February 26th, 2008, 4 Comments »
I keep saying that because, frankly, it sounds cool.
Tomorrow we’re taking six days and heading all the way across Morocco to the edge of apparent nothingness in the Sahara Desert. We’ve hired a driver to take us most of the way, and then we’re hiring a car for the last stretch.
In the hopes of not becoming a page A16 news item about ignorant, lost tourists, I figured I’d post our itinerary here:
- Our driver takes us from Essaouira across the Atlas Mountains to Ouarzazate. That’s going to be about eight hours but trust me, it’s less heinous than the flight options.
- We stay over night in Ouarzazate at the Hotel Mercure Ouarzazate.
- The next morning we rent a car from the local Budget Rent-a-Car (a little odd? Yes) from and drive southeast about 200 km to M’hamid.
- We stay three nights at M’hamid at a kasbah called Dar Azawad. The second night we ride camels out into the desert to stay at a camp. Yes, sort of a CamelCamp. I’ve explained to Julie that camels are hateful, smelly, spitting beasts, but she’s insistent that we give it a try.
- We have one free night. We’ll probably drive back through Ouarzazate, head through Skoura to Kelaa El Megouna. We’ll stay over night somewhere before returning to Ouarzazate to get picked up for the long drive back to the coast.
Not to worry any parents–I’m sure it’s very safe. Here’s the route:
View Larger Map
As a matter of interest, this will be the longest time I’ll be without internet access since, well, since I can remember. Of course, who am I kidding? I’m sure all our hotels will have public terminals, or there will be internet cafes a-plenty. I may really try not to check email.
4 Comments »
February 25th, 2008, 4 Comments »
Morocco is, among other things, renowned for its leather products. There are shops throughout the medina selling all sorts jackets, ottomans, shoes and every size and shape of bag. I’m in the market for a new weekend bag and a valise, so I’ve been shopping around. This is the one I chose (clicky-clicky for bigger version):
It’s handmade from camel skin. Pretty cool, eh? I talked the guy down a bit (I’m no great bargainer) to just over CAN $100. It smells a bit odd, but I assume that’s just the camel. We’ll find out in a few days, when we go to the desert.
4 Comments »
February 13th, 2008, 12 Comments »
Feeling adventurous, Julie bought these at the vegetable souk today. We have no idea what they are. Do you (click for bigger legume action)?
I’ve included the iPod for scale.
UPDATE: Julie provides these additional notes: they have a hard, thick skin and a beet-red juice.
UPDATE #2: I stand corrected. Julie assured me that they weren’t prickly or ‘cactus pears’, but she cut one open and tasted it. Indeed, they’re very small cactus pears with very intensely-coloured juice.
12 Comments »
February 13th, 2008, 6 Comments »
I interrupt your Wednesday with this insane cuteness. Yes, that’s a big box of kittens (super-size the cuteness)
Taken near our house in Essaouira. There’s another photo here, and a little more context for where the kittens live.
There are cats everywhere in Essaouira. I see at least a dozen every time I walk 100 yards from our riad. Moroccans seem to love them much more than dogs. We can probably chalk this up to their cherished role in Islam.
6 Comments »
February 4th, 2008, 2 Comments »
In Moroccan medinas, there’s a store every ten feet. I’m not exaggerating. They’re packed in like stalls at Playland or like the average North American mall, if each store had one-fifth of the frontage.
Most of these shops aren’t ’shops’ in the way we think of them in North America. They’re stalls, with most or all of the inventory behind the counter.
Malta taught me a valuable lesson in shopping outside of North America and mainland Europe: what you need probably isn’t in plain view.
That shift took me a while to make. You just need to hazard a guess at the right shop (few have signs) and ask the proprietor. This week I guessed correctly while seeking un marteau et des clous (”a hammer and some nails”–be careful to use ‘clous’ and not ‘ongles’, for the latter refers to fingernails).
Last week I visited an electronics store to ask about une rallonge (a power bar). They directed me across the street to what I can only describe as “the wire and cable shop”. He hooked me up.
The Shop Comes to You
In our small village on Gozo, the shop came to you. Each morning you’d hear a horn tooting regularly as the vegetable man drove into town. He’d park his truck in the town square, and sell vegetables to the local women (and us). There was likewise a fish man who had a different horn, and also yelled a lot in Maltese. On Tuesdays, the gas man would come through to replace propane tanks. In bigger towns, you’d also see other trucks–hardware, dried goods and so forth.
Like, I don’t know, the language of whales, we’d come to recognize the distinct honks of each mobile seller.
There’s a similar kind of culture of announcement here in Morocco. The gas man says something in Arabic (probably “gas”) as he pushes his laden handcart through the narrow alleys of the medina. Likewise the garbage men call out as they come by to collect the refuse twice daily.
No Queues
Julie just spent ten days back in Vancouver, and we were discussing the radically different retail models. She pointed out that whenever you bought anything in downtown Vancouver–clothing, coffee, groceries–you stand in line. She’s right–I’ll bet there was a queue for 80% of my purchases when we lived in Yaletown.
The opposite is true here. I almost never stand in line when shopping. In fact, ’shopping’ is a bit of a misnomer. You’re pretty much always shopping–as in browsing–when you walk down any street. The wares–particularly for the tourists–are bursting forth from every shop. I should say that “I never stand in line when I’m buying.”
