You want hashish?

We arrived today in the beautiful moutainside town of Chefchaouen. I dont use the word "beautiful" lightly, it is nestled in the foothills of of soaring peaks and the old medina is painted in shades of blue and white with red roof tiles, and narrow cobbled streets making it feel part Spanish, part Greek but still very Moroccan.

On the subject of Spanish, this place seems to be a haven for young Spanish stoners. Since arriving this afternoon I have almost constantly been offered "kif" - the Moroccan word for dope. I think most of the Spanish tourists here are high and I suspect half of the locals too; definitely the guy running our hotel, who does everything in slow motion.

We only have a few more days left in Morocco before we go to Cairo. Fes was fantastic; though we struggled with some of the cultural differences.

Larna went to a local Turkish "Hammam" for a massage and a body scrub, something they are famous for in Morocco. She came back practically glowing as they use these rough gloves to scrape away your dead skin. She was taken by Fatimah, the wife of the guy who owned the house we were staying in, who we thought was going there herself. To cut a long story short; in return for taking Larna, waiting an hour for her and organising the treatment she expected a small "present". We assumed a small tip so we gave her some money. She would not take it; she wanted an actual gift. We bought her a scarf in the market and when Larna gave it to her Fatimah acted like it was a wonderful surprise, as if Larna had come up with the idea of a gift in the first place! Very odd.

My name is "Mohammed Couscous" (plus Sahara photos)

We find ourselves in the wonderful labyrinth that is the Fez medinah. This pic is of a nougat and nut brittle vendor chopping a few dollars worth of delicious merchandise for us. There are heaps of these guys as you turn a corner and plunge further into this incredible marketplace. Unlike Marrakech which has a really touristy medina and souks, Fez's has a lot more artisans and people banging away making brassware, wood carvings and other crafts much in the manner they have done for hundreds of years.

The hotel we wanted to stay at was full so the owner, who said we should call him "Mohammed Couscous" - I kid you not - led us down the road, through a maze of streets to the house of his relative. So we are staying with a Moroccan family who I guess have turned their spare rooms into a "B and T" (Bed and mint Tea). The house is four incredibly narrow stories, linked by an even narrower and somewhat scary tiled staircase, which I would shudder to negotiate drunk. Luckily alcohol is scarce here (Meknes seemed to have more bars than New York though). The top has a roof terrace with views towards the nearby hills over the roofs of houses. As I speak the Saturday afternoon crowd has gathered behind enjoying tea and chatting away in Arabic. I assume none can understand this (as the screen is facing all of them), it would embarrasing if they could

Below just a handful of some of the photos we took on our four day Sahara adventure...

A quieter place and pace

Greetings from chilled out Meknes. We arrived here yesterday evening after an exhausting seven hour train ride from Marrakech. It was exhausting because the air conditioning was not working on the train so we literally baked in our own sweat for the entire journey. To make it worse the train was full most of the way, among our fellow passengers an annoying little kid who tried to see how many things he could try and break in the carriage and left to run wild by his mother who liked a member of Monty Python in drag. Anyway, it was good practice for India, or so I kept telling myself the entire duration of the journey.

I had wanted to upload some more pics from our amazing Sahara adventure, but the computer here kept on giving me some bizarre message in French so I only managed this one, taken in the Atlas mountains on our way to Ourzazate, Zagora and Merzouga, the towns we visited during our trip.

It was a brilliant road trip, made especially so by our great travelling companions. There were only seven of us - made up of the two I mentioned in my previous post, Loralin and Neil from Dublin, and an Italian couple, Veronica and Salvatore from Milan and Ibrahim a Moroccan from Rabat. It was great having Ibrahim along not just because he was super friendly but because he could answer lots of my questions about Moroccan customs and ways of life. Veronica happened to be a doctor of infectious medicine, so we were covered if we got sick.

The trip was four days and three nights. The first two nights we camped in the desert, travelling by camel to our tents. We ate communaly from tagines prepared by our guides, nomadic Berbers. At night they played traditional music among the sand dunes. Our second evening, we had to wait out a vicious sandstorm before taking camels through the enormous salmon pink sand dunes of Merzouga as the sun set. It is definitely one of the best things I have ever done. The dunes looked surreal and riding through them on our camels was worth the cost of the trip alone.

