Marrakesh……………

………………the taxi dropped us in the Medina at the edge of the ‘souks’, ……..our cases were put onto the footpath, a young boy grabbed them and we proceeded to follow him, at a pace, through winding dark alley ways! Fortunately we had been forewarned so weren’t as bewildered as we might have been! We eventually arrived at a door in the wall and entered another world. A riad is a haven of peace and tranquillity amidst the hustle and bustle of the souks.
The souks are chaotic, colourful and charming, like an Aladdin’s cave, loaded with every imaginable treasure from the mundane e.g. hand carved spoons to live scorpions! Which we are assured make “charming pets”!!!! The Moroccans are humorous, funny, engaging and bargaining for everything is expected
and fun. Rod has found his niche and has been made an honorary “Berber”.
Venturing out at night is an edgier experience, the ancient shadows conceal touts who tell us the alley we are heading down has been closed and they offer to guide us “safely” to where we want to go. We have developed a strategy of taking bets on how many of these encounters we will have on the way to our destination – usually the night market – our raucous laughter when we are accosted, has a discombobulating effect on the would-be extortionists and so they are starting to avoid us!!!!!!
Because any photography can become a commercial transaction, we have had to develop strategies to enable us to photograph peoples and/or their property while appearing to being focusing on something else.
We frequently eat at the night market which is an exercise in diplomatically choosing where to eat out of over 100 stalls, all desperately working to engage us. Some even talk NZ’ild to us. That is another remarkable thing about Morocco……..people know where NZ is and what it is like, that it is far away and they want to go there………..which is surprising considering many Brit’s think we are part of Australia!!!!!!