Chaouen And Tetouan - Cities by The Rif
Posted On Saturday, May 30, 2009 at at 12:08 AM by Alvin
These two "twin-sounding" city names could not be more different in characters - the Rif mountain cities of Chaouen And Tetouan. The Rif Mountains provided the pensive and moody backdrop to these cities. We went hiking in The Rif and exploring the Moroccan Mediterranean during our visits here.Tetouan instead was a much larger city with numerous solid Spanish churches, tiled buildings and a fair size Medina; the city exuded Spanish colonial style aplenty ! We spent time exploring this city as well as taking a bus to nearby Martil and Cabo Negro for a day trip. Martil and Cabo Negro turned out to be a long stretch of Mediterranean resort seaside where lucky peoples from Tetouan spent their weekends. We enjoyed our last day in this lovely country over a bottle of Moroccan red wine while watching the sun played out sunset shadows on The Rif.
Tajines And Salons
Posted On Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at at 4:29 AM by AlvinThe interesting and delicious Tajines and colorful Salons that oozed Moroccan style aplenty we encountered during this trip, had added much fun and fond memories to this journey. More could be said with a few photos below.
Getting Lost And Found In The Fes Medinas
Posted On Monday, May 25, 2009 at at 12:08 AM by Alvin
The scenery on the bus journey from Er-Rachidia to Fes was the most varied on this trip; make shift football pitches in the dry desert heat, lush palm oasis hiding the red-mud brick kashbahs, turquoise water barrages that fed the southern cities, curious rock formations that must have gone through excruciating pains to transform to their present shapes, snow capped high Atlas with their patchy half-melted ice fields, mid-stop towns filled with orange juice stands and barbecue smokes, and finally the medieval city of Fes ! With over 9,000 alleyways in the Fes Medinas, we got lost and found many a times ! With the Medina's noisy and confusing exterior, we managed to find tranquility in our riad located right in the centre of the Medina; one turn away from the hussles and buzzles of the main thoroughfares and all was peace and quiet, incredible ! We took our time getting lost - we bought freshly grounded coffee from the vendors, sampled the delicious goat cheese for our picnic lunch, visited the Koranic Schools in the heart of the Medina and finally emerging out of the medieval city walls and hiked up to Borj Nord that had a commanding view over the entire city, what better way of getting lost and found !
Trekking In The Toudra Gorge
Posted On Friday, May 22, 2009 at at 12:07 AM by Alvin
We spent arguably the best part of this journey (keenly contested by Mandy) during the 4 days here in the Toudra Gorge. We stayed at Amazir, a modern yet traditionally decorated and designed Hotel right by the river where our balcony was shaded with swaying palm trees. Amazir was located half way between Tinehir and the Gorge opening, a strategic location we later put to good use as we hiked in both directions ! The friendly owner and staff took in our orders for dinner each morning and the chef would whip up such mouth watering tajines (with hundreds of olives and giant dates) that we had ever tasted during this trip !We could now understand why Morocco was reputed to be a trekking paradise as there were numerous wild and marked trails around the Gorge and we could easily have spent another week here enjoying the scenery of the dramatic Kashbahs, lush green palm trees, cool rivers, sheer cliffs and fantastic rock formations ! Words are of no use here, take a look at the incredible scenery during our treks. (The following one contains our shy neighbours at The Amazir).One funny note - we met a Dutch couple staying at The Amazir who told us that apparently some locals from a shop in Tinehir told them that there were two orientals staying here, seemed the whole of Tinehir knew of our existence.
On to Mighty Cheggaga Via The Fantastic Draa Valley
Posted On Saturday, May 16, 2009 at at 12:06 AM by Alvin
After a wonderful few days exploring Ouarzazate and its environs, we hired a 4x4 jeep for 3 days, to take us down South to the Moroccan Sahara via the lush green Draa Valley; our destination was one of the two great sand dunes in Morocco - The mighty Cheggaga, reputedly 300 meters in height in places ! The first day we drove through the Draa with our driver, Abdul who was a giant of a guy in character and in physique; Abdul was originally from Mali and he co-owns the travel shop with his brother. He was a safe driver and he drove us deep into the Draa Valley's many beautiful winding and bumpy side roads before we had a lunch stop at Zagora. Later that night we were joined at the M'Hamid desert camp by a nice couple from Montpellier; they were friendly and knowledgeable of world affairs as they used to work for the World Bank and had been posted in many far-flung places such as Madagascar and Cambodia.And thanks to their suggestion, we joined them for the climb to the highest point in the Cheggaga the following day just in time for the sunset. It was mighty windy 300 meters up and we had to hold on tight to our hats with feet firmly planted in the sand; it was a magnificent view all-round at that height after a surprisingly fast ascent of about 20 to 30 minutes. We're talking Holy Big Sand Dunes, Batman !
