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We stay at a "top rated" hotel, as rated by both our guide
books and various web sites. The Hotel Menzeh Zalagh is in the Ville Nouvelle.
It had some interesting features:
Guests are not trusted with the thermostat of their room - so the knob
has been removed (see picture)
Despite a double-locked door and a "do not disturb" sign, the maid came
into our room at 8:00AM to pick up the towels to wash them and return
them to us that evening. We are still jet lagged and in bed and she just
walks in
To conserve electricity, the hallways have lights in the "normally
off" position with a timer. We walk out of the elevator and have
to find our room in the dark
Our floor shook from the first floor disco until 1:00AM.
We quickly learn that "top rated" hotels were all "passé" and we found
"mid-range" and "budget" rated hotels much cleaner and often better. |
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The medina is surrounded by walls and grand gates. |
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Coming through the Bab Bou Jeloud door, you see a number of
restaurants and the wall. We have lunch in the Kasbah -where a girl and
her friends tell me that she's looking for a husband. She keeps telling
me how I should marry her. Later, one of the waiters offers me hashish
which seems quite prevalent there. |
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As with Meknes, streets are quite small and tight. |
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... donkey power!
You always have to listen to the word "balek" - this means "get out
of the way" or "watch out" (more donkeys coming) |
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You can buy pretty much everything in the medina.... camel
head included! |
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... all sorts of pasta (left)... and vegetables (right).... |
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... charcoal ... |
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... clothing ... |
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... brass "stuff" ... |
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... and junk! |
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This medina also has highly decorated doors. The decorations
keep spirits (genies) out of the buildings! |
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... more doors!.... |
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We were able to get into one of the many mosques (unusual &
lucky). This mosque was quite pretty and ornate. Nice door! |
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The mosque's walls were highly decorated |
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... along with the windows and door frames ... |
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... and an amazing ceiling .... |
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... and very nice inner wooden door .... |
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Fez is famous for its tanneries. Leather from sheep and camel
is cleaned, dried and dyed in these large vats.
The lighter vats are filled with guano (bird poop) and used to clean the hides. Hides are left in these for 3-6 days.
The darker vats are used to die the hides. They are left in there for 5-7 days. |
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Red dye! |
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Dried hides - yellow is from saffron |
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It seems that most people have access to television.... |
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The real toilets of Morocco.
These are hard to find in the medina - we have to ask around. Often we were
told that there are no "toilets" in the medina. It's true- there are only
"real toilets" (as pictured and called in Morocco) |
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Much like in Thailand, we found sidewalks often unfinished |
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... or just very "holy" |
