Home ·· News Room ·· Prints ·· Licensing ·· Gallery ·· About Us ·· Contact Us ·· Articles ·· Services Morocco stock photography trip report, May 12-27, June 10-11, 2006 Updated June 27, 2006 Page 1 of 5 Next page
	(Note: This trip is as I wrote it, with only spelling corrected; grammar is out when on a photo trip.) Click here to download the whole Morocco report in Acrobat PDF   North Africa Trip, Morocco Leg Casablanca, Marrakech, Merzouga, Fes, Meknes, Asilah, Rabat May 12-27, June 10-11, 2006 (Exchange rate: 8.3 Dirham for $1US) © 2006 Aaron Linsdau Click here to see the Morocco Gallery Friday, May 12, 2006 Got up and headed south, not wanting to be late, getting to San Diego Airport to catch my flight at 7:30am to Casablanca, Morocco via JFK airport in New York. My first excitement was when reading the tickets, they were imprinted with Delta Airlines though my printed itinerary showed American Airlines. At first I thought I was in the wrong terminal! But wait, the flight numbers matched the American departure screen. Thank goodness, I was fine! I had evil paper tickets so I had to wait in line 15 minutes and get bumped to the front because the plane was prepping to load. Cruised through security and only had spare minutes before preboarding. The lesson was that paper tickets require a minimum of 1.5 hours before flight time. The flight to JFK was uneventful and the layover time just long enough to grab a bite to eat because I became hungry in the last half hour and all US domestic flights charge money for food. Pathetic. Arrived at terminal 9, had to take the train into the city one stop and then back to the airport. This place is huge! Dodged the long line at Royal Air Moroc and used the executive class line because I had no baggage to check, as I was living out of my medium sized backpack. It's bigger than a school book backpack but far smaller than a backpacking pack. Then ran upstairs and wolfed down a McDonald's chicken sandwich, a fitting last American meal for a month. Caught the flight an hour later and we're off! Had a strange feeling of fear and trepidation - probably watched too many movies and seen the real thing in images and on television of all the bad things happening in the Middle East. The food on Royal Air Moroc airlines is excellent. I had lamb. Befriended a guy named Nasr. He was working as gas a truck driver in the US and has nearly completed his time in the US for citizenship. He was returning to care for his ailing mother. Nasr gave me some good ideas and inspired confidence in my crazy venture to North Africa. The plane was full of people traveling all over Africa. Apparently Casablanca is a cheaper jumping point into African countries via JFK than Europe is. All the people from African countries wore suit jackets while a group of students from Georgia University looked like slobs. Funny contrast. Saturday, May 13, 2006 The people deplane down a staircase and bus over to the terminal. Changed $150US into 1274 Dirham, hit the toilet and missed the train by seven minutes. Damn. Did give me time to start this journal, though…. Uh oh, gotta go - don't want to miss another train at 8:50am! The ride into Casablanca was uneventful, passing through endless fields, ramshackle homes, goat and cow herds and many sheep with young boys and old men tending to them. No one wears shorts here whenever, hot, cold or otherwise. Many of the road/rail crossings have manned crossing gates - one or more men sit in a little booth and manually lower the gate when a train approaches. These trains are run on overhead electric cables and have a child's train whistle sound for their warning claxon. Arrived at Casa Voyageurs train station at 9:30am and prepared for the foray into Casablanca. Naturally, several people walk up to talk to you, presumably taxi or hotel touts. I ignored them for a few, took in the city and prepared to get whisked to the Hyatt. My taxi driver jokingly said 2,000 Euro to the hotel. Hahah. It was 20Dh (Dirham) instead of the 10Dh like it was supposed to be but I guessed going to the Hyatt tags you as rich and as a consequence, reduces your bargaining power. Got to the Hyatt and noticed lots of guys in suits standing around, blocking the drive through entrance to the hotel - presumably after the hotel Tulip Farah was bombed in 2003, blocking the driveway was implemented. Your bags are also searched upon entering the hotel. Maniac terrorists. Checked in without trouble and the one clerk was courteous enough. The porter took my bag up to the room and I tipped him 2Dh. A few minutes later, a plate of plums arrived from the hotel GM, welcoming me and thanking me for the stay. I was toast by this point as I didn't sleep on the plane at all, maybe 2 hours, though I did make a new friend so hopefully it was worth it. I lay down and crashed out on the stiff bed with a nice feather comforter. I was out quickly. Awoke at about 3pm (7am my time) and prepped for a venture into the city. I debated for a ridiculous amount of time to sight see or set up for hotels and transport. Photography won out but it would cost me later. Walked down Blvd FAR and checked out the street vendors and their wares. They sell everything here. Found a little hole in the wall to eat something as I was famished by this point. Saw a young boy order a bread sandwich with filling and a frothy greenish drink. The