Accountant Adventures: July 2009

Friday, July 31, 2009

Marrakesh

Fancy Hat

Julie’s bag is in really bad shape one of the wheels is completely gone and now when the bag is pulled the bottom of the bag tears on the street. We bought some tape to try to fix it, but as soon as we started to pull the bag it fell apart again. We pretty much have to carry the ridiculously heavy bag everywhere now.

Today (Thursday) we slept in a little and were still unsure of our plans for today, we are so bad at planning. We were thinking it would be nice to go to Essaouira, a beach town and stay there for two days before heading back to Casablanca. We are going back to Casablanca so that Julie can return home on Sunday. We looked into it and figured out that there were no trains and we would have to take 2 really long Grande Taxis, first to Marrakesh and from there to Essaouira. We decided that would be too much traveling and too expensive so now we are going to Marrakesh and staying there tonight and then taking the train to Casablanca until Julie leaves and I figure out what I am doing next. I am probably going to spend another week or two in Morocco. Then I will take the ferry to Spain and travel around there and then continue making my way North in Europe. It is all very tentative at this point in time. If anyone wants to come and join me anywhere, let me know.

We were able to get the Grande Taxi to Marrakesh very quickly and climbed in for what is most likely Julie’s last Grande Taxi experience of this Moroccan trip. I think Julie started to get teary eyed at this though because she loves being crammed into a cab with 6 stinky guys. The trip from Ouarzazate to Marrakesh was less than 200 KM and I couldn’t figure out why it was nearly double any other trip we have taken until we started to drive up and around in the mountains. It takes a long time to go 200 KM when you cannot drive over 40KM/H. A little over half way we stopped for a 30 minute break to get some food. Julie and I went to a restaurant and ordered our food, which came 28 minutes later. I grabbed the food wrapped it in paper and headed back to the cab to eat it there. None of the other passengers outside Julie and myself seemed too concerned with the 30 minutes of allotted time. We were the only ones besides the driver back at the taxi. The driver told me that in Morocco 30 minutes can mean an hour or maybe even two. Everyone finally came back about an hour after the driver had given us 30 minutes to eat.

As we headed out, the driver turned the radio off and started to listen to the car, it was making loud sounds. Julie and I looked at each other with looks of “not again!” The driver pulled over, looked under the car, looked under the hood and poured some water somewhere and then decided to drive on and see what happens. Luckily it kept working and we made it safely to Marrakesh. Marrakesh is hot, really really hot. I do not like it, I wish someone would put an air conditioned dome over the city or at the very least an air conditioned dome around me while I’m here. We went to a hotel from LP and it was closed so we went to the next cheapest close by hotel from LP but all of the really cheap rooms were already taken. The manager gave us a discount so it is not too terrible but more than I wanted to pay, that is for sure.

Moroccan restaurants have 3 things on the menu Tagine, Kabobs and Couscous. That’s it, those are all of your choices at 95% of the places. They are all decent food items but they are all bland and the lack of variety is frustrating. To add to the frustration most places don’t actually have couscous. LP has a listing for La Maison de Couscous and it is supposed to be air conditioned so we decided to go there for dinner. Then we found out that they had closed. We were really hungry and thirsty and hot so we went to the next restaurant that we could find and went inside. Before entering the restaurant you have to buy your drinks outside. I got 2 sodas and Julie got a soda and water and the total came to almost $10 USD. We laughed and said thanks but no thanks, we don’t need to pay that much for drinks! We went next door where there was air conditioning and we were able to get couscous, it was very delicious if not bland.

Marrakesh is famous for their enormous outdoor market and we spent the night walking among the shops. They have snake charmers, monkeys, women who apply henna and lots of locally made items. For dessert we had some delicious fresh orange juice that must have crack sprinkled in it because it is highly additive. Tomorrow we head towards Casablanca.

