Wardy’s Travel Blog

Rocking the Kasbah … Marrakech

December 31, 2007 on 11:48 am | In Travel news, Photography, Nights out, Food, Friends |

This was a favourite song of mine when I was growing up and I remember dreaming of how amazing this place must be.  Little did I know that I would have the opportunity to check it out for myself.

So when we booked the flight I was excited to see that the hotel we were staying at was in the middle of the Kasbah! Check out the hotel here: http://www.slh.com/morocco/marrakech/hotel_marsul.html

http://www.lasultanamarrakech.com/# (Click on Marrakech)

And what a place… The sounds of horns beeping, the 5 calls to prayer from the Imam, the smells of lamb cooking in the myriad of herbs they use, the thousands of people wandering around… It was amazing!

Myself, my fiance (Rachel… more about her soon!), and Rachel’s parents spent 4 wonderful days roaming the streets of Marrakech and haggling with the local shop owners.

And did we haggle…  I was not so strong on this but I did enjoy the time doing my little bit.

I will relate some of these stories:

- When I was looking at Leather jackets I didn’t want to come across too interested and said that I was only looking to shop owner.  He said “Brother you must come over… You have no obligation to buy but you do have an obligation to try!”.  What could I do…  I went over and tried on a couple great jackets.  In the end I got a great leather jacket for a very nice price…

- Rachel’s dad, Winston, was a great haggler and set a great benchmark..  His favorite saying was “It may be worth that to you but it is only worth half that to me!”…  And generally he ended up getting it for close to that price!

We also did a day trip up into the Atlas mountains.  And to our surprise when we pulled into this village we were ordered onto muels for a 3 hour ride through the hills.  We had mint tea in a berber home, dinner in a local trekking hotel overlooking a valley and a stones throw from the snow capped mountains… Then muel rides back down into the village.

I must admit that I was very nervous about going because of stories about pickpockets etc.  But I must honestly say that we all felt very safe and looked after.  The Moroccans were very friendly and hospitable and made our stay an incredible experience.

Anyway… need to get back to work now, so have a great New Years!