Flew Royal Air Morocco on Xmas Eve. The Arabic writing starts you thinking....hmmmmmmm.......
Kathy had found La Maison Arabe, a very nice riad (hotel) in the Medina, the old walled city where the sights are. The hotel was owned by an Italian company, so it had all the Italian design flair a la Morocco. Certainly a step or two above my lodgings in 1975. Absolutely beautiful actually!
We landed mid-day and made our way immediately to Place Jemaa el-Fna, the internationally famous marketplace and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
As we started walking towards the square from our hotel, a "friendly" Moroccan gentleman bumped into us, said hello and introduced himself as working at our hotel, having just ended his shift and was walking home. Oh, you're going to the square? I will show you the way! Classic Moroccan hustle, but at the time we did think he worked at the hotel. Oh, I take you to the best store, only authentic antiques, the best. We went along for the ride since it was in the direction we were going.
Down this alley, up that alley, past unbelievable poverty, feral cats, donkeys pulling carts, put-puts zooming by in narrow passages, people in native dress on their mobile phones, and some guys were having a decent looking chicken tangine lunch amid the squalor.
We turn a corner and enter a store and Lo and Behold! It's the same upscale antique store that my companions and I were hustled into in 1975! It hasn't changed, looks exactly the same! The store has been there since the 1920s, and I am sure the hustle hasn't changed at all because it probably works! Nice stuff downstairs and loads of carpets upstairs. And our "guide" didn't work at the hotel after all, Doh!. (The hotel had a framed disclaimer at reception which I saw much later that warned against this type of potential "swindle". It looked like it was written by an Italian lawyer).
The square hasn't changed much since '75; it still has the same hustle and bustle. And when I say hustle, I mean watch out for your wallet!
"Non, je ne veux pas votre singe sur mon dos! No I don't want your monkey on my back!" Kathy said as she was being accosted by a Monkey Man. The ploy is that they put the monkey on you, but charge you a "fee" to remove the monkey; kind of like when I was a management consultant!
Since Kathy has an affinity for snakes that remains a mystery to me, she wanted to get some snake pictures. There looming ahead of us was a team a Snake Guys with cobras, vipers and other green looking snakes (OK, no jokes about senior management). It was really loud with the drums and chanting and they were rattling on about the cost, which I couldn't hear and we never agreed to.
We turn a corner and enter a store and Lo and Behold! It's the same upscale antique store that my companions and I were hustled into in 1975! It hasn't changed, looks exactly the same! The store has been there since the 1920s, and I am sure the hustle hasn't changed at all because it probably works! Nice stuff downstairs and loads of carpets upstairs. And our "guide" didn't work at the hotel after all, Doh!. (The hotel had a framed disclaimer at reception which I saw much later that warned against this type of potential "swindle". It looked like it was written by an Italian lawyer).
The square hasn't changed much since '75; it still has the same hustle and bustle. And when I say hustle, I mean watch out for your wallet!
"Non, je ne veux pas votre singe sur mon dos! No I don't want your monkey on my back!" Kathy said as she was being accosted by a Monkey Man. The ploy is that they put the monkey on you, but charge you a "fee" to remove the monkey; kind of like when I was a management consultant!
Since Kathy has an affinity for snakes that remains a mystery to me, she wanted to get some snake pictures. There looming ahead of us was a team a Snake Guys with cobras, vipers and other green looking snakes (OK, no jokes about senior management). It was really loud with the drums and chanting and they were rattling on about the cost, which I couldn't hear and we never agreed to.
After 3 minutes of having snakes draped around my shoulders and a cobra staring me in the eye, I was given the "snake blessing" with a green snake head pressed to my forehead and wishes of good fortune and children. (I told him that he could skip the children part).
That blessing quickly turned into a Snake Curse because I didn't want to pay their rip-off price, so I started negotiating after the fact as five threatening Snake Guys in robes surrounded me. (It's definitely a position of weakness to be arguing with a guy waving a cobra in your face). Let's just say that I got the Friends & Family discount as I tossed a bill into a tambourine and we skedaddled across the square.
That blessing quickly turned into a Snake Curse because I didn't want to pay their rip-off price, so I started negotiating after the fact as five threatening Snake Guys in robes surrounded me. (It's definitely a position of weakness to be arguing with a guy waving a cobra in your face). Let's just say that I got the Friends & Family discount as I tossed a bill into a tambourine and we skedaddled across the square.
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