Ait-Ben-Haddou

 Hello Everybody! 

Today we woke up in the Sahara, which was beautiful, albeit a little bit too hot for me at 7 am. We had the most amazing breakfast in the restaurant tent! The cakes were super light and fluffy and it was the best msemmen (basically an Indian paratha) from the entire trip. Breakfasts here have been pretty uneventful, lots of breads and jams and sometimes eggs, but the lack of noteworthy food seems to be the theme of this trip. Moroccans have all these spices surrounding them and yet their food is so bland. Often we’re the troublesome patrons asking waiters for salt, lemon, pepper, hot sauce or olive oil just to add a little something. I feel like if the country were a person it would definitely be a meat and potatoes only kind of guy, especially if you replace the potatoes with bread. I will say though that the orange juice has been amazing, freshly squeezed with no added sugars, I’m super impressed and this is coming from a total California girl!

Before long the workers loaded our bags onto the roof of the car!!! Thankfully I just packed a backpack that was crammed in the back. We, the Germans, and the Brits were driven back out of middle of the Sahara to the town where we left our cars. 

From there, Susan, Auntie Sureia, and I made our way south towards Marrakech through the Atlas Mountains. The goal was to do the 10 hour drive in a day but at about hour 7 we were getting pretty hungry and tired and decided to pull into a small town called Ait Ben Haddou. Here they have a UNESCO site which is a dwelling of homes called a kasr. If the buildings look familiar is probably because you’ve seen it before! Hollywood has filmed both the Gladiator and Game of Thrones at this site, along with a bunch of other movies.

Today, most of the homes are used as shops that sell tourist trinkets, but there are still five families that actually live there! We met a nice gentleman who was actually one of those people. He explained that the families at the site slowly moved into the city across the bridge as the world modernized. Apparently until the government built a bridge 10 years ago, the river would flood the locals in and they wouldn’t have access to food or water for periods of time. They still mainly use candles for light and have some solar energy but no electricity. Also, Hollywood frequently casts these local family members as extras in their films, a fact he was very proud to share with us. The site is beautiful in its own rugged charming manner, but I can’t say I’d ever live without modern amenities.

At the top, we soon found out for ourselves they have massive winds that literally blow you away! I have never experienced anything like this!! Jes used to complain about biking in the Netherlands against the wind but I always figured it was wind. How bad could it really be? I’m sorry I ever had an inkling of doubt Jes! I could barely stand straight and had to hold onto Auntie Sureia for support. Thankfully we made it down in one piece, but we won’t talk about the millions of knots this little excursion left in my hair. Between that and the sand, combing my hair through was quite the process, I was so tempted to just chop it all off!

We accidentally stayed and explored way later than we intended to and weren’t feeling confident about tackling the mountain switchbacks in the dark. So, we scrambled to find a hotel for the night. Actually the issue wasn’t finding a vacancy, the issue was finding a place not abandoned! Throughout this trip, many people in the tourists industries have referred to Morocco as sleeping for the past few years during Covid and they weren’t kidding. What was once a gorgeous mansion hotel was now covered in a layer of dust and only had one employee. I’ve seen brought horror movies to know that being the only guest in the boonies with an abandoned dwelling never ends well for the main characters. So we backed out of that hotel pretty quickly and then started driving around until we found a more populated place to stay for the night.

Honestly we were just grateful to have a clean space with a working shower. You wouldn’t believe how sandy we all were! I had to wash my hair out twice and I still found some sand after. At this rate, I’ll probably be bringing some of the Sahara home with me and I’m pretty sure my white Nikes will never recover haha. Oh well, guess that’s a small price I’ll happily pay for an adventure! Can’t wait to arrive in Marrakech tomorrow and explore.

Love you lots,

Carolyn

Sahara

Morning everyone! 

You would never believe me if I told you that I was woken up at 7:30 am and was dressed and packed in 2 minutes, but I swear that’s exactly what happened. Susan wanted to go to the Sahara but couldn’t get a tour, and Auntie Sureia wanted to go up north to Tanger and surrounding beach cities. I went to sleep while they both were at a stalemate lol. I was simply ready for any adventure out of Fes, which was how I ended up jumping out of the bed and into the car for a 7 hour drive to the Sahara. It was definitely a race to the desert because we were trying to beat nightfall so we could ride camels in the sunset. 

