant and historic Jewish mellah where the streets took you back in time. Jewish men with their kaftans and little caps did business out of tiny stores and there seemed to alot of herb and spices shops. We also walked passed the heavily guarded and high walled Royal Palace where the current King of Morocco has his residence. I had the whistle blown at me by the guards for taking a photograph of the entrance gate there.
Another place we went was the El Bahia palace which is ornate and beautiful and popular stray cats. The palace gives a great impression of what it must have been like to be a 19th century nobleman in Morocco. There is a nice garden with banana flowers, orange trees, tranquil courtyards, and other lovely plants plus a whole lot of nesting storks. We enjoyed trawling through some of the 150 rooms in the maze of the palace which is spread out over 8 hectares on prime real estate in the city. Next we took a break from the hustle and bustle on the rooftop at Kosybar which is another trendy bar in a renovated riad. Nicely decorated, however it sells sushi which i found quite an odd selection for cuisine in the middle of the Marrakech medina.
There is alot of shopping in Marrakech and some of the items for sale are crap. The city has the largest traditional market (souk) in Morocco and it is located in alleyways behind the square. There is no way to follow a map, you just wander and become lost however hard you try to stay on a track. There are gems to be found if you shop around enough, walk enough streets and can bargain for goodies. Shopping is tough business in Morocco and the vendors can get very aggressive if you dont buy. It would be so much easier but less fun if the vendors just gave their best price at the start. Our strategy for shopping was to first secure our bargaining strategy in our heads (the start with one quarter of what you want to be, double it then give your last price method), next we remember not to get talked into buying anything we don't want and remember the postage costs are high. We browsed and glanced at the goods on offer over one week occasionally asking prices to get the general idea of starting prices and bids to put in. We waited until the vendors were in a good mood (ie: after the break fast time at sundown) then we jump in confidently also prepared to walk away if bidding doesn't get to the price we want. Shopping this way is extremely exhausting as we found out. We dedicated one full day to shopping the souks and went seperately. The souks area was like a giant monster. Once inside the mouth entrance you were gobbled up by the treasure trove of stores. I wound my way around the labyrinth of the souks trying to find the genuine craftsmen. Some of the stores closer to the square sold items just for tourists but if you trekked down into little laneways and alleys off the main route you could find some very interesting areas where things have remained unchanged for 1000 years. I managed to find the antiques, the leather, the wool, the pottery, the jewellery and the ironworkers areas but i know there is lots i missed. Poofs are popular as are inlaid wooden jewellery boxes and pashmina scarves. I also came across the myserious medicine shops selling strange products with miraculous virtues. I saw lizards, turtles and falcons in cages plus all kinds of strange pastes and herbs. I happened to be at the Mouassine mosque during prayer time when people were praying on their mats and carpets out the door because it was so busy in there. Many beggars, mainly women and the elderly lined up against the mosque entrance corridor walls and crouched on the ground, they held their hands out for coins. Many people gave. Once out of the souks late in the afternoon i felt like i had been through a giant ordeal and had survived. I haggled with vendors all day and it took alot out of me to be polite and stay friendly when there was so much disorder and so many lies being told in the hope of a sale. It was a most enjoyable day overall once i learned to relax into the shopping style and i was happy with my purchases. On my way out i visted the egg market where they also had chickens and rabbits for sale that they weighed on old two pan balance scales.
I bought a very cute Alladin style teapot. Teapots vary greatly in quality but i think i got the real deal and bought one that you can actually use for tea and not for decoration. I bought a cute red glass lantern from a workshop. We also bought Izabella a gorgeous gold, Alladin's treasure chest trinket box and a crystal plus a shell fossil, a leather camel and a Fatima hand necklace for her birthday gift. The hand of Fatima is to protect against the "evil eye" and is a magical pendant. Izzy would definitely know if Auntie Pixie forgot her birthday this year. We bought Dan a magical genie snake charmers costume outfit for his birthday gift and some kaftans for us to wear in the Islamic countries. I bought some genuine, antique jester shoes and a Moroccan mirror with doors that open to reveal the mirror. The leather goods were disappointing because we could not find anything of good quality. Nadine bought some spice dishes. We were stung hardcore for postal expenses (14kg between us) and had to pay the postal worker a tip (bribe) to ensure they wouldn't tamper with our packages.
We also visited the Koutoubia mosque. It is said that the minaret of the Koutoubia mosque is to Marrakech as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris and at 77 metres high it is one of the highest in the muslim world. At night, the mosque is beautifully lit.
There's a new part of Morocco too but there was not much of interest there for us.
We ran into the random Aussie lad from the Merzouga sand dunes who offered us a ride in his van again, nice boy.
The city has not been as frantic as we were told it would be and as long as you pace yourself and take rests from the action it is a rather fun place to be. Magical Marrakech was a wonderfully different city experience but it's time to move on. We are giving up the henna tattoos and hammams and heading to Essaouira and up the coast so we can leave Morocco before Ramadan finishes and the fiesta begin, or maybe we'll stay a little longer. Flights from Tangier to Istanbul differ greatly in price during this time.
We can't wait to buy another breadstick for Wicksy.
