Marrakech - I’m Loving It

day FIVE (Sep’07). Last day in Marrakech.

Somehow I felt happier, not because it’s the last day but perhaps I have warmed up to the country (am abit shy you see….hahaha). I realized I took plenty of pics today…. I even amazed myself. Maybe, just maybe because of the HOHO hunk that we saw while waiting for the HOHO bus…. Yea… I think so too. Hahahhaha…. Focus! Lily! Focus!

Marrakech is weird somehow; you tend to miss it dearly once you blended in. We excited to start our journey of hop-on and hop-offing in Marrakech, there are lotsa of places that we haven’t covered. First stop - Jardin de la Menara. What we saw was a bit pond of water and a “menara”, yeah! That’s it…. We were thinking… “Ni aje?!”. We saw some cables to the water and suspected that occasionally there might just be orchestrated light and show presented here….not that bad lar. We circled the whole pond/lake, turn back and waited for the next HOHO bus.

Next we stopped at Saadian tombs in Marrakech date back as far as 1578. We’re fascinated by the architecture and craftsmanship, so intricate! The tombs constructed by Sultan Ahmed el Mansour in Marrakesh were sealed up for centuries until their rediscovery in 1917. The tombs are magnificently decorated with colorful tiles, Arabic script and elaborate carvings. Fine carvings and stunning zellij tiles recall the Alhambra in Granada (built 200 years earlier) of which I will show you soon (in a couple of days) when I visit the Alhambra.

Across the street are the Bab Agnaou or Agnaou Gate, and as usual, fruit time for Andrea! Yummy! Bab Agnaou is one of the nineteen gates of Marrakech. Built in the 12th century in the time of the Almohad dynasty. And coincidentally the HOHO bus stop is also here.

The subsequent HOHO ride was a long want taking us around the corners of Marrakech city. And Andrea is happy as her pics with hunks turned out better as they were smiling gleefully, maybe because they were looking at the photographer - MOI (PERASAN!).

Cant remember where we stop but we saw a bakery nearby and decide to walk in, our eyes were feast with all sorts of local desert. Bought a box to bring back to Malaysia. Hemm…. Will it be abe to last for another week? Yes, it did and my family members loves it.

As it approached the evening (we were lepaking near this fountain area while waiting to break fast, we thought we should break our fast outside, our selection McDonald (not very creative huh). The funny thing is after placing our order, the lady asked whether are we Muslim, we said yes. And she said the food will only be deliver after the azan - she don‘t trust us not to eat before the azan (!!?!?! - and she forgotten to send the food over till I remindered her). We were served with kurma to break our fast… hemm… Malaysia should do this as well.

After the meal, we went back to the Riad to collect our bags and head to the train station to further our journey to Spain on ferry via Tangier. We took the ONCF night train (wanted to try their bunker). It wasn’t bad, clean with aircon; I can leave with it. I was pretty exicted as this is the 1st time in my life taking a long distance train out of Malaysia, I felt and LOOK like a kid that just gotten a candy!

Waking up in a new city - Tangier!

Credits : Wikipedia, Sacred-destinations, Marrakech-cityguide, Morocco & ONCF