Morocco

15 days in Morocco

Morocco, officially Kingdom of Morocco, is located at NW Africa. Morocco is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea (N), the Atlantic Ocean (W), Western Sahara (S), and Algeria (S and E), formerly a Spanish-held enclave on the Atlantic coast, was ceded to Morocco in 1969. Rabat is the capital and Casablanca the most populous city. The vast majority of Moroccans are Muslims of Arab-Berber ancestry. There are also small Christian and Jewish minorities. Arabic and Amazigh (Berber) are official languages, but French (often used in business and government) also is spoken. More than half of all Moroccans live in urban areas.

A constitutional monarchy, Morocco is governed under the constitution of 1972 as amended. The king, who is the head of state, holds effective power and appoints the prime minister, who is the head of government. Agriculture employs about 40% of Morocco's workforce, which suffers from a high (as much as 20% locally) unemployment rate. In the rainy sections of the northeast, barley, wheat, and other cereals can be raised without irrigation. On the Atlantic coast, where there are extensive plains, olives, citrus fruits, and wine grapes are grown, largely with water supplied by artesian wells.

Nov 2013, I arrived in Morocco with Joo(my then GF, now wife) expecting to not really like it because basically I am not a fan of African / Middle eastern culture, but I end up surprised when I slowly sip in all of this country over the course of 15 days. Yes, it was chaotic, noisy and the worst of all, gangsters touts, but it was also beautiful, exciting, colorful, delicious, full of history and culture. It sometimes reminds me of that place Luke Skywalker went to, to buy that space ship, with all those different intergalactic aliens

We bought our KL-Casablanca flight tickets for RM 2.4k/pax 8 months earlier, drew up a rough backpacking plan of Casablanca -> Marrakech -> Quarzazate -> Merzouga -> Chefchaouen -> Fes -> Asilah -> Casablanca but we ended up with Casablanca -> Marrakech -> Beni mellal -> Errachidia -> Erfoud -> Merzouga -> Chefchaouen -> Tangier -> Fes -> Asilah -> Tangier -> Casablanca.

** We totally skipped Quarzazate due several days of storm, many roads going to and from Marrakech was totally cut off by mudslides, death toll during that period was 73, entire villages, livestock and campsites were swept away in the floods.

Morocco is not a very pleasant country to travel without a guide, solo backpackers is particularly vulnerable to harassment by touts. The touts were more persistent than we’ve experienced in most places around the world, it was stressful and bothersome at times. We experienced continuous annoyance from touts as they desperately tried to guide us or to sell things to us. On several occasions our path was blocked, we could not advance further unless we pay up or take them as guide(s), yep until that extent, I’ll cerita about it later on.

Only later on in the trip we learn that we must not engage at all, not even responding to a “hello, where are you from? Japang? Korea?”, not even an eye contact and most important of all pretend that we didn't understand a single word of English / Japanese(Ah yes Japanese coz everywhere we went people thought that we were Japanese), and we have to walk as if we knew where we were going and they soon moved on to someone else. You will probably not experience things like these if you have a guide with you or if you are in the tour group. Guides will help keep touts at bay so that you could navigate thorough the medina with minimal hassle.

In a nutshell - Our 15 days in Morocco was quiet challenging, exhausting and frustrating - and yet, it was also full of joy, awe, wonder, delicious food and rewards. 

We flew into Casablanca from KL, via Abu Dhabi. Took a 4 hours train to Merrakech right away and spent two days exploring the huge and ancient but bustling medina. Then caught 2 long distant buses across the freezing High atlas mountain range, 1 tuk-tuk and 1 petit taxi to get to Merzouga to explore Sahara, got on camel backs and spent a night in the desert. After that a 10 hours bus to Fes where we spent 3 days in an opulent riad and strolling the alleys of another very old and enchanting medina. And then a 4 hours bus to an absolutely charming little blue hill town of Chefchaouen for a couple of days before heading to the gorgeous whitewashed resort town of Asilah for some colorful graffiti and finally back to Casablanca before heading back home. 

