MOROCCO # 1 - Hello and Goodbye Marrakech

Two days in Marrakech.... quite negative feelings, it felt as if this was going to be the long goodbye to Morocco. Of course, we knew very well that Marrakech was not representative of Morocco......... even though it was known as 'Morocco' in the 19th century.

As you will see later this was an over emotional first reaction, yes things have changed but maybe at last for the benefit of the poorer Moroccans.........poorer? There were ever just 2 classes of people in Morocco the privileged wealthy with plenty of influence and power and the ones that were there for their use and convenience.........admittedly this appeared to be a mutually beneficial arrangement forging incredibly strong ties of fealty and total confidence that Allah would provide in the guise of the almost feudal system. The French colonial rule devastated this system and encouraged the bureucratic systems of Europe...giving some opportunity to a new middle class Moroccan who certainly wasn't interested in improving the lot of his lowly brothers.

Now with the young king maybe the system allowed more opportunities for sons and daughters of previously humble families to improve their professional and financial lot. Moroccans never lacked in imagination, zeal and determination, who knows what might come of the new order even if it does include a concentration on more tourism, who are we to selfishly crave for the picturesque, impoverished Morocco of the past?

The reason for our initial disillusionment started was our first experience of flying straight into Marrakech. Usually we drove to Tarifa, travelled by sea to Tanger and then on by car.

Arriving at the airport together with hundreds of other tourists made it feel like a mass invasion. Just one short period in one day, we imagined this multiplied by 1000s of people brought in by the cheap flights, for most of them Marrakech was the destination, they would not travel further. 
On the taxi ride from the airport we could see that the city had expanded in all directions since our last visit 4 years ago, the traffic was in its usual chaos at around 7.30 p.m. Glad to see djellabas still in strong evidence on the streets, billowing on bikes and scooters.

Some things that never change, photos above, Djemma el Fna , the pink walls of the city and the Koutoubia mosque.......no building in the area can ever be made taller than the height of a palm tree so the Koutoubia at 77 metres has been dominating the medina since 1199.

In the medina we were surprised to see so much improvement in even the grottiest of the small hotels, over the years we have probably stayed in all of them, gradually being able to afford better ones with better rooms.

This time we stayed in a new one, open just 2 months Hotel du Tresor http://www.hoteldutresor.com/

Owned and decorated by an Italian, it's in praise of all things post-modern ironic with some amusing visual puns, some fine copies of 20th century art, re-cycled objects from the gutted and re-decorated La Mamounia, all crammed into a small riad which now has a very bijou pool in the courtyard with a magnificent orange tree growing up to the roof terrace level where there are fine views of the Koutoubia and the roof tops of the medina. Our room was tiny but had an en-suite bathroom and was quiet and cool. I guess we are past the times when we stayed in the grottiest medina dives with one squatter loo on each floor, the constant hubbub of comings and goings, all night chatter on the rooftop with the kif smoke drifting up to the starry sky. At the Tresor it was quite a novelty to be able to enjoy a bottle of wine, relaxing under the orange tree or up on the roof after a hard day in the souks........see souk blog.

Current booze situation.......... drinking wine in Marrakech, except in exclusive restaurants or expensive hotels, meant a trek into art-deco Gueliz , the 20th century extention of the old city, to one of the small grocery stores which have stocks of Moroccan wine and hard liquor, it all felt a bit illicit under the seemingly disapproving observation of the owners who must be making a fortune from the alcohol cravings of infidels.
Still no alcohol served in any of the ordinary restaurants and cafés near the Djemaa el Fna except the un-salubrious "Grand" Hotel Tazi. Also the Hotel Foucault which is very musty and dusty, much better to sip a mint tea .....but occasionally a glass of wine is essential and Moroccan red wine from around Meknes can be very good.

After 2 days in the madness of Marrakech we hopped into our hire car, another novelty, and headed South for our appointment in Agdz, Draa Valley.