MARRAKECH is not the place to go to enjoy the cuisine, the booze (what those boys on the stag weekend did to celebrate I would love to know), alcohol is expensive and drunk only really by the tourists and not even the 'friendly' people are a draw. I, in fact feel that we were more tolerated for the the good, we as tourists, do for the economy than for any other reason. I am sure that, had we been fluent in French, perhaps, just maybe, our presence may have been accepted with a little more honest delight.
There is little to do in Marrakech in fact, apart from gaze in awe at the union of old and new which slips together to make this place both a step back in time and a bounce into the future. Souks that appear to have been life for many decades, donkeys used traditionally as beasts of burden run parrallel with top of the range Mercedes and an expanse of hotels growing at high speed. Oddly it works, the modern world is rapidly becoming a way of life, strangely this society appears to have missed out the middle pieces of transformation and skipped right to western 2007, without much of a hicough.
Colours, spices, smells (not all good), street activities, also not all good; I felt distressed to see monkeys being used as photo opportunities and although snake charming has been around for years, it is the knowledge their fangs have been removed that makes one feel troubled by this act...and isn't it so that snakes are deaf, they have no ears thus cannot hear the music being played to them, in reality they respond more to vibration.. but for now I guess we have to accept some things as a way to charm society and earn money, this fascinating scarey thrill is one of those things, albeit cruel.
However, from a magical old town, where at times one could feel a little nervous of pickpockets (I also would not choose to be a woman travelling without a man personally), yet also feel seduced by it's unique atmosphere, to the the astonishingly spectacular scenery of the Atlas mountains, this is still a place to visit at least once in a life time.
Our verdict, we loved it. |
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