Morocco pt. 2 (Sahara Desert and LOTS of driving)

Day 5

Mom and me in the High Atlas Mountains

We sadly had to check out of our luxorious and romantic riad for two long days on the road, which would eventually get us to the Sahara. The first part of our trip took us through the High Atlas Mountains, which can be seen from the city of Marrakech. They rise 14,000 ft. above Marrakech, which is absolutely amazing since they just come out of a flat plain. On our way to the mountains, we passed the ritzy suburbs of Marrkech, which were once the slums, but the poor people of Marrakech were kicked out or the land was bought from them. The poor people were then displaced about 40 km away from the city (where all the jobs are), and are living in government subsidized housing, which is already falling apart or not completed at all. The Moroccan government is very obviously corrupt, and it seems as if the poor get no help at all for an improved life. It is all very superficial, in that the government will pave roads or build housing, but it is only from the cheapest of materials and disintegrates quickly.

window in the Kasbah

After about an hour we reached the base of the mountains and began our steep and winding ascent. The mountains were absolutely gorgeous, with sharp peaks and SNOW (I hadn’t seen snow in a year), and lush green valleys. The cool mountain air was refreshing, especially compared to the hot and dusty air of Marrakech.

As we descended the High Atlas Mountains, we found ourselves in a region called the road of 1001 Kasbahs. A Kasbah has two meanings, one is a posh street in a medina, and the other is a fortress made of hay and mud. The region we were in featured the latter. Whole families would live in the Kasbahs and have to rebuild them each year after the rainy season. Because people do not defend their families from intruders anymore, most of the Kasbahs are disintegrating into their original forms of mud and hay. We were able to go into a working Kasbah that two brothers own and keep up for tourism purposes. It was really cool to be inside a real, working Kasbah. The view from the top was spectacular, with a view of an oasis and mountains in the background. There were also some incredible wind-swept rocks that looked like round pillars in caves.

After the Kasbah we drove on through Ouarzazate, which is the Moroccan Hollywood. We didn’t stop in and take a tour of the studios, but the town was very nice, with statues of director’s clipboards (you know, the things they snap when they say “action”) in the middle of the roundabouts. About 40 minutes outside of Ouarzazate we passed a beautiful lake that was the most incredible blue I had ever seen. It was especially incredible since we had become accustomed to the barren, grey wasteland of desert we had been driving through. According to our guide, the lake is filled with many minerals, including silver, which give it its incredible blue color. We also passed a neighborhood filled with huge houses next to the lake that allegedly has houses that are owned by Hillary Clinton and the King of Morocco.

Our day ended just before sunset in a small town that had a huge hotel for people just like Mom and I on our way to the Sahara. It was the only proper hotel we stayed in, and were ecstatic when we found out that there was a gym there. Upon checking in we asked where the gym was, since we wanted to use it after our 9 hours in the car. I had already put my backpack on to go up to the room, and was confused as to why there was such a commotion when we asked them to just describe to use where the gym was located. Neither the bellman nor our driver would attempt to give directions, so I was left in the lobby with the bags while mom was escorted by the bellman AND our driver to the gym, which was just down a hall and easily found by following signs. Real difficult, guys. Thanks for having so much faith in us following directions and reading signs.

Lake that Hillary Clinton's house looks over

Day 6

house in the cliffs

Our day started out with another long drive through desert. We made a few stops, the first being a canyon, which wasn’t too exciting. We then went to a Berber village and stopped in a carpet store, which had incredible Berber carpets. We learned of the two types of Berber looms: one is horizontal and is stationary, the other is vertical and is used by the nomadic tribes because it can be picked up and moved. My favorite carpet was one that was made by a nomadic tribe. It used weaving and knotting and had different textures that were used to massage to nomads’ feet after a long day of traveling. The carpets sold in his store were all made by Berbers for their families, but they had to sell them because they are so poor and need the money. They carpets have incredible detail and can take years to make. Because the wools are dyed right after they are sheared from the sheep, the colors go into the cells and become one with the wool, meaning that they don’t run or fade, so an 80 year old carpet can look just as good as a 10 year old one.

