In Marrakesh, we'd spent the first day or two wandering the Jemaa Al Fna square, true sensory overload with snake charmers, henna ladies wanting to adorn your limbs with intricate designs, medicine men usually encased in a tight capsule of curious onlookers and remedy seekers, the ubiquitous fresh orange juice stalls - all exactly the same but numbered differently in lieu of a name, all vying for your patronage, selling THE BEST, SWEETEST orange juice we have ever tasted. Restaurants and cafes line the perimeter of the square offering terrace views of of the activity and a relatively invisible perch from which to snap some photos.
Wandering into the crowds are the souks, with stall after stall of exotic colors, amazingly beautiful things: carpets, scarves, lamps, mirrors, tagines, pottery, rose water and olive oils, bedspreads, jewelry and the traditional babouche slippers that almost every Moroccan owns. Turn the corner and you will find a row of apocatharies offering fragrant mounds of mint tea for digestion, black cumin seeds for snoring, chameleons in cages for...not sure what, frankensence, crystals, amber, vats of soft taffee like olive soap, traditional Berber lipstick , a little clay vessel that releases a red pigment when you put a wet finger to it. It's a carnival of colors and sounds and smells. You half hope to have a magic cave door open before you and a genie inviting you inside to live the rest of your life in shameless luxury. Bargaining is expected but Mike and Val, seasoned bargainers from South East Asia have no problems here. The typical lure of a shop vendor goes something like this:
Hello where you from? Come in just for looking, not for buying.
And you can never get a straight answer on a price. When you ask how much something costs, they will first pull you into their shop, maybe to be out of earshot of the other shop vendors? They will show you everything else they´ve got, then try to tell you everything you need to know about them. If you are truly interesting in buying, then they will begin to talk price. Sometimes a little backward because often our decision to buy something really only hinges on the price.
Around the next bend a completely different experience, one man emerging from the middle of a patchwork skirt of colorful spices, nuts and all manner of dried fruit. Stall after stall of these fruit and nut whirling dervishes frozen in time. By lunch time on the first day, we were lightheaded and almost nauseaus from our morning in the souks and wondered if someone had slipped us a mickey somewhere along the way.
At night, the center of square transforms completely. Smoke rises from the countless food stalls that materialize here at around sundown. Locals and tourists are out and about, eager to partake in anything and everything. As exotic and exciting as Marrakesh is, it takes out of you as much as it stimulates. A couple days were enough and we started to make exit plans.
For photos of Marrakech, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31967627@N00/sets/72157594381039013/
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31967627@N00/sets/72157594423286524/
