Hey, Im a 23 year old. I work behind a bar and as an animal keeper. In my spare time i enjoy going o...
Hey, Im a 23 year old. I work behind a bar and as an animal keeper. In my spare time i enjoy going out with my mates and having a few drinks
Member since:10.07.2004
Reviews:11
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I went backpacking in June 2007 with a freind and the first place we started was in Morocco, which is in North Africa and it very different to anywhere else I visited on the trip. Every city had something unique about it and the people changed alot between each city. For example In Cassablance the dress code for women is much more relaxed than in Marrakesh.
The first place we went to was Marrakesh. We landed here on a flight from Luton with Ryanir. The flight went smoothly and ran on time, but as soon as we enetered the airport you could tell that you were no longer in Western Europe where everything had to run smoothly and quickly! We waited for about 30 minutes to get through passport control, got our bags only to join another que for about 45 minutes to get some money changed over. They had no money exchange open and everyone from the flight all wanted to get money changed over. When the staff eventually found a banker they only found one, which was quite tedious, especially with some people thinking they have more right to get served first and pushing you out the way. My advice would be try and order some dirham before you go. By this point myself and my friend were quite tired and
just wanted to get to the hostel but then had to get a taxi, which as we all ready knew we would most likely be scammed! We went with a positive attitude that we would only pay about 50 dirhan but ended up paying 150 dirhan, and everyone else we met ended up doing the same thing!!
Dont let my airport experience put you of because after that we had an amazing time. Marrakesh can be quite testing at times with the locals been quite rude to you, but I put that down to the increasing amount of tourists flocking on the city.
MARRAKESH In Marrakesh we stayed in the medina (spanish quarter) in a hostel called the heart of the medina, which is brand new. The security is lacking a bit here and its not running as smoothly as it could be but still its a nice place and you will meet lots of people. Most of the hostels are based in the medina, which is the place I would advise anyone to stay. Mainly because you dont have to tackle crossing any of the major roads, which is quite a terrifying experience! Just be warned don't think your safe from the traffic in the medina alleys because your far from safe. Still watch out for horse and cart, petit taxis and motorbikes flying up and down. If you do go to Marrakesh make sure you visit the Djemaa el-fna. This is the night market in the main square full of storytellers, snake charmers and very random people selling teeth! If you didn't feel like you were in Africa up to this point you certainly will once you visit here. Many tourists vanish at this time of day and you will find yourself surrounded by all the locals. Don't eat before you go because there are loads of stalls selling food lined up for everyones evening meals. There is a wide choice of food for everyone. I am vegetarian and had no problem finding food. I would definitely recommend butter bean soup or the country dish tangine. Another trip to make while your staying in Marrakesh should be to Sidi Thatma. This is the last village before you go up to the Atlas mountains and you see some amazing scenery and escape the dusty hot city of Marrakech. If you work really hard as a group you should be able to get a grand taxi from just outside the Marrakech medina to the village, get them to wait and then bring you back for 400 dirhan between four people.
ESSAOURIA Next we travelled to Essaouria, a seaside resort on the west coast. We travelled there by local bus which took about 4-5 hours with a stop over for lunch. Be very careful on the local buses that the men putting your bags in the hold don't scam you. You will have to give them a bit of money for putting your bags underneath but they tried to trick me out of 180 dirhan by giving me incorrect change. Luckily I checked after we had just been scammed whilst buying out tickets! Essouria has not been hit by the large number of tourists so it is a lot easier to walk around the shops in the medina here without been hassled and also much easier to bargain as they treat you more like a local than a stupid tourist that they can get away with scamming. When you visit this town I'd recommend visitng the town in an evening because you will get the feel for how relxed this place really is. All the mums will bring their children out to run around in the evening heat while they all stand around and talk.
FES To get here we took the coach to Casablanca, (which we decided not to stop in as it looks very commercialised and not really what we had come to see) and then got on the train to Fes. If your going to travel by train try to avoid travelling in rush hour as we did and we never had a seat for the full four and a half hours and at one point I had an old lady almost sitting on my knee, not nice!! However most of the locals are very nice and chat away to you. In Fes we stayed in the YHA hostel, which I would highly recommend. The lady and gentleman that run the place are really friendly, can advise you on everything and arrange tours for you to visit the Fes medina, which is defiantly worth a visit. The Fes medina is the worlds largest living medina with 9300 alleys, and about 30,000 people living in it with lots of shops, tanneries, mosques, and food establishments. A guide is recommended as they will take you down all the interesting alleys andto see working carpet makers and chemists.
CHEFCHAOUEN This town, set high up in the Rif mountains, is untouched by the average tourist but there are a lot of backpackers to make friends with! Nearly everyone there is high on weed and don't be surprised if nearly everyone offers you to sit and have a spliff with them, even in the restaurants. But you don't have to, just say no and they wont ask you again. This is a place I would highly recommend that you stay in for quite a few days and arrange a trek up into the mountains. I never had time but no a lot of people who did and it looked an amazing experience. The whole town is also painted blue which adds to the uniqueness of this little town.
We left Morocco by ferry from Tangier. We were planning to stop here for a day or two but it looks quite rough and has a lot of south Africans waiting to cross to Europe stuck in the hostels there, so instead we got the ferry across to Spain.
This is an amazing country I would highly recommend. If you are a single female travel you may get less hassel if there is guy with you but still is safe as we met many female travellers who had no problems.
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Advantages: Such a variety of different cultures and scenary. Hot deserts to mountains, fertile plains to sandy beaches. Disadvantages: Snakes, cockroaches, beggars.
Sexy-Kay 28.09.2002 ·
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Review of General: Morocco
Sep 30th, 2007
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