vendor asked several questions in quick French and I nodded and accepted whatever he said - couldn't understand him at all. After what seemed like an eternity to a hungry man, I scarfed down the filled pastry and consumed the frothy drink. I couldn't place the taste, though there was the mildest hint of green pees. Tired of walking, I caught a petit taxi (red) to the Hassan II mosque. It was only a few minutes ride but saved me precious daylight. The strange smells and bustling humanity somewhat rejuvenated my tired spirit, enough to give me the stamina to finish out the day. The ocean breeze at the mosque cooled my heated skin and I felt happy again. The mosque is the world's second largest and has the tallest minaret (prayer calling tower). You're not allowed in except on tour and then only a few late morning/early afternoon ones are available. People took their shoes off upon entering and parents chased their children before they gleefully ran into the mosque. After an hour of running around creating images, the evening lights turned on and the call to prayer began. Men entered the huge (40' tall) entrance and the women the lower, smaller side entrance. Watched as one father donned a scarf over his daughter's head before entering the main entrance for evening prayers. Was leaning up against a wall as a brace to take some evening shots when a teenager stood right in front of me. I snapped a shot of his backside and he departed. I shot him a dirty look while laughing to myself. Next time I shall give a more playful and entertaining monologue. Grabbed some popcorn from a street vendor for 1Dh, ate it and caught a taxi back to the hotel for 20Dh. Grabbed my Lonely Planet for transport information, shot an email off that I was okay and then headed to the bus station for a ticket to Essaouira. The only bus time they had left was 5pm. Gah! That puts me in at midnight. I initially bought a ticket but was able to secure a refund as I realized I didn't want to waste another day in Casablanca. Caught a taxi over to Casa Voyageurs train station to get a 7am ticket to Marrakech for 75Dh and taxied back to the Hyatt. This would cause me to miss Essaouira but staying at Casablanca was very unattractive. Round trip taxi cost - 40Dh. Getting murdered in taxi fare for staying at the hotel and doing things late at night. Discovered reservations for hotels must be made with the concierge no later than 6pm for hotels in other cities as they have to fax your info back and forth. I now was reaping the cost of sightseeing rather than securing hotels and transport. I'll get to Marrakech tomorrow and figure it out. It was 11pm before I bedded down and I had to charge batteries and download images. This is a killer schedule on no sleep. Sunday, May 14, 2006 Woke up at 4:45am and couldn't get back to sleep by my appointed 6am wake up time. That's going to hurt. Thank goodness I bought pastries last night for breakfast. The fresh squeezed OJ purchased last night bothered my stomach so I couldn't power it down as I'd liked. Showered, brushed and hurriedly checked out as I had little time to make the train station. I was again a captive at 30Dh taxi to the train station. Gah! Arrived with 15 minutes to spare as the train was late. Caught the train without incident and saw the Moroccan version of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the train car. Got a few stealthy shots of some people with the digisnap in stealth mode but nothing exciting. The train car became stiflingly hot and I unwisely chose the east sunny side of the car, so I enjoyed a miserably roasting ride to Marrakech. Did offset the hunger with a 5Dh pastry, though. Moroccans are a strange bunch - they help you on one hand and try to take your money away on the other. A man came up to me after the train ride when I was sitting on a bench debating where to go. He pointed to his perfume bottle then to me. I politely refused and he gestured that it was "okay". So I put my arm out, he sprayed it then my neck and the other arm. Then he offered me a pack of tissues since I was sniffling. I refused but he insisted and I accepted. He then bid me farewell. Moroccans are helpful and courteous in many ways. Caught a taxi but as predicted by Lonely Planet, he refused to the meter and I didn't feel like fighting so I accepted the 20Dh to Dar Si Said in hopes of finding a place to sleep. This involved much wandering lost and just fortunately happened to come across a sign for Hotel Challah. It's listed in Lonely Planet so I took the risk. For 100Dh per night, it was tough to pass up. The room looked and smelled clean so I bit on it. The showers cost 7Dh cold and 10Dh hot, with a shared toilet. Not too bad for $11US total. Apparently someone runs tours to Merzouga and Erg Chebbi from here so I'll be back at 3pm. Got directions to Djemaa el-Fna, the crazy central square. Just like the book says, there are cobra snake charmers (who've sewn the mouth clothes but claim the snake is well trained), money handlers, water vendors, food sellers, story tellers - all in a huge square on a hot day. A crazy man came up to me and offered to give me a tour of "Berber sellers", here only one day a week. Haha! He showed me endless halls of junk and wares for sale. 3000Dh ($360US!) jackets that should only cost 700Dh ($84US). "What, these things have been here forever!", I