Probably the only perk of not driving a stick shift is that I was a permanent passenger/navigator while Susan and Auntie Sureia took turns at the wheel. The scenery was beautiful and we crossed the mountains. It was cool to see the transition from green, lush farms with plentiful livestock to red rocks! Interestingly, the red rocks looked just like I was driving through Utah or Arizona. I swear!

As we got further into the Sahara there was only one paved two way road down the middle, and nothing else. The gps kept telling us to turn left, and we kept looking left and there was just nothing! We circled twice before deciding to off road and follow the gps. Well apparently, there was a “road” in the sand but the only way to know if it was a road was whether or not there were other tire tracks. We looked absolutely ridiculous in our little Toyota Yaris competing with all these  4runners. I have to hand it to Auntie Sureia though, we made it five minutes after 5 pm, just in time for our camel ride.

I feel pretty guilty, the camels were not well taken care of or handled nicely. I wish I could have done something different once I saw that but my options were to stay in the tent alone or be with others in the group, obviously, I hopped on. But in the future I think I’ll be more intentional on what tourist activities I participate in. It’s a bit crazy how much power we can have as foreigners and I think if people realized we cared it would make a difference.

The camel ride was wild! Instead of a pretty sunset across the Sahara, we got a desert storm. And let me tell you, that sand was biting! Sand was literally everywhere and within 30 seconds I could taste the grains in my mouth, despite being super covered up. Actually, it was funny, when we were driving over Auntie Sureia was complaining about it being dusty with the window cracked in the car and the guide just laughed and said “lady, this is the Sahara.” Now I understand why, to fight the sand is futile, we just had to learn to lean in to permanently being covered in a layer of it. Also, looking at these photos I can’t help but laugh because I look like a total desert gangster! 

After the camel ride, we were sent to our luxury tent, which by the way was AMAZING! There was electricity and running water,  the ceilings were draped with fabric, and they had both heat and air conditioning!! The only thing missing was steady service and wifi lol. Talk about ultimate glam!! Actually, the tent was the nicest place we stayed in AND the nicest food we had eaten the entire trip. Trust me, the fact that the best hospitality was in the middle of nowhere desert was definitely not lost on us. All we could do was laugh about it and enjoy ourselves. 

After dinner we had musicians come to play indigenous Berber music. They have this instrument called krakebs, the metal ones shaped and played kind of like the castanets (guy on the right in the photo is playing them). They make this haunting sound that represents the shackles of slaves or the hooves of a horses as people were dragged away in grain sacks, which seemed so contradictory to the lively drumming and singing. The beat was unusual, I couldn’t quite figure it out, but I wasn’t going to be deterred from dancing. This might be my biggest claim to fame, we had two Germans and two Brits in our tent with us aka the most stoic and reserved people ever, and I convinced them to dance!!! We were having so much fun that even the a group of Moroccan guys from Tangier who weren’t really participating in any activities walked by and joined our dance party. One guy even taught me some of the local steps! I know I looked a bit silly, but I tried! The musicians let us all play their instruments for their last song. After our impromptu dance party, one of the Germans came up to me and said “For Germans, that was too exciting. We normally don’t do that.” 

Dancing always makes fast friends. Even after the musicians left, all of us stayed around to chit chat. Turns out the British couple were from Manchester and had traveled both to the States and Morocco before. They had some really good advice for our trip to Marrakech! It was funny because they were telling stories about their mishaps while driving automatic cars in the US, which they insisted was way harder than driving a manual. I can’t say I quite agree haha.

The Europeans slowly peeled off until it was just Auntie Sureia, me, and the Tangier Moroccans. So we sat around playing a local card game pretty similar to spades until 2:00 am! It was funny watching Auntie Sureia beat them even though she has just learned the game, but if you ask me I think she was secretly counting cards. The rest of the night felt like I was in undergrad all over again! Turns out I wasn’t too far off since we later learned the three guys were all in college. You should have seen their faces when they found out I had graduated so long ago, they were so shocked!! Thanks mom and dad for the good genes. Unfortunately, my almost thirty self will probably regret staying up all night, but that’s a tomorrow problem.

