After four and a bit months in Europe we were in need of a change of scenery, a change of pace and in dire need of some vitamin D. There is no better place to escape the European winter than Morocco and no better place for a change of scenery and pace than Marrakech.
Over these next couple of posts about Marrakech I promise I'll try not to recycle every cliche that has ever been written about this great Moroccan city but sometimes it's inevitable.
Our time in Marrakech is summed up fairly well by the following series of anecdotes.
Shave Time
I thought that it was time to play to my strengths and rid my cheeks of their patches of pubes to roll with the goatee, or the JD look as I prefer to call it.
Nix and I set off on a day of wandering through the souks and after a couple of hours stumbled upon an old school barber so in we went. I waited nervously for him to finish trimming an old man's moustache and then after some dodgy sign language and a series of thumbs ups he began.
First of all he smothered my face with shaving cream and lathered it beyond belief, then commenced the shave, initially with and then against the grain to ensure that my cheeks were as smooth as a baby's behind. Then he moved onto the moustache and he got a bit carried away he but I wasn't going to complain, at this point I was just enjoying the experience. He finished off by giving the goatee a bit of a trim and $1.4 later (which is at least three times what I could've paid) I walked out a very satisfied man.
I think the results speak for themselves.
The joy of seeing someone like him go to work at a craft that he's been perfecting for 50+ years was worth the $1.4 ten times over, let alone the fact that I no longer look like a chipmunk or the victim of a practical joke involving honey and pubic hair.
Nix's Dirty Shoes
Since the moment we arrived in Marrakech men had stopped Nix in the street asking to clean her shoes. After six days of continued offers and hounding by me she finally reneged.
Again, I think the results speak for themselves.
The Fork in the Road Moment
After a couple of days in Marrakech we'd been sucked into a Berber's shop and burned a few dollars on a lucky charm just to get out of there after a man* offered to walk us to a non existent Berber market "free of charge", were swindled out of $5 for a few cactus fruit, paid significantly more than we should have for pots of mint tea and were just generally charged more than we should have for countless other things.
It was after being ripped off yet again that we forlornly walked back to our riad and realised we could either lie down, continue to be outwitted and spend our seven weeks in Morocco being shitty at the deal we're getting or dig out heels in, be smarter with how we try to pay for things and be generous with our money to who we want to be generous towards.
From that moment and since the change of mindset there's only been one or two times that we've been charged a touch more than we should have been and have been given multiple soup and tea top ups that maybe justify our modified approach.
*The most valuable thing we got out of that man was the reason why there are so many cats in Marrakech. Apparently the Quran specifies that cats are allowed into the home and shops, so habitable spaces, whereas dogs are not. That was interesting to us at least.
Jardine Marjorelle
Every now and again when we're travelling for some unknown reason we feel the need to go and do the touristy thing like visit a castle or, in this case, go and check out a well known garden.
We walked half an hour outside of the Medina and arrived at the Jardine Marjorelle, which is a collection of cacti that have been imported from all around the world and attracts swarms of French people after the garden was taken over and restored by Yves Saint Laurent. Entry is about $7 each and whilst that isn't much, in Morocco it's comparatively uber expensive. However given we'd bother to walk there we felt obliged to pay the entry fee and check it out.
Literally within seconds of entering we were regretting our decision. Whilst the garden is nice and exceptionally well manicured you can easily do a walk around within 15 minutes and leave wondering why you could've got almost a kilo of lamb for the same price. Travelling fail.
Barrie-ometer of "Feel" - it gets particularly interesting at around page 47