Why are there no queues? Nearly every transaction is cash, and, despite the medina’s dense population, there seem to be more shops per buyer. There’s also far less customization–nobody orders “a half double decaffeinated half-caf, with a twist of lemon”.
If I were busier, I’d probably crave the order and sterility of a Canadian mall or grocery store. We do have a ton of work right now, but few other commitments. Leisurely walks to the fruit and vegetable souk are a nice break from the day job.
I’m not sure what the big finish to the blog post is. This year abroad has really reinforced my ascetic tendencies. I’ll never look at shopping, buying and consuming the same way.
2 Comments »
January 30th, 2008, No Comments »
It’s a busy day, so I’m fobbing you off with a couple of photos from our Essaouira photos. Yes, there are quite a few gulls at the port:
No Comments »
January 17th, 2008, 6 Comments »
Last week, tNb from Atomic Dogma linked to my site, and wrote this about traveling and living abroad:
I always feel most alive when I’ve been pushed out of my comfort zone. For example, two years ago I was invited to join a motorcycle trip from Rome to the Sahara desert in Tunisia. For weeks we were cold, hungry and uncomfortable but I loved every single minute of it. I felt alive!
I may have written about this before, but ‘getting uncomfortable’ is central to my choice to live abroad. I have a natural inclination toward stasis and the path of least resistance. Choosing to live in somewhat unlikely places is kind of an attack on that habit.
Do Something Every Day That Scares You
The first few days in a new place are always stressful. Add language issues and cultural differences and they can be really unpleasant. Not to sound too twee, but I think adversity builds character, and one way to make yourself a better person is to try things that make you uncomfortable.
My mother used to say “do something every day that scares you”. That didn’t happen back home in Vancouver, but it does here in Morocco. Not terrifying things, obviously, but when your French is as crap as mine, even asking for directions is a little scary.
My most recent triumph of pidgin French was locating dish detergent, or liquide à vaisselle (I find it difficult to remember not to pronounce the ‘qew’ sound). I had to ask at about four shops, but I eventually tracked it down.
Obviously discomfort is in the eye of the beholder. For a seasoned global traveler, what we’re doing in Morocco would be totally ordinary. But I also have friends who have never left North America, so for them what we’re doing seems pretty radical.
One reason we’re only spending three months in Essaouira is because I feared the discomfort level might be too high. That is, I’m not sure how my boundaries would readjust. Happily, they’re adjusting nicely. I could do with better French, a faster Internet connection and a better office chair, but we’ve already got the basic stuff–food, heat, hot water–sorted out. The rest, I’ve learned, is easy enough to figure out.
On a related note, I also still believe that living abroad makes you a better human.
6 Comments »
January 14th, 2008, 3 Comments »
I just got back from Essaouira’s souk, where the locals shop. I bought:
- 6 eggs.
- A whole chicken breast (meaning, uh, all the white meat on the bird). The butcher pulled it from his refrigeration unit–a box of water.
- A mango, 6 plums and 4 apples.
- Some carrots, an onion and a green pepper.
- Some couscous.
- A couple baguettes.
All for 75 dirhams, or just under CAN $10. A little cheaper than Urban Fare, methinks.
3 Comments »
January 8th, 2008, 8 Comments »
We’re finally settled in our temporary home here in Essaouira. All has gone well, though I’m struggling with a bit of gastroenteritis-related unpleasantness. It’s to be expected when visiting the developing world and hopefully will, uh, pass, in the next couple of days.
We’re very happy with our little riad. Technically speaking it has five levels–three floors around a central courtyard and two terraces. The wifi works like a charm, and we’re going to go see ‘the wood man’ later in the week. He’s going to make us a very simple wooden desk where we’ll work for the next two months.
Things should get back to normal around this site in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here are some photos of our riad. I was also fond of this odd tin of ‘email synthetique’. We could all use some of that, occasionally. But how do I apply it?
8 Comments »
October 25th, 2007, 4 Comments »
Last week, we started our search for a place to live for the three months we’ll be spending in Essaouira. It’s a seaside town of about 70,000 people about two hours east of Marrakech.
I was concerned that it would be tricky to find the right property. We wanted something ready-to-rent, complete with Internet access (we didn’t have time to wait around for a week to get it set up, and didn’t want to deal with utility bills and such). On the other hand, we needed a place with kitchen facilities. Combine our requirements with the very spammy, portal-filled search results (so typical of the online travel industry) I was generating, and I thought we were in for a bit of a search.
In Ireland and Malta, we’d relied on human filters to get the job done. When we moved to Ireland, the company hired a ‘relocation expert’ (really just a friend of the head of engineering, I think) to help us find the right flat. In Malta, we hooked up with the country’s biggest real estate company to find our Gharb farmhouse.
However, through some diligent searching, Julie found Dar Zahira (caution, groovy music ahead), a small riad in the centre of Essaouira’s walled city. It’s got three bedrooms, wifi throughout and it looks fairly awesome. We got it for an entirely reasonable price, and are looking forward to three months in North Africa before heading back to Canada.
We’ll be living, roughly speaking, in the center of this map:
View Larger Map
4 Comments »
