Morocco - Magic carpet ride

We had an eventful trip from Granada, Spain to Meknes, Morocco. Of course, there was the excitement of starting our African sojourn. The trip took from about 7am in the morning to 10pm in the evening though. Train from Granada to Algeciras. Ferry from Algeciras to Tanger, Morocco which took 2.5 hours. We did not get to see the Rock of Gibralter - it was somewhere off to the east of us. The train from Tanger to Meknes took 4 hours. So we arrived quite late in Meknes in the dark. Fortunately, our hotel was right next to the train station!

On the ferry, we met Robert Movradinov from New York. Rob is traveling around Europe and North Africa for a few months and entertained us along the way with his guitar and self-composed songs in Spanish. He gathered quite an audience on the train! We are looking forward to seeing his music hit the charts very soon!

The heat in Morocco was amazing! 35-38 degrees celsius at all times. The town itself was nice with all sorts of restaurants, shops, phone centers etc. Pretty laid back and the people were quite friendly.

VOLUBILIS

Volubilis was quite an entertaining experience. First of all, we ended up getting up at the unearthly hour of 6am because I forgot to reset my clock 2 hours back given the time difference between Spain and Morocco. We then proceeded to a cafe – given the more conservative nature of Moroccan society, there are many more men on the street than women. In fact, at the cafes, there are only men – it is quite an odd sight. Nevertheless, this is not that different from early morning breakfast at Bucks in the Bay Area where one sees mostly men – only this time, they are venture capitalists meeting aspiring entrepreneurs!

Anyway, after the cafe, we proceeded to a grand taxi stand. Morocco – and much of North Africa – has this concept where taxis for longer journeys between cities are shared by up to 6 people. So you go to the stand and then wait for other people to show up who are going to the same city. The advantage is that it is a cheap fare – one hour drive for 1 dollar – and a relatively comfortable ride in a Mercedes.

We shared the taxi to Volubilis with Mohammad Haha and his wife Brigitte. Mohammad is from El Rashid – southern Morocco - and is Berber. Brigitte is from France. It was great to meet the 2 of them as we toured Moulay Idris and Volubilius together. We saw the tomb of Moulay Idriss and walked to the top of the hill in this town.

We ended up walking back with them from Volubilis to Moulay Idriss - a distance of 6 kilometres.

Being a guide and trader in the past, Mohammad gave us great advice on how to buy carpets and also recommended we go to Azrou to buy them. Mohammad also recommended we go to the Sahara desert in the south of Morocco near Merzouga where huge sand-dunes exist and also where the white desert – made of sand – meets the black desert – made of black rock. One can see black rock to the horizon. We were sorely tempted to go here but decided against it – next time!  If you are interested in going to Er-Rashid and seeing the Merzouga desert, get in touch with Mouhammed Haha at [email protected] or +212-67-17-89-44.

Volubilis was very nice. A Roman garrison town from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, Volubilis has a bunch of nice mosaics and was a planned town with hamaams, markets, rich neighbourhoods, poor neighbourhoods etc. We saw a bunch of tepidariums, aquariums, temples, solariums, a brothel, olive presses, etc. The town apparently had 20000 residents with 12000 Romans and 8000 slaves. After the Romans left, Berbers lived there for several centuries. In 1755, a big earthquake (which also destroyed Lisbon) leveled the whole place – so one has to imagine most of the buildings! Our guide was great and kept us laughing throughout the tour of the site - he called us Fatima and Mohammad.  Here's a video of the guide showing us around the ruins of Volubilis.

AZROU

We took a grand taxi to Azrou on the recommendation of Mohammed Haha. It turned out to be a very nice experience. We went to the souk in Azrou and wandered through the Rue de Tapis which had a bunch of carpet stores. We ended up spending 2 hours at a store owned by a father and son team, sorting through a ton of Hemdil and Kilim carpets made by the Berbers. Our first bargaining experience in Morocco went off quite well!
High quality carpets, according to Mohammad Haha, need to be checked for the following –
- Make sure all the lines are straight
- Pull out some of the threads at the end and burn it with a lighter flame. If you smell burnt hair and the thread melts and does not catch on fire then it is good wool.
- Pour a little bit of water on the carpet and rub it with your fingers to make sure the colors do not run
- Measure the thickness of the carpet – the thicker the better, apparently.
-Dev

Comments

[Lisa]

Hi,

I went to school with Robert Movradinov and have been trying to get in touch with him. Would you happen to have an e-mail for him?

Thanks in advance,

Lisa

[mitivicky]

hey dev and smruti...good to know you guys are having so much fun. we really enjoyed reading about your adventures in India.Have a great trip ahead.

[mitivicky]

hey u both... we r really enjoying this..keep it up

[shachi Viren]

Hi guys,

We are really enjoying this trip around the world with you! You both look very nice in pics. We will miss you both in Diwali dinner. Take care.

[Sejal Gohel]

Hi Fatima and Mohammad. So were you able to fit the carpet in your backpack? We really enjoy reading your stories. Thanks for the carpet tips. Although, when we pulled out the lighter in the Macy's Home Store, it didn't go very well :)