Besides the camels and dunes we also visited some ancient cities and kasbahs (two of which were used to film moves like Gladiator and Lawrence of Arabia, or so I was told), travelled through incredible gorges and valleys filled with palm trees with bunches of dates hanging from them and passed the Berbers red mudbrick houses literally rising out of the rock. I could go on, instead I will try and upload a whole bunch of photos the next time I am able.

As for Meknes it is a lot smaller and less frenetic than Marrakech and has a cool, European manner in the new city where we are staying. It was built by the French, so it figures. We played backgammon over fruit juice in the main square of the Medina today (the old part of the city) and took a wander through the souq. Our hotel is called the Majestic and is a period Art deco piece built in 1937, quite wonderful though more expensive than our unreliable Lonely Planet guide said. We will probably stay another night here and then head to Fez, which is only an hour from here.

Back in Marrakesh, on to Meknes

Just a super quick post to let family and friends know we arrived safe and sound back in Marrakesh after a fantastic four days doing our road trip round the South west of Morocco and spending two amazing nights camping in the desert among the Salmon pink sand dunes.

I´d planned to write a long post about our trip tonight with some photos but we ended up spending the evening having dinner with Neil and Loralin (both from Dublin, though Loralin is actually Dutch), two of the brilliant people we met on our trip. After dinner, we stayed up having drinks on the balcony of the Hotel Tazi, overlooking the city, chatting like old friends.

Will write more tomorrow, once we arrive in Meknes, the next destination on our trip.

The marvellous madness of Jenna el Fnaa

Larna took these great photos of the night market on Jenna el Fnaa the main square in Marrakesh: the man behind the food stall is one of the many exuberant and excitable Moroccans who beckons you; no implores you to eat at his stall. You make your selection from tagines, cous cous, kebabs etc and the plates of food arrive a few minutes later. The atmosphere is terrific with locals and tourists dining side by side. Saying that, the quality is not always so wonderful. Tonight I had a chicken tagine consisting of what must have been one sadly malnourished bird and watery vegetables drowning in oil. This though has been the exception to the rule.

Tonight we sat next to a really muscular looking Arabic guy and his girlfriend. He was pretty intimidating. Anyway we ended up in conversation as I commented on his rugby tatooo on his bicep. Turns out he is a rugby mad Lebanese guy who lives in Paris. We chatted about the All Blacks and Zinzan Brooke and he spoke Arabic so he hassled the waiters to bring a drink we had asked for at least three times. Before he left he insisted on buying us a drink as a gift. What a great guy. It is these kind of encounters I truly relish on our travels; the totally unexpected ones.

On the subject of our travels we will be in Marrakesh until Saturday morning; longer than we had planned; but it is to connect with a four day expedition to the Sahara. We travel in a small group; visit beautiful valleys and gorges; ancient sandstone villages and best of all camp two nights in the Sahara desert in a Bedouin tent reached via camel ride.

Marvellous mad Marrakesh

We arrived in Marrakesh after a three hour bus ride from Essauoria. Our hotel is just off the main square where all the action takes place. It really comes alive at night with the food market and the smoke from the grills wafting across the massive space. Today I had my photo taken with this snake - it is a water snake and harmless, so the guy told me. The other ones on the ground clearly are not! He told me I should squeeze the snake's head but I refused. Holding it was good enough for me. Anyway I have to go, just wanted to show you all my snake photo!

Camel ride on the beach at Essaouira...

We don't want to buy any carpets...

We're in the wondrous coastal town of Essauoria staying right in the middle of the Medina, which is basically the walled-in older part of the city surrounded by ramparts. It is very charming with its streets lined with vendors selling carpets, jewellery, tagines, spices, clothing and just about everything (including butcheries with carcasses dangling and a manic fruit and veg market).

The buildings are square and white-washed, many with blue shutters and blue window frames. Off the main streets, narrow alley ways veer off full of mystery. There are cats everywhere. People are incredibly friendly and generous. No cars are allowed but people fly past on bicycles and scooters.

