Mustapha, Mohammed and me – Mad Mods in Marrakech - Day 1

BONZO · 24 Nov 15, 10:08 PM

Wednesday 18th November

Cast:
Me (Shaun) - Mad Mod number 1
DW (Alison) - Mad Mod number 2

The background to this was us taking a cheeky little trip to Marrakech thanks to a stunning offer from BA for £150 return flying in Business Class. It would get us close to renewing our silver status with BA as well – we knew we would never get enough points to get to gold….or would we? )

After the briefest of chats and a quick check on Trip Advisor for suitable accommodation we booked up, not really sure about what to expect as it was a destination well off our radar.

We had to get up at early as the flight was scheduled to leave at 09:30 from Gatwick, and we needed to allow for the M25 rush hour. Drive along the M25 was painfully slow for this time in the morning but moving all the same. I was still half-awake but holding things together by concentrating very hard on the road conditions.

We’d pre-booked the long term car park at Gatwick and entry was very smooth and managed to bag a really good space in Z section near the bus pick up point – Result!

A bus turned up, clearly marked “drop off only” but still people tried to board it – sheesh! Not long after another bus turned up and despite one passenger wrestling with his luggage that had a mind of its own we were on our way. We just plonked ourselves down as people jockeyed for departure rights and we had a laugh at the people on the central turning plate of the bendy bus who were shifted from side to side as the bus turned.

We headed into the terminal and headed straight for security. We’d checked in on line and we were travelling hand baggage only, so didn’t need the check in desks. We looked for the Fast Track entrance but couldn’t immediately spot it (even though we’ve used it plenty of times before!) We saw a low queue at the right hand side of the airport and noticed some other desks that no one was using and we headed straight through.

Typically Alison gets the full pat down experience and bag swab as well as her luggage being diverted off for special treatment, only a drug hand swab for me. What is it with her?

All clear and into the departure area – the lounge was away to the left (immediately after the fast track security – must remember that for next time!)

The lounge was nice – a lot quieter than the Heathrow lounge (certainly at this time of day) but not such good views. There was not too many people about and hooray - they have started doing hot breakfast food here at last! Previously the only savoury food was toast, cheese and cold meats but now they have bacon rolls and omelette rolls in the hot food area.

Alison prefers something sweet and enjoyed porridge, fruit and juice, while I enjoyed a couple of bacon rolls and coffee. We bagged a nice seat by the window, charged up our phones and waited for the gate to be called.

Marvellous, gate 109 – it’s probably the furthest gate from terminal? There was an interesting mix of passengers from business types to backpackers. Not too much of a scrum to get on the plane and we soon got settled in.

The front row seats 1D and 1F were vacant and the retired couple (in front of us) and Mr and Mrs elderly Botox (to the right of us) asked the FA if they could move forward if no takers. They were soon thwarted when single chap in Row 2 upped seats and moved to seat 1F. Cue daggers and hard stares from Retired and Botox couple!

We had a couple of bottles of champagne each before choosing our food.

Retired couple decide to recline as soon as possible although when the food was delivered we politely asked the FA to ask them to return the seat to upright so that we could eat.

Time passed – there was no in flight entertainment (as expected) but magazines were offered and we had newspapers from the lounge to read. Alison had downloaded a couple of TV programmes onto her iPad as well. Drinks were finished off and then we were coming into land. Outside was an interesting arid landscape which got ever closer as we filled in our immigration cards.

We landed on time and disembarked into the warm sunshine and walked across the tarmac into the terminal building. Immigration didn’t take too long to get through despite being no fast track so no issues there, all very thorough if a little bureaucratic. Oddly enough, our hand luggage was scanned before entering the country but not our rucksacks, not sure what they were scanning for?

It was a lovely modern terminal building:

Once in the hall we queued up to get some Dirhams as you can’t buy them outside the country, the exchange rate seemed fair enough. Our riad had arranged for their driver to pick us up from the airport and after tracking him down we were on our way.

We walked out to the car in the beautiful hot sunshine exchanging a few niceties in broken French and English as our driver skilfully negotiated the local traffic as there appeared to be no rules whatsoever.