Berber carpets

Later on we stopped on the side of the road and saw some old wells that nomads used to get water from. Wells were dug by hand and are about 10 feet underground and go for many miles. I recently watched an episode of Human Planet (incredible TV show) where they featured Sahara people that still do this. The wells are dug separately and then joined together. they also are dug at a slight decline so that the water will always flow and can come out at the end for a garden or miniature oasis for whoever lives there. It is an incredible way of surviving. The lines of wells we saw were unfortunately dried up, but we were able to go down and see how large they really were. Above ground they look like huge mounds and run parallel to each other. Each line of wells belongs to a different family. Each family knew exactly where their well was and would have to travel for kilometers to get water when they needed it.

inside the well

 Our drive got a lot more interesting when we entered the valley of the roses, which had young men and women selling roses strung together to make shapes such as hearts and necklaces. The valley smelled beautiful, and we were lucky to be there when we were, as the huge rose festival was only a couple of weeks away and many of the flowers were in bloom. We saw stores stocked with different rose products such as soap, water, and perfume. Getting to the valley of the roses meant the end of our long car ride. As we got into the town where we would switch vehicles to an all-wheel-drive to take us to the desert, we stopped for a Moroccan calzone, which was quite delicious, and bought scarves that would be turned into turbans for the desert.

Our 40 minute drive in the all-wheel-drive vehicle was extremely bumpy. We were lucky we put on our seatbelts, for if we hadn’t we would have slammed our heads on the roof of the car from the bumpy unpaved road.

We finally reached the red dunes of the Sahara, which rose out of the ugly grey desert we had become accustomed. Upon our arrival, we were informed that this is not THE Sahara Desert, as in the largest in the world, but a 25 km2 patch of desert. In Arabic, Sahara means dunes, so technically we were in a Sahara since it’s a desert of dunes, just not THE Sahara. Morocco does have some of THE Sahara in its Southern territory, but it is very dangerous and disputed between Algeria, so it is not safe to go to.

well

For some reason we were very quickly put on camels, without any chance to get to pet them and pet the cute, weird creatures. Our guide pointed to the two camels we were to ride on. We climbed onto the camels, who were laying down with their legs underneath them. We were told to lean back, and before we knew it we were getting thrown back and forth as the camel got up and grew about 6 feet. The camels were a smoooooth ride, and I could not get over how cute they were! They have the longest eyelashes and have a seemingly permanent smile.

first sighting of the Sahara

We rode for about 20 minutes before getting off and being led to the top of a dune to watch the sunset….that wasn’t supposed to happen for another hour and a half. We were very confused, but asked our guide Aziz to take us on a stroll through the dunes. As we began our walk, clouds started to roll in. Of course, the one day we were in the desert it rained for a bit. It was extremely shocking, since it had been an absolutely beautiful day and…you know…it’s called a desert because it almost never rains there. We were not expecting the wind and the rain, and even with our turbans the whipping sand was quite uncomfortable. Mom even went so far as to say, “can we get out of the sand?” (no, Mom…there’s no escaping the sand here…and we’re sleeping here tonight). But Aziz knew what she meant and moved us down the dune to get out of the wind…which alleviated the sand blowing in our faces. Just before sunset the clouds cleared just enough so we could see the sun dipping below the horizon.

We then hopped back on a couple of camels and made our way down to our own private tent. We were greeted by a group of musicians playing Gnawa music. They were dressed in white robes and turbans. I loved the music, especially the clapper-type instruments they played.

