We were really looking forward to a thorough deep tissue massage, but what we got was far from expected. We entered the Haman to a room of naked woman cleaning their bodies like it was the first time in their life. A Middle ages overweight woman with breasts bouncing at her knees exfoliated our entire bodies by hand mit as we laughed aloud and tried not to look in each other's eyes. The whole cleaning scrubbing and washing took about two hours and I've never felt so clean in my life. While it was such a shock to be amongst woman who's only eyes you see through burka's during the day, by afternoon to see then scrubbing each other's naked bodies; it was in the end, a great experience.
We since found out that this is a tradition that both men and woman do seperately once a week. They do shower normally, but lash out in a naked bathing room once every few days. We'll be doing it again, but this time a little more prepared!
Our next stop was Chefchaouen, a little blue painted town in the mountains. We arrived, and checked into our 25 bed dorm room. Which, again, wasn't quite what we expected. It was in the terrace aka the roof, and there were 25 mattresses (or double folded wool blankets as beds) side-by-side with a number above them, around the walls of the terrace. Each of us three girls were on a seperate wall, not even in sight of each other. Hippies of all ages lounged around to the sounds of reggae music as they all probably laughed when they saw our faces drop. Each time I went to my bed I would have at least three people laying across it playing chess, eating cereal or rolling joints. When night fell, Nat was to shocked to sleep in her allotting squatting space so we top and tailed on a mini single bed, between a 60+ year old man and a couple. We laughed hysterically at our situation until we fell asleep. The next morning we checked in to an 8 bed room for the next two nights!
The following day we did a farm tour which was a very memorable day. By night we watched Harry potter while playing with Simba the kitten (I was his favorite) in the foyer of the hostel, before the most incredible nights sleep in a comfortable, cool and spacious bed (with a little more privacy than before).
The next day we met a couple of great dudes at the hostel, and by the time afternoon came around,we pulled ourselves out of the hostel rooftop vortex and went for a stroll around town. We met a boy cooking in the street making what he described as 'penis' and it took us three takes to understand that he was cooking 'peanuts'. We munched them down and laughed for the rest of day.
In the evening we caught on to a hotel which sold beer, which was a real treat as alcohol in incredibly sparce and expensive in Morocco. The five of us enjoyed a few cold ones while overlooking the night lights of the town and giggling our way into the early morning.
The next day we returned to Fez for two nights to figure out our next move. It was a different hostel in the opposite part of the medina so it was very much a new place to us. As we had no luck getting a taxi from the bus station, a very kind, generous and genuine man offered to take us to the hostel. He told us of his multiple businesses, his family and tips for Morocco. He even called the hostel to have someone personally collect us from the street to avoid being taken down the garden path by seedy males. We were very fortunate.
On the last day there I shopped around the Medina aimlessly. With such a broad collection of styles, colours and designs of leather goods, pottery, carpets, jewlerry and more, it's making my shopping time more difficult then imagined. I fell in love with a turquoise necklace which went for 3,400 dhm to 600 dhm. I visited a nice jewlerry man who's collection I admired last time who told me I got completely ripped off, and proving the "polished turquoise" was plastic. He reminded me of what I knew about significant price drops = non genuine items. I rushed back down the medina, got my money back and in turn bought the stunning unique bracelet I had had loved from first sight, from the honest jewlerry man.
We then set off on our eight hour overnight bus journey to Rissani and then hour drive into the Sahara. We slept, ate, and lazed by the surprisingly freezing cold pool at the Kasbah until our journey into the wilderness. As the afternoon sandstorm slightly reduced, we got in our matching Sahara pyjamas, put on our turbans, jumped on our camels and trekked through the sand dunes! We travelled for an hour before reaching our destination, which was a circle of tents with carpet flooring in the middle, a small table and half a dozen drums. As we descended down the dunes we hummed the M*A*S*H opening soundtrack as we felt like we were on set and laughed hysterically. We chatted with the others before eating a delicious feast for dinner. As night fell, we all moved our mattresses from the tents to the open flooring, played drums and looked up at incredible night sky. It was so clear we could easily see the Milky Way. It reminded me of the same star lit sky in the Maldives which made my heart a little sad as I miss that place incredibly. Nearly all of us were looking above at once and all shared the trail of light as an enormous shooting star lit the sky. It was a magical night.
This morning we packed up and jumped back on our camels and trekked back to the Kasbah. Unfortunately because of the poor weather we didn't see the sunrise but that didn't diminish our trip what so ever.
A good day for lazing around (and celebration, as my stomach has stopped churning for the first time in a week!) before a night of good rest, as tomorrow we begin our 14 hour bus journey to Marrakecsh!
We eat too much bread and drink scorching hot mint tea ("Moroccan whiskey") at every meal, we pretend that we haven't heard "ahh kangaroo, Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi" from every person we meet, we travel with a roll of TP and a couple of 1 dhm coins where ever we go, and with water bottle in hand. We made up our own rule of shoulders or knee's covered - one or the other, not always both in an attempt to wear more than two different outfits on our whole time in Morocco. We stop and listen to prayer time echo through the streets in the day and enjoy the afternoon winds before the still evenings arrive. We take some risks in the name of adventure and act modestly in name of safety. We always find something to laugh about every day, even if it's at our own expense.
We appreciate the simple things, safe drinking water, clean undies and a descent place to sleep. Oh, and also a descent wifi connection, it has become quite possibly the most important tool for us while travelling.
Morocco has been a wonderful accident. As I had planned to be diving in Greece at this time, I'm now riding camels through the Sahara desert! People are tricky, many are out to harass you, deceive you and rip you off. Others are the kindest, most welcoming ("welcome to Africa!") and generous people.
It's sometimes hard to distinguish the good from the bad, but we have to learn from our experiences and not the bad prevent us from letting the good in, and letting the good blind us from the bad. It's an incredible journey within and without. I'm finding myself more and more quiet, contemplating so much of that around me and booming that into the bigger picture of life. I'm tested every day, and sometimes things do get the better of me, but I'm learning to handle it better.
I've booked my flight out of Africa in two weeks time, with an end date in sight, I feel a little more comfortable in my time ahead, knowing that it will come to an end soon, so to paint what's left the boldest and brightest of colours.
Kass xx
No comments:
Post a Comment