Anyways that’s all for now! 

Love you all,

Carolyn

Eid in Fes

Eid Mubarak Everyone! 

We woke up early this morning to go to a mosque for morning prayer. Well, I guess it’s more accurate to say that we took a two hour nap before going to morning prayer since Auntie Sureia and I were up until 4 am trying to figure out how to actually find a mosque open on Eid day. 

We ended up calling reception, who then personally arrived at our door because Auntie Sureia refused to believe a landline with no dial tone was a working phone. When we opened the door we were shocked to see our waiter from last night! Poor Ayouh couldn’t catch a break with us haha.  P.s. I was right, the landline WAS working without a dial tone. Anyways, Ayouh told us that only a few mosques in Fes were open for Eid prayer, which we hadn’t heard of before. Usually all the mosques are open and you just pick one! Apparently in Morocco, it’s not unusual to host a massive prayer outside the mosque and that is how we ended up praying on the hills of Fes. 

And don’t worry, we literally walked over to the next hill to do a photoshoot because I was not going to get kicked off the first hill for not having my hair covered. I literally couldn’t leave the hotel without my hijab on because no one believed I knew how to go to mosque covered appropriately and would stop me in my tracks and gesture wildly. You’d think they’d get the ethnic memo based on my clothing choices…but guess not. They practice some weird form of Islam here. I am SO glad I never moved to Morocco liked I planned to in 2017. Literally, most of my Eid was spent explaining myself to others as they refused to believe I fasted this Ramadan or any Ramadan before! I think I need to learn to give up earlier, you can blame law school for my tenacity, but it didn’t really serve me well these past few days in Fes because let’s be honest, none of these men will ever change their minds so I should save my breath for better causes.

At least I had an amazing breakfast after prayer and the three of us felt like queens on our throne! That is, until the birds in the lamp above decided to poop on both my plate AND in my orange juice!! The waiters definitely had a good chuckle as they had to replace my food and drinks two separate times. I wonder if real princesses back in the day had endure similar hardship as they lounged around their palace. The open to the elements floor plan is cool until there are actual elements lol.

We really enjoyed our midday taking in all the peace and beauty the hotel lounges had to offer. And by we I mean, Auntie Sureia and Susan sat outside while I went to our room to take a “twenty minute” (aka two hour) nap hehe. Afterwards, Auntie Sureia’s friend, Youssef, who’d been taking us around Fes the past days joined us and took us to the market to have street food for lunch. The butcher was right next to the griller, so he literally cut and spiced the meat and then handed it to the stall next door to cook. The stall next to the griller was empty, and the butcher informed us that his cat has a litter in there. The locals just pick random street cats as theirs and then feed them. The babies were too little to come out but the mom sat by us to say hi. Okay, I’ll admit that she was more likely there by us to beg, but let’s just interpret it my way for the story’s sake alright? Also, I can’t help but wonder what kind of fine dining the butcher’s cats have! 

Auntie Sureia, Youssef, and Me 

The butcher then invited us to his home for tea. When we opened the front door I was shocked to see a tree in the middle of his house! This is not uncommon in Morocco since there aren’t really gardens in the traditional English sense. Here there have terraces and indoor gardens as the center of their homes. Still, it’s very strange to be able to walk out of your bedroom and pick oranges from a tree growing under tiled floors. All the rooms surrounding the center garden have a raised threshold to keep the rain out, which is very clever. Susan and I were clearly impressed!

We were served traditional Moroccan mint tea, which has a really lovely flavor depending on who brews it. So far, only one of the places made mint tea the way I liked it. The coolest thing about the tea is the way they serve it, pouring at a distance from the little glass. If you’re curious, the coffee here is not even worth talking about, which is wild since they have Ethiopian beans grown nearby! I can’t wait for a cup of good coffee when I go home. 

After a bit of time we bid the butcher goodbye before making our way back to the hotel to plan and prepare for our trip tomorrow. We are tentatively going north or south. Yup, you read that right, we’ve got no clue what we’re going to do but I’m excited for any adventure to come. 