View of Chefchaouen from the roof top of the guest house 

Glossary

Dh - Dirham/MAD the Moroccan currency, approx. 1 MYR to 2.85 MAD in Nov 2015

Dh/MAD	RM/MYR
10	3.51
50	17.54
100	35.09
150	52.63
200	70.18
250	87.72
300	105.26
350	122.81
400	140.35

Medina - The medina is typically a walled city, with many narrow and maze-like streets, in Arabic it means "the old city", is a distinct city section found in many North African cities. Medina quarters often contain historical fountains, palaces, and mosques. Because of the very narrow streets, medinas are generally free from car traffic, and in some cases even motorcycle and bicycle traffic. The streets can be less than a metre wide.

Petit taxi - Shared taxi in Morocco, when there is still a vacant seat the driver might pick up another passenger if he spots a potential customer for a trip in more or less the same direction.

ONCF - Morocco's national railway operator

Supratours - Intercity bus company, run by ONCF. Among the best intercity bus operator in Morocco. Online bookings available.

CTM - Intercity bus company, government own. Comparable to Supratours. Online bookings available.

Nejme Chamal - Intercity bus company, cheaper but run down, not clean but gets us to where we intent to get to.

Etihad Airways(UAE) - Well trained stewards/stewardess, polite, good food and comfortable seats.

Virgin Airlines(Australia) - Air stewards/stewardess behaved like I owe them $100k, food not nice, seats not so comfortable compared to Etihad

So having wrapped up our 15 days in Morocco, here is the itinerary of our trip.

Friday 21-Nov-13

02:10pm-03:10pm: Penang - KL operated by AirAsia

08:25pm-11:40pm: KL - Abu Dhabi operated by Etihad Airways 

Notes: My first impression of Abu Dhabi airport, small and crowded, circular orientated, huge impressive mosaic tiles dorm in the center and lots of people who looked like workers from near-by countries, perhaps traveling to work in the middle east. WIFI sucks there, it was very slow and we can’t find a place to sit. When it was time to queue for the next fight, we noticed some middle eastern people cutting queue to the front, doesn’t seem nice. I wonder if that is normal there? Overall experience at Air Dhabi airport was not very pleasant. 

Day 1 - Saturday 22-Nov-13

02:05am-07:15am: Abu Dhabi - Casablanca operated by Etihad Airways 

08:55am-09:25am: Casablanca(Airport) to Casa Voyageurs by ONCF train , 40Dh

10:50am-14:10pm: Casa Voyageurs to Marrakech by ONCF train , 90Dh

Accommodation: Riad Aicha, 280Dh/double room

Explore the medina of Marrakech 

Notes: Got on another Etihad flight at 2:05am, zombie walked to our seats and soon we were fed again. Our experience on Etihad was very good, they serve great middle eastern food, professional staffs, comfortable seats and good in-flight entertainment system. 

Too soon we arrived at Casablanca, cleared immigration and worked our way to the near by train terminal to catch a 30 minutes train to Casa Voyageurs, from Casa Voyageurs another 3.5 hours train to Marrakech. The journey was bitter coz all seats was taken, so we had to sardine cramp ourselves in, but sweet as it was our first glimpses of people being people in this country and traveling with locals. I can't say that the scenery was exceptional, but it began to get more interesting about halfway through as we see our first olive, pomegranate, dates, almond, fig plantations.

We hop on a small red Fiat Uno petit taxi once we arrive at Marrakesh, the 15mins journey to the medina was already fascinating as we see men walking in the city in their traditional djellaba costume, everyone look like Obi wan kenobi here, intriguing!

Once we got to the medina everything immediately turned medieval, the buildings, the people, the ambiance. We tried to get to the riad that we’ve have earlier booked online, but navigation of the medina was overwhelming. It was a sensory overload. Its narrow maze-like streets were jammed with mostly shrouded figures and donkeys, the smell changed every few feet and the touts bothered us every few inch. After a while we gave in as we were getting no where and extremely tired, we followed the boys as they claimed that they know the place, we followed for a good 10-15mins to a door that has a sign that says “Aicha” and there was a door bell. Before we could ring the door bell we were asked to pay, of coz we told them we will pay once the door is opened and be sure that it was the correct place. But the boys insisted that we pay up or they will not let us in. Not wanting any trouble I gave them 20dh but they wanted more, I told them we were poor and have very little cash. Fortunately they left after that. 

