African Adventures - Morocco

African country number 3, after Mauritius and Tunisia.. This continent remains to be the elusive continent for me - especially that I have not stepped foot in Sub-Saharan Africa every in my life. However, baby steps I guess - start north then head further south.

Four factors made this trip possible - 1) Morocco and Malaysia signed a pact to remove visa requirements for each other's passport holders at the borders of both countries at the end of December 2017; 2) Cheap Ryanair flights from London Stansted; 3) A failed attempt at planning this trip in April 2018; 4) The desire for another solo adventure.

Bookings started a month before the trip, but as usual, only the bare bones - getting to the country, hotels, and getting out of the country i.e. a flight out from London Stansted to Fez, 2 nights in a Riad in Fez, 2 nights in a Riad in Rabat (where I am writing this from), and a flight out from Casablanca to Lisbon.

The adventure began as usual from Cambridge but instead of a train to Stansted this time, a friend offered to drive me to the airport; so on the way, we stopped for a Sunday roast at the newly refurbished (and pretty posh) Green Man on Trumpington Road (highly recommended for a nice dinner out btw!) We were playing with time a little bit after being asked to wait for a table but we made it to the airport 1 1/2 hours before the scheduled departure. Evenings aren't as crowded in Stansted as in the early morning hours - so all went well.

The biggest worry I had however, was not at Stansted but at the immigration counters in Morocco. Yes, Malaysia and Morocco did sign an agreement to abolish visa requirements for each other but besides news websites reporting this, there were no official validation from any Malaysian government website. The website of the Malaysian embassy in Rabat still did not contain updated information and still stated "visa required" and the list that Wisma Putra published on visa requirements for Malaysia by country is still an old list. So, after convincing a nonchalant Ryanair worker that I did not need a visa in Stansted, the big test came right at the border in Fez where I was hoping I did not get any questions about a visa... and I did not. Phew!

Arriving at the newly refurbished Fez airport was a good welcome to a country that I expected to be more different than my usual European destinations. The neo-Islamic / neo-Moorish patterns were present in bright lights as part of the structure of the airport. A quick pass through immigration and I was greeted by English Literature degree student who was my driver to the hotel. Chatting about his desires to go to an English speaking country to work and also surprisingly to study English further, along with his optimism that the language he is trying master is more important than the language of Morocco's former imperial power (which was also the foreign language of preference of his peers), was a great start to the socio-cultural experience that Morocco has to offer.

Arriving at about 11PM at Palais d'hotes Suites and Spa Fez, I was greeted by another friendly Moroccan offering me mint tea and Moroccan cookies - maybe I should't have chugged down the mint tea - I did not get a good night's sleep. The courtyards of this Riad was really beautiful but the rooms were only decent. It is understandable as they are very old buildings so installing all the mod cons might not be that easy.

But, with a few hours of sleep, I was ready for the adventure that the old Fez Medina had to offer. With an awesome breakfast that kept me satiated till dinner time, provided by the hotel, I ventured out, starting alone but after getting lost, I turned to a local guide who brought me around the narrow streets of the old souq and to the less seen sights of the town. Obviously with an ulterior motive, he also introduced me to the various crafts of Fez, from blankets to leather wear to argan oil. It was a great experience walking around the old medina with souvenirs of blankets, mats, coin purses, and argan oil (for my eczema) on one hand, and another with the camera phone. I did avoid being snap happy which was helped by grey skies. Donkeys were walking alongside tourists in the car free (car inaccessible) paths of the medina while my guide tried to teach me some Arab as well. It was also really interesting to see Amazigh script on certain signs. However, it did show in Fez that GDP per capita of Morocco was only about $3000. The colonial impacts was also still present psychologically - maybe not so much in the expected post-colonial inferiority complex but more so that they have a claim towards the wealth of others.

With a pat on my own back, after I found my own way back to the Riad I was staying in, both my phone and I recharged before I headed out again, this time to check out the Royal Palace in Fez. I made a point to walk all along the perimeters of the palace, going from one significant gate (Bab) to another before ending up again at the Blue Gate which was my landmark towards the hotel.

Slightly drenched by some falling rain, I drew a bath for myself with a make-shift plug which wasn't that successful. It was satisfying enough that I had half my body immersed in hot water while lying down.

Then, dinner that the hotel prepared awaited downstairs by the pool courtyard. Yes, I admit, I was too lazy to venture out for food - I did walk more than 20000 steps on this day!

After dinner, I did try to buy some train tickets online for the next day to get to Rabat but after one hour of trying all my different cards to pay with, ONCF still did not want to take my card. So, I decided to see how things go when I woke up to decide my route to Rabat.

So, waking up the next day, slightly late for breakfast, I decided to take a direct train from Fez to Rabat. With my bags tightly pack, and a taxi ride to the train station, with 5 minutes to spare after buying a first class ticket which was only 4 euros more expensive for a 3 hour journey, I was travelling across the Moroccan countryside which was more green than I expected it to be and the Atlas Mountains less imposing than further south I assume.

