Out and About in Marrakech.

Not much to read here, Dear Reader, but quite a number of pictures. (Don't forget that you can view the pictures better and all together if you 'click' on one of them.)

As you know, I'm intent on improving the Guest Apartment bathroom. I'd love to have this bath in there, but I don't think it would fit, let alone the asking price being a tad prohibitive at around £1500!

Hand beaten in tin or copper, I'm sure you'll agree that it would be an extraordinarily beautiful addition to any bathroom. We found this only a few minutes away from our Riad, in one of the main souk streets. (It's still there though!)

Just coming out of the tiny alleys, and onto the same street, I came across this chap:

Live chickens in left hand and live ducks in his right. When I raised the camera to take the snap, he was looking the other way, I'm sure that the Marrakchis must have some sort of 'camera radar' built-in!

On most trips out from our temporary home, we made for the Djemaa El Fna or beyond and were constantly amazed at some of the sights which awaited us.

I noticed several 4x4's with similar contraptions built onto them, as we were coming from the airport, but couldn't quite figure out what they were in the dark, and moving quite quickly in the strange surroundings. Now that I could get a decent look, it was obvious that they were Marrakchi tow trucks! The one above was actually crossing the square, but I got a clearer picture of a different one which shows the lifting gear more clearly:

Aren't I good to you, Dear Reader? Which other Luxor Blog gives you this sort of excitement?

We came across many interesting looking people, but they all want money for taking their pictures, and I'm not loaded, as you lot know! How about this lady in her fashionable "Hello Kitty" djellaba:

Or this hat selling lady, replete with her face-veil. Many of the ladies who were trading on the Djemaa El Fna wore veils similar to this. What I found rather surprising was that many of the older ladies wore the veil actually under their noses!

We had to get a pic of a snake charmer and his cobra:



I'm not really sure which of the above pictures contains the worst snake? The one which isn't shedding his skin was the luckiest man alive on the square that evening! Keep a lookout for him any ladies venturing there, he likes to touch foreign ladies boobs, so make a mental note of his features! On the night that we saw him, he was seconds away from a very severe beating from the husband of one of his victims, that is until the very large chap was gently talked out of his retributionary intentions.

A more pleasant scene from the Djemaa El Fna was this 'mobile dentist surgery'. The owner was nowhere to be seen when I snapped his goods, but appeared out of the same nowhere when he heard the camera go off! (Must have been his camera radar, eh?)

I gave him the change which I had in my pocket, but he wasn't too happy with it. It was all I had though, as Madame Fareda invariably holds our money.

Of course, we didn't always go that way. One day we went in search of the 'fondouks' (places where they make and/or trade goods) and ended up struggling through a leather market in full swing, only to find that it was a dead-end! Here is a shot which I got while we were preparing to make the return run:

The hides were all over the thoroughfare in places, to the point where we had to occasionally climb over them, while squeezing between bargaining and bartering bearded men, flailing arms everywhere!

I'll have to digress here, just for a minute or two.

Fondouk? This term seems to describe what we know as a 'caravansary' in Egypt. A caravansary is (or so I've been led to believe) a trading place where travelling manufacturers and traders could also have lodgings. 'Funduk' is the Arabic word for hotel! Now then, isn't that interesting?  

We were quite keen to take a ride in a caleche, so off we went after our genial host warned us that the 'fixed prices' weren't, really! 

They're quite a bit bigger than the Egyptian model, and of all steel construction. They also all have two 'gallowers' to pull them about. (Colloquialism: gallowers are horses.) The ride quality is entirely different from the Luxor caleches, we weren't nearly thrown onto the road at every bump or hole, even though the suspension looks to be of the self-same design. We reckoned the right price to be 120 Dirhams for one hour, but gave the man 140, to include a 20 Dirham tip. As expected, he wasn't too happy about that and really wanted 150. 'Nuff said, I think! Here he is, with our companions enjoying the sun and the ride, the horses all seem to be healthy and well fed, what do you reckon?

On the way back to the Square, this cheeky blighter of a schoolboy tagged on for a while!

The driver thought that this casino would make a nice backdrop for a photo. I don't think so, but here you are, anyway:



Even though we'd been before, I hadn't realised that the 'High Atlas' mountains were quite so close-by. I was often taken by surprise when they hove into view as we rounded a corner or just looked up, even. 


                   

Just off the Djemaa El Fna, and to the Southwest, lies the fire station, where the fire-fighting fleet of vehicles seems to consist of this:


Yes, a good old British Land Rover! You just cannot beat them, can you, Reader?

I'll do some more later, unless you're bored?


2 comments:

  1. if we want to go well we would have you take us there .sandra mick

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bored! Have been waiting for these photos with bated breath. This time next week we will be there. Top of my shopping list new carriage for Ahmed and Brothers!
    Thanks for the taster.....

    ReplyDelete