Friends, 
I spent 2 1/2 weeks in Morocco. Royal Air Maroc out of JFK
to Casablanca plus 3 nights in a so-called 4 star hotel for
$499 plus tax. I went with a friend and we extended the
return flight by 2 weeks to see the rest of the country.
French is the language, after Arabic.
 
Morocco is a relatively modern country, at least in the
major cities, it has a good (French built) train system
linking the 5 major cities, Casablanca, Fes, Meknes,
Tangier, and Rabat, plus a line to a town near the Algerian
border, which border is now closed. Extremely cheap, zb,
Marrakech to Casablanca, 238 km, $7.20, 3hrs, 10 minutes,
2nd class compartments, clean and comfortable, bathrooms
not quite up to Amtrak standards.
 
The bus system is also good. The French built their Ville
Nouvelles separate from the old walled towns, medinas,
leaving the architecture as originally built, narrow
winding streets. There's a kasbah (fortified castle) in
each medina, as well as numerous free standing kasbahs all
around the country. The medinas have ornate gates, all of
which are worth a photo. Morocco is famous also for its
doors, ornate carved and painted. I took a lot of shots of
doors.
 
All the major cities have more than one museum, worth
visiting, with small entrance fees. The Museum of Moroccan
Arts in Marrakech for example had an exhibit entitled the
art of wood, featuring painted and carved doors, shutters,
chests, furniture, toys, ceilings, cabinets. The exhibit
will go to the other cities in turn.
 
In the cities are ATM machines. I used my bank's debit card
and got a good exchange rate and paid $1 per transaction.
Often, there is a 4% fee for using a visa card. Most gas
stations south of the Atlas Mountains do not take credit
cards. Those that do may charge to make a phone call to
verify it. Internet cafes are numerous, charging from $.65
to $.96 per hour. 

Everywhere in the medinas as well as the Ville Nouvelles
are outdoor cafes where men sit all day and evening
drinking coffee or mint tea. Unemployment is very high,
around 40%. There are 2 sizes of cabs in Morocco, Petit
Taxis which drive only in the town and are very cheap, and
Grande Taxis, Mercedes diesel sedans which go in town and
from town to town. Their usual load is 3 in front and 4 in
the rear. The prices are government regulated and also
relatively cheap. 

A common sight in the medinas is a young boy or girl
carrying loaves of dough to the baker, which is little more
than a hole in the wall store with an oven in the back. The
boy or girl comes back to pick up the baked bread in an
hour or so. 

In Casablanca, four of us that had come over on the same
tour rented a grand taxi one day and went to Rabat, which
has a beautiful kasbah, whitewashed, narrow streets,
adjoining a moderate sized medina and further on the
remains of a huge mosque and an ornate mausoleum. Another
day we took the train southwest to El-Jadida and toured the
old town and a beautiful cistern built by the Portuguese
that formerly served the town. One evening we went to an
outdoor restaurant, bought some camel meat from one stand,
gave it to our restaurant and they cooked it. Few
restaurants serve alcohol. 

We took the train to Tangier and stayed in the old town by
the waterfront. The station is a couple of kilometers out
of town. The first cabbie who imposed himself on us said
the price was $5 to get into town. We rejected it and I
went to another cabbie to get a better price. The first
cabbie followed me and told the second cabbie what to say,
ie, $5, illustrating Adam Smith's admonition about what
businessmen do when they get together. Fortunately another
of Adam Smith's teachings, the invisible hand, came
through, as, as I was going to the second cabbie, my
partner went to a third cabbie who said $2 so we got in his
cab. Cabbie no. 1 complained loudly that we did not go with
him for $2. 

This port area is really down and dirty. We arrived after
dark and stayed at the first pension we found, $8 for a
double room. Not worth it. We moved to a $20 double with a
private bath the next night. The medina and Kasbah overlook
the Straits of Gibraltar. We wandered around the medina for
the day. All the medinas (old towns) have relatively common
arts and handicrafts, all very colorful, such as a large
wall of ceramic plates or bowls, or colorful hats, or
lanterns. Some former palaces (or rich merchants houses)
have been turned into rug shops. Very beautiful. The doors
and ceilings are especially beautiful, carved and painted.
Many stores are 6 feet square but some open up into
numerous large showrooms inside. 

The next morning we took the ferry to Algeciras (around $21
one way), rented a car, drove to Gibraltar where the
Spanish deliberately are slow letting cars through causing
a delay of around 45 minutes getting into and out of
Gibraltar. I had a Guinness in a pub and we took a cable
car to a high spot on the rock and saw the apes. Gibraltar
is not one rock as seen in postcard views but two. 
We then drove to Ronda in the mountains north of Gibraltar.
Ronda is built on a cliff and has a pretty view, and old
bridge and piazzas. We then drove down to Marbella where we
had paella and spent the night. The old town square in the
middle of Marbella is as charming a small square as I've
seen. We caught a 11:30am ferry back to Tangier and the
1:00pm train to Meknes.
 