We arrived outside a large mosque and the driver parked up, grabbed our bags and led us to our Riad down a couple of side passages in the old part of town.

Riad Mur Akush

riadmurakush

WOW! – what a place! From the moment we arrived we were very warmly welcomed by all the staff (Mustapha, Mohammed, Kate and Maria) and made to feel right at home and one of the family, nothing was too much trouble. We sat in the courtyard and had some mint tea and snacks chatting to Mustapha with him teaching us a few words of Arabic and Berber. We had such a laugh with him over the few days and he nicknamed us Mustapha and Fatima!

We got logged onto the free Wi-Fi (which was very fast) whilst we relaxed in our surroundings. All very clean, calm and peaceful.
The whole place was exactly as shown on their website which made a refreshing change to other places that we’ve stayed in.

The rooms are all arranged around a central courtyard:

One bedroom plus a dining room and the reception area and kitchen are on the ground floor, 3 bedrooms are on the first floor and 2 bedrooms and a small terrace are on the second floor, with a roof terrace on the top.

Our room:

Our room was simply superb with a bedroom:

Lounge area:

And bathroom:

and after a little bit of unpacking we freshened up and got changed. Alison was a bit concerned beforehand about what to wear – we’d read about keeping fairly well covered up but we saw women in all states of dress on the way from the airport. In the end she wore some longish shorts and a baggy t-shirt which was about right. Some obvious tourists were wearing vest tops and very short shorts which possibly caused some raised eyebrows, but there was certainly no need for the jeans and jumpers that some women wore.

We took a stroll to get our bearings and headed off to Jemaa el Fna, the main square in Marrakech which is the central area where everyone gravitates to. We hadn’t gone far when a man approached us and started talking to us explaining he was from our Riad and had just come off duty. He asked where we were going to which he said “oh don’t go there, it’s closing for the day as it’s the Berber women’s carpet co-operative day.” Ok, we thought, thanks for that. “Come with me, I’ll show you where the best examples are” as he led us off down several side passages and into a carpet shop.

Words were exchanged between him and the owner and he left us and then we were told all about carpets and their production. All very interesting I’m sure and then many carpets were taken out of racks and placed on the floor for our consideration. Then the penny dropped, we been taken in hook, line and sinker! Forget this I thought, so I turned to Alison and said, c’mon, let’s go and we left the shop despite being offered a “best price” and carried on our way.

I was a bit miffed that we’d fallen for that old chestnut but no real harm down apart from pride being hurt, well done that man for trying.

We headed into the souks and then became thoroughly lost. The whole area was fascinating and confusing in equal measure. The assault on your senses was total with all the sounds, smells and sights and everywhere looked the same. People offered you absolutely everything but a firm but polite “non merci” and a hand wave did the trick, there were no follow up requests. The other thing to watch out for was the mopeds, donkeys and carts that seemed to come at you from all directions. There was no area that didn’t get traffic – pavement or no pavement!

I felt fine, not threatened or in danger at any time but Alison was getting more and more uncomfortable with the whole situation (it was quite overwhelming!). There is a method to madness in the souks with items for sale being in distinctive areas, not that we knew that before the start though. We must have gone round and round in circles for well over an hour and Alison was thinking that we wouldn’t ever get out!

Eventually we popped out into Rahba Lakdima (Spice Square) and it was good to see some daylight for a change. We ordered a couple of Diet Cokes in Café Des Espices and sat on one of the upper levels and watched the world go by, fascinating stuff.

Luckily, this place had free wi-fi so we plotted a route back to our Riad (via the main square) which didn’t take too long. The square was amazing – we would definitely come back when we had more energy!

On reaching the Riad we crashed out for a while on the roof terrace, happy to have made it back in daylight hours!

Before we left the UK we had arranged for food to be prepared for us tonight in the Riad as we didn’t want to wander around aimlessly looking for a suitable place for dinner. We asked Kate where the nearest place was to get some booze but it was miles away and she said she could rustle up a bottle of red from her secret stash and just charge it to the room bill.