Lunch View

High 5

The mountains

From inside the Grande Taxi

Guess where I took this picture from

Inside our fancy hotel

Orange Juice Vendors

Julie's poor bag

Worth

Goats aren't the only ones who can climb

I forgot to mention this yesterday and so I will mention it now because it is worth being mentioned. When we were playing in the river a man approached us and started talking to us. They usually want us to visit their shop or take a tour from them and it can be quite annoying. We take turns talking to these people and it was my turn, so I crossed the river to speak with him. Most conversations with such people go along these lines:

Them: Bonjour
Us: Bonjour
Them: Cava
Us: Cava
Them: Are you English?
Us: No, we are Americans
Them: Where are you from in America?
Us: Chicago (if it’s Julie, I say California)
Them: I have a friend/cousin/brother who lives there
Us: That’s cool
Them: Morocco and America are brothers
Us: Yes
Them: (Pause) Obama
Us: Yes
Them: Would you like to come to my shop/restaurant/hotel
Us: No thank you

This guy was trying to get me to come to a place where women make Berber rugs and I really didn’t want to so I told him I would talk to Julie and maybe tomorrow. Then I tried to walk away and he asked me if I would promise to come tomorrow. I told him I would talk to Julie and see. Then he asked me if I would like to trade Julie for 100 camels. I just looked at him and smiled and walked back across the river. I told Julie his offer, and that I thought it was a pretty good one, I don’t know how much camels go for but a rough estimate of $3-5K per camel times 100 is a good amount of money. Julie thought she was worth at least 200 camels.

Last night we slept with the windows open and the breeze picked up and it made it really cold in the room. I closed one of the windows and the wind grabbed it and threw it open and it slammed against the wall just over my head and made me shriek like a little girl. This morning (Wednesday) we had bread with jam for breakfast. Normally the jam here has a color but has no flavor. This morning the Jam was strawberry and was so delicious! The tea on the other hand was awful, it didn’t have any mint flavor at all.

We went for a hike in the sun and there was no wind, so nice to be covered in constant sweat. We ran out of time to get to any really scenic areas before we had to turn around and head back to the hotel to shower and check out. It was still fun though and we got to see some roaming goats, which I loved and Julie was scared of. The goats were walking our way and Julie was trying to shoo them away so they wouldn’t come near us.

We got a taxi ride back to Tinerhir, where we could catch a Grande Taxi to our next town Ouarzazate. Ouarzazate is famous for being the setting for Star Wars, Gladiator and Lawrence of Arabia to name a few of the movies that were filmed here. When we got to the Grande Taxi station there were already two people there and so we were encouraged, we only needed two more. We kept waiting and waiting and after an hour and a half of waiting without anyone else coming each of us paid extra for the two people that weren’t there so we could go.

Even though the back seat only had 3 instead of the usual 4 people it still felt pretty crowded. All of a sudden the car made a noise and the driver pulled the cab over, something was wrong. The driver got out and popped the hood and realized that several parts were missing and that the car wouldn’t work anymore. I’m sure there are technical names for what was wrong but I’m not a car guy, so I don’t know. The driver called for another cab and we were all able to fit in the new cab and made it safely to Ouarzazate. We hadn’t eaten since early in the morning and our hotel had pizza so we gave some a try. While they were making the pizza, Julie went to make a phone call and I waited. When the pizza came Julie was still gone so I dug in and ate half of the pizza. When Julie returned she asked what the green stuff in the 3 cheese pizza was and I told her I thought it was spices. It turns out that it was moldy cheese and we aren’t sure if it was supposed to be green. I ate it and I didn’t even care or notice I was so hungry.

Goat Herd

Walk Views

Lone Goat

Cleaning is so overrated

Broken Down

Where we broke down!

Doesn't it look like basil?

Saint Louis Sugar, yum!

We made The Himalayan Times

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Update

I added pictures to "Travels with Julie" and I posted two more postings. I will keep more pictures and stories coming when I get internet access.

Desert, Sunrise, Mountain, So many pics!

In the desert

Yesterday (Monday), We got to the hotel and found out that we could have A/C again, we decided to splurge and get it. The temperature in the Sahara desert was supposed to be at least 50 C which is over 120 F. Very Hot! We asked the hotel manager about getting a sunrise camel ride into the desert and he told us an Italian couple was going on one and we could join them. We asked if we needed any special clothes and he suggested that I get a turban, Julie already had an adequate scarf. He took us to a local shop and I found a color that I liked and paid way too much for an un-hemmed piece of cloth that can be tied into a turban. After I paid for the turban, I realized that I didn’t have much money. I asked Julie and she too was out of money. We went and looked around the town and discovered that there was no bank or ATM. We went back to the Hotel and looked in the LP for the closest ATM and it was a Grande Taxi ride away. We told the hotel manager that we were out of money and were going to go to the next town to get some. He told us not to worry about it and he would go with us tomorrow so we wouldn’t have to make a useless trip. We tried to figure out what the catch would be but couldn’t come up with one and so we agreed. For dinner they made us Lentils with a large salad and bread and we ate on the terrace, it was beautiful and really nice.

