Walkabout Marrakech

day FOUR (Sept’07). We took a map, and go… “Let’s walk that direction towards the Marrakech Royal Theatre”. Kid you not. So, what else, we walk lar… it’s kinda far come to think about it. But I guess when you are traveling, the excitements supersede everything else. Our fantastic plan, walk and take pics and see the locals day-to-day life, and stop wherever/whatever that looks interesting…. easy peasy.

We walked into Djemaa el Fna Square, it looked totally different during the morning, no dwellers, no snake charmer, no hanna artist, no spice seller… Pretty quiet, which I felt weird. Hemm…… All I can see is Calèches; a green, canopied, horse-drawn carriages that hold four to five people. Wanted to ride this but at the end, didn’t manage to as we ran out of time.

We start our loooong walk Avenue Mohammed V, and our first stop is Bab NKOB, “Bab” meaning “Gate”. I kept telling Andrea it’s NKOTB gate! Must take pic! Heeheheh….. Kids! And still no sight of the Marrakech Royal Theatre as yet, sigh. Jalan again lar, ah-hah! We saw McDonald (not that we can eat - fasting month ma…), but since we didn’t expect to see an American fast food joint here, we took a pic (Hey! They are not THAT backward after all - more like I’m the one that are silly and ignorant!).

Then we have a problem, Junction! Which one? Hemm... Map time again (our best friend during trips). Can’t remember which road we took, but one thing I remembered was that the street pavement was planted with orange trees… And the oranges are SUPER SWEET (like me! Muahaha… yah! Perasan!), not those by the road side. We purchased a bottle of freshly squashed orange juice from the square the day before.

Alas, the Marrakech Royal Theatre, to our surprise, there was nothing much here…sigh…. Slightly disappointed. Took some pics and plan to head back but this time on the opposite side of the road (cause we saw Cyber Park which we thought interesting).

As we approached the Arsat Moulay Abdeslam Cyber Park, I saw it is being sponsored by my company base in Morocco. Hahahha…… YEAY! We noticed French influence is still strong despite that the claimed independent since 1956, reason being the signages are still spelled as “Sortie” instead of “Exit” or even “Salida”. Oh! There were also some infomercial on PC monitors scattered the park - KEWL! Changgihnye!

We saw a signage that says Esemble Artisanal, we were wondering what is it, on the way back we decided to check it out. I mean… why not right?! We went in and….. It’s a cultural village for the local handy-crafts. What else - SHOPPING GURLS! So wanted the Moroccon lamp but against it at the end, I do have another country plus many more stops to go. Sigh…. But I have to buy something right, I purchased my name in Arab and Moroccan plate, I still have magnets to be purchased at the souk. Till then, back to Riad for buka puasa and plan to our last day in Marrakech.

Another day of Hop-On and Hop-Offing in Marrakech.

Credits : Wikipedia