Memorable Days in Morocco

By Michael Diamond

Ryanair the non frills airline, flew us from Seville, Spain to Marrakech, Morocco. When no-frills becomes the “pitch:, one has to wonder how their ticket prices can be so competitive and low. Ah, but there’s always a ‘catch’.. Basically the only thing that is not a frill is your body. Checked baggage is a frill. It costs 15 euros for a person take a seat on the airplane with a carry on. It costs 60 euros if you bring an infant along. And the funny part is that a heavier checked bag is 50 euros, and a lighter one is 25 euros…meaning that a 15 euro flight ends up costing 90 euros if you have normal baggage…still a good price. We upgraded to priority seating- which means you get to move to the front of the line prior to the race for the plane’s non assigned seats policy. It is a curious system but it works, and the plane was full.

From the clear skies over southern Spain and northern Morocco, we noticed as we were landing in Marrakech, that every house has a satellite dish, even in areas that appeared to be slums. We learned later that the cost of a satellite dish and TV in Morocco is about $250 and that there was no charge for the actual channels; King Mohammed VI felt that it was not in the best interests of the country to charge for information making it possible for most people to have this equipment.

Another noticeable item is that It’s a country of mountains.- in fact there are 4 mountain ranges, the Riff, and the 3 Atlas Ranges, the High, the Middle and the Ante.

We landed in Morocco and were met by our pre arranged guide, Aziz, and driver, Hassim, both of whom would be with us the entire time in Morocco. They were professionals in every sense with Aziz having been a professor of history somewhere in his past.

An hour later we arrived at the Kasbah Tamadot Hotel, our “home” for the first two nights. It is in the country, away from Marrakech and the perfect place to unwind and recuperate from the fast pace Spanish part of our trip. As the former home of Sir RIchard Branson’s parents, it had been refurbished in the late 80′s and now operates as a small , full service and high end hotel/spa, overlooking the mountains and a few Berber villages.

However, before arriving, Aziz was already at work and we learned that Morocco has a population of 34 million people- 65% Berber and the rest Arabs. Berbers are an ancient people and was the name that was given to the indigenous population of northern Africa before the arrival of the Arabs and Islam in the 7th century.

I have asked several people about how Islam took over, and apparently, it just did, with little fuss.

Mohammed died around 650, and by 700. Most of north Africa had become Islam including the Berbers. Jews were in Morocco from the second century, or perhaps earlier (depends who you ask) and lived among the Berbers as equals. Hamid, a staff member of the hotel is a Berber and told us that his parents and a Jewish family shared a house for some time. I asked him why the Jews left as they did in the 60′s and 70′s. He said it wasn’t due to any attacks or need to, but rather en masse mostly to Israel because of the failing Moroccan economy.

With fabulous grounds, rooms, service, great attitude, high standards, food, and style, we were fortunate enough to get an upgrade to a room we adored because it was called a Berber tent. Some tent!!!! …with a balcony and plunge pool overlooking the beautiful valley. The only place to eat was at the hotel.. We walked through gardens, passed fountains, along lighted pathways, beside a large infinity pool overlooking the valley. Before dinner, there are cocktails served by an attentive staff in various venues. Most of the help are Berbers from the area and all are well trained, courteous and efficient. At our dinner table for two by the window overlooking the pool, but casual and relaxed, the food was outstanding.

The last part of the evening could have been a Woody Allen skit. We watched Glee, downloaded on to my ipad. Next day, I decided to arrange a trek in the High Atlas with a Berber guide while Janette opted to spend the day relaxing and using some of the excellent spa facilities.

Janette loved her “mani and pedi” as well as her facial (why is there not a short form for a facial? how about faci?) , while I had a wonderful hike through the lower part of the High Atlas mountains with a couple of 23 year old guides- one was Mohammed- a lot of people seem to have that name- and the other Said- both Berbers from a nearby village. Mohammed was the only one who spoke English.

We walked up about 500 meters of elevation for about 90 minutes, and then up and down for a while to a series of plateaus where we stopped for a delicious hot lunch which they prepared on an open fire. While the two of them bantered most of the time in their Berber language as we walked, I did have a chance to learn a few interesting facts about village life in the High Atlas Mountains among the Berbers: Marriages are by choice but the families have to agree since it’s a marriage of families; The bride moves into the groom’s home; there is no dowry but the groom has to pay the wife’s family for her; males get married from 22-26 years old while the girls get married much younger, some as young as 16. Young men from the city prefer Berber girls because they are more traditional (for marriage that is- not for enjoying themselves before marriage); their village of 2000 people is like a family, and everyone is invited to all the weddings; real estate has gone up in value and there is no more room to build in the village because it is sandwiched between foothills on either side, and on the other two sides are necessary fields for growing crops. There is not enough being grown to feed everyone which has resulted in young people moving to the cities to get jobs.