The camp site for the second night was basic as Abdul told us that the torrential rains in March earlier this year had washed away most of the camp's facilities; we didn't mind as we were used to finding our own preferred "convenience" spots anyway. It was incredible how Abdul's staff managed to whip up such delicious couscous for dinner in such basic environment; good job ! The drive in the Draa and the climb up The Cheggaga were a definite highlight of this journey !
Ouarzazate And Thousands Of Kashbahs
Posted On Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at at 12:05 AM by Alvin
With such a special name as Ouarzazate, you know it's a special place - indeed Ouarzazate, meaning The Door To The Desert, sits at the crossroads of the three lovely valleys of the Moroccan South - Draa, Dades and Ziz.Ouarzazate had a frontier-town feel about it and was ideal for us to make arrangements for our trip to The Moroccan Sahara. Around Ouarzazate were numerous kashbahs, some lived-in, some abandoned, some ancient and some recently maintained; almost without exceptions, all of them were photogenic and eye-catching. Take a look ! The weather during our time of visit was very dry and sunny - just as well, as we had loads of washing to catch up and our clothes all dried within two hours of hanging outside our terrace !
Something of a side note - the riad we stayed in Ouarzazate had a proud peacock guarding the garden and every morning we walked passed, he would greet us by showing off his feathers - cute little bird !Magical Marrakech
Posted On Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at at 12:03 AM by Alvin
Leaving the relaxing atmosphere of Essaouira was not easy, but we were looking forward to be in the world famous Djemma el Fna - the main square of Marrakech. We had originally planned to stay for only 2 days but when our bus passed the wide glorious avenues in the Ville Nouvelle (the new part of town), we knew that we would want to stay on for a few more days. A side note here first, we arrived in Marrakech in good time to look for somewhere to stay near Djemma el Fna and indeed we found just a place about 5 minutes away - a brand new riad where we had the whole roof terrace to ourselves and the owner had not time yet even to number the rooms, and so he was struggling to find a key that fitted our door ! And when he did find the key that fitted, the door could not be opened from the inside, so he called on his minders who dismantled the old door lock for a new one ! Good men !We spent our evenings strolling in the medinas around Djemma el Fna where we needed to side step the snake charmers, duck out of the way of the agile youths performing acrobatics, pulling ourselves away from the numerous fortune tellers, waving away the dense fumes coming from the barbecue stalls as well as deciding where to eat in the mind-boggling arrays of food stalls; more often than not, doing all the above at the same moment !
We also spent a day walking in the Ville Nouvelle where we found wide boulevards and modern shops and interesting gardens such as the ultra-cool and lavish Jardin Majorelle. Visiting these modern architecture gave us a contrasting and reality-reassuring check to the previous nights' buzz seemingly coming straight out of an ancient Ali Baba tale that was Djemma el Fna !
The Moroccan Atlantic Cities - Rabat and Essaouira
Posted On Saturday, May 9, 2009 at at 12:01 AM by Alvin
After taking our customary early morning Dim Sum at the 潮樓 at HKIA, we arrived in Rabat 16 hours later just after sunset (via Paris) and our first impression of the Moroccan capital was one of organisation and long avenues. We quickly found a Pension off the central Avenue Mohammed V and caught some sleep (we later found out that almost all sizable towns in Morocco has an avenue called Avenue Mohammed V).After an Omelete Fromage and a Cafe Noir, we felt energised and explored this surprisingly modern city. The old part of the city was located at the northern edge, near the Kashbah des Oudaias, right by the Atlantic Ocean and the city landmark of La Tour Hassan was also nearby.
During lunch, we ordered our first of many Tajines (more later on this yummy topic) in the downtown areas where we ate and mingled with office guys and ladies all dressed in business suits, all seemingly busying themselves on their mobiles, laptops or the financial pages of the local newspapers ! This was a nice first surprise in Morocco.
A day later, we caught a 10 hours local bus to the Atlantic port of Essaouira where business suits and office blocks no longer appeared; in their place were fishermen, atmospheric forts and lovely Riads. Essaouira being an active fishing port, in the morning we saw the fishermen poured and weighed out their catch from the previous night.
We stayed in our first of many Riads, which was a town house located in the old part of Essaouira. A Riad usually contains may be 4 to 8 individually decorated rooms housed around a central courtyard/garden and the salon in a Riad is usually lavishly and elaborately decorated with comfortable sofas and colorful cushions.
It was relaxing to stroll around the port, beaches and squares of this little town for a few days before we moved on to visit the imperial city of Marrakech.
