Marrakesh

Goodness me! Marrakesh is a wild place! Here are some highlights:

Jamaa El Fna

This the most famous square in all of Morocco. It is everything a square should be; it has nothing in it. Well, that is until it is filled with wild excitement. Almost 24 hours a day, every day of the week something is going on there. First, there is the 'entertainment' section. This part of the square is filled with street performers, acrobats, snake charmers, fortune tellers, story tellers, musicians, street boxing matches, hema artists, magicians, witch doctors, and on and on. Crowds of people surround each sight and clap and cheer, and of course give money to the performers.

--- Just a side note here, I was ALWAYS the first person that was asked for money. In fact, most of the time I was asked for money within 15 seconds of arriving to watch. There are a few things to consider however. These performers are aware that tourists are good money. About being a tourist: I think I dressed pretty normal. I had no straps, fanny packs, cameras, stupid hats, flags, pins, or anything that should have separated me from any other man there. The problem arises with my skin colour, but even more so my hair colour. I was the only blond for miles. I got stared at from miles away. SO, all that considered, I had to turn down many a street performer's request for money.---

The snake charmers were almost like you see in cartoons. There is a man playing a horrible sounding oboe type instrument (one of which I now own - for all my snake charming needs you know...), other men playing drums or just making noise to grab your attention, still other men who are putting snakes all over themselves, putting them on tourists, kicking at the cobras, pretty much doing anything to make a crowd gasp. They even had snakes in a box (I know, not a clay pot, but close) which they would tease. Now, you could feel free to take a picture, but almost without a doubt, one of the above mentioned men would see you, and then bring a snake over to you so you could pose with it and take more pictures. At this point, you are trapped. Once you are satisfied, they ask for money. Feeling obliged, you offer some change. No matter what you give them, it is not enough and they make a scene. One snake charmer repeatedly yelled 'MONEY' at me for about 2min straight because he wasn't happy with what I tried to give him. Too bad for him, he ended up with none. You learn very quickly to avoid the snake charmer bullshit no matter how dramatic they are.

The dentist man is unbelievable. There is a creepy old man in with a small old cart sitting in one part of the square. On his cart he has a mountain of teeth, some animal, many human. Next to the tooth mountain are some crude dentures which he has constructed. Locals come to this guy when they can't afford anything else (I assume...) to get a tooth pulled. He only had a few things to get the job done: pliers, knives, and some sort of stone that he puts in your mouth once the tooth is out (to stop bleeding or pain I suppose). Then (and I am speculating somewhat here) if the tooth is usable, he places it into a set of homemade dentures for another customer.

In another part of the square are the food and drink vendors. Every night around 100 food vendors set up a tent and portable kitchen and cook up everything under the sun and sell it to the public for cheap. There were probably 20 identical orange juice stands side by side, all selling glasses of orange juice for 3 dirham (about 40 cents). Oranges grow all over here - in some places they are falling off the trees and rotting on the ground. Other rows of vendors sold fresh fish, squid, kababs, salads, and breads. Still others cooked up Tajine. Tajine is the name of the dish that the food is cooked in - a pyramid shaped lid on a shallow bowl all made of clay and cooked on fire. There are many types and flavours of Tajines, all called by the name of the dish. One night I ate dinner for 8DH. I had a bowl of 3DH soup at one stand, liked it so tried another stand selling the same thing. Then I was generous and tipped the man 2DH because he took a picture for me. 8DH is about a buck. I then paid 20DH for a coke to gain access to a roof top terrace to see the square from above. It was worth the over priced coke. Other things being cooked up? Whole sheep heads, cauldrons of snails, and other unknown Moroccan delicacies.

Hamman

A Hamman is a public bath. Sort of. There are many types of Hammans, they range from a room with a tap with warm water for washing yourself, to a full on day spa with all the luxuries. We asked our tour guide which place he recommended. Without doing any further research, we headed to our Hammam. Now, there is the tourist price and the local price. The local price grants you access to the Hammam and that is it - you'd go there to wash and bring your own soap and towel, etc. The tourist price includes the soap, towel, wash cloth, and your own masseuse.

Three of us guys went for the full on experience. After paying, we were ushered into the change room where we left everything but our bathing suits. We were then ushered through a few empty but steamy chambers until we reached the last one. A guy splashed a bucket of water on the floor and then told us: "Dormir" which I translated for the other two: "lay down!" So we lay on the floor of an empty hot steaming room for a while until we began sweating like mad. We were then ushered into another empty, wet, but somewhat cooler room. Again, we were told to lay down. A man came and dumped a huge bucket of water on my head.

Since there were three of us, and only two dudes to massage us, me and Terry (a great Aussie on my tour) had to share. I had the pleasure and the horror of watching him go first. Our masseuse was an ever so slightly balding, mostly naked, ever so slightly chubby, ever so slightly moist Moroccan man. First, Terry got rubbed down with the 'soap'. The soap was a black ball of slime. He then got half pinched / half tickled all over. At this point, I was starting to giggle, but unsure of the etiquette of a Hammam, I just lay in my puddle on the hard floor and stayed quiet.

At one point, the guy pulled Terry's arm straight back in the air and started making a very loud puckering kissing sort of sound while slapping Terry's muscle. I watched in horror as Terry groaned in pain. This happened over and over for each limb in a whole number of different positions. The guy put Terry on his stomach, pulled both his arms back in the air, then stepped on his spine with his foot! Then, he grabbed Terry's leg and pulled it up behind his head so far that Terry started sliding accross the slippery wet floor. To get Terry back to his spot, the guy just grabbed his foot and drug him back. At this point I burst into laughter - the sight of Terry being drug around on the wet floor coupled with the fear of going next was unbearable, I had to react.

My turn was much of the same. That guy stepped all over me, slapped me, kicked me, made lots of kissing sounds, poured many buckets of water over me, and even let his armpit drip in my face. I came out feeling kind of clean, kind of beat up, and kind of confused...

Those are a few highlights of Marrakesh. There are many more, but I have to jet. I'm on my way home now! See you soon!