We had a HUGE dinner of couscous and tagine. Unfortunately, we could not have a fire since it was so windy, and because of the clouds we couldn’t see the stars or the moon lighting up the dunes.

men playing Gnawa music

the queen in her bed

Day 7

sunrise over Algeria

We woke up at the crack of dawn (literally)to watch the sun rise over Algeria and take a walk along the dunes before getting into the car for 10 hours and heading to Fes. On our way out of the desert we stopped to pet the camels for about 20 minutes, since we were not able to do it the day before. Aziz was there and ensured us that the camels would not hurt us and that we could pet them as we pleased. At one point, a camel who did not belong with our hotel’s camels (there are 23 hotels in the area we were in, which is called Merzouga), and was chased away by a motorbike, which was pretty funny. I then found the cutest camel of them all, who we took many pictures with. He even gave Mom a little love nibble!

We then had to move on since we had a looooooong day of driving to the medieval city of Fes. Our drive took us through an amazing range of climates and landscapes, from desert oasis, to grasslands, to cool, lush, mountains, to forests with monkeys. It was absolutely beautiful. Even though our trip consisted of so much driving, it was really worth it since we were able to see so much of the country and the vast difference of landscape. I think that driving on less-traveled roads allows you to catch a glimpse into the daily life of people in a country, apart from the city life. So many of the people live in little shacks and herd sheep or carry alfalfa or flowers many kilometers on donkeys to make a living. It was truly incredible to see.

As we neared Fes and got to the cool, lush mountains, we saw a drastic change of houses: they looked very European. Though Morocco is very close to Europe and has been colonized by both the French and Spanish, all the places we had been had kept their Moroccan and Arabic feel without too much European influence. But these towns were amazing with their white stucco outsides and red tiled roofs.
We got into Fes kind of late, and were absolutely exhausted after our long ride which also included our driver playing us a karaoke version of the Hotel California, and going on a 2 minute tangent about ziplock plastic bags--needless to say, we were not in the mood to explore the labyrinth of Fes, so we just hung out in our beautiful riad and went to bed early for our big day in the medina.

Oasis

monkey drinking water in the forest

beautiful, lush landscape

European looking houses with storks on top

Morocco pt. 1 (Eswara, Marrakech, and me holding a baby goat)

The end of my unimaginable 2 months of traveling was a little out of the way of Asia: Morocco. I met my mom in Casablanca for an 11 day trip around a good portion of Morocco which took us from the sea to the desert, through hot and cold. It was an unbelievable trip. We did and learned so much that I will need to cover a few different blog entries as not to overwhelm you (and...uh...I haven't written about it all yet). Since we spent a fairly short time on each stop and saw so much in between, I will go day by day instead of by city.

Day 1

sunset over the Atlantic

I landed in Casablanca ahead of mom and was greeted by our friendly (and who we later ended up hating because he is so eccentric and annoying) driver. Once mom’s delayed flight got in, we hopped into the car (much to my dismay after 24 hours of traveling) for a 5 hour ride to the seaside city of Eswara. I knew that morocco was a poor country, but driving along the one-lane seaside road alongside donkeys and hitchhikers, I realized how poor the country really was. I thought I had seen some pretty extreme poverty in Vietnam and Cambodia, but this was much more widespread around the countryside. The thing that shocked me the most was the amount of people who used donkeys as transportation and loaded them up  with various goods. In all of my travels I had not seen anything like that.

 Day 2

We had a tour of Eswara with a really nice and knowledgeable man. He was very European, with his British accent and trendy glasses, though it was clear that he did not like Europeans because of all the change they brought to his home city, such as satellite dishes. The city is very beautiful, painted blue and white. The outside looks like a fortress, and was designed after a city in Portugal. It used to be a main port town, as it has a strategic place on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. In one of the watchtowers along the ocean wall of the city, our guide showed us the wonder of the architecture: exactly in the middle there is a perfect, loud echo. If someone saw a ship coming from afar, they could easily go to the center of the tower and make an announcement and stomp their foot, being heard by men who were higher up or along the wall.