We rang the door bell, knocked and knocked, no respond. So we resorted in calling the the riad owner’s number using our Malaysian SIM, line quality was very bad and we couldn’t really hear but we could make up that we were at the wrong side of the medina, great! Now we have to walk ourselves out of this maze to where we came from and get some other form of help. We made it back to the entrance of the medina, feeling hungry we stopped for a break at a local stall, they were selling cooked food in cone shape clay pots, they smell amazing, ingredients includes potato, bell peppers, tomato, olives, mutton/chicken/fish and a ton of spices like cumin, garlic, turmeric, pepper, paprika, ginger, etc, very fragrant, they were called “tagine”, the taste? Exceptionally good!

After our break we got ourselves a local SIM card and called the riad owner again, this time we manage to get the name of the medina gate/entrance. We asked the stall owner if he knows the place and he said we need a taxi as it will be a 20min walk to the other side of the medina, well that sucks actually. So we got to the street again and stopped a couple petit taxis, did the standard negotiation thing for a good price and off we go. This time the taxi brought us to the correct location and with google map we managed to find the riad after a couple of wrong turns. Riad Aicha is charming, decorated with traditional Moroccan style fixtures and furniture, all rooms were air-conditioned and feature views of the patio and a seating area. The en suite bathroom includes tadelakt walls and zellij tiles. Loek the owner was really friendly. From the roof top we have an amazing view on the medina and the Atlas mountains.

View of the snow capped Atlas mountains

Sampling some local beef/mutton at the Jemaa El Fna night market 

Jemaa El Fna night market in Marrakech

The typical reaction from Moroccans - No picture! No picture! It's sad for photographers.

Jemaa El Fna night market from a nearby restaurant roof top. We bought ourselves some mint tea and waited while for a table to see this.

Day 2 - Sunday 23-Nov-13

Full day: Explore the medina of Marrakech 

Accommodation: Riad Aicha, 280Dh/double room

Notes: Marrakech contains over 800 registered boutiques hotels(known as riads or dars and were once Moroccan traditional homes and are now renovated in tradition or modern styles). All roads in the medina seems to lead to the Jemaa el-Fnaa center square/main square. Perpetually bustling with food vendors and open markets called souk. It is an integral part of life in the medina. It is where the locals avail of their essential needs and wide array of products. A souk is divided into small souks and are designated names based on the product it specialized in such as the meat souk, the spice souk, the clothing souk, the gold souk, mirror souk, glass souk, leather souk, etc. Though not the largest medina in Morocco(that distinction belongs to Fez), the medina is still a very large place, I personally think it will at least take 2-3 days to cover all souks on the surface, and if you would like to see every single details of the place, it will take weeks if not months.

 1st floor of Riad Aicha with its typical Moroccan open air center court yard

 Donkeys and horses are still common here, and another "No picture! No picture!" signal from this guy.

 Local spices being sold in sacks, stuffs are cumin, ginger powder, paprika, etc

Oldman in his orange djellaba costume staring at me

A shop selling lamps, this was taken from the 1st floor, the shop was deserted so we wondered around a bit ...

 Local scholar deciphering text engraved on the wall

 Joo standing in the middle of a busy building entrance

Locally made plates, bowls, tagine and other souvenirs for sale

Getting ourselves some pastry / bread

Day 3 -  Monday 24-Nov-13

12:30pm-06:00pm: Marrakech to Beni Mella by Supratours bus, 65Dh (Baggage deposit fee 5Dh)

11:00pm-06:00am: Beni Mella to Errachidia by Voyage Jaddi bus, 150Dh (Baggage deposit fee 10Dh)

