Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Morocco

It’s been a crazy last 7 days, returning home from vacation, catching up on 400 unread emails, dealing with a kitchen renovation and hosting my cousin has meant that I haven’t had time to write about my trip.

Morocco was AMAZING, just magnificent. When I landed in Marrakesh and stepped down from the plane onto the tarmac I was like hot damm I’m in Africa! I know, it’s not sub-Saharan Africa but it’s still my first trip to the continent. Once I was outside and saw the bustle of people on foot, in cars, on bikes, the women half of them covered (scarf on head) I realized wow I’m in a Muslim country. [I’d gone to Indonesia for work years ago and although that is the country with the largest Muslim population most of the women I saw there didn’t cover their heads]. I was taken to the guest house we were staying in and decided to take a nap since my friends were running late driving down from Casablanca to meet me. When they arrived it was as if someone said “On your mark, get set, GO!”.

5 cities (Marrakesh, Essouira, Casablanca, Rabat, and Fez) in 8 days. Talk about whirlwind. My first night in the country I didn’t go to sleep until 7 the next morning. My friends arrived we hung out, went to eat, went to two clubs, went to a casino, grabbed more food and then finally back to the guest house to sleep. It was a bit crazy.

What I also loved about my trip was that I wasn’t just on a bus with a bunch of tourists being schlepped from place to place. I was there visiting my old officemate and friend who’d decided to move back to Morocco to be closer to her family and friends so we got to hang out with them, sightsee and get an up close and personal tour of life in Morocco.

I did things I’d only dreamed about doing, like riding a Camel on the beach, petting a Monkey, watching snake charmers in a square, eating and discovering great food. The whole country just oozed ancient history and rituals. I went to a Hamman which is a tradition in N. Africa which involves, a steam room, someone scrubbing all the dead skin cells and dirt off your body and a massage. I never felt cleaner and wish I could do it here so cheaply. I walked through the Souks, bargaining with the shop keepers for souvenirs, I took lots of pictures and thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

13 comments:

Will said...

You deserved that vacation! Good for you. It's always good to see you on Gmail ... it means I know you're alive and doing well. :)

CreoleInDC said...

Petting a monkey???? Honest...be honest...THAT MONKEY WAS ON YOUR SHOULDER! I would have screamed holy heck! LOL!

I'm so glad you had a good time. So very, very glad.

Anonymous said...

Just wow! Sounds like you had a great time.

Jennifer Feddersen said...

Sounds like a dream trip. I'd love an adventure right about now. Well, I get to drive cross country with four kids in a few weeks....somehow not quite so romantic as going to Africa.

Anonymous said...

LOL @ Creoleindc! I'm glad you had such a wonderful trip!

Luke Cage said...

Those pics were as "CiDC" says all the time, the Hotness. Oh, and the locales were nice too ;)

The OE said...

This is a dead of the night covert perimeter breach

Omar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brotha Buck said...

Sounds like a fantastic visit. Pics?

Anonymous said...

Oh man, that steam room/scrub sounds like something I had in New York! lol Glad u enjoyed it.

Honest said...

@Brotha Buck - I have a FlickR link on the side that has some pictures.

Anonymous said...

Oh man!!!! Sounds like you had a GREAT time! I'll have to check out Morocco now too! Let me go look at the pictures.

Anonymous said...

Hello Honest!
I was enjoyed reading your blog. Very,very nice.
It seems that you had a wonderful time in Morocco!
You are lucky.
I have never been there, but I know when I visit Morocco, I will definitely fall in love with this country.