Chapter 1 - Arriving in Morocco

We have had an easy introduction to Morocco since we arrived five days ago. After a wonderful two weeks in England visiting family, we flew to Spain and took a ferry to Tangiers and then went directly to a picturesque town in the Rif mountains in the north. Chefchaouen is a 500 year old town in a valley surrounded by mountains. Although the primary industry in the area besides tourism is growing kif to produce hashish, the town is charming. Morocco is the worlds largest exporter of hashish. We found a charming room in the medina, the old town, and have spent hours exploring there. The medina is made up of winding cobblestonelanes with blue and white buildings,coloured haphazardly with different colours of blue whitewash. There are no vehicles in the medina. Instead the lanes are overflowing with colourful craft shops selling beautiful leather products, rugs and woven fabrics, intricately decorated furniture, silver etc. And many other shops for locals, cafes and people of all ages coming and going and just visiting together. People are very friendly and no aqgressive selling techniques.

Chefchaoen is a  blend of traditional and modern. The majority of
middle age and older people are dressed in traditional jellabas, a long
hooded caftan worn like a coat over other clothes and most women wear a
scarf around their heads.  Children are dressed the same as in Canada.
Young men are usually dressed casually in jeans and tee shirts.  Women
are dressed in a great variety of ways: one in a coloured synthetic
beautiful jellaba and matching head scarf, another in jeans and jean
jacket and no headscarf, and a third in a blend with jeans, knee length
fitted coat dress and headscarf.  What is striking is that friends of
all ages seem to happily represent a blend of traditional and modern.
And most people,of course,have a cellphone.
Another first impression is the huge number of young people. This is a
country of young people with approx. 70 percent of the population under
30 years of age. This can be a problem in a country with 20 to 40 percent unemployment.
And many middle aged and older people look and walk as if they are very old and not well. So big generational
differences.
The older women continue to work hard as all thehousework is their responsibility.  Older men sit together for hours in outdoor
cafes or dark rooms inside watching a large T.V., playing dominoes and other games, smoking kif or cigarettes,
and drinking mint tea or coffee. There are big changes for women in Morocco as King Mohammed V1 introduced
and parliament passed laws in 2004 giving women full equal rights with men.  And yet, 60 percent of women in rural
Morocco are illiterate.  A country in a period of great change and yet a country with ingrained traditions.  Fascinating.

Chapter 2 - Medina Meanderings

 So on to Fez, the foremost imperial city of Morocco, after Marrakech.

We walked through the medina in the eerie early dawn mist in the hope

that we might find a taxi and if not we still had time to walk. Did

find one, arrived at the bus station in good time. The bus arrived at

6.50 and left at 7 for our 4 hour trip to Fez - or so we had been told.

Around 10.30 I noticed a milestone indicating 19km to a town. When I

pulled out the map it was obvious we were little more than halfway.

We`d had no breakfast and were in dire need of a pee break.

Fortunately, we soon pulled into a bus station and it was clear that

this would be a longer stop - phew. 

Finally, at 3pm, we arrived at Fez. Despite taking 8 hours it had been

a relatively comfortable trip. Although the bus was somewhat

delapidated, the roads were mostly smooth, except in some of the towns.

And as it was not at all crowded until the last hour and a half, when

it transformed itself into a local bus, we were able to have a double

seat each. Which was just as well; it rained most of the trip, was

quite cold (of course, no heating) and the windows leaked, but as we

were each able to sit in an aisle seat and had our fleece jackets it

On arrival, we were immediately adopted by a Abdul, a local `guide` who

wanted to take us to a nearby hotel. After following him to a very

expensive restaurant nowhere near where we wanted to be we decided the

best bet was to get back to the `bus station` and start again. On the

way back we got the full sales pitch about the hotel he wanted to take

us to. We figured there was nothing to lose and many times in the past

we had found hotels via touts to be better and cheaper than those

listed in the Lonely Planet. So it was this time. The taxi dropped us

outside `his` hotel (2 minutes walk from the bus station!). It was fine

- basic room, but clean, friendly, very cheap and a comfortable lounge

cum breakfast room. The only downside was it was at the opposite end of

the medina from all the action. But as it was a short taxi ride to get

there, that was a minor issue.