Notes: Our original next destination was Ouarzazate, which was 3:45hrs away by public bus. However when we got to the bus station that morning, we quickly find that all buses to that region have been canceled due to mud slides and road blocks. From Ouarzazate we were suppose to goto Merzouga and the Sahara desert. We were willing to skip Ouarzazate but we will not skip Merzouga/Sahara desert, we need to see those Saharan dunes, camels, nomads ... Lol. So we took out our map and we re-plan our route immediately. We concluded that if we take the high-atlas route to Beni Mella, from there there is a high possibility to hop on another bus to Errachidia, and another bus to Rissani and eventually to Merzouga. Guess what, we did it, the journey was crazy, we got to Beni Mella in the evening, had dinner and got to another bus station for the bus to Errachidia, the bus was not on time and it was so darn cold by 11pm, the bus finally arrived around mid-night, we hopped on, seats were not very comfy but ok. We dozed off soon after the bus left the city but we were awaken again soon as temperature dropped to freezing point when the bus traverses the mountainous high-atlas road, we were totally not prepared for that, we wrapped our feet with everything we have, I don’t even know how to describe the feeling that night now, all I could say now is it was a really long and torturous night.

Day 4 - Tuesday 25-Nov-13

06:30am-07:00am: Errachidia to Rissani by some tuk-tuk 15Dh/pax

09:00am-10:00am: Rissani to Merzouga by shared taxi, 15Dh/pax, have to wait until 6 passengers(2 in front passenger seat, 4 at the back seat) 

Accommodation: Chez Youssef Lodge(www.chezyoussef.com), 300Dh/double room

Notes: We arrived at Errachidia in the morning, the bus station was empty. We asked locals for directions to get to Rissani, they pointed us to the tuk-tuk, we got on the tuk-tuk for a short ride to Rissani, had a very delicious beef tagine breakfast while waiting for the petit taxi to gather 6 passengers before moving. Yup 6! 2 in the passenger seat, 4 behind. We took the back seats together with another 2 nomad looking man, must be Berbers and at the passenger seat was another 2 man. The journey to Merzouga was exciting as we could see more and more of desert like terrain, plants, dust, etc. Soon enough we arrived at the entrance of this village, everything here is earth color, damn cool! We walked into the village passing perhaps a dozen mud wall houses, we didn’t see a single person, I guess everyone must be hiding indoor or at work. After about 10mins we reach this nice little looking lodge house, it has a sign saying “Chez Yousself Lodge”, from out site it looked like a dusty place, mud walls with one blue colored door and a blue colored window, as we enter the place, everything changes into a cozy home with a center open air courtyard with plants and singing birds, felt like an oasis in the middle of the desert. We spent the rest of the day resting and had an evening walk to the sand dunes before sunset, our first glimpse of the Sahara, it was magnificent. Coincidentally Kelly Woo was also in Merzouga that night, we communicated over Facebook messenger and she managed to come over to our place with 6 bottles of beer for a short meet up. It was really nice to see her, especially in a place so remote, so far away, so unexpectedly.

Day 5 - Wednesday 26-Nov-13

09:00am-02:30pm: 4WD tour around the desert, 450Dh/4WD

03:00pm-04:30pm: Camel ride into Sahara desert and overnight at the tent in the oasis, 150Dh/pax

Accommodation: Tent in the oasis of Sahara, 300Dh/pax

Notes: Breakfast at Chez Youssef Lodge, it was naan breads, jam, butter, olives, fruits, coffee/tea, etc. Soon our guide Hassan arrived, then off we go on a half day 4WD excursion around the big dunes of Merzouga, we drove pass several old abandon desert towns and mines, up to a hill to see the panoramic view of the dried river and desert, stopped by an African village where our guide explained that they can perform the Gnawa music show for us, but we wasn’t interested as we were the only tourist there that time so we left swiftly then we stopped by a nomad Berber hut of a single mother with his young son whose name was also Hassan, we had our bread with capcicum, vege/cheese lunch with them, we were served Berber mint tea, it was an amazing experience to just sit there and see how they live out in the desert, just looking at the things they cook, how they go about doing their chores, how they raise livestock, their little make shift mud wall kitchen/store, sitting rugs and table, etc. We got back to our lodge just in time for lunch, pack up and our camel guide was already waiting for us. The camels were packed with food, blankets and everything else that were needed for the night and next morning. The trek started from the edge of desert for 1.5 hours on camel backs, oscillation on camel back was kind'f crazy. We spent the night at a nomad's camp equipped with about half a dozen huts, drums, a well and no toilet in the middle of the Erg Chebbi dunes(which is part of western Sahara). There was a lot of opportunities to take lovely pictures of the sunset and sunrise, so when we arrived at the camp we hiked up the high dunes to see the sunset. The night was magical, stars, planets and the Milky Way shimmer with incredible clarity under the clear desert sky. Our guide made us a sumptuous tagine dinner around campfire, we spent the night in a nomad tent, the next morning after breakfast we rode the camels again back to Merzouga. Well I actually fell from the camel that morning before the journey actually started, had some nasty cuts on 2 fingers coz when I was falling I grabbed the metal part of the saddle really hard. Fortunately it was just skin which came off, not my fingers. So the entire 1.5hrs journey back to Merzouga was quite painful, I could only ride the camel with one hand. Once we reach Merzouga, we went to the local government clinic to have it checked, cleaned and bandaged. The treatment was free. On our way back from the clinic to Chez Youssef Lodge, Joo tripped while trying to sneak over pole to take a picture of an old man on the other side of road, she cut her palm and fingers pretty badly, so we went back to the clinic for more treatment. It could be karma as she was laughing so hard that morning when I fell from the camel.. :P

