Marrakech, What’s it really like?
Arriving at Menara airport
Menara airport is a bastion of modernity on the edge of the Sahara desert, but don’t be fooled. Behind the large glass facade that greets the traveler once they clear customs, a secret world awaits. Little did I know that before I would return to the relatively tranquil atmosphere of the airport, a local Berber tribesman would have verbally abused me, I would laughed out loud at the site of goats climbing trees and one of the world’s deadliest snakes would have tried to sink its fangs into my foot. But as the sign says, “Welcome to Marrakech”.
#Tip: you need to fill in an arrival card before you can leave the airport, so make sure you have a pen.
Super modern Menara airport.
Getting from the airport
So now you’ve navigated the airport, it’s time to get into the city centre and find your hotel or Riad. You have 2 options, unless you have prepaid a shuttle service of course. First, a taxi. Lots of drivers will be waiting for you when you leave the terminal, you will need to haggle, don’t be shy, they expect it. The price should be between 80-120 Dirham’s (roughly £5.50-£8.50). This will depend upon where you are staying. Next choice is the bus. When you leave the terminal, look right. You will see a stair case going up to the car park. Go up them and follow the path straight across. The bus stop is at the far end. The number 19 will drop you off in the city centre and will only cost about 30 Dirhams (£2.10). Cheapest way for a traveler on a budget.
#Tip: even while you standing waiting for the bus, taxi drivers will hassle you for business. They will tell you the bus doesn’t go to the city centre, ignore them, it does.
The 19 will drop you off in the city centre, it will only set you back a couple of pound, bargain.
Time to explore
Now we get to the good bit. If you only remember the advice I’m passing on from one paragraph, this is the one. I am, off course assuming that you’ve found your accommodation and your ready to explore the city. Every city has that one place you can’t avoid, New York has Times Square, Barcelona has Plaza De Catalunya. So with that in mind there can only be one place to start your Moroccan adventure, the infamous Jamaa el-Fnaa, Marrakech’s main square. It is the beating heart of the city, the place where everything happens and you will find yourself walking across it many times. It has many entrances/exits and the one you use will depend upon the location of your accommodation. I first entered through what I believe would be considered the main entrance, but I’m basing that on size rather than knowledge. It’s where the post office is located and there is a line of horse drawn carriage’s, you can’t miss it. I arrived at 7:30am and nothing much was happening, to be honest it was a bit of a let down after all the stories I’d heard.
Early morning rise for Jamaa El-Fna
Familiarise yourself with the square while having breakfast
I took the opportunity to go up to one of the roof garden cafe’s which are dotted around the square for some breakfast. It was a good start to the day, just sitting watching the square come to life. But very quickly I started to notice that it was very organized, not a chaotic mess that I had been lead to believe by other bloggers. Everyone had there place, and this included the dancers and snake charmers that were apparently going to stop at nothing to get every last dirham out of my pocket. Let’s get one thing straight, they don’t try to scam you, it’s a business transaction. You take their picture, you pay them some money, where’s the scam?
Watching the dancers is free, but point your camera at them and it will cost you.
They are obviously a bit more aggressive at selling than we’re used too, but that’s how they make a living. But once you figure out where their territory is it’s very easy to walk past them without being stopped. It’s a little known fact that Morocco has a tourist police to make sure your safe, they are usually undercover and if the vendors fall foul of them they can be given a substantial fine. I was only stopped once, and that was when I purposely walked through a snake charmers territory. I just wanted to have a look at the snakes close up to be honest, but it turned out to be a near fatal mistake.
Ancient but cruel tradition.
Watch where you step
While chatting over breakfast with a fellow traveler, I was given a tip on how to make the snake charmers go away. I don’t mean literally of course, just how to get them to leave you alone. The snake charmers come as a double act, the guy sitting on the floor with the punji (flute), and his mate. He’s the one you need to watch out for, he usually has a couple of snakes hanging around his neck. He will approach you and then offer one of the snakes to you to hold for a photograph, you will be expected to cough up some dirhams for the please of course, so you’d better be good at haggling or it can get expensive.
Watch out for this guy or it will cost you.
Stop him in his tracks
So here is the tip I was given. As soon as you see him coming towards you, put your hand up and shout “no snake, no snake”. Give him the impression that your scared. So that’s what I did, and guess what? It worked. He just laughed and walked away. Unfortunately, while doing my best cowardly lion impression, I walked a few steps backwards, suddenly I felt a bang on my right foot. I looked down, just in time to see a cobra pulling back it’s head from my shoe. I’d been bitten. Now, I don’t know what the protocol is in a situation like that, I certainly wasn’t going to scream like a baby, so I just laughed and walked away. I headed towards the nearest cafe so I could sit down and take a look at the damage, the 20 yards I walked felt like a mile. On inspection, I couldn’t see any holes in my boots so I figured everything must be ok, it’s fangs hadn’t pierced the leather. Thank god I had bought decent boots instead of cheap plastic ones. I later found out that their had actually been nothing to worry about, the cobras have had their fangs removed, just incase they bite an unwary traveler. Makes sense I suppose, killing tourists would be bad for business.
Jemaa El-Fna at night is a real experience.