With clear blue skies upon my arrival in Rabat and not stumbling across any taxi ranks, I decided to walk to the hotel, especially after seeing such beautiful boulevards in front of the train station. With a pinless offline Google map, I had to use the blue GPS dot sans a map to take me to the Riad, which once again, was located on an Impasse, a dead end road. Once recharged, I ventured out to the beach but what site to behold... with extremely strong waves beating the rocks and spraying onto a lighthouse on one side, and an imposing fortress on the other side.

Dinner today was at a French restaurant on an anchored ship. Did splurge a little since I didn't have lunch and now here I am, sitting on my bed, with an extremely full stomach, writing this post, RT News and the Islamic Call to Prayer in the Background. The call to prayers here aren't as beautiful as in Malaysia - there seems to be a slight lack of symphony between the different minarets.

The next day I went on a GuruWalk which I stumbled across while searching for walking tours in Rabat. This website has tour guides listed on it and users could choose from a variety of tours / tourguides and tip the tourguides whatever "you feel appropriate.... from 5 to 50 Euros". Having booked the tour in advance, I headed to the meeting point which I wasn't 100% sure off but after walking between the two possible points, the tour guide and I did meet up eventually. The tour was a private tour as no one else booked him and it was just me and Abdelghani, a Ska-loving local of Rabat walking along the sights and streets of Rabat.

The tour started at the Kasbah of the Udayas, a imposing sea fortress with an entire community still living within the confines of it and an awesome view of the Atlantic Ocean coast and the city of Sale on the other side of the river mouth. Another good vantage point was from the Andalusian Gardens and slightly away from the coast was where Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation was filmed.

We then cross the road and walked into the old Medina of Rabat. Half of the Medina was still under renovation but all the shops were still operating. Some parts have already been completed and it would indeed be a great site to explore once it is fully completed (although the dustiness and haphazardness of the current Medina with construction here and there did add some charm to it). We then stopped for some Moroccan mint tea in one of the local stalls in Medina, taking in the sights and sounds of a street in the Medina with the aforementioned charms.

Out of the Medina, we crossed paths with a big group of civil servants protesting for better working conditions. Amongst those were teachers (who in Morocco wear labcoats as part of their uniform) - I guess the plight of teachers are similar all around the world!

After managing to cross the road which were taken over by the street marchers, we made our way towards Hassan Tower and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. Hassan Tower is a minaret of an incomplete mosque from the late 12th century but still makes a good picture spot while the Mausoleum is home to the tombs of Moroccan kings which was built by a Vietnamese architect (you read that correctly!).

Mausoluem built by Vietnamese architect Vo Toàn.

We then stopped for another cup of tea, this time at a modern cafe, and it was here where Abdelghani told me about his interest in Ska music and where he introduced me to a few good Moroccan artists. I still have one of them on my playlist on Spotify. The Moroccan Arab accent apparently is a very desirable accent and partly due to this, Moroccan pop culture is quite popular around the Arab-speaking region.

After saying goodbye to Abdelghani, I then headed back to the Riad for some rest before walking across the river to Sale where I enjoyed another cup of tea - this time with views of the Kasbah from the other side of the river. This was in a newly developed area built by the Emiratis. Walking on, I ended up at the beach at Sale during sunset and it was indeed a sight to remember with the Kasbah and the orange skies in view.

My biggest local achievement was then figuring out where the local boats were to take back to Rabat. It was about 20p to cross the river and it was such a local thing to do that some random locals even wanted to take photos with this weird Asian guy - I reciprocated with a selfie on my phone.

Continuing my walk, this time in the dusk lights, the well lit old city walls were quite imposing and I had a local dinner with views of the traffic in the near and the walls in the far.

The flight out of Morocco the next day was from Casablanca Airport; therefore, it was a no-brainer to explore Casablanca on the way there. However, as time was a constraint, I had to limit where I went in Casablanca – so, I had two destinations planned – the Hassan II Mosque and Rick’s Café. The Hassan II Mosque was indeed an imposing building, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and Rick’s Café was the Café built to replicate the scenes of the movie Casablanca. Therefore, having arrived at Casablanca Train Station from Rabat, I walked along the dusty roads of Casablanca (not because it was unpaved but because of road expansions and further development) to get to the coast and the mosque where I explored the surroundings. With the sweat developing on my back, with my backpack on, it was a relief to get the Rick’s Café after where the “Oriental Charm” of Morocco was portrayed – with waiters in uniform, in a riad decorated to colonial standards. Crossing the old medina and getting out to modern skyscrapers then really got me thinking of whether or not we are in a post-oriental age (nb. Oriental in the way that Edward Said wrote about).

Hassan II Mosque Complex

This marked the end of my story in Morocco this time around, which hopefully isn’t the last!

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