Speaking of adventure, it seems like our day wasn’t quite over yet. Once back at the hotel, we went to ask the manager how to get more cash converted. He told us we’d have to walk to a bank to withdraw it because nothing was open that evening. Susan cleverly mentioned we were getting cash to settle the bill with the hotel and politely inquired whether it would be safe to walk back with it in our bags. That genius move is the reason why she and I got a tour of Fes from the hotel owner in the first electric car in the entire city, a Porsche Taycan no less. Can’t say I minded driving around Fes in style. Nevertheless, I’m very excited to be leaving, this city and I didn’t mesh well. I’m hoping for better luck in the next! Wishing everyone a great Eid back home. 

Much love, 

Aisha

Fes

Hello! 

Today was the last day of fasting and boy did our morning have a hilarious start. We asked our hotel if they could serve us suhoor, the morning meal before fasting, and we were told to come downstairs at 3:15 am, which is totally different from every hotel we’ve been to this far. Usually, we just get a cold tray around 10 pm for the next morning. We assumed there were a lot of Muslims in the hotel so they were serving us downstairs in a buffet. We were SO wrong! 

Auntie Sureia and I were the only two people downstairs and they had TWO servers waiting on us. These poor guys had to wake up in the middle of the night, eat their own suhoor, and then wait around to serve us. It’s no wonder they called our room twice and then personally knocked on our door to call us down when we were 15 minutes late! Auntie Sureia and I couldn’t stop laughing at the excessiveness of the entire situation. 

But that’s not the best part. Auntie Sureia asked for an omelette, and as we later learned, these poor guys ran all around the hotel, calling reception, contacting the chef, and rummaging the kitchen for like 20 minutes before handing Auntie Sureia a plate of eggs (definitely not an omelette) whilst saying “We tried our best.” All of us looked at each other for a second before laughing so hard we could barely breathe. Oh, and if you guessed that I wore my pjs down to breakfast at 3:30 am, even in spite of believing the entire hotel would be there, you were totally right!

We went back to bed and then woke up at a more decent hour to walk around the markets. Tentatively being the last day before Eid, everyone was out and about doing their version of Christmas Eve shopping. The hustle and bustle had the streets practically humming despite the heat and lack of food and water. Actually, most of the country was arguing, around 70% of Moroccans thought that this was the last day of Ramadan while the other 30% thought that we still had another day. Which is funny because the rest of the world was sure Eid will be tomorrow. Nevertheless, sweets and gifts were being prepared and sold across town and the bees seemed to have clued in because they were swarming the area. At first I thought they were flies and swatted them away. But then I realized they were actually black bees! I’m so lucky I didn’t get stung! You can kinda see the black bees on the sweets in this picture, now imagine that times 20 and all around the sweet stalls.

Throughout the day we visited a tannery and so many different artisan shops! There were carpet weavers and bronze workers and painters. We even went to a shop for natural medicines and herbs. It was really interesting to watch these craftsman in their trade spaces.

However, eventually the day took a turn for the worse. Which is totally normal, as it happens when you travel. Remember in 2014 when I got banished to the servants staircase in Bangladesh which ended up being locked? Well, I went to the Mosque and University Karaouiyn to pray Asr, and the guy at the door wouldn’t let me in! He said I wasn’t Muslim and then proceeded to insist that I say the shahadah, the sentence Muslims say to convert to Islam, before letting me in. So that’s how I converted from Islam to Islam today. *eye roll*

Never one to be quiet, I joined my prayers late, prayed extra for the guy (which was an intentional power move), and then went downstairs to let him know that I had prayed for him despite the fact that he tried to prevent a fasting Muslim from performing her obligatory prayers in the mosque, and exclaimed that were the prophet to be alive today he would be very disappointed a believer would reject someone of his own faith. To top it off, I was adamant to prove the point that Muslims come in all shapes and sizes and he needed to think twice before rejecting someone who didn’t fit his version of Islam. Poor Auntie Sureia was translating it all as I furiously rattled off each supporting element. I must have struck a chord somewhere or garnered some form of public attention because the guy did apologize profusely in the end. Who knows if he’ll actually change his behavior or if learned any lesson, but you can bet this interaction will be lingering in the back of his mind next time he tries to make that same mistake. 