Meknes has the standard Ville nouvelle and the Medina which
we wandered around. Plus a grand royal palace. We each
bought a cactus fiber kilim rug. We probably overpaid as
the final price was a little less than half the original
price. The rug shops have some very beautiful rugs. The
salesman kissed the money we gave him and prayed over it
and asked me for my pen for his son who was going to the
university. I gave it to him. 

Fes, 45 minutes east of Meknes and much larger, has the
largest Medina in Morocco. Fes is in 3 separate and
distinct parts, Fes el Bali (Bali means old), Fes el Djedid
(djedid means new) and the Ville Nouvelle. The medina of
Fes el Bali is supposed to have 9400 streets. Probably
does. I stopped counting. donkey carts, donkeys, bicycles,
or hand carts carry all goods around the narrow streets.
Sometimes donkeys will be led through the streets carrying
goods, sometimes, 3 donkeys will be directed from a man
trailing them. The streets are usually highly crowded.
While there are a lot of tourists, the vast majority of
people are local and the commerce is mostly non tourist
merchandise.
 
The tannery in Fes is a remarkable sight. There are around
100 vats in the middle of a block. Men stand in and slosh
hides around in dyes both chemical and natural. Among the
chemicals used to color hides are tree bark, for red,
chalk, and pigeon droppings, for gray. The hides are then
laid out to dry on straw on all the nearby roofs. Leather
shops maintain balconies overlooking the vats, it is a very
colorful sight. There are hundreds of tailors in all the
medinas.
 
I wanted a Sahara experience so I rented a car in Fes and
drove it over the Middle and High Atlas Mountain ranges
down to Er-Rashidia and then Erfoud. The roads were good
throughout Morocco. South of the mountains is a different
world. Berber country. Virtually all the women wear veils.
All the towns are made of red mud and clay mixed with
straw. The kasbahs and mosques as well. The tall minarets
are built of stone as well as mud. Donkey carts are the
most common form of transport for the local inhabitants.
There are numerous roadside stands selling pottery,
minerals and fossils. I stopped at many and ended up with
80 pounds of minerals, mainly geodes, at prices one-fifth
of the prices in the cities.
 
Forty km south of Erfoud are the Dunes of Mergouza, the
largest and tallest dunes in Morocco, and quite extensive
and beautiful, reddish in color. Travel agents tout 4 wheel
drive tours to the dunes but these are unnecessary. It is
possible to drive to the dunes in any car. Twenty km south
of Erfoud the paved road ends and you simply drive over the
stony desert roughly following a line of telegraph poles in
the general direction of the dunes, visible for miles as
they are so high. Nearing the dunes are crude signs for
various auberges, walled compounds with 10 to 20 rooms to
rent and a restaurant of sorts, situated at the edge where
the stony desert stops and the dunes begin.
 
I simply drove into one of the auberges, I walked through
the restaurant to the patio facing the dunes and asked a
couple of women sitting at a table, the only customers,
where I was. One spoke English (she was a German,
professor, who taught French and English in Hanover). They
were going on an overnight camel trek into the dunes that
afternoon and invited me to join them, so I did. There were
camels in a corral nearby. I spoke to their guide who
worked for a man who owned several camels.
 
At about 2 hours before sunset, we saddled up, the camels
being tied nose to tail. The guide walked and we followed,
walking 2 hours (7 km) into the dunes until we came to an
encampment of around 7 tents scattered over a several acre
area. As the sun was going the dunes and shadows were
spectacular. The encampment had a waterhole and a few
trees. A Berber nomad family maintains the encampment. Our
guide hobbled the camels where they stopped and they simply
stayed there all night not moving or eating or drinking.
They did rechew food like cows chew their cud. (FYI, camel
droppings are dry acorn sized pellets which are expelled a
dozen or two at a time and suitable immediately for fuel.) 
Our guide unloaded the propane burner and made tea. The
German lady gave me a can of beer which I wrapped in a wet
washcloth and one hour later the breeze had cooled it
perfectly. Low tech is good tech. We sat around a low table
(obtained from the Berber family) and ate peanuts and
olives and drank tea while the stew was cooking. After the
stew, the guide collected mattresses from the nomad family
and prepared our beds. The women chose to sleep in the tent
while I decided to sleep outside. The guide simply placed a
couple of mattresses on the sand, put a heavy blanket over
it, plus 2 clean sheets, and 2 blankets on top. My ski
jacket was my pillow. It was a clear night, but there was
no moon so I suggest if anyone ever plans such a trip that
they try to time it so that there is a full moon. 