As to the origins of this photo...a guy called out to me on the street today, he spoke very fast and a strange kind of English and I wrongly assumed he was talking about camels and going into the desert, something we both want to do. Actually he just wanted to sell us Arabic carpets. I made the mistake of going into his shop and dragging Larna in too. He dressed us up in these traditional costumes, offered us tea and then tried to sell us carpets which we had no interest or desire to buy. He persisted, it was awkward, but at least we got to wear these cool outfits and look like real nomadic Arabs.

We spent most of yesterday getting here on the bus from Casablanca passing through little towns along the way with the famililar square design and white washed walls. As night fell we stopped at a one horse town for a break. People were congregated around eating houses devouring plates of meat. The slaughtered carcases were on display next door. People are all over the place, walking in the road, riding their scooters or bicycles. Even in the pitch dark as we approached Essauoira, there were people walking along the dusty sidewalks. The bus had to swerve a few times to avoid running one or two down.

We plan to stay here until Sunday. We have yet to explore the Jewish area, the beach or the fishing village. We are staying in a 'ryad' - a traditional old house with a big atrium in the middle and two floors supported by stone pillars. It is quite beautiful. Breakfast is fresh orange juice, coffee, these traditional pancake/naan-like breads, jam and butter. Delicious.

Meandering through Casablanca

Greeting from 'Cas' as the locals call Casablanca. We have had a very enjoyable day and a half wandering through the medina, exploring the markets and meeting some of the locals. The people here are very friendly and we have been surprised at how little we have been bothered by people trying to take us somewhere or get us to buy some of their wares.

Today we strolled to the Al Hassan Mosque - the third biggest in the world and yesterday we explored the winding, narrow streets of the Medina. It is unlike any city I have been to and feels very much Arabic, rather than African. It is Ramadan at the moment so we have felt a little bit uncomfortable eating during the day, but what can you do! It is more like curious looks than anything else.

It has not been without incident - yesterday a guy got knocked down by a car in front of us. He sat on the road looking shocked but got up and seemed OK. The driver to his credit stopped his car and came up to check he was OK and then for added good measure, kissed him on both cheeks. The guy who was knocked down was a big, muscular black guy so the scene was quite bizarre.

Our accomodation is extremely basic - our hotel room has a bed, a shower, a light bulb with dangling, wires exposed from the ceiling and the linoleum floor is discoloured with black spotches from the water leaking from the shower. That said its clean and has a little balcony to watch the goings on below.

Tomorrow we are taking a bus to the little coastal town of Essouira - I may have spelt it wrong - which should make a nice contrast from Casablanca and our stop after that, Marrakesh. We will probably spend another night in Casa on the way back.

Two hours in Abhu Dhabi airport

Arrived a short while ago in Abhu Dhabi. The air steward announced that it was the month of Ramadan so we must not eat during the day in public places. I wondered what constituted a public space?

The airport has these bits jutting out that are like circular pods, but look very Arabic. The roof of the terminal I am in typing this has these blue tiles shaped in hexagons with white in the middle. Again very Arabic.

On the plane I watched a great German movie called "Liebe Mauer" about an Eastern German border guard who falls in love with a West German woman in 1989 just before the Wall came down. Highly recommend it. Very moving. Great food on the plane and all in all Etihad gets the thumbs up so far - our next flight departs in about two hours for Casablanca. We are both quite exhausted. Hope to get some sleep on the second flight.

And we're off...again!

In about twenty minutes we'll be on our way to Oliver Tambo International Airport (Jan Smuts for all you old die-hards) to board our Etihad flight for Casablanca via Abhu Dhabi. We'll be staying in the centre of the city for the next four days and from there exploring the riches of Morocco for the next month.

Exciting and 'beeg' adventures await. We are looking forward to different sights, smells (probably not all of them), tastes (Moroccan lamb for one!) and experiences from those in Europe and Asia.

I will be updating the blog when ever I get the opportunity. Take care and speak to you all soon. Goodbye Jozi!