 At the view point over looking the dried up river

 4WD excursion

 Abandon city at the desert

According to our guide, beyond those mountains is Algeria 

Hassan the nomad kid we met

That's Joo in the kitchen / pantry

Hassan's mom serves us mint tea

 Slowly traversing the Sahara

 Circular pattern on the sand created by the grass and wind

Our sports car for the day

Stunning desert scenery

Night approaching, preparing to clean up and dinner. Yup, that's our bungalow for the night.

Our guide made us this sumptuous tagine meal for dinner.

Day 6 - Thursday 27-Nov-13

09:00am-11:30am: Camel ride from desert back to Chez Youssef Lodge

07:00pm-05:00am: Merzouga to Fes by Supratours bus, 190Dh(Baggage deposit fee 5Dh)

Notes: We got back to Chez Youssef Lodge around 10:00am in the morning, so we clean up a bit, pack a bit and headed out to get lunch, again we had tagine at a local store down the main road of Merzouga, it was delicious. After lunch we walked around the town, exploring the surroundings, visited a very nice resort where Kelly stayed, too bad they have left earlier that morning. The staffs of the resort was kind enough to let us in and showed us around, they even served us mint tea. Later that night after dinner we got on a long distant bus for Fez, the journey would take 10 hours.

Our camel guide, it was just him and us in the desert that night

 Our camel guide with the camels

 Our tent and our guide preparing breakfast

May look easy, but it was bumpy as hell !!

 View of the Sahara in the morning

 Some desert flora which looks very similar to Airplants/Tillandsia

 Chez Youssef Lodge

Breakfast at Chez Youssef Lodge

 Merzouga town and the Erg Chebbi sand dunes as backdrop, Erg Chebbi is 5km wide and 50km long sand dune

Another near by town also with Erg Chebbi as backdrop

 Close-up of desert sand in the wind

 A group of tourists and their camel guide

 Dusk, Erg Chebbi at its golden hour (color is original, not edited)

Another dusk scenery wide angle view

Day 7 - Friday 28-Nov-13

05:30am-5:45am: Taxi to Fes medina, 30Dh! Why 30Dh? It was 5:30am and the bus stopped at some road in the city, not at the bus station. There was only a couple of petit taxi around, it was take it or get stranded in the darkness at this unknown location.