After walking around the medina (walled city) filled with CATS and KITTENS, we went out to the fishing village, where the fishermen had just come in with their daily catch and were unloading on to tables and selling their catch for the day. We learned that the small fishing boats are used to catch the big fish, and the large boats are used to catch the small fish (you catch few big fish and many small fish). The small boats go out around 3 PM and come in at 5 AM—talk about weird hours and a long day! We were able to see many different kinds of fish, crab, lobster, shark, and even stingrays! It was very impressive. Some of the people buying buy just for themselves and cook at home, some buy in bulk to sell in the market, and some fishermen only sell all of their catch in bulk. What I really couldn’t believe was the amount of seagulls flying around. Our guide told us that the fishermen follow the seagulls to find fish…but the seagulls clearly follow the fishermen as well.

After our tour we went to a series of stalls outside the medina that sell fish and then grill them for you. We got 2 different types of  fish, squid, and a giant crab that was so amazingly sweet and delicious. It was an incredible meal, eaten with hands and bread, of course (and a Moroccan salad—red and green—on the side).

That afternoon we just walked around the medina, admiring the different shops and the life inside of the bustling walled city.

one of the watch towers

grillin' some lunch

our lunch

Eswara from the fishing village

Day 3

holding a baby goat in front of a tree of goats

We left early in the morning to drive to Marrakech and meet our guide. Jamal informed us that the best place to buy Argan oil (aka Moroccan oil) was on a drive from Eswara, where there are many argan trees and argan co-ops. We stopped in one, where we saw women making argan oil. There are two different types of argan oil: edible and cosmetic. I’m confused as to how the two are made differently, but for some reason they are different. They are both made by crushing the argan beans on a circular stone, and on top there is another circular stone that is easily maneuvered around it to crush the beans and extract the oil. After, the co-op makes products for any beauty malady you could imagine: anti-aging, shampoo, conditioner, soap, for dry skin, under eyes, WHATEVER. It’s there.

woman making argan oil

Animals eat the outside of the beans while people use the inside of the beans, so it works out pretty well. This also causes an incredible natural phenomenon: goats climbing trees to eat the beans. Unfortunately, we did not see this nautrally, but stumbled upon some men on the sie of the road who had placed their goats in the tree as a tourist attraction. I was absolutely delighted when I saw this and couldn’t wait to get out of the car as Jamal pulled over. Upon getting to the tree, I was handed a baby goat for a photo opportunity. I had become used to strangers handing me kids—but human kids were the norm, not goat kids. The goat’s stomach kept making strange rumbling noises and I was afraid that he was going to poop all over me, so my pictures with the goat are a bit awkward because I was more concerned about how to not get pooped on and put the goat down rather than take a picture with it. It was awesome though.

After a few more hours in the car, we arrived in the red walled city of Marrakech, where we were met by our guide and taken on a several hour tour of the city. Our tour took us to the ornate tomb of a past king, the old palace, and a museum. We got our first exposure to riads, which are houses. The Islamic tradition is not to show off your home (or women). Riads don’t have windows looking to the outside, but rather have a courtyard on the inside with a fountain or garden and all the rooms looking over the courtyard. This makes each passerby question what is actually behind the doors one passes in the medina, as it could be a beautiful home or just small apartments. Not only do the riads make all homes seem equal from the outside, but also encouraged women to stay in the home, as they could not see the outside world and felt a sense of fresh air and nature with the open courtyard in the middle.

horse drawn carriages inside the medina

Our tour ended in the famed Souk of Marrakech, where we saw dozens of Berber rugs, leather goods, and the dyeing section, where we learned the long process of dyeing the vegetable silk scarves. Probably the most impressive thing I saw was a little boy who carved the wooden ends of skewers using his foot.

