Apparently, in Morocco, much of the activities take place within the Medina (the Old Town) which is the Jamaa El Fna Square so there´s not much places to go honestly. I would say I was quite fortunate because though I am bad with nagivating, I can remember places I´ve been to well. Those 2 Korean girls told me they couldn´t find their way out to the big square and had agreed to pay one of the hostel guy some money to ask him to bring them to the mosque. So I suggested that they can just follow me and I will bring them there. haha.. But of course, I didn´t ask for money.
The landmark in Marrakech. It dominates the skyline of Marrakech. THE MOSQUE~
Apparently, it's out of bounds to WOMEN. So we could only take pictures outside.!
Look at my attire. There's a reason why I am daunting on a Jacket and Jeans. I don't want to get Sunburnt! The other 2 Korean girls who were with me had sleeveless on and by nightfall, their arms were all burning RED!
The weather was FREAKING HOT. It´s even worst than Singapore. Singapore is hot and humid but right here, it is hot and dry. You don´t perspire a lot because of the dryness but you dehydrate super quickly. You just want water and water and more water all the time. Anyway, we are only able to watch the mosque from outside and entry is prohibited. Thus, we decided to head to the La Menara. It´s a historical site and it´s damn far. I asked the guy at the reception if we could walk and he said ´YES it´s just 30 minutes.´ I wasn´t that willing to walk but those 2 girls seem spontaneous so we ended up walking there. Trust me, it´s crap! It definitely took us more than 30 minutes after taking into account getting lost, heading in the wrong direction, buying drinks along the way, doing a detour because of some ongoing construction! The view there was nice but Marrakesh is pretty flat so you don´t see any prominent building dominating the skyline, perhaps only the big mosque in the Medina.
My 2 Korean Friends- Annyong ha......
I feel peculiar about this tree that grew out of nowhere! hahaha..
That's what happens when you get lost. We ended up in some ulu streets with all the donkeys moving around...
Due to some construction, we had to detour and work all around the walls of the Medina. See the lady in white and the man in blue in the picture? I didn't realise initially until as I am doing this post, I realise they are my travel partners the very next day to the desert ! hahaha...
Finally inside La Medina. Supposingly, I think this place used to be for Prayers and performance? Because there's a seating gallery and a viewing platform from afar, which I presume it's for the royalties? haha..
There's a super BIG Pond in the middle and there are fishes in it! haha....
The prayer room i think ? The explanation was all in their own dialect, some form of Arabic and French. But the walls are well-painted, decorated etc.
I like the setting and the background though, clear blue skies .... :)
The scorching SUN and our BEAUTIFUL shadows!
The long way back to the Medina?
Along the way, you see lots of gardens and parks filled with sand and of course, there was the camels available for riding and horse carriages. I would really love to go on those horse-carriages but they were just too expensive! When we were about to go back, we met another HongKong girl from our hostel and we decided to take a taxi back to the Medina for lunch. Crap once again. The taxis refuse to ferry 4 people so we had to take the bigger one and he charged us 40 Dirhams for 4 people which is around SGD8/-. We were cool with it since we didn´t really have a benchmark for comparison. God knows when the 3 of us took another taxi in the late afternoon for almost the same distance, it only costed us 7 Dirham. :)
Lunch was simple at a kebab place and after lunch we decided to head to another mosque/park. This time round, those 2 Korean girls totally couldn´t take the heat at all and we stopped halfway in a cafe for a break. By the time we were at the 90th percentile of the journey, someone told us the mosque has closed (the mosque closes at 4p.m daily and it was 4.10p.m then). That explains the 2nd cab trip.
I have never been on a horse carriage before. I would really love to try it some day because I love horse-riding! I love knights! If I were a BOY, I want to be a KNiGHT! hahaha... I wanna learn horse-riding! ZH, BUCK UP! BE A MILLIONAIRE SOON and make my DREAM come TRUE! :)
I thought this painting is just MAGNIFICENT! It looks as if the horse will come alive any time!
The fortified walls of the Medina? Wanna try some rock-climbing?! haha..
Another side of the Medina. Not the one that you saw earlier. The walls here are much lower and it's in the northern part of the Medina.
We headed back to the hostel and I caught the match between Italy and Romania and France Vs Netherlands. *JINXED* Both Italy and France are doubtful to qualify for the semi-finals. I go for France obviously but I am cool with Italy proceeding into the quarter-finals too. However, their fate lies in the hands of Netherlands and Romania now. A goal-less draw between the latter will send the former 2 teams out. They definitely don´t look like the finalists of the 2006 World Cup.
To cheer myself up a bit, I headed out for dinner and Orange Juice again. In Marrakesh, I basically head to the same restaurant and stall for food and drinks all the time. That´s because you make friends with them and you get more food than others. hahaha.. I must totally blog about what I observed. In the big square, there are at least 30 Orange Juice Stalls and this huge amount of stalls selling homogeneous goods are what we term in economics perfectly competitive market. However, time and again, it was stressed in what I learnt that Perfectly competitive market doesn´t exist but I don´t really agree. All these orange juice stalls are located near to each other and they sell exactly the same kind of product. They charge the same price and I am pretty sure if anyone tries to up the price even by one cents, he will lose all his customers because everyone will just go to all other stalls who sell at a lower price.
The guy at the first stall along the stretch is damn hilarious*. When he saw us from afar, he started to greet us and kept smiling at us. Of course we drank from him because we were really really thirsty. I took his photo and I will post it for you guys some other day. He did that to everyone. That was his way of attracting customers and I must say it was pretty successful! But come night time, I would patronize this stall which is located right opposite where I eat. The guy is funny and cute. He doesn´t speak English well but he speaks French fluently. On the previous night, I had drunk at the stall with this Dutch guy who stays in the same hostel as me and happen to eat at the same stall. So he thought we were a couple. However, on the 2nd night, I was with the HongKong girl and when he saw me, he started to say ´He love me.´ and asked if I could marry him. HILARIOUS. He kept speaking in French but I couldn´t understand everything. So I told him if he can speak English well, I will consider. wahaha..But he was nice. He always gave me 1.5 cups of the OJ when others only had 1. That´s why I say just patronize the same stall.
Tired, I headed back and went to the rooftop in the hostel to admire the stars. I chatted a bit with the 2 korean girls before I headed back. I have to wake up at 6.15 a.m the next day.
The Stall No.8 GUY with his WIDEST SMILE EVER. :)Patronize him if you ever go to Marrakech.
because i am heading to the western part of the SAHARA Desert!!
because i am heading to the western part of the SAHARA Desert!!
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