After my recent trip to India and Nepal, my preferences for holiday locations have turned to more exotic locations. With this in mind, I headed to Marrakech in Morocco with Liam and Jess.

My friend Jem travelled to Morocco with her husband 3 years ago and I recall reading her brightly coloured postcard and imagining it to be an ancient city full of colour and exotic aromas.

Her description of Marrakech, with its many teahouses and bustling souk is what first put Morocco on my radar.
Marrakech is an assault on the senses. While it is in North Africa, it is an Arab and Berber country. Having grown up in the Middle East, it wasn’t a culture shock for me. Jess however found the place fascinating as the buildings and city infrastructure is so different from what you find in Europe or Asia.

We arrived at 11am and caught a petit taxi to our Riad. The first thing that struck me was how widely spoken French is. I knew French and Arabic are spoken widely in Morocco but I didn’t expect so many people to be so fluent in French. It made a huge difference in the way in which we travelled as both Liam and I have adequate French conversational skills to get by.
It didn’t prevent us from getting ripped off on our taxi ride to our Riad. We were charged 150 dirham for a 15 minute taxi ride. In contrast, Jess and I paid a mere 50 dirham when catching a taxi to the airport from a Riad that was further away from the airport than our first one.
Arriving at our Riad was an experience. A Riad is a house with a patio garden or extension. Many riads have been converted into guesthouses with authentic Moroccan furnishings.

They are usually situated among other residences where the lanes are too small for taxis to drive through. This makes it difficult for tourists to find them when they first arrive in Marrakech. There are unofficial guides, often neighbours who assist tourists in finding their way, hoping for a tip.

Our particular riad was called Riad Sabah, owned and run by a quirky German guy who married a Moroccan woman and moved to Marrakech a few years ago. The Riad was beautifully furnished and for a mere €18 per night, we were able to stay in a private triple with an ensuite bathroom.
The riad was a 15 minute walk from the medina which normally would be a cinch to walk however given we weren’t able to walk 2 minutes without being approached by someone wanting to sell us something or wanting something from us, it seemed longer.

One of the features that really stood out for me were the doors of residences/shops.

They were all so different and I wanted to take photos of them all.

I’m sure my friend Irene would have had a field day taking photos of all the different doorways.

Many of the paintings and photographs that I have seen of Morocco feature their doorways, including the cover of the Lonely Planet guide.

We were told that the Moroccans love the Japanese and Chinese since they are willing to pay higher prices for everything, with Americans coming in third. As such we were greeted constantly with all manner of phrases from Ko-Ni-chi wa, Ni hao ma, Hello Japan, Hello China, Hello Jackie Chan and even, Hi! We sell Siew Yap (roast duck in Cantonese)
We took it as a good sign that we would be welcomed (even if it was only for our supposed spending power) and were happy that Asians were well regarded by the locals. Eventually it wore us down but more on that later!
After we checked in and dropped our bags off, we walked to the Medina using a map given to us by our Riad. The maps on sale in Marrakesh or provided by the riads are very inadequate and lacking in detail.
The main attraction is Jemaa el Fna Square which is a big expanse of open space in the centre of the Medina. By day, it has a small spattering of stalls, made up of orange juice stalls and dried fruit stands.

A handful of fortune tellers, tooth pullers, medicine men and snake charmers can be found during the day.

However it is at dusk that the square really gets going. The square fills up with storytellers, musicians and acrobats and the number of food stalls increase.

There is a wide range of food on offer in the square and the cheapest can be found at the open air food stalls.

Jess and I had dinner at one of the stalls and had a plate of couscous each (one with chicken and one with beef), a chicken pastilla and a mixed salad. All for the bargain price of £3.50 each.

Other food on offer includes skewered meat, snail stew, tajines and seafood. We weren’t concerned about food poisoning as the food was cooked in front of us.

Jess and I bought a kg of fresh dates for the week as well as some almond and peanut blocks.

Jess and I each attempted to bargain but we only served to reinforce why Chinese/Japanese are so popular among the locals.

We tried a slightly pricer restaurant in the main square that did the best couscous Tfaya which is a caramelised onion and chickpea concoction.

We also tried a few street side restaurants that were much better value for money yet didn’t compromise on taste.


Many restaurants served Shwarmas which are like kebabs. I used to eat them all the time in Jeddah so it brought back great memories when I saw them on the menu.
One of my favourite dishes was the Tajine Kefta which are mixed meatballs with egg. The meatballs aren’t massive but the flavour is great.

We paid a visit to the El Badi Palace, which translates to ‘Incomparable Palace’.

Now it is more of an incomparable ruin. I love looking at ruins and the structure of the stones for this one reminded me of the facade of the Colosseum in Rome.


The terrace of the palace gave a great view of Marrakesh’s rooftops. I like to visit the the vantage/view points of every city I visit as there’s nothing like getting a feel for a city by seeing it from above.

We spent 3 days in Marrakesh. It was only supposed to be 2 days but I rolled my ankle on the second day, putting me out of action for the afternoon. I headed back to the Riad to elevate my ankle while Jess and Liam visited the Saadian Tomb, the Majorelle Gardens and the Yves St Laurent Memorial.

My inability to walk on smooth pavement messed up our plans to go on an overnight trek in the village of Imlil so we decided to go on a gentler day trek of the Ourika Valley once I had given my ankle enough rest.
My ankle was strong enough to go for a stroll around the new part of town which was COMPLETELY different. In the new part of town, there were traffic lights, large wide paved roads, McDonalds and KFC!

We didn’t get hassled at all as many of the people walking around seemed to be expatriates or other tourists. This new part of town really reminded me of Jeddah but on a smaller scale.

We finished off the evening with a walk around the Koutobia Mosque and gardens.