Agriculture is still being done in the old ways, with animals not tractors, primarily because there are no roads to many of the fields. There are at least three major groups of Berbers, each of which originated from a different sources- but they are all called Berbers as a general name to identify the indigenous people of Morocco before the arrival of the Arabs. Included in the designation of Berbers were the Jews- and in fact there is a term I heard a number of times- “Berber Jews”. They even have rugs that were created according to the Berber Jew style- although apparently most Jews were traders in jewellery and silver . The hike was moderately difficult- by the end of the 4 hour walk plus lunch, I was tired and I returned feeling great about the day, and looking forward to evening events.. Scheduled was my first Hamam.

Hamams are basically deep cleansing rituals that are undertaken by Muslims regularly, as prescribed by the Koran. They rub various oils on your body, some kind of mud, lots of warm water and suds, and scrub you down with a rough glove that exfoiates the dead skin, opens pores and generally leaves you with that well scrubbed feeling. It is all done in a warm, high domed room . Traditionally, it’s done on a round marble slab in the centre of a large marble room.

Day 3 in Morocco started with another delicious breakfast at the hotel before Aziz and our driver arrived to take us into Marrakech proper. We decided to do some touring before checking into our next hotel for the following two nights. The renowned, La Mamounia- a wonderful 5 plus star hotel which gets the deserved rave reviews, is located just inside the city gates of Marrakech.

Before checking in, we visited the Bahia (not Bahai) Palace- an 18th century palace for the Vizier who ruled the country while the young king was growing up- certainly nowhere near as magnificent as many of the Muslim creations in Spain, but with many of the same features- ceramic, plaster carving, wood, etc. But the highlight was the Medina. Janette and I have seen many market places but this one has a unique charactar. There are a fair share of interesting people, everyone very polite and friendly, and we felt very safe. Lunch on a terrace overlooking the square of the Medina was very good. Afterwards we ventured into the square itself with its snake charmers, monkey trainers, acrobats, musicians and even a few dentists. Although we didn’t have much time, I managed to have a monkey plunked on my shoulder for a picture, then a snake wrapped around my neck for another picture, followed by a very careful conversation with a cobra. For me it was fun and exciting, but Janette stood back, totally squeamish and freaked out especially when the snake was wrapped around my neck!

Our magnificent hotel is a first class, world class property,- It was a former palace and feels like one….and after closing for 3 years for a complete refurbishing and remodelling, it has reopened – surely one of the best hotels in the world. The grounds are utterly fantastic with beautiful gardens, nicely lit at night, a wonderful pool area, and magnificent lobbies, bars, restaurants, and rooms which are perfectly sized, equipped and enormously comfortable. Overlooking the gardens from our balcony facing east, and seeing the sun rise is spectacular. When the call to prayer rings out, it echoes into our room. I would have to say that walking through this hotel is very much like touring a Spanish Muslim palace…except newer….

After a very full day, we decided to eat in the hotel’s Moroccan restaurant as it had been recommended by several people. It is located in the gardens and is a short walk from the hotel. The restaurant is as beautiful and well decorate with Moroccan artifacts.

Dinner was good to very good but based on what we had expected, did not hit the excellent mark. But we had a good time nonetheless. And compared to several other dinners we had later in our Morocco experience, it was, in retrospect, pretty good!

Day two in Marrakech had to start relatively early in order to take advantage of a beautiful breakfast by the pool. The buffet was not to be believed, but given my tendency to just have cereal, a banana and soy milk with a coffee, the flat rate cost of the buffet was rather unusual to say the least. You could feed a family for a week in half the world for what they charged for their buffet. So we ate more food than normal and got used to it!

We started with a private cooking class- our chance to learn how to cook Moroccan dishes. Turns out that the class was to be with 2 other couples which actually turned out to be better. We were taken to a beautiful Riad- (a Riad is simply a house, large or small, with an open courtyard) well worth visiting for a meal, a cooking class or staying in from what we could see- called La Maison Arabe, and after a tour of the Riad we met our instructor, and got the Morocan cuisine overview which basically went like this….”Moroccan cuisine is a fusion of several cuisines- Berber, Jewish, Arab, and Moorish…the best of each creates an ourstanding result”. In this case the Moors are referred to as the Muslims who returned from Spain when they were expelled along with the Jews in 1492. Incidentally a lot of Jews returned with them at that time, while many others went to Portugal.