After our long day of touring, we checked into our beautiful riad-turned-hotel. Upon checking into our room, we discovered rose petals everywhere: on the bed, in the bathtub, on the table, in the sink. It was probably one of the most romantic places I’ve ever been, and I got to share it with my lovely mother. Very nice, but kind of silly.

cones of spice

painted wood ceiling in a palace

Our evening concluded with our most memorable and delicious meal of the trip: a 5 course meal in our riad. As if Moroccan meals weren’t already filling enough, we got a taste of just about every Moroccan dish you could image. We started out with the small Moroccan salads, which include beats, roasted carrots, an eggplant puree (my personal favorite), peppers and tomato sauce, and even more deliciousness. We then had a Moroccan vegetable soup, which we had experienced as tasteless at past restaurants, but found this one delicious, especially when accompanied by some pepper. After the soup we found a pastry type dish topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon in front of us, called pastilla, or pigeon (in this case chicken) pie. Our culinary journey climaxed at the tagine, the quintessential Moroccan dish. We found perfectly tender lamb, prunes, and apricots under the lid  and devoured every morsel (with bread, of course). By dessert, we thought we were going to explode, but had to attempt to shove some of the sweet delicacy in front of us down our throats. We went to bed even fuller than usual (which is saying a lot) in our rose petal room that night.

mom and me in the museum

dyed vegetable silk

Day 4

Our day started off with a trip to the Majorelle gardens, which were once owned by Yves Saint Laurent. We spent a couple of hours strolling around the gardens, admiring the wide variety of plants from 6 continents and the bright colors of the flower pots and buildings within. I was a bit disappointed with the memorial to YSL, and the very small room dedicated to his art, which was only the Christmas cards he sent out every year. It was very cool thinking that YSL spent time in Marrakech and these gardens, getting inspiration for his new lines of clothing and changing the world of fashion.

One of the employees of the garden took it upon himself to direct a photo shoot of Mom and after we asked him to take one picture of us. Instead of one photograph, we ended up having him taking 20 in different locations that he directed us to. Unfortunately, he was not a very good photographer and none of the photos came out very well, but it was still quite amusing.  Our time at the gardens ended with another exciting and amusing occurrence: a small fire among the cacti at one end of the garden.

one of the photos from our photo shoot

After the garden, we got picked up by our trusty driver Jamal and driven to a delicious local restaurant where we had tagina, the traditional dish of Marrakech. I’m not sure how it really differs from tagine, but it was extremely delicious. It is prepared by the lamb being put in a pot, which is then set on the edge of a fire oven and cooked for several hours to perfect tenderness before being served. The container is different from tagine (though the cooking method is the same), it was more oily, and did not have any fruit or vegetables. I greatly enjoyed it; it was only seconded by the dinner we had the night before.

After lunch we hung out on the rooftop terrace of our riad, which had a 360 view of the mountains surrounding Marrakech and lovely rooftop plants. Marrakech was the last stop we had that was hot, so we took advantage and did a little sunbathing.

tagina

The night before we had met some British travelers who told us that the square inside the sook is crazy and a must-see. We had seen some of the performers setting up the night before, including the snake charmers, but thought it would be nice to watch the sunset on a rooftop bar and then check out the scene below. Unfortunately, I had hit a travel wall at this point and was in the jaded travelers mindset of feeling like I was just looking at another market and crowded area, thought it was completely different anything I had experienced. In retrospect, the square is quite impressive. Down the middle are many different street vendors, where people can sit down and enjoy some authentic Moroccan street food. On the south side of the square are all the performers. There are many oral storytellers. My favorite performers were the Moroccan version of lady boys: men dressed up in traditional female Moroccan garb and dancing to a live band. 

courtyard in our riad

Crazy Border Crossing and SONGKRAN (water festival)

one of the boats we all had to climb into with our bags to cross
the Mekong

Every border crossing has been memorable (except for Cambodia to Vietnam, which was unbelievably organized, which may actually make it memorable among the chaos of the others), and Laos to Thailand was no exception. Our 22 hour journey involved us taking 2 different buses (Laotians drive on the right side of the road, Thais on the right), crossing the Mekong River in a small longtail boat with all of our luggage, and getting soaked in our tuk tuk on the way to Kate's house in Chiang Mai.

armed and ready!

