"Fes...My Home through a Hole in my Dreams" Top 5 Page for this destination Fes by JamalMorelli
Fes Travel Guide: 516 reviews and 1,107 photos
It is known that it is the slight smell of decay that gives jasmine it's depth and it's elusive quality. With Fes, decay is the ambient environment and yet no place has ever seemed so alive to me. It's like sharing a cigarette, there is communal decay, a delirious consensual slow death. And like a cigarette, there is the perfume of addiction; even though little changes in Fes - everything seems different from hour to hour... I can't take my eyes and ears off of it, can't stop myself from tasting her, from listening to her wild cries of cats, children, donkeys, animals waiting for slaughter, fish-shoe-driedbread salesman and collectors...cries of elated and enraged shopkeepers, glue sniffers and cripples, giggles of girls both veiled and barely dressed, boys with long greetings, soft generous eyes and puffed up chest....cries of the multitudes of prayer calls... like my long time love and other home, New Orleans, we don't bury our dead here... they dance and we dance with them..
Even more Jam
Jamal Morelli
Moroccan tips at a lick
Death is presented as matter of factly as your naked body before an audience of one thousand. There is no pretty version of it made to pinken it, soften it, make you more attracted to it. Death presented as itself is such a Fessian constant - whether through the butchers, the riads, the rotting beggars, the donkey excrement in your path. It is always cause for giddy elation, the sacrifice...
This picture was taken on my birthday, which coincided with the Eid. My friend, brother SiMohammed, asked me to sacrifice a goat. It was an honor his father would have done had he been alive. There wasn't a question of whether killing the goat and my birthday would complement each other - it was just assumed they would. So, after saying, 'bismillah' and 'allahu akbar' while slitting it's throat I watched the blood form a pool at SiMohammed's daughters feet, creeping up on her like a fast moving rain cloud. Nothing. Her face registered no fear or disgust. If anything she wanted to look at the eyes, still glistening on the decapitated head of the goat
Moroccan tips at a lick
People are flowing under you, over you, watching you... Spying women in those tiny windows, spying tourists from their second floor cafe as well as on the streets, spying guides, and lustful men and women who follow you, waiting for a window to flirt in, waiting for you to act. You may feel tired in Fes... as if it wasn't just the wandering through the ground spider tunnels and barely passable streets... as if you have been performing - and you have. You have been on stage the second you get into Fes. The Medivael PanOpticon, you are being watched.
Well, I suppose the next thing to do is love it... become a Fassi and participate in a 1300 year ritual of commerce and communion, prayer and promotion, laywork and love...
When I am not filming or traveling, I welcome guests at my place but don't ask me anything about restaraunts, hotels, guides, etc. Just give me enough of a head's up and then it's "Marhaba, travelmonkey!" Again, I have no (and want no) connection to the tourism business here or anywhere. If you want the absolute best free help for Moroccan travel go here
and if you want to see what I am up to (and where I am up to) go here
JamJam Morelli's Gig
Moroccan tips at a lick
UPDATE LITE: The only sushi restaurant in Fes has opened about a month ago. Spot on for a chap like me who lives for the stuff.
- Pros:A city with the momentum of over a thousand years...
- Cons:...if you did it right, you'll have little reason to leave...
- In a nutshell:Everyone will see in it whatever they want and everyone will be right
Reviews (68)
Find the Elusive Ironmonger "Sulieka...
Things to Do
(23)
I won't give away her location - that's for you to find, little one. Sulieka Morelli is one of the last Jewish... more travel advice
Jewish Cemetary, Habarim Synagogue
Things to Do
(23)
Lose an hour or two here in meditation - white waves of the tombs of the dead... the cemetary is both guarded and clean... more travel advice
Wander the medina in the late night
Off The Beaten Path
(4)
It's dark, scary and a bit dangerous. So, cross yourself and plunge into the cave-like medina of Fes. Anything could... more travel advice
Your Mind
Tourist Traps
(5)
Have you noticed the differences in the culture? Is it making you sick? May I offer the suggestion that 'you' are... more travel advice
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Warnings Or Dangers (10)
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Fes Travel Guide
Member Travel Pages
- "Fes...My Home through a Hole in my Dreams"
- "A medieval city in Morocco"
- "Keeweechic's Fez"
- "Fes - For a fistful of Dirhams !"
- "Fes - worth a longer stay"
- "Fes - November 2006"
- "Fez - A World Of Little Change Within The Medina"
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- Fes Travel Guide
- Figuig Travel Guide
- Ich Travel Guide
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- 68 Reviews
- 227 Photos
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- 16 Comments
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- Replied to JJennyx's Travel Fes Forum Forum Question "Transport Advice"
- updated a Fes Travel Page "Fes...My Home through a Hole in my Dreams"
- Uploaded a Photo to "Playing Cards"
- Wrote a Review theft at Hotel de la Paix Fez in Fes Warnings Or Dangers
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Friends
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See All Travel Interests (5)Latest Fes hotel reviews
- Zalagh Parc Palace Hotel
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Latest: Feb 22, 2012 - Crown Palace Fes
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Latest: May 7, 2012 - Ramada Fes
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Latest: May 20, 2012 - Ametis Nouzha Hotels Fez
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Latest: Jun 3, 2011

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Comments (16)
I loved reading your tips, I found them rather humourous. ;-)
Jam, Great Fes info & pics. I loved Morocco & Fes back in '81 - good to see it's still a great place. small world, my daughter is a sophomore at IUP currently!
Fantastic page!
nice to have a refresher of Fez thanks for yr tips - and I agree excellent cooks and dishes to be had which Ive had - but xlnt cooking in Risanni as well!
Your tips are very...ummm...interesting and entertaining...I liked the 'learn arabic' one.
Jamal, I'm realy enjoying your photos, they are great, I was in fes last month for only a week and fell in love with it. I'm planning on going back next april for longer time. Do you still live there ? Amer ahelmy40@msn.com
Making Love to One More Hour of Light in Fes.....love the photos:)
I love to fondle yout tips and tramp through your back allies. FES: I must visit!
Very useful and interesting - thanx!
Shukran for the tips Jamal-we had an amazing time! Next time we'll stay longer, inshallah... we were just getting the hang of Arabic and making a few friends... loved it....
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