This was one of many conversations we have had with Moroccans where reference to the Jewish history of Morocco was treated positively, with respect, and almost reverence. The first time I heard it I thought it was perhaps being said out of sensitivity to us. But after hearing it over and over again, and from people who could not have known we were Jewish, we came to understand that there is truly a positive feeling and relationship between most Moroccans and Jews. Israel did not come up in conversation, other than in one case where it was noted that Morocco has been in the forefront of attempting to facilitate peace in the Middle East. In addition, the King has at least two senior Ministers who are Jewish and we were told, are well respected and liked. I noticed only one Free Gaza sign throughout the entire tour, and it was mostly scraped off the post it was on.

Back to the cooking class…..we were taken on a tour of the local markets and saw the community baking oven where people take their dough to be baked after they prepare it and where they buy their fish and meat and other produce needed. We also visited a spice market and had a presentation on the various spices available in Morocco including medicinal spices, combinations of many spices in one, spices which are aphrodisiacs (in selling the spices the presenter actually referred to most of them as having aphrodisiac qualities….not sure how truthful that was but I guess he thought it would sell spices)…..Later in the presentation he took out another spice, wrapped it in a cotton cloth, and started sticking the wrapped up spice up the nostrils of each person around the circle. It was supposed to clear the nostrils- and it did! Unfortunately, he used the same package of cotton and spice for each of us….so far, to our knowledge, no one has died from the experience….but we all had open nostrils for a while.

We then gathered back in the beautiful Riad kitchen for our cooking experience, where we each had a chance to cook our own tangines- most of us with chicken, and Janette with vegetables. Together with a side salad which we also prepared, we sliced and diced and mixed and cooked and in my case, massacred the food. We learned to peel a tomato to produce a long skin that could be rolled into a swirl that looked like a rose- my first try was rather abysmal- it looked more like a malignant tree branch than a rose. But my greatest success was in peeling the second tomato and producing a long piece of tomato skin which I rolled up and created a flower to adorn my plate- and make up for the less than stellar cooking performance. A chef I will never be- I will not be quitting my day job.

For me it was fun cooking, although there were some things that were confusing, like why bother slicing and dicing if you are going to mash the whole thing up anyway?

We then sat down at a table for 6 and ate our prepared lunches, around a pool in a courtyard in Maison Arabe, with wine and lots of great conversation. We were supposed to meet our guide to continue our touring but we spent an extra hour in conversation with this great group we had met.

Back with our guide after lunch, it was time to visit some shops and see if Janette could find anything that was special enough to warrant either trying to squeeze it into our luggage, or sending it home. No such luck, although we did have one visit to an antique store which was more like a museum, and which included quite a few Jewish artifacts, including Torah covers, a ketubah, and a real Torah….the latter which could be bought for about $18K, about a third of the cost of a new one. How strange it was to see a Torah sitting in an antique store in Marrakech!. We also visited the beautiful la Majorelle Gardens in the new part of Marrakech with a spectacular presentations of cacti. The centrepiece, hidden behind many bushes and trees is the deep blue house formerly occupied by the late fashion designer, Yves St. Laurent. His partner still lives there, nearby the burial site of St. Laurent.

We retuned to the old city and wandered through the Medina and the souks for quite a while and enjoyed the people and the variety of shops, including many where the artisans were at work. We ended back in the square, but avoided the snakes and monkey’s for Janette’s sake

After a rest at the hoteland a needed cup of coffee, we went out for dinner to a smart Moroccan restaurant in an old home that had been recommended to us.The surroundings were very pretty with tables surrounding a small mosaic pool, all enclosed in a beautiful garden but the food was nothing special, We started with 14 salads (of which Janette ate only 2 or 3). Two musicians entertained- their music sounded more like what you would hear in the Caribbean. Not a great dinner, but another good Moroccan experience nonetheless.

The next morning it was time to move on to Fes, which we had decided to get to via a long car ride so we could see more of the country. We had another excellent breakfast at the hotel- one of the best buffet breakfasts we have experienced anywhere….and while we have been consistently overeating, we could not resist and did it again! We reluctantly pulled ourselves away from the table and got organized to leave La Mamounia.