back from the african continent
firstly, a big shout and hug to valerie wan! hello babe!!! -waves- i know you miss life here, i miss having all the singaporeans in copenhagen too! it just isnt the same with you guys at KK, HDV and astrupvej.
anyway, its a huge relief to be back from africa, although morroco isnt really africa africa. i mean, africa usually evokes images of the blazing setting sun in the savannah with shadows and silhouettes of prancing gazelles, giraffes, standing meerkats, prowling lions a la the lion king, but the only wild animals i see in marrakech are VERY FAT stray cats, who look better fed than the people on the streets. plus the rare mangy dog running around in the streets. it was sunny hot, and also very cold in marakech, especially yesterday when we took an excursion out of the city into the ourika valley to see the atlas mountains and climb the cascads, waterfalls near the valley. navigating killer rapids and slippery slopes and craggy rocks with one's sneakers is foolhardy, but no one warned the three of us! but thank God really that we made it safe and sound up and down the waterfalls. i think i paid the guide 25 dirhams not to guide me up the waterfalls, but to save my butt actually.
marrakech is in a perpetual state of anarchy, chaos, mess etc etc. donkey carriages, motorbicycles, les petites taxis, les grandes taxis, buses all share the same roads, motorists never follow traffic directions, touters in the form of snake charmers and noisy percussionists who play a neverending stream of unmelodic and rhythm-less beats, are everywhere and shouts of 'konichiwah', 'kombanwa', 'sayonara' even 'yakuza' and 'nakata' (hurhur) because the morrocans think we're japanese and anything that sounds remotely japanese, they'll throw at us and hope we respond. we stayed at the place jemaa el fna, which is within the medina walls and the focal point of marrakech. its also the place where the souqs (markets) are, so its bustling all the time and at night, the foodstalls move in to cover the entire open square. and the crowd is massive! it seriously brings new meaning to street/hawker food. singapore probably looked like that in what, pre-1960s. we tried boiled snails at one of the stalls. it was pretty nice, like eating see-ham (cockles) and my family knows how much i lurve see-ham.
food in marrakech was excellent as well, esp this claypot dish called the tajine. its usually meat and veg cooked in a earthern pot with a conical clay cover and whatevers inside always tastes super excellent. i tried the couscous and kefta (ground meat kebabs) also, but tajine still rocks. we lived pretty well in marrakech, coz we had an entire riad to ourselves, and though you needed to walk through a labyrinth of alleyways (it was damn creepy at night) just to get to the place, it was the perfect respite from the maddening crowd. oh, the kids love to torment tourists with their incessant beating of drums. and the riad was really beautifully done up in traditional morrocan fashion. just think harem, minus belly dancing women.
there you go leeshuwen, now you have an idea of what you're getting into when you go to marrakech!
anyway, its a huge relief to be back from africa, although morroco isnt really africa africa. i mean, africa usually evokes images of the blazing setting sun in the savannah with shadows and silhouettes of prancing gazelles, giraffes, standing meerkats, prowling lions a la the lion king, but the only wild animals i see in marrakech are VERY FAT stray cats, who look better fed than the people on the streets. plus the rare mangy dog running around in the streets. it was sunny hot, and also very cold in marakech, especially yesterday when we took an excursion out of the city into the ourika valley to see the atlas mountains and climb the cascads, waterfalls near the valley. navigating killer rapids and slippery slopes and craggy rocks with one's sneakers is foolhardy, but no one warned the three of us! but thank God really that we made it safe and sound up and down the waterfalls. i think i paid the guide 25 dirhams not to guide me up the waterfalls, but to save my butt actually.
marrakech is in a perpetual state of anarchy, chaos, mess etc etc. donkey carriages, motorbicycles, les petites taxis, les grandes taxis, buses all share the same roads, motorists never follow traffic directions, touters in the form of snake charmers and noisy percussionists who play a neverending stream of unmelodic and rhythm-less beats, are everywhere and shouts of 'konichiwah', 'kombanwa', 'sayonara' even 'yakuza' and 'nakata' (hurhur) because the morrocans think we're japanese and anything that sounds remotely japanese, they'll throw at us and hope we respond. we stayed at the place jemaa el fna, which is within the medina walls and the focal point of marrakech. its also the place where the souqs (markets) are, so its bustling all the time and at night, the foodstalls move in to cover the entire open square. and the crowd is massive! it seriously brings new meaning to street/hawker food. singapore probably looked like that in what, pre-1960s. we tried boiled snails at one of the stalls. it was pretty nice, like eating see-ham (cockles) and my family knows how much i lurve see-ham.
food in marrakech was excellent as well, esp this claypot dish called the tajine. its usually meat and veg cooked in a earthern pot with a conical clay cover and whatevers inside always tastes super excellent. i tried the couscous and kefta (ground meat kebabs) also, but tajine still rocks. we lived pretty well in marrakech, coz we had an entire riad to ourselves, and though you needed to walk through a labyrinth of alleyways (it was damn creepy at night) just to get to the place, it was the perfect respite from the maddening crowd. oh, the kids love to torment tourists with their incessant beating of drums. and the riad was really beautifully done up in traditional morrocan fashion. just think harem, minus belly dancing women.
there you go leeshuwen, now you have an idea of what you're getting into when you go to marrakech!
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