September 10th, 2007

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About This Site, Malta, Travel
8 Comments »

Next Stop, Morocco

I’ve mentioned this to sundry people over the past few weeks, but I thought I’d better write a quick post to disclose our next destination.

Our original intent was to stay in Malta until the end of November, and then fly back to Vancouver. In living here a few months, we’ve realized a few things:

  • We’re not quite ready to go home yet.
  • Our clients haven’t abandoned us–in fact, we’ve got more work than we know what to do with.
  • There are plenty of other places we’d like to check out. Having gone through the effort of disconnecting ourselves from home, it seems foolish to return so soon. We’re going to ride the travel inertia for a while longer.

So, here’s the latest plan (how do you make God laugh? Make a plan):

  1. Stay in Malta an extra month, leaving some time between Christmas and New Years.
  2. Fly to Morocco, visit a couple of places, and ensure that it appeals.
  3. Assuming that we like it, stay there about three months.
  4. After Morocco, we may fly home. Or we may not. See the parenthetical idiom above.

In any case, I’ll be flying to Toronto in October and Vancouver in mid-March for speaking gigs.

Where Should We Live?

We’re planning on spending ten or twelve weeks in the country. That will probably be in one location, but we could break it up into two. Where do you think we should live? Early favourites include Marrakesh and the seaside town of Essaouira. First order of business: learn how to pronounce ‘Essaouira’.

A while back I asked about a long weekend destination in Morocco. Now I’m soliciting recommendations for a longer stay. I’m hoping one or more of these Moroccan bloggers will drop by with an opinion:

Comments: 8 Responses so far

filmgoerjuan
September 10th, 2007
2:07 pm

As much as we miss you & Julie, Darren, we also envy the living hell out of you :)

As I learned years ago (by returning too soon), never come home until you’re well and truly ready to.

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Norlinda
September 11th, 2007
11:25 am

A friend spent his honeymoon in Morocco (not sure which city) but they found it so hot they actually cut short their vacation time. I think they went in early summer.

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darren
September 11th, 2007
11:46 am

Filmgoerjuan: Indeed, not to get overly scientific, but studies show that people regret not doing things far more than doing them. That’s where we get the phrase “learning experience” from.

Norlinda: After a summer in Malta, I’m not particularly worried about a winter in Morocco. The heat was pretty intense for some of our Canadian guests who were airlifted into the 35-40 degrees temperatures. That wasn’t all summer, mind you, just during a couple of heat waves.

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Steve Kirks
September 11th, 2007
12:19 pm

Darren:

I’m well and truely amazed at the life you guys are living. It’s inspired me to my wife and I’s life on the same track: pare down, find some adventure and hit the road.

Good luck. Don’t move back until you have to. Put up a tip jar for trips and buy more time away for the rest of us who can’t go (yet).

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bobby
September 11th, 2007
11:44 pm

darren, Good luck with the rest of your travels. Many people would be envious of that lifestyle.

bobby

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Maryam in Marrakech
September 12th, 2007
12:58 am

Hey, I left you a comment on this. Did you get it?

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darren
September 12th, 2007
1:33 am

I did get it, on the long weekend post, thanks.

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Liosliath (Morocco Time)
September 12th, 2007
2:29 pm

Well, you just mentioned two of my favorite places to stay! :) You might want to also rent a place off the beaten path for a week or so…maybe a bit south of Essouira, or up in the mountains?

And dual disk drive IBM PC in ‘86? That was smokin’ back then. All I had was my TI/99. (and Commodores at school)

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