Full day: Explore the medina of Fes

Accommodation: Riad Sunrise (www.riadsunrise.com), 350Dh/double room

Notes: When we got to the medina of Fez, we knew exactly where to find Riad Sunrine with Google map this time, before long we found this nice door and with a little over hanging sign that says “Riad Sunrise”. We knocked a bit and came a lady who doesn't speak a word of English, she greeted us and welcomed us in, served us mint tea and showed us our room, our room wasn’t big, but comfortable enough for a couple of nights. What’s really nice about this riad is its decoration, it’s authentic, beautiful and intricate. Around lunch time we decided to head out and explore the medina. When we got to the entrance of the medina there were very few people, most shops were closed, we soon figured that everyone had gone to the mosques as it was Friday, fine for us, we just need to find lunch for now. At the entrance, some local tugs began bothering us, well we have got experienced now, we ignored them and do not make eye contact. But this one guy was particularly persistent and intimidating, he followed us and blocked our path everywhere we go, we just couldn’t get into the medina with his man trying to guide us, so I told him “no please, we do not want a guide”, he replied with “In Morocco you don’t say no!!”. That was enough we thought, so we went into a small restaurant immediately to seek refuge, we ordered our meals but he was still outside standing there looking at us, waiting. We took our time eating our food and hope that he would give up. Once we stepped out of the restaurant he started the drama again, and his friends was all standing around smiling, so we thought since we cannot get into the medina and better head back to our guesthouse, which was actually just a 4 minutes walk from the medina entrance. When we got back to the riad, the guesthouse manager Ali was around, he told us to ignore them but we told him we did, but we were still harassed. Didn’t wanna make a hassle out of this so we got back to our room and rest for a while. At 2:30pm we decided to try entering the medina again, when we got to the entrance, it was totally different this time, all shops were open, there were other tourists, streets packed with people and those guys who harassed us had left. This time we got into the medina without much problem, the usual tugs were much more easier to handle with other tourist around, they would give up after a couple of tries then find other targets. Like Marrakesh, Fez is a another UNESCO heritage site, boast as the largest medina in the world. Traffic here is caused by donkeys, not by cars. It’s the real deal. It’s a completely overwhelming experience, the kind of overwhelming that’s half anxiety and half excitement.

 The charming Riad Sunrise (www.riadsunrise.com), 350Dh/double room

 At the food souk in Fez medina

 Riad Sunrise - Decoration is authentic, beautiful and intricate

 They do eat camel meat here.

Fez from the rooftop of Riad Sunrise

Trying the cactus fruits, sour, sweet and watery, not bad!

Day 8 - Saturday 29-Nov-13

Full day: Explore the medina of Fes

Accommodation: Riad Sunrise (www.riadsunrise.com), 350Dh/double room

 Moroccan men in their traditional djellaba dress - a long, loose, hooded garment with full sleeves

Intricate design on the walls of one of the many Unesco heritage buildings in Fez

Day 9 - Sunday 30-Nov-13

Full day: Explore the medina of Fes

Accommodation: Riad Sunrise (www.riadsunrise.com), 350Dh/double room

 The Leather Souk, the oldest leather tannery in the world - it is the medieval centre of Fez Medina, this place has not changed for centuries. ... 

 The tannery is composed of numerous stone vessels filled with a vast range of dyes and various odorous liquids. The tannery processes the hides (skins) of sheep and goats, turning them into high quality leather products such as bags, coats, shoes, slippers and other similar products.

The workers stand in the stone vessels arranged like honeycombs, filled with different dyes, dying the arms and legs of the men 

Day 10 - Monday 1-Dec-13

11:00am-03:00pm: Fes to Chefchaouen by CTM bus, 75Dh (Baggage deposit fee 5Dh)

15mins walk from bus station to the medina

Accommodation: Riad Baraka, 250Dh/double room, no heater, clean & small room, with small toilet

Notes: We took the 11:00am CTM bus from Fez to Chefchaouen(a.k.a the blue city), the journey took 4 hours and it was pretty scenic as we move further up to higher altitude. At about 3:00pm we arrived at the local bus station, we could see the blue city medina on the slopes of a mountain from here, it’s beautiful. A mat salleh lady backpacker asked us if we are going to the medina, we said yes and she invited us to walk along as she explained the walk will take about 15mins up sloping roads. The walk was fine, the weather was good and soon we arrived at the medina, as expected every walls, doors and windows were painted blue or white, it’s a charming place indeed. We took a room at the same guesthouse as our newly met mat salleh lady friend, it was clean, pretty and cozy but the room and toilet was small, so we thought never mind, stay for a night first and if we don’t like it after a night we can always move to another guest house the next day.

 Chefchaouen from the rooftop of our guesthouse

 A beautiful succulent plant at the alley

Only kids at this age are innocent enough to let us take a few pictures of them, in another 2-3 years from now they will be joining their elders in cursing tourists and asking for $ if they should try to take a picture of them. 

