{"id":11342,"date":"2016-05-06T11:15:02","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T05:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/?p=11342"},"modified":"2016-05-06T10:40:57","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T05:10:57","slug":"morocco-code-fanaah-said-another-khan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/2016\/05\/06\/morocco-code-fanaah-said-another-khan\/","title":{"rendered":"Morocco Code : Saad no more!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued<\/em><\/p>\n

Day 9<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sigh, the last day of our vacation. The nice folk at the riad gave us a good breakfast, and set us off on our half day tour. Our guide’s name was Khaled, and the first stop was less than 100m away! The Palais de la Bahia, part of the Jewish quarters, was built by the king’s vizier(s) as a harem, and later occupied by the French, who did that by throwing out their host! Only a portion of this palace is open to the public, but it does live up to its name in terms of craftwork – brilliant!<\/p>\n

Khaled was not very jovial and preferred dry sarcasm and sharp verdicts – the original occupants of the palace being his victims in this context. But he knew what he was talking about, and seemed to be well respected judging from the way he was greeted as we walked around. It was not the typical familiar greetings that\u00a0tourist guides normally get.<\/p>\n

\"collage58\"<\/p>\n

We then walked to the souk, our destination being an old madrasa. Khaled explained the life of the students, and how the place, until a couple of generations back, was one of the few options for a good education. Even now, many among the top echelon of ministers are alumni of this place, which served as a launchpad for further education in Oxford, Harvard etc. We walked through the living quarters, prayer rooms etc, and despite the noisy crowds, it still exuded an air of calm.<\/p>\n

\"collage59\"<\/p>\n

Khaled took us to sections of the souk and specific shops that we would never have managed to find. For instance, when we told him about the handbag that D wanted to buy, he took us to a cooperative which was in a labyrinth and was itself a labyrinth inside! He also led us to a shop where we finally got the teapot and some other things we wanted. The souk still has the sections from the old days – specific areas for dyeing, wood carving, metal works etc. It was a Friday and a few shops were closed. \u00a0Another place we visited was a kind of apothecary. I was wearing one of my favourite tees – one that displayed a marijuana leaf. The owner of the place gave me a very warm smile and to my surprise, said “Boom Shankar”. Global language! In fact, across the souk, at least three people expressed a liking for the tee. It does make for a good conversation starter for merchants, but at least it was better than King Khan!<\/p>\n

\"collage60\"<\/p>\n

Our last stop was the Koutoubia mosque, the largest in Marrakesh. The name comes from a term familiar to us – kitaab, because the original crowd was made of booksellers. It was an amazing structure and has gold covered orbs at the top. There was a pole right next to it, and I wondered whether there was some restoration work happening. But Khaled said it was used for hanging, and after a pause during which my jaws were not in their default position, flags! It was prayer time when we reached and the sight of a multitude rapt in their faith\u00a0was immensely calming. The thing that did disturb us though was several tourists dressed in shorts, when\u00a0most guidelines for a visit here (that we’d read) expressly advised against this because it was against the worldview of the folks who frequented the mosque. Not to be judgmental, but a little bit of empathy may \u00a0be a good thing.<\/p>\n

\"collage61\"<\/p>\n

Khaled then dropped us at Riad Omar. We asked him to join us for lunch, but it was time for his prayer. Riad Omar had a set meal, and we discovered it a bit too late. Even that would have been ok, but they took an inordinate amount of time to serve anything! The only good part was that the tajine was really good!<\/p>\n

\"collage62\"<\/p>\n

The agenda after lunch was shopping! It also meant suffering infinite “India? Shahrukh Khan?” torture! The only thing more tiring was the bargaining. Start at 1\/10th, endure glares and finally end close to 30%. It all finally ended around 5, and we walked back to the room for a quick nap.<\/p>\n

Dinner was a difficult choice, and we zeroed in on two based on the sunset views\/reviews. We finally decided on Kosy Bar after a visit. The menu offered much more variety than the standard tajines. We took\u00a0a table on the top floor, and got ourselves a mocktail and the other Moroccan beer – Casablanca. This one was the standard bottled variety though. D’s cocktail was quite good. We got ourselves a Coconut & Chicken soup, sushi and a steak. Last dinner in Morocco, just shows how fed up we were of the tajine and grilled meat routine! They took their own time to serve, but that was something we were expecting (courtesy reviews). That did prevent D from doing her last minute shopping though.<\/p>\n

\"collage63\"<\/p>\n

In the meanwhile, the sunset was proving to be very lovely indeed. Even before that, the view of the snow clad mountains in the distance was amazing. As the sun set, the lights of Marrakesh, erstwhile capital of the Saadians, began to come to life. A soothing view when compared to the manic energy of the medina. When combined with the muezzin calls,\u00a0the effect was magical. Such a sense of peace, and a great way to end the vacation.<\/p>\n

\"collage64\"
\nWe had to leave early in the morning to get to Casablanca, a journey of 2.5 hours. Hisham hadn’t been sure if he’d be the driver the agency would send, but it did turn out to be him, and we were glad! We slept in the car, and in the process of currency exchange, couldn’t grab a bite. \u00a0My ‘vacation headache’, which had been thankfully missing this time, jumped on the opportunity. But the good news for the travels later – I managed to beat it, and even managed to watch Spotlight on the flight. By the time we were in Abu Dhabi, the headache was gone. 4 litres were dutifully procured, and for a change, the process at Bangalore was quick and smooth!<\/p>\n

At $1570 pp, Robbin @ Morocco Explored<\/a> helped us plan the itinerary and then got Hisham to execute it perfectly. All breakfasts were arranged by them, and a few dinners as well. That left us all lunches and many dinners to explore the cuisine. (A good meal for two would cost 100-120 MAD, and a fancy expedition, like the one at Palais Faraj about 400 MAD) We really liked Morocco, because of the multifaceted experience it offered\u00a0– mountains, seaside, markets and shopping, a different kind of cuisine, a desert, and an old way of living that was trying to make its peace with modernity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued Day 9 Sigh, the last day of our vacation. The nice folk at the riad gave us a good breakfast, and set us off on our half day tour. Our guide’s name was Khaled, and the first stop was less than 100m away! The Palais de la Bahia, part of the Jewish quarters, was […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5041,17],"tags":[5045,5106,5104,5110,5108,5109,5107],"class_list":["post-11342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-morocco","category-travel","tag-casablanca","tag-koutoubia-mosque","tag-marrakesh","tag-medersa-ben-youssef","tag-morocco-explored","tag-palais-de-la-bahia","tag-riad-omar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11342"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11510,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11342\/revisions\/11510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}