Just before sunrise, the guide woke everyone and we watched
the sunrise on the dunes. We saw that there was one group
of three other camels in the encampment also. The guide
then made tea, and served us Moroccan bread, marmalade and
tea. We then saddled up and trekked back to the auberge,
and I went on my way back to Erfoud and west to Marrakech.
The stony desert is virtually bare of grass but at one
place there was a group of 6 camels grazing and further on,
a small herd of sheep. There were numerous places to buy
minerals and fossils. 

On the way to Marrakech, 165 km south of Quarzazate, over
the AntiAtlas Mountains is another town where camel treks
are organized, Zagora, famous in part for a sign, in
disrepair now, advertising 52 day camel caravans south to
Timbuktu (Tombuktu). I made the drive through the AntiAtlas
which was spectacular but Zagora was over-commercialized
and a bust. The road northwest from Quarzazate through the
High Atlas to Marrakech was almost the most windey I have
driven on. In Marrakech, I returned the car and met up with
the friend I was traveling with. We emailed each other
where were staying which turned out to be hotels about one
block apart, near the Place Djemma el Fna.
 
Marrakech. All tourist activity begins and ends at the
large plaza in the medina named Djemaa el Fna. It is ringed
by tourist shops, cafes, and budget hotels. Radiating out
from the plaza are numerous narrow streets and souks
(markets) specializing in particular crafts, although the
majority of shops sell normal household items and clothing
to the local population. In the plaza, sitting under large
or small umbrellas are men with decrepit cobras they goad
into raising up, men with monkeys, herb doctors, gaudily
dressed water sellers, musicians, solo or in groups, men
selling dentures, ostrich eggs, fortune tellers, all
waiting to have their picture taken (for a fee). There are
also at least 30 fresh orange juice stands, other food
stands, varieties of nuts, dates, figs, olives. You put a
one dirham (9.6 cents) (or 2 or 3) coins on the counter,
the seller will throw an appropriate weight on the scale
and give you the appropriate amount of nuts etc. in a paper
cone. There are also not so skillful jugglers and acrobats
and promoters of amateur boxing matches who attempt to draw
a crowd and then they go to the foreigners watching and
request or demand money. If any tourist so much as raises a
camera in their direction, they will demand money (the 3
card monte dealers and their shills turn away or motion you
not to take any pictures).
 
Around 50 or more large tourist buses per day come to the
edge of the plaza, disgorge their passengers, who are taken
for a 2 hour or so walk around the plaza and through some
of the some of the narrow streets and then to one of the
large carpet shops in the nearby lanes. Some cafes are on
overlooking terraces, which is where the best place to take
in the scene is. 

Around 5:00pm, around 40 food stalls start to be set up,
each with seats for 30, canopies, generators for lights,
charcoal grills, selling sodas, brochettes, salads, fish
and other meat dishes, very reasonably priced. The men then
start shouting for customers. At 11:00pm they close down
and disassemble the stands. Coca-Cola (Fanta, Sprite, etc.)
has a lock on Morocco. I did not see soft drinks from any
other company being sold. In the narrow street medinas,
coke is delivered by donkey. Cars have the right of way
over pedestrians and aggressive drivers have the ultimate
right of way.
 
Buying souvenirs. There are no fixed prices for anything.
Some posters I bought in a museum in Rabat were selling for
3 times as much in a store in Marrakech. I bought a medium
size 2 drum set (a very common souvenir) for 15 dirhams
from a street vendor while sitting in a sidewalk cafe in
Fes. At a carpet/souvenir shop in Merzouga some days later
I asked the proprietor what he was asking for his and he
said 180 dirhams. Sellers will at least reduce their prices
to below 50% of their starting price, but not without a lot
of bargaining. I bought a lot of items but walked away from
far more deals that I made. I made some purchases from
roadside stands only after i had gotten back in my car and
started the engine. On just two occasions, when I asked the
price of an item and the shopkeeper gave me his price, I
accepted his price and bought as I thought that the price
was reasonable. If you say to a shopkeeper, please give me
just one price, your best price so I can decide, he will
not give you his best price. As if you say no thank you and
walk away he will invite a counter offer from you. At one
store in Marrakech, I offered the store owner 30 dirhams
for a bowl. He came down from 80 to 40, and I walked out,
visiting other shops nearby. Coming out of one shop I saw
the storeowner and he had the bowl in a plastic bag. He
said, "OK, 35." I said 30 and he took it. I likely
overpaid. Electricity must be expensive as in many stores,
they will only turn on the lights when a customer enters.
Stores use fluorescent lighting extensively as well. 
Probably the most unpleasant aspect of the trip were the
touts who attached themselves to you asking you questions,
attempting to steer you into shops or just guiding you
around and then expecting money. We only paid for such
assistance once, when seeking the tannery in Fes.
 
A really interesting trip. Tom