Last night the A/C got so cold both Julie and I had to actually use covers to stay warm. We woke up at 4:45 to meet with the Italian couple and our guide to take us into the desert. We walked down the main street and met up with a guide and our camels. Camels can lay completely on the ground so mounting them is very easy. They have a metal T bar in the front for holding onto. Once the camel is standing up, it’s not difficult to stay on the camel but when he stands up or gets down it is important to hold on. The guide led us on our camels into the Sahara desert before the sun had come up. The guide led us to the base of a sand dune where we dismounted and climbed the dune ourselves. The guide made it look effortless but it was a lot of work, if you stopped climbing you would slowly slide down the dune, so you had to keep walking.

When we got to the top light was pouring over the horizon, but we couldn’t yet see the sun. I made a sand angel and we walked along the ridge of the sand waiting. When the sun appeared it moved so quickly you could actually tell that is was moving and it looked like it was going really fast. It was beautiful with all of the sand and the sun and the colors. The sand was so beautiful. On the way out of the dunes I decided to barrel roll down and it was very fast and made me very dizzy while also depositing sand on and in every surface of my body.

I rode a camel in the Sahara Desert, how awesome is that!?!?

When we had packed up our stuff and were ready to leave we talked to the manager to see when would be convenient for him to come with us to get the money. Or if he just wanted us to go and get the money and come back. He said he wasn’t worried about it, he would get us a cab that would take us wherever we wanted to go and to just give the money to the cab driver. We asked if he was sure, and he was. He was so trusting that we would pay and not run off, his trust and hospitality were amazing. If you are ever in Merzouga, Morocco I would highly recommend Chez Julia.

We took the cab to Erfoud where we had three options, hire the cab we were in to take us to our next town for 400 DHS, take a bus in 4 hours for 45 DHS or take a grande taxi when it becomes available for 60 DHS. We opted for the grande taxi as the first preference and if 3pm came we would take the bus. I talked to the Grande Taxi boss man and he told me there was 1 person already, all we needed were 3 more people and we could sit and wait. We waited and waited in the hot shade for more people and every time new people would come we would encourage them with our minds to go to Tinerhir, our next destination. After only an hour and a half enough people were there and we loaded up and headed out. Shortly into the drive 3 people got out of the Taxi and then the only other person besides us got out and we were alone in the cab. They changed us to another cab and we made it to Tinerhir much faster than we had initially anticipated. We then told the cab driver that we planned to go to another town 12KM away and he drove us to the place to get a ride there and found someone to assure that we would get in the right cab and get taken straight to our hotel.

We are staying in the Todra Gorge, which is like a mini grand canyon but you can sleep at the bottom. When we checked in they took us to the room that has to have the best views, we can see towering walls of rocks out both of our windows. The views are so spectacular that it looks like the windows are posters.

We got to the hotel and there was a large stinky poop in the toilet, we tried to flush it, but it wouldn’t flush. I proposed we pour some water from the sink in the toilet to break up the poop. I filled a water bottle with water and then tried to turn the sink off but it would not stop coming. The sink was quickly filling and threatening to spill onto the floor. We emptied another water bottle and used it to empty the sink as fast as we could. Once we got the level down low enough I ran to get the manager to have him help. When he walked in the room he simply turned the handle and the water shut off, something Julie and I had both tried without Success.

There is a river behind the hotel and we went out there to cool off in the ice cold water. I made a dam out of rocks that was highly unsuccessful. We met some Moroccan kids and they were infatuated with Julie. They brought her flowers and talked to her. They were so cute and sweet. For the rest of the trip, I will have to keep my eye on Julie to make sure that she doesn’t sneak a couple of Moroccan kids into her suitcase.