Day 6 – October 10, 2014

After flying in from Faro, we landed at an airport in the outskirts of Paris where Sameer was going to meet us. After a rather uneventful layover, I felt a breeze gently touch my cheek. As I turned to see what caused it, I saw a helicopter land on the tarmac, and dressed in a torn up white shirt and jeans, a hunk jumped off. As he walked towards us, a missile came out of nowhere and blew the helicopter into a million pieces. Debris flew everywhere; however, this hunk kept on walking, almost in slow motion. He then lifted his arm in the air and somehow caught the propeller that was going to hit a mother and her baby. He then jumped on to a motorcycle that was standing beside him, took off his sunglasses, ran his hand through this hair, and winked at the camera. It was Sameer.

– Foreword written by Sameer

BAHAHAH So, here is what really happened… We departed Portugal in the morning and flew to Paris, France for a stopover enroute to Marrakech, Morocco. Luckily, we had no issues with our connection since the Beauvais airport was tiny. We met Sameer who wasn’t so lucky as his airport bus never arrived and he had to take a taxi to make the flight.

We arrived feeling the heat of Morocco and then waited an hour to go through passport control. Passport control was hilarious and very racist. I passed with no issues but the others… Sameer was asked “Where did you come from?” so he replied with “Paris”… Then he was asked again, “No, where you from?” So he replied “Canada?” and then AGIAN “No, your parents!” and he then replied “Oh… India?” And the officer said “oh okay”. Michelle’s experience was worst. She filled out her form to declare she is canadian.  The officer asked “So, where are you from?” She said, “Canada”. He said “No, your background”. So she replied, “Chinese” And so, he crossed off her nationality to put “CHINA”. We had a good chuckle. We met up with our Marrakech tour guide, Said and dropped off our luggage at Riad la princess du desert. We walked around the medina through the souks and Said gave us some interesting history about Morocco.

We also went to a Moroccan herb and spice shop and a bread house (where families bring their dough for the breadmaker to bake). We had our first glass of fresh orange and grapefruit juice at No. 44 stall around the El Jemaa Lefna square.

We were guided back to our Raid for dinner on the rooftop. This turned out to be a hilarious situation. We wee given bread, soup and an eggplant gnoush. We finished it and were debating if that was the meal. We concluded that was it so we went back to our rooms and head to the square… We then heard our host calling us back “Guys? Guys? You still have to eat the main…” Oh man, we were laughing our heads off. We sat down again and ate a very delicious chicken curry. This time, we also stuck around for the orange sprinkled with cinnamon as a dessert.

We were ready to call it a night until we heard the host and his friends drumming downstairs. We went to listen to their live performance that then broke out into a dancing jamming session. The host taught us how the berbers dance, gave us traditional outfits and showed us how to play the drums.

Day 7 – October 11 2014

We ate a nice breakfast in on the rooftop and left for Casablanca with our driver/guide, Abdul. After a 2-hour drive, we started with the largest Mall in Africa, ‘Morocco Mall’. The shopping mall was very americanised with familiar stores like H&M, Zara etc. There were a couple of luxurious brands like Fendi, Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton too. Surprisingly there was a Ladurée in the mall so I had to get some overpriced macarons. They were 22DH each, which is about 3.00 each. It was somewhat worth it (I still prefer Point G in Montreal more). We also grab some lunch in the food court where I had a chicken shawarma and Sameer had a McArabia (kebab in a wrap).

We moved on to the Hassan II Mosque, seventh largest in the world. The exterior architecture and detail was very impressive and beautiful. We were going to view the interior but a big French tour group was in front of us so we decided to wait 5-10 minutes… When we went back, they said they were closed! Oh well, we saved the admission and another tourist told us it wasn’t worth it.

We drove by the Casablanca town square, which was not impressive enough to get out of the car or take any photos. That was all there is in Casablanca so we moved onwards to Rabat. We checked into our hotel and then walked around the marina and city to a dinner spot. It was really neat to see the locals walking around, sitting in the cafés and shopping on the streets. It was lively but didn’t feel threatening compared to areas in Vietnam. I liked it.

We got to Tajine wa Tajina for dinner which was pretty quiet. The food was too bland for my liking but I did get to try Michelle’s camel dish –tasted like beef without any pungent gamy taste. Abdul picked us up and we stopped a local fruit smoothie shop before heading back. I ordered the Avocado with milk, which was good but too sweet and warm for my liking. It was a good deal though, 12DH (about $1.50).