Day 8
The scene from the previous day’s breakfast played out again, except we changed the battleground – to another table. The bees really did like the other table – we weren’t disturbed, and the poor folks sitting on that table were busy swatting them away!
We set out a little late to Marrakesh since the distance wasn’t much. Ismael Lo was the soundtrack for the drive, some amazing music. We made a couple of stops on the way, or rather D did. The first was an Argan cooperative. The fruit of the Argan tree is used to make oil for cooking as well as cosmetic purposes. D was given a demo of the whole process, and finally bought flavoured soap, even as I snoozed in the car. The next stop was also Argan based. Apparently, goats like the leaves so much that they were willing to climb the tree for it. We stopped for photos. (and barely took them before their owner came around to ask for a tip!)
Hisham, noticing that I didn’t get down at both stops, asked D if I was unwell. The resulting conversation also helped me learn an unrelated fact – not wearing a seat belt results in a fine of 300 dirhams for the driver! We passed mopeds moving at their own pace, and cars zooming past. Almost like an analogy for Morocco itself – people living in different eras, largely separate from now but moving fast towards each other. And then there are folks like Hisham who straddle both the worlds. There is a langour about the place that I quite liked – sleep early, wake up late, do a little work, and spend a lot of time sipping tea and watching the world go by. As we watched, the green landscape near Essaouira slowly gave way to brown as we got closer to Marrakesh.
And finally, after all the hype, Marrakesh! We reached Riad Attika a little later than expected – around 2PM. Though the riad’s surroundings might seem a little shady, the common Moroccan truth that the inside has no correlation to the outside holds here too. We got a small clean room on the first floor.
We wasted no time in getting out though. The very friendly folks at the riad gave us a map, but here again, WiFi was available and we could easily navigate to all our destinations. The best part was that we were less than 10 minutes of walk away from the Jemaa el-Fnaa, the main square and market place, and essentially the heart of Marrakesh. Though we had a few lunch options planned, we decided to look around. We discovered a strange menu combination that was common in many restaurants – though there were veg and non veg tajines, all the pizzas were veg! Also, finding a place that served alcohol around the main square was tough! Since we were very hungry by then, we decided to go to Le Salama, which actually had been our choice for dinner. It’s a fantastic place, spread across some three floors, with a classy ambiance. Here, we finally tasted Moroccan beer – Flag. Loved it, and reminded me of Hoegaarden. The skewers we tried were tasty too. On a trip to the washroom, we were witness to some argument. But even that couldn’t distract me from a fantastic vintage Africa map. I really loved the way this restaurant has done up the space.
Hunger taken care of, we began exploring the souk. It is a maze, but easily navigable thanks to Google Maps. Though we window shopped quite a lot, we decided to defer the actual shopping to the next day after we heard the prices. The idea was to take our guide’s help. We then returned to the room to take a quick nap. We had a busy evening ahead after all.
We walked back at around 6.30, and the food stalls were all up. It was quite a sight. How does one even begin to describe the Jemaa el-Fnaa? (fnaa could mean death or courtyard, so the meaning of the name is still a puzzle) A sea of humanity, entertained by visual treats and performances that belong to eras past – snake charmers, flame throwers, dancers, monkeys – it is a market like no other that I have seen.
Speaking of treats, the food is incomparable too! We tried the snail soup first – I liked it much more than I expected. The oranges in Morocco are supposed to be great, though I hadn’t had a juice yet that wasn’t sharply acidic. The versions here were probably among the better ones.
The food stalls offer various kinds of meat, and are a colour cornucopia.There are rows of stalls for all kinds of food, and short of physically pulling you in, they pretty much try every trick in and out of the book. The main attraction – and the one that I was really excited about was sheep’s head and tongue. It is available in various forms – quarter, half and a mix. Quite tasty, excellent texture and very filling! We also tried the tangia, which was rather average.
Though the initial plan was to have a standard dinner, we were really stuffed. We decided to sit at one of the lunch ‘reject’ restaurants which offered a view of the square. This is a rather difficult task, and the earlier you start, the better. There is a reasonable amount of photography madness that happens around this time, and you really can’t blame anyone because the experience begs to be recorded for posterity.
We then took a walk to the parts around the square that we hadn’t visited earlier in the day. The best part of this walk was sampling Argan ice cream! I quite liked the unique taste.
As I gazed at the Jemaa el-Fnaa, I thought about Marrakesh. I had first read about it in one of my favourite books – The Drifters, by James Michener. It follows of a group of six young people who, through their travel, seek to discover themselves and the world. I read this book a long while ago, years before I started traveling, and loved it precisely because I was able to vicariously experience places through their journeys. It was a strange and poignant feeling, to sit in Marrakesh and wonder about the me from years back, who’d never have believed that one day, he’d see this place that he had already been to, in his mind’s eye.