said. He replied, "No, no, the best quality." This place is just like China. After the little "tour", I had to get back to the hotel. The maniac wanted 3 British pounds ($6US) for his worthless little tour. I laughed as that cost as much as my dinner. For his services I offered 5Dh. He argued. I walked. He pleaded with me for a tip for his grand tour. I said I was "…insulted, take it or leave it." He swore at me and I laughed and left. The tour to Erg Chebbi was 1900Dh ($228US) for three days, leaving tomorrow, all inclusive save lunch and drinks. We'll see. It really messes my schedule up since I wanted to bus to Fes from southern Morocco in a few days, hit up Essaouira, and I hadn't even seen Marrakech yet. However, it was a perfect opportunity so I went with the Canadian couple for tomorrow. (Note - the Canadian couple paid $600Cn Paris to Marrakech, a good deal). Collected my camera and headed to Djemaa el-Fna ("the big square") to take in the sights. This place is much wilder in the late afternoon. Funny, much here is geared toward Moroccans since they story telling is done in Arabic. Had dinner - finally!! I was Famished. Watched the teaming life pass by while eating and relaxing. Went up to the huge balcony on the southeast square, bought my 10Dh drink as the entrance fee and watched. What a circus. And it's like this every night? Spent a good hour watching until sunset. Went down to join the fray, watching for pickpockets. While photographing a fountain, a water seller tried to get my attention in French, presumably to request payment for photographing a city fountain. My ploy was to say, "No understand French/English/or whatever" to make people go away. I pretend to be British, Spanish, Japanese, American, depending on the situation. Went back to the hotel and slept at 10pm. Geeze this place is loud, thank goodness for ear plugs. People here regularly stay up past midnight. Crazy. Sleep! Monday, May 15, 2006 This proved to be a very long day. Found a breakfast place firstly to get some sort of take out pastry. It was covered in some sort of chocolate mix. Quite good and incredibly filling. Made a friend with an Aussie doing a multi-month tour of Africa from south to north, headed to the UK for some work. Wow! Now that's the way to go. Sent off a bunch of postcards to the family and friends. We'll see if they arrive. Met up with our tour set-up guy at the motel to get going. We packed (3 of us) into that small car and headed off, exchanged that tiny car for an even smaller Hyundai Atos (smaller than a Geo Metro), got our driver and headed out. Once we left the confines of Marrakech, you could see the wide expanse of the land. Passed Hassan II's (former king) royal golf course and headed up the mountain. Somehow our little car powered up the hills and we stopped several times to take photos and buy refreshments. The landscape reminds me of the California high and low deserts, just with different plants. Stopped to take photos of a Berber village and some Berber kids came to us, asking for money. I flashed a 5Dh piece as an experiment and not-to-surprisingly, I had 10 hands instantly trying to pry the coin out of mine. Had they been nice, I would have given it up but I yelled, "Ne pas!" There after I had a boy following me around - won't do that again. Also watched for kids trying to pickpocket at the same time. We crested the mountains and came to the Kasbah of Ait BenHaddou where part of the movie Gladiator was filmed. The meal at the restaurant was outrageously priced (95Dh) so we skipped. Walked up to the top of the Kasbah for the view and visited a guy in a cave to cool off. Chatted for a while and upon leaving, he hit me up for "Money for the house" since I was the last person to leave the cave. Gave him 5Dh and he looked at me incredulously. Pay to visit and chat, bah. What kind of hospitality was that? Everyone wants their cut. The view from the top of the Kasbah was quite impressive with the mud brick contrasted with the green oasis created by the river. After taking that in, it was getting later and it was time to roll. We ambled down and I stole pictures where possible. The pictures of the Gladiator filming showed this Kasbah was quite done up for the film, with columns and all sorts of stuff not normally here. Funny. The plain photos of the actors differed wildly from what was actually seen in the movies. Seeing as the day had burned on, we tore through the high desert at 120kph and the little car felt like it was breaking apart. We reached the cut off to Todra Gorge just past sunset and we drove into the deep canyon. We waited quite a while for dinner and surprise, 3 of us had to share a room. Funny? Yes. Surprising? No. By dinner at almost 9pm, we were famished. It was an excellent tagine of meat, vegetables and soup. Very good and filling food. Desert was cut oranges with nutmeg and melons. Yum. We retired at 11pm. Not surprisingly, some tourist lady brought her dumb dog and the pleasant little beast barked into the night. Then there was the meowing cat the early morning hours behind the room. Then a barking dog awoke deep in the gorge at 2am. Figured it was 6 hour of sleep at best, so it's going to be another dog tired day. Sleeping in the car has been somewhat of a good recovery mechanism, though. Next page
	This site Copyright © 2000-2006 Aaron Linsdau, all rights reserved.