Unless you plan on getting lost in the souk more than once or twice, 2 – 3 days is all you really need in Marrakesh. There are plenty of mosques and tombs to see. We tried to visit the Marrakesh museum but got very lost in the souk and couldn’t find a map decent enough to show which roads would lead to the museum.
The souks are somewhat dangerous to navigate as they are winding and have motorcycles and bicycles wizzing by. We had one guy follow us for some time, asking us if we were interested in this or interested in that. He was extremely friendly and polite until we politely and firmly told him we weren’t interested. Then he said ‘ ahh go away, f!*$k you’ which we found hilarious since it was at the point that we understood each other perfectly.
I would have liked to take more photos of the people or of the stalls in the souk but our riad owner advised us to be careful as we have to ask people first if we could take photos and would evitably have to pay them for the privilege of taking the photo.
Jess learnt this the hard way. She tried to take a sneaky photo of the watersellers by pretending to take a photo of me.

As you can see from the photo, I am not in it. This is because she positioned her camera on my shoulder! I was looking out for Liam so I wasn’t paying attention to what she was doing. Then all of a sudden I hear her say, ‘ oh shit they saw me’, they are coming over’.
Next thing I knew, I was surrounded by 3 watersellers, asking me for money. At least I played dumb, pretending not to understand what they were saying. However their persistence and the fact that Jess was cowering behind me gave the game away and we gave them 10 dirham. They were so pleased that they insisted we take a proper photo of them.

After this photo, they asked for more money and then…. I got angry. Lets just say they left us in a hurry.
We caught a shared grand taxi to Ourika valley on our 4th day there. A shared grand taxi can fit up to 6 people. We shared our taxi with a funny French man and 2 cousins from San Sebastian in Spain.

Our taxi driver put on some traditional Berber music and sped all the way to Ourika Valley. I had that wonderful feeling where you feel so completely removed from your normal life. There I was, squashed in the front seat of a taxi with Jess, so far away from the place we usually call home and I felt like I had to pinch myself to make sure I was really there.

Jess mentioned that the Berber music added to the experience of travelling in Morocco and her comment reminded me of the the time I spent in Goa, sitting in a minibus with my sister and her friends, listening to cheesy house music and hurtling through fields and valleys. I loved it!

We made a few photo stops at a local Berber village and an Argan Oil cooperative.

We reached the scenic Ourika Valley shortly before lunchtime and proceeded to trek up to the third waterfall.


We intended to walk all the way up to the 7th waterfall but the guide refused to lead us and there was no defined trail up to it. The third waterfall was a very popular stop for other walkers.

I had decided to stop there in order to go easy on my ankle and to keep Jess company. Jess was finding the climb quite steep and had to crawl up many of the boulders.

Lunch was a welcome diversion and it was in this valley that I had the best lamb tagine of the trip. Jess tried chicken brochettes.

I topped lunch off with a mint tea before we made our descent to the village of Settma Fattima.

The first time I tried this mint tea, I was taken back by how much sugar they put in it. The taste does grown on you if you find you don’t immediately like it. Another observation we made is how much bread the Moroccans eat. There’s so much bread at every meal. Our breakfast was made up almost entirely of bread or Moroccan pastries. Even Jess got to the point where she was eating more bread daily than I would eat in a week in the UK.
The village of Settma Fattima remind me of Namche Bazaar in Nepal but on a smaller scale, full of small stalls of food and tourist oriented products. Alot of Moroccans seemed to go to Ourika Valley on day trips.


It was in this village that Pier, our outlandish French friend who likes to smoke Hashish, found himself the smallest bottle of coke and a new girlfriend.


Liam had to leave early to go back to work so after he left, we boarded the bus for Essaouira, a coastal town 3 hours away from Marrakesh. Our visit coincided with the annual Gnaoua World Music Festival. The town was filled with people from all over Morocco as well as budding musicians and windsurfers.

The town was much more relaxed and chilled. There were so many tourists and lots of hippies and rastafarians.

Jess and I even took the time to go shopping and bought a few trinklets, all of which we bargained for and reasonably successfully as well. The riad we stayed in was more like a hotel and it wasn’t close to the medina but it was quiet and had very good curtain/shutters so we were able to sleep soundly.

I thought the streets were more colourful than Marrakesh. The seabreeze also made it easier to walk around in the heat.


The beach stretched for miles. I can see why its popular with locals and tourists alike. It makes for a great summer destination without being expensive.

My favourite part was the outdoor seafood grill markets where you seat on wooden tables and you can pick a selection of seafood to eat and bargain as hard as you can.

Jess and I had dinner there for 100 dirhams between the 2 of us (£8 in total). For that price, we had 3 fish, calamari, prawns, a bottle of water, mixed salad, bread (NICE SOFT bread) and 2 small crabs.

Jess and I had been eating so much chicken, beef, lamb and couscous that we went back again for another meal. Having seafood made for such a nice change, especially at such good prices.


I was quite chuffed with myself on the journey back to Marrakesh as I had a conversation in French with a young guy from Casablanca. It brought me back to my days in high school where i had to recall sentences such as:
’I live in England’
‘I lived in Jeddah for 10 years because my father worked there’
‘I do not like Craig David, I like Lady Gaga’
‘I am a Buddhist’ (Actually I’m not but it’s far easier to say in French than explain my status on religion)
‘Morocco is hot but it is good”
Morocco isn’t the easiest place to travel in. There were instances where we were ripped off by snake charmers, taxi drivers and water sellers. People who are trying to sell you something are more aggressive than those trying to sell their wares in India, Asia or Nepal. However not everyone is out to make a quick buck. Jess and I were offered assistance with getting taxis and directions a number of times without ever being expected to tip.
I would like to go back and visit other parts, like Fez, Meknes, a trip to the Sahara and some trekking in the Atlas mountains.