Before even getting into Chiang Mai I couldn’t believe that a holiday like Songkran existed. A nation-wide water fight? Complete strangers dousing each other in water for a 3 day new years celebration? It didn’t seem real to me. But it was. And God was it fun. Everyone reverts back to their 8 year old selves. It is officially my favorite holiday and 3 day festival.

buckets: good as weapons and fashion accessories

We were greeted into Chiang Mai the day before Songkran by getting absolutely drenched on our way to Kate’s house in our tuk tuk. Thais get extremely excited about Songkran and often start days in advance, meaning that even if you’re walking around before the actual festivities start, you’re never safe. After arriving to Kate’s house, we promptly changed into our bathing suits and headed out. The first person who got us was a security guard for a building. We were about to ask him for directions when we suddenly realized the sly smirk on his face and the Sprite bottle that had been cut and was filled with water. It was at this moment we realized that everyone was a target—and everyone was also a water assassin. No one is safe during Songkran.

garbage cans filled with water for anyone who needs ammo

We promptly bought buckets, which conveniently came with long strings of plastic so that we could easily dump our buckets into the canal that surrounds the old city and fill them up for maximum drenching of anyone passing by. Some people were ruthless and dumped entire buckets of ice cold water on us, while others playfully splashed tiny bits of water. No matter what though, everyone was having a great time. My favorite people to get were the ones in the backs of pickup trucks stuck in traffic, who had huge trash bins filled with water and mercilessly sprayed any passerby.

day 1: pouring rain mid-water fight

Though the first and third days of Songkran were amazing, the second was by far my favorite. The first day we saw a religious parade, since Songkran is about the new year and the water fight represents washing away the sins and bad luck from the year before and getting a new, clean (though the water in Thailand is not exactly clean) start. But the religious experience was nothing compared to the scene we saw the next day: a main road filled with traffic and lined with stages and live performances. Everyone had a water gun, and everyone was part of the fight. After stopping and dancing to a few of the performances, we posted up at a bar with a great dj and a bath tub with a hose in it so we had a continuous supply of water.

outside a temple of Doi Suthep

The next day, and sadly the last, was also a memorable one. We started our day off at a bar that had a huge cooler filled with ice water that was being manned by a couple of middle-aged men and their children. When I asked if I could join them, they told me they had one rule: no buckets because the water goes too quickly. But I didn’t miss out on their freezing fun, because they had extra guns that I could share with them. I thought that this was the perfect example of how much fun everyone has during Songkran: it’s not just for the drunk and young, it’s for everyone that’s a child at heart.

driving away from the mountain
Doi Suthep resides on

As sad as I was that Songkran was over after 3 days, my liver was quite grateful as I had not partied that hard in a while. It is definitely my new favorite holiday, and as a woman on my plane from Chiang Mai to Bangkok suggested, instead of completely missing it next year, I should gather the Thai community wherever I am and celebrate Songkran with them.

I hung around Chiang Mai a couple of days after Songkran, but didn't do as much sightseeing as I should have. I felt that I got a good feel for the city as we covered some serious ground during Songkran. I visited two of the famous temples, which are really beautiful, but the city is just so freaking hot it's hard to be motivated to do anything, especially since we were so used to staying cool with a constant flow of water being poured over our heads. Chiang Mai is known as being the cultural center of Thailand though, as it is one of the first capitals of the country and has an abundant amount of temples. My favorite one was Doi Suthep, which is on the top of a mountain just outside of Chiang Mai. It's the original site of the Emerald Buddha, which was stolen by the Thais from Burma, and now sits in the temple next to the Grand Palace in Bangkok. The temple has many different buildings, with several monks blessing people who come in--and they don't discriminate, even I got blessed! 

I wish I had more time in Chiang Mai, as it is usually people's favorite place in Thailand, but I know I'll be back to get a full experience minus the water!