touring around

our hotel room has one window with a shutter that can open a keyhole shape to make the room feel very moroccan. we look out over a very busy road, and though the window is pretty well sealed, we can hear some traffic. we hear the motorbikes, the cars and the donkeys clip clopping by. it adds to the atmosphere. unfortunately, the air is quite polluted, which adds a different sort atmosphere. yesterday we let jj sleep and we didn’t get out until 12:30. today we got her up at 9:30 to join us for breakfast on the roof terrace. we were trying to plan out the rest of our stay here and book some day trips. we were hoping to get a much earlier start to our day, but by the time we finished, it was 11:30. oh well. that’s just us. we went to the “saadian tombs” which is a sacred burial building and grounds that had been forgotten to the world behind its walls. it was very crowded. there was a line to see the most beautiful room, but after waiting for half an hour, we gave up. we then got a horse drawn buggy (much desired by jj) which took us to the “ville nouvelle” (new town). it had been written up as a sort of “haussmann” styled area of town, built by the colonial french. in reality, it seemed like it had been built in the 70’s. maybe the haussmann buildings had been recently replaced by these modern ones or maybe we weren’t in the right place. it was not very exciting. we had lunch and then went to the “majorelle gardens” which were touted as the crown jewel of marrakech’s gardens. it too was extremely crowded. created by an artist called majorelle, and then owned by yves st laurent, it had among other things a dense bamboo forest and a cactus garden. it also had a beautiful courtyard restaurant/cafe. but it wasn’t fabulous. a little boring. i felt that the town was just trying to find more things for tourists to do. afterwards we took a cab out to the “palmeraie” to have a camel ride. i hadn’t actually understood what the palmeraie was. in fact, it is a very large open area outside of town, covered with palm trees. they are not dense enough to be called a forest but they were spread out enough so farmers could plant crops between them (artichoke, coriander, parsley). it was not a tended “garden”. though, apparently, it used to be a very dense palm forest until some sort of blight thinned it out. we wandered around the remaining palms for an hour, on dromedaries (oops, not camels). the guide gave us peeks into the land of the rich who built houses and walled gardens here. it had been a wonderful temperature all day, and now the sun was setting and it was starting to get cool. we went back to town to the central square and had a mint tea. then we decided to go back to the market stands for an early dinner of fried fish and vegetables. it was very fried... i get images of my arteries hardening when i eat like this. i watched the cook pour all the oil from his big fry pot into a tub. it was very dark brown. i thought he was going to change the oil and was impressed. then i realized that that was probably not what was going to happen. in fact, he washed the pot (probably clearing out lots of fried bits) and then of course, poured the oil back in. then he threw a couple of whole sweet peppers into it. i realized that even the veggies we ate were deep fried. after dinner, jj also wanted an ice cream, so we went to a place on our way home. i saw a couple of boys pulling the sleeve of a tourist as he ordered his ice cream. they put on very long sad faces. i guess they were trying to get him to buy them and ice cream. it didn’t work. we had read about marrakech, that young boys would hassle tourists to offer themselves as guides. i just finished reading a book about some australians who bought and restored a riad in fez (“a house in fez”, suzanna clarke). they said that a new law had been instated that forbade “false guides”, to discourage this practice. it was strictly enforced and a person could be thrown in jail if there was any suspicion of them doing this, including just walking with a tourist. if this is the case, it has really worked. there are no boys bugging tourists to be their guides. except for shop owners trying to have you come into their shop, we have generally not been hassled. we notice it and are appreciative. the current king, mohammed VI is doing an amazing job of encouraging tourism.

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