Marrakech #1

I AM BACK!!!!

I have been neglecting blogging since I now have a life.  :P  I have two things tick on the life list - getting married and getting a proper job.  Married life is easy but the job part is difficult.  Whenever I wanted to quit on work as it is very demanding and physically draining, something inside my brain pulls me right back(Read:  Stubbornness) . I love working in fashion and will always do but noone told me how difficult it's gonna be and how low the pay is.  Fashion is definitely a passion and it is not glamorous as people think it is.  IT IS HARD WORK!  PERIOD.

I haven't been in a different country since India.  Last time I was on a plane was in July when I packed my life from the Philippines to the UK.  Since then, life happened.  I can not elaborate as I have a personal blog for that.  Hehe.

I have been itching to go to Morocco since my friend went and described the scene as The Aladdin.  My passion was further fuelled by the SATC 2.  Yup, you read it right.  The only problem is, my dear husband(DH) Luke doesn't want to go for safety reasons.  Very Western, I say.  In the end, my constant talking of Morocco prevailed and we were off to Marrakech.  :)

We left Reading at 4AM to get to the half 7 flight to Marrakech.  The flight was smooth, I slept all through out as per usual and when we landed, I had a bit of headache.  I blame the motion sickness.  We queued up for an hour in the immigration were I was worried about my visa although I don't need one.  You see fellow travellers, as a citizen of the 3rd world country, I always prepare myself for the worse - A to A.  Afterwards, we found our driver who took us to our Riad.

We only had a month to plan for this trip and to be honest with you, I planned on last minute, meaning the day before the trip.  Back in the day, I would have daily itinerary and directions written but this time it's different, I don't have my family to boss around and me and DH just want to relax.  We arrived the Riad at 1PM and left at 3PM to explore the old city - Medina as they call it.

Few things I learn about the souk trip:

1.  Bargain and haggle.  You can almost knock down prices to half of their starting price.  We bought a condiments serving container in the shape of tagines.

The souks sells everything apart from bikini sets. :P  We wanted to buy leather bags for travelling but they were poorly stitched.

2.  You have to spend money to get good food.  

This was the scenario - I was getting bitchy as usual from lack of food and I jumped on the first food opportunity.  The guide books recommends that for an authentic Moroccan experience, you should try eating at the souks which we did.  The photo above was our meal when we were through with it.  Barely touched.  That's how bad it was.  To compensate, we ate out.  This time, fine dining.  Just the way I like it. :)

3.  Drinking mint tea in Cafe de France is good for people watching.  I can't stress this enough.  People watching is one of my favourite past times.  When I watch people, I create conversations in my head or I say it out loud to Luke.  Thank God for DH.  He understands me.

4.  You have to be careful with bikes, donkeys, horse drawn carriage, motor bikes in and out of the souk.  It is a jungle out there!!!