After settling in at the hotel we decided to go to the Hotel Batha,

which is one of the few in this strictly Muslim city with a bar, near

the main gate area of the medina. After checking it out we decided not

to stay - too expensive and no atmosphere - quite bleak. So we launched

ouselves into the alleyways of the medina hoping to find somewhere more

appealing to eat. Within milliseconds we were approached by a quite

distinguished looking man in his 50`s who identified himself as a

professor at the university and bid us the usual 1000 welcomes.

He invited us to take tea with his wife, which we declined as ,

truthfully, we were hungry (having had only a couple of bananas and a

packet of biscuits all day) and wanted to find a restaurant. After

making it clear we did not want an expensive place (and hence no

commission for him) he pointed us towards a small outdoor place which

served tasty food and was comfortable as well as a cheerful place to

people_watch - a surprisingly small number of tourists, mostly

Moroccans, both strolling the medina and eating at the many outdoor

cafes.    

As thoughts turned to returning to our hotel it occurred to us that,

while it had been no problem getting to a major landmark, getting back

to a no-name backstreet pension might prove a different proposition. So

it was - no taxi driver knew the location of our hotel, we didn`t know

the address and our prospect of getting back was looking decidedly

uncertain. Fortunately, a young guy appeared who spoke English quite

well and, although he was non the wiser about where we wanted to go, he

did know how to recognise the plain-clothes tourist police who, he

thought, would probably be able to help us. He was right - a group of

scruffy looking individuals turned out to be tourist police officers

and immediately recognised the name of our hotel, gave directions to

the taxi driver and our prospect of spending the night wandering the

backstreets of Fez evaporated. Ten minutes later we were back outside

our home and after thanking our driver and our young guide with a

generous tip, made our way to bed. 

The next day we decide to walk from our hotel to Bab Bou Jeloud, the

main gate of the medina, through all the narrow, twisting alley ways,

many of which are dead-ends (there are 9400 alleys and a population of

200,000). After a few wrong turns we finally found ourselves near the

place we had eaten last night. Felt very pleased we had managed to do

it, and felt a lot more confident that we could find our way back

wherever our wanderings took us. 

We went into a carpet store and spent an hour being given the sales

pitch along with glasses of mint tea; met a great guy selling soaps,

body creams, roots for cleaning teeth and many other mysterious things

and spent an hour chatting to him over the inevitqble mint tea. Lunched

on the 2nd floor terrace of a restaurant, then back to the hotel.

Later, back by taxi to Bab Bou Jeloud for dinner at an outdoor

restaurant. The weather has been great in Fez, 23/24 and sunny, very

pleasant for sitting out and taking in the sights and sounds of the

medina as we eat.

The next day, Thursday, set out again by taxi for Bab bou Jeloud for

more meandering through the medina. Followed the walking tour described

in the Lonely Planet and found signs in English as well as French and

Arabic at each point of interest, which really helped us understand

what we were looking at.

Spent 3 hours having lunch on the same terrace as yesterday, then went

to visit the tanneries, one of the oldest industries in Morocco, the

roots of which go back 7000 years! Picked up (or picked up by) a guide

who spoke good English, and gave us a good description of the process

as we looked down from the roof top onto the the different vats the

hides are processed through. We`d been warned to expect a terrible odour,

but it really wasn`t too bad despite part of the process including vats

of pigeon droppings and cow urine.

Afterwards we were gently nudged towards the inevitable carpet shop

where we spent 2 hours with a very agreeable carpet seller. After

deciding we would buy a carpet, we got down to the choices and price.

All the carpet sellers have a similar technique. They lay down carpet

after carpet until you are thoroughly confused; then they remove each

carpet in turn asking you to decide whether it is one you may be

interested in or not. At the end there are 2 or 3 left to decide

between. We picked 2 small rugs for wall hangings - mainly silk with

some wool.  

The next day we left Fez by train for Meknes.