Below are some aerial photos of said mosque/university. 

I was definitely meant to learn some lesson today because we were running late and racing to a restaurant across town for iftar and when we arrived we were almost refused a meal because they didn’t believe we were fasting! During iftars here in Morocco, restaurants tend to close or delay service for an hour so the people that work there have time to break their fast. But if you’re fasting, then you can be served during this time. It literally took Moroccan strangers backing us up to convince them that we were actually fasting! Seriously I’ve never had to work so hard to convince people I’m actually Muslim! Usually, I get the vip security treatment without even saying that I am lol. The irony that I came to Morocco to specifically finish Ramadan in a Muslim country and yet can’t convince anyone I’m Muslim is not lost in me. I hope you all are having a good laugh with me back in the States! 

At least the Moroccan dishes were good, most of the little plates were beans and vegetables, which were hardly recognizable as veggies. I particularly loved the cauliflower orange colored dish down at the front right. I would have never been able to tell it was cauliflower without being told, it’s amazing how Morrocan’s hide their veggies! Also, their traditional harira soup, which has lentils, chickpeas, and fava beans, is actually turning out to be one of my favorite dishes here. Also, someone must have been listening to me complain, because after dinner we were served nut-free cookies with our tea!! Yup you heard that right, Susan was so kind as to let me shamelessly eat almost all of them. I’d been eyeing the street market cookies for days and couldn’t believe my luck! One was a sesame almond cookie and the other was coconut lemon and both were delicious. 

After dinner, we decided to trek back to the hotel, which was much more manageable with full bellies. The only issue? None of us actually remembered how to get back since we rushed over to make it there in time for iftar. It’s funny how a day going badly can turn around just because of the kindness of one stranger. We were totally lost and ended up at the entrance of a dead end when we crossed paths with Nourddine, a Fes local. He enlightened us to our mistake, and showed us how to read the street signs. Fun fact, if the street name is on a hexagon tile, then it’s a dead end. If it’s on a rectangle tile, then the street runs through. However, recognizing that we were probably going to need more help than that getting back, Nourddine asked where we were staying and began walking us back to our hotel since it wasn’t too far from his home. 

Nourddine spoke some English so we were all able to converse along the way, and when we finally reached our fork in the road he invited us to his home for tea, after he called “the government” of course, aka his wife. We busted up laughing and this woman must be a total saint because she literally welcomed us into her home at 11:00 pm at night before a major holiday. I’m sure she had so many things to prepare and cook, and yet she took time to set an entire table and chat with us! 

They had such a beautiful family with three little boys, who by the way were learning four languages! Moroccan Arabic, standard Arabic, French, and English. I was so impressed. It didn’t matter that we didn’t perfectly speak each other’s languages, since some things are universal, like the overly tired mom or the proud dad who made his eldest son recite Quran for us. Before we left we gave the kids money for Eid since it was a culturally accepted gesture that could serve as a non-offensive thanks for their hospitality. Ismail, who is  9 years old, went through the proper customs of refusing the money until his parents gave the okay. I watched as he raced off to his room to check to see how much we gave him, which again is the polite way. He then came running back into the room, eyes wide, thanking me profusely before giving me the biggest hug. He couldn’t believe he’d gotten 100 dirham (about $10). Funny thing is, I have the exact same memory as a kid on Eid when I received my first $10 instead of the usual $1 bill  and I thought I was the richest kid in the world! It’s amazing how the littlest things are the ones that link us internationally in shared experiences.

I was so touched by Nourddine and his families generosity and hospitality, I think I can speak for Susan and Auntie Sureia when I say that we left their home with full hearts, feeling as though something truly magical had happened. And if you don’t believe it, I think these photos speak for themselves in revealing our jubilant mood as we stopped for a mini photoshoot in the hotel lobby on the way back to our room. 

Wishing everyone at home a good night!! 

Lots of Love,

Carolyn