(Aug. 13-19, 2024)
Marrakech
After our private tour ends at Marrakech, we are by our own again. I must say that we missed our luxury hotels and rich meals, because we are back to budget hostels and random meals (such as meat sandwiches and fresh juices…)
We booked a city tour at our raid, which turned out to be a private tour. We walked through many places in the Medina of Marrakech, including the gorgeous Bahia Palace with 7 raids, until we got tired and hungry, decided to cut our tour short, and called it a day.
There is this annoying custom in Morocco of giving tips, no matter how you have already paid the fee, or just a little help, people always seem to expect you to give tips, and they actually asked for it. For example, if you look inside a shop without buying, the shop may ask you for tips. Therefore, we always hesitated to ask for help or ask questions.
Also, the shopkeepers are extremely persistent. If you ask about the price, they will assume you want to buy, and keep asking you what price you wish etc. Therefore, we even hesitated to ask about the price, unless we are quite sure that we want it.
In Morocco, we always saw a lot of stray cats and dogs, especially cats. They would sleep relaxingly on the streets, go under the tables in the restaurants asking for foods. People were always very kind to them, tried not to hurt them, even fed them leftover foods and water. I saw the same in South America. I think it’s wonderful that human and animals can live together peacefully. Cats and dogs can have their own families too, not only being human’s pets.
Anyway, the medina of Marrakech was the biggest in Morocco, so there were actually a lot of interesting things to see. When we walked through some workshops, we could see how the leather slippers/metal work/carpet etc. were made, all very neat handcraft. Too bad there were many things that we could not take home, especially the fresh mint tea that I love so much. My favorite souvenirs from Morocco were the leather sandals and belts, solid perfumes (looked like soap, but smelled very good, especially Amber favor), and colorful natural stones!
Essaouira
Since we had many days in Marrakech, I decided to join a group tour to a “nearby” seaside fishermen town called “Essaouira“. I heard that it is beautiful and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. My family wasn’t interested to go far because it was too hot during daytime, so I joined a tour from a travel agency that I found randomly on the street. It was cheap, just like EUR 15, but it was just transportation, including a van (for 15 persons) and driver, but no guide no lunch etc.
I was nervous since the morning, but the travel agency guy did come to my raid to pick me up. After long waiting time, he squeezed me into a van and gone. Later, I found out that nobody (including driver) in the group spoke English at all. All of them only spoke either French or Spanish. Throughout the whole ride, I only heard the driver spoke a few countable English words to me “15 minute break”, “meet at 5”, but I just followed other people, and it was surprisingly okay.
We stopped at a cafe/shop and Argon oil factory for long time, I guess the driver needs to earn his tips from these shop and factory… We left Marrakech in the morning around 9am, finally we only arrived Essaouira after noon, but we were given about 5 hours free time to meet at 5pm where the van dropped us off.
The Medina of Essaouira wasn’t big, as soon as I walked through the gate, I saw endless streets of shops, cafes, etc. full of tourists and local shoppers. Towards the end of the street, I came to the ancient city wall and beach. It was quiet and peaceful and less crowded on the beach. Essaouira was significantly cooler than Marrakech, and the sun was less harsh, maybe about 25degC. I could see why it became popular. Some local families and tourists were sun-tanning or enjoying the pleasant sea wind, I could have sat on the beach forever too… but I was hungry, so after a few photos, I returned to the streets, my lunch was just a simple & cheap meat sandwich in a local restaurant, but it felt so relaxing to eat with a street view. I even bought some fruits on the streets to bring back. It was season for peaches and grapes. I thought Morocco has nothing, but surprisingly it produces a lot of fruits, vegetables, olives and nuts.
The streets and traditional buildings of Essaouira was really pretty, white walls, bright blue window flames and doors. Eventually, I walked to the other side. There was a bridge and fishermen port. There were so many local boys playing and jumping off from the bridge or ports. There were also too many seabirds all over the places. No doubt that they were well-fed with leftover seafood. There were many trolls selling fresh seafoods (fishes, clams, lobsters, you name it…) and tons of tourists just having their grilled seafood lunch on the outdoor tables, but I was alone, so not in the mood for a big feast.
I just walked into a cafe near the meeting point, ordered my favorite mint tea and enjoyed the beach view… Later, I even found people from my group in the same cafe.
The ride to Essaouira actually took about 3 hours one way, 6 hours both way, not exactly short, but thanked to the A/C van, it was not too bad. Also, it was always nice to have a change of scenery, the seaside, buildings and streets of Essaouira really did look nice.
Casablanca
We took very comfortable 3-hour 1st class direct train from Marrakech and Casablanca. The taxi from Casa Voyageurs station to our hotel was more expensive than we liked, so we took tram and walked to our hotel. Later, hotel doorman helped us to hail a taxi to Hassan II Mosque, then we noticed many taxis take multiple customers at the same time, like share taxi, I don’t know if it would be cheaper for the customers, but for sure the taxi drivers would earn more.
Hassan II Mosque was called one of the most beautiful mosques in the world, and it was famous, so we went anyway. It was quite huge and gorgeous, almost like a palace. The entrance fee included guide tour inside, but it was really nothing more than a very big hall. Later, we walked to nearby shopping mall for lunch and spent time.
From our hotel, we could walked to the Medina, but after visiting so many cities in Morocco, the Medina in Casablanca wasn’t so special. However, it was just a big Medina, so big that I almost got lost inside. In Casablanca, we also walked to nearby seafood market for lunch, walked to nearby supermarket for souvenirs, and walked to nearby cafe for breakfast. I loved to enjoy the view of old buildings from the cafe across the street. There were many old buildings in Casablanca, which were so out of maintenance that looked like they might fall apart anytime. However, you can still see their European designs, so sophisticated, so elegant. You just wouldn’t find these designs in modern days anymore, especially not at where I live, so I really appreciate them.
I chose a traditional Moroccan hotel to stay in Casablanca. It was quite interesting. Our hotel was a bit old and need maintenance, but there were beautiful and colorful designs everywhere inside the hotel, no matter elevator doors, our beds, or hallway. The hotel had 10 floors, I almost looked through all the floors, they all have different designs, and the rooms also had different designs. They were so elegant and perfect for photo-shooting. There were also many paintings hanging inside the hotel. I looked at those paintings and imagined how Morocco was like hundreds years ago…
On the final day, we walked to Casa Port station from our hotel and took 45min. direct train to the Airport (Aeroport Med V station). We could buy the train tickets from machines with credit card and choose the language, it was really convenient. We even bought Macdonald’s to enjoy on the train. 1st class train cabin always has either side-table at the seats. I think I really like the train system in Morocco.
Places that we stayed:
Marrakech – Riad Eva
Casablanca – Hotel Moroccan House Casablanca