Ah uncle relax saja 

Day 11 - Tuesday 2-Dec-13

Full day: Explore the medina of Chefchaouen

Accommodation: Guernika Hostel, 200Dh/double room, no heater, clean & moderate size room, with toilet

3 Moroccan ah pek in their Obi-Wan Kenobi jedi costume, snipped this using a 200mm

This restaurant in the middle of Chefchaouen serves some good and reasonably priced Moroccan dishes, I think the restaurant is called "Marisco Gemelos", look for the purple restaurant 

Escargot treat; street food - Joo can't say Escargot, she call them Escorgat

Day 12 - Wednesday 3-Dec-13

Full day: Explore the medina of Chefchaouen, but it was raining most of the time.

Accommodation: Guernika Hostel, 200Dh/double room, no heater, clean & moderate size room, with toilet

The Cat isn't blue

The doors are blue, sidewalks are blue, stairs are blue, it seems like everything is blue, welcome to Chefchaouen, the blue village!

Day 13 - Thursday 4-Dec-13

10:00am-12:45pm: Chefchaouen to Tangier by Nejme Chamal bus, 75Dh (Baggage deposit fee 5Dh)

02:30pm-03:25pm: Tangier to Asilah by local bus, 10Dh (Baggage deposit fee 10Dh)

Accommodation: Hotel Sahara, 150Dh/double room, no heater, clean & small size room, shared toilet
Notes: Asilah is a gorgeous whitewashed resort town with a lot of colorful graffiti. Artists have been invited to paint the white walls for years so you will find a lot of interesting paintings which set Asilah apart from other Andalucian style towns in Morocco like the blue town of Chefchaouen or Essaouria. In general, I found that shop owners here have a less aggressive sales approach compared to other cities in Morocco. On the edges of the medina you will find ramparts which protect the town from the roughness of the Atlantic Ocean. A beautiful spot to come watch the waves in daylight or enjoy the sunset is the stone pier, the Krikia, on the south of the medina.

Hotel Sahara, 150Dh/double room, no heater, clean & small size room, shared toilet

In the medina there is graffiti in every turn

Buildings in the medina are all painted white

Cat by a heavily painted wall

Day 14 - Friday 5-Dec-13

09:00am-09:35am: Asilah to Tangier by local bus, 10Dh (Baggage deposit fee 10Dh)

11:00am-05:00pm: Tangier to Casablanca(Casa Voyageurs) by Nejme Chamal bus (Baggage deposit fee 10Dh)

Accommodation: Hotel Terminus, 150Dh/twin bed room, shared bathroom, it was quiet a horrible experience staying there, even it was for just 8 hours. We got to Casa Voyageurs late to catch a train early next morning. All hotels near-by were over our budget, so we have no choice but to put up a night in this place. Now the room was large with a balcony, that's good. But everything else was horrible, the bed was really bad and old, bed sheets smells like they have not washed them for the entire year, the cabinets, tables and all other furniture in the room was broken and very worn out. The shared bathrooms were as bad, dirty and smelly. Among the worst hotel we have stayed in really. However it is located directly opposite the train terminal, I guess that’s the only consolation

 Metal grilled windows 

 View of Asilah 

 Electricity metal cover with the word "RIAD"

 Cleaner sweeping the street early in the morning

Another graffiti

Day 15 - Saturday 6-Dec-13

9:07am-09:42am: Casablanca(Casa Voyageurs) to Airport by ONCF train, 40Dh

 - Abu Dhabi - KL

12:12pm--11:35pm: Casablanca to Abu Dhabi operated by Etihad Airways

02:40am-02:00pm: Abu Dhabi to KL operated by Virgin Airlines(Australia) 

Wrapping it up, my advice for those backpacking to Morocco solo or in a small group, do not engage in any sort of conversation with the local tugs, avoid them, no eye contact. Only use Supratours and CTM buses, trains are reliable. Taxis will always try to rip you off. Beware of fake argan oil, saffron is cheap. Local food is delicious, try everything and you will certainly enjoy your adventure in this country.