Marrakesh Madness!

Our guidebook tells us that tourists either want to engage with or escape from Marrakesh. In my experience, this couldn't be closer to the truth, with part of me loving it here while the other half of me can't wait to leave. We took our a 6 hour train ride through the most arid part of this country we've seen yet to arrive in steamy, African chaos. Here's some of the stuff we love and hate:

Love: The souqs. This is a shoppers paradise, with spices, perfumes, carpets ceramics and all the fake Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Chloe that you could possibly want! It's really fun walking through the maze of shops, while shop keepers call out to you (not to mention the bargaining process).

Hate: Getting ripped off. Never have we felt more ripped off than since we arrived in Marrakesh. Our taxi drivers have tended to demand almost five times the correct fare (before proceeding to drive like complete maniacs) as did the washing lady at our hotel for a bit of laundry. Everyone asks us for money here, or at least gets their kids to.

Love: The exotic Djemaa el-Fna. This square in the middle of the medina is absolutely crazy - it pretty much blew our minds! Our first experience when walking into it last night was the snake charmers. About half a dozen groups sit around this square with their lutes and drums, hypnotising actual live cobras! In addition to this there are African drum groups, delicious food stalls, story tellers and general craziness going on everywhere. We can't wait to go back, but we're giving the snakes a wide birth (not to mention the women running at me with syringes full of henna)!

Hate: The annoying touts. Man, every time I walk down the street the same touts offer me the same brochures to the same restaurants. People follows us down the street trying to get us to buy some gum, or go to their shop, or show us a carpet. It's happened elsewhere, but it's way worse here and it's getting old!

Love: The funny touts. Yes, they do exist! Last night, one got us to eat at his food stall in Djemaa el-Fna by offering us air conditioning (despite the fact that we were totally outside). The ones at the natural pharmacies are hilarious too, loving the fact that we are already familiar with all their olive soap, berber aftershave and Rif lipstick, as six in a row ask to identify their crazy products.

Hate: The traffic. I thought Meknes was bad, but this is insane! It's impossible to cross the road and in doing so wouldn't be at all suprised if someone ran us over, all the while beeping for us to get the hell out of the way.

Love: That we're going on a four-day desert trek on Saturday. We'll be back after that with more photos and stories and undoubtedly I'll have something to say about the CAMELS that we will be riding (!!!!).