A friend of mine, Deepak, whom I know from work, has recently relocated to Morocco. Deepak is an esteemed engineer previously based in Madagascar. And Deepak has a Moroccan girlfriend, who lives in Marrakech. And so it happened that I’m here and it’s weekend and Deepak is at his girlfriend’s. I got invited for a breakfast at her house at 10am.
Since the previous night I went to bed late I woke up at 9am. My original plan was to leave Marrakech in the evening on a night bus to Laayoune but it’s 9am I have to be on the other side of town at 10, my room is a mess so I decided to stay one more night.
It’s 9:20 I’m coming down to reception to ask if I can stay one more night. The receptionist is still asleep. In a bed that sits behind reception counter. I ask about a room. He doesn’t know if he has one available and I can stay in the one I have now but it’s a double room so I have to pay for a double room and anyway the price is high-season of 90Dh for single room and 150Dh for double. I refuse to pay for double. He tells me I can leave my bags at the reception then and if there is room in the afternoon they will get it for me. 25 minutes later I come down with bags and the man in bed informs me that they have a room so it’s good.
Now for the taxi. I rush out and soon at a roundabout just outside Medina a man approaches me for a taxi. I tell him where I go (Malizia 2 on Google Maps), it’s less than 7km by road, I reckon 30Dh is fair but I’ll try for 25. The man says 100Dh. I faint but the man cooly asks “how much do you wanna pay?”. I say “but how can we even talk about my price when you start so high?”. The man cooly repeats “how much do you wanna pay?” I say 25dirham and a strange thing happens. The man stops a taxi on the street, speaks to the driver and tells me to get in. Confused, I ask him how much it is, he says it’s 25Dh. Another miracle happens in the taxi: the taxi switched on the meter and off we go. The driver didn’t know the way so I was directing him using Google Maps, the meter showed exactly 25Dh!
Deepak’s girlfriend, whose name I never found out, lives in a beautiful house, that inside looks like taken from those museum houses that show typical Moroccan interiors. Richly adorned couches, low round tables, embroidered cushions. The breakfast was exquisite: différend kinds of bread, both Moroccan and Indian style, dipped in argan oil, tasty olives (to my humble taste, Morocco has best olives), there were scrambled eggs Indian style & Moroccan sweets. Deepak, who’s Indian, isn’t too fascinated with Morocco. Food too bland, water weird, nothing to see. Nothing like Taj Mahal.
After breakfast we went to do some sightseeing. Apart from medina there are some interesting sights in Marrakech not far outside medina’s walls. There is a new attraction called Secret Garden inside medina which Deepak’s girlfriend wanted to see so went out looking for it. It is a garden that’s supposed to show how home gardens in Morocco, or more broadly Islamic world, are designed. I don’t know plants, but I saw lavender in bloom and the biggest attraction were turtles huddled together in a small pond. There is a Moroccan style gazebo in the middle of the garden where you can sit, there are cafes and a separately paid-for (30Dh) tower which you can climb and see a bit more of the city. Ticket to the garden is 50Dh and it’s not worth paying in my opinion.
After the garden we went for tea in Café Arabe which is almost next door on the other side of the alley. It’s quite pleasant, seemingly popular with tourists and you can even get alcohol there. The views from the upper terrace are quite nice although the terrace is still lower than the secret garden tower.
We then took a longer wall towards Saadian tombs. Dating to the 16th century, it’s a complex housing the tombs of about 60 members of the Saadian dynasty that ruled the region in 16th-17th century. It was a pleasant walk, the entry to the tombs is a whopping 70Dh and even though the main chamber, which is accessed by a narrow passage, where quickly a queue forms, is quite beautiful, I find it difficult to justify the price. Moroccans pay only 10Dh.
One of the most perfect around is the Koutoubia minaret. 70m high, built in 12th century, it’s visible for miles, and it’s free to wander around (non-muslims are not allowed to enter the adjacent mosque). There I parted my ways with Deepak and his girlfriend and I was left to wander on my own.
The guidebook I use is usually very reliable in pointing the highlights of any place, that is if they say it’s nice, it’s usually nice and worth your time. So in Marrakech they list:
1. Koutoubia minaret
2. The souks
3. Jemaa el-Fna square
4. Almoravid koubba
5. Ben Youssef Medersa
6. El Badi Palace
7. Bahia Palace
8. Majorelle Garden
The garden I decided to skip, especially since it’s yet another 70Dh entry price. The palaces I thought I’d take the next day. The souks are the heart and soul of Medina and the medersa (islamic school) and the koubba (ablution kiosk) are inside the Medina so I walked there.
These days it is difficult to get lost with Google Maps et al but the Medina is quite a labirynth and although there are signs, sometimes you have to rely on asking people for directions. I no longer buy souvenirs to take home but I must admit some of the things I saw in the shops I passed by were quite beautiful. I especially like pottery, of the rustic kind, and some berber kilims but it’s the African masks that draw my attention most.
I saw a shop that look almost like a diamond store among the sometimes scruffy-looking souk businesses. Hidden behind glass doors were several carvings positioned on metal stands, each with a sticker helping the attendant to decipher where the carving comes from, and more importantly, the price. The masks were beautiful and judging by the cracks in the wood, they could also be quite old. I asked for some prices, out of curiosity, and I was quoted a whopping range of numbers, from €500 (!) to, wait for it, €3000! This all sounds like a proper auction house! You can find the shop in Instagram, they are @jlk_fine_arts but the pictures there don’t do the artefacts justice.
I continued walking around. Both the medersa and the koubba are closed for renovation, which is a pity. I killed time drinking pomegranate juice, which is going to be the next thing Morocco does best (the others are thè à la menthe, olives and possibly orange juice).
Coming back to Maman 