We got ready for dinner as delicious smells were wafting up to our room and when we got down into the courtyard the table had been exquisitely laid out.

After being delivered some nuts, bread and olives the first course was soup.

Absolutely superb, we could have stopped right there to be honest. Next course was a lamb tagine with vegetables, all freshly cooked and presented, probably enough for a family of 6!

During the course of the meal we were serenaded by Mustapha on his Berber Gimbri and then a banjo! It was all very odd and entertaining in equal measure.

Coffee / chocolate mousse was served and then Moroccan coffee to finish as we sat under the stars before we called it quits settling down for the night as it had been quite an eventful day.

Pieces · 25 Nov 15, 11:36 PM

Wow, beautiful photos! Fascinating holiday destination. Enjoy

mobeckwith · 28 Nov 15, 02:36 PM

what an adventure,lovely photos.

anniee · 28 Nov 15, 05:19 PM

Never been to Morocco but looks great.

Astrid · 1 Dec 15, 04:48 PM

Fab report Shaun - thanks

Can't wait for our trip to Marrakech in February, the photos remind me a lot of Cairo.

Off to read your next day now ...

DisneyNikki · 5 Sep 22, 04:50 AM

We are booked to go for 4 nights in November. So pleased I have come across this. Off to read more.

**disneywiseowl** · 5 Sep 22, 06:14 AM

Thx for posting. I really enjoyed reading as I haven’t been to Marrakech. That tagine looks yummy. 😀

**tigger48** · 5 Sep 22, 06:20 PM

Great report and experiences. Your dinner looks superb!

24 Nov 15, 10:08 PM	#1
	24 Nov 15, 10:08 PM BONZO Imagineer
BONZO Imagineer Join Date: Mar 02	Mustapha, Mohammed and me – Mad Mods in Marrakech - Day 1 Wednesday 18th November Cast: Me (Shaun) - Mad Mod number 1 DW (Alison) - Mad Mod number 2 The background to this was us taking a cheeky little trip to Marrakech thanks to a stunning offer from BA for £150 return flying in Business Class. It would get us close to renewing our silver status with BA as well – we knew we would never get enough points to get to gold….or would we? ) After the briefest of chats and a quick check on Trip Advisor for suitable accommodation we booked up, not really sure about what to expect as it was a destination well off our radar. We had to get up at early as the flight was scheduled to leave at 09:30 from Gatwick, and we needed to allow for the M25 rush hour. Drive along the M25 was painfully slow for this time in the morning but moving all the same. I was still half-awake but holding things together by concentrating very hard on the road conditions. We’d pre-booked the long term car park at Gatwick and entry was very smooth and managed to bag a really good space in Z section near the bus pick up point – Result! A bus turned up, clearly marked “drop off only” but still people tried to board it – sheesh! Not long after another bus turned up and despite one passenger wrestling with his luggage that had a mind of its own we were on our way. We just plonked ourselves down as people jockeyed for departure rights and we had a laugh at the people on the central turning plate of the bendy bus who were shifted from side to side as the bus turned. We headed into the terminal and headed straight for security. We’d checked in on line and we were travelling hand baggage only, so didn’t need the check in desks. We looked for the Fast Track entrance but couldn’t immediately spot it (even though we’ve used it plenty of times before!) We saw a low queue at the right hand side of the airport and noticed some other desks that no one was using and we headed straight through. Typically Alison gets the full pat down experience and bag swab as well as her luggage being diverted off for special treatment, only a drug hand swab for me. What is it with her? All clear and into the departure area – the lounge was away to the left (immediately after the fast track security – must remember that for next time!) The lounge was nice – a lot quieter than the Heathrow lounge (certainly at this time of day) but not such good views. There was not too many people about and hooray - they have started doing hot breakfast food here at last! Previously the only savoury food was toast, cheese and cold meats but now they have bacon rolls and omelette rolls in the hot food area. Alison prefers something sweet and enjoyed porridge, fruit and juice, while I enjoyed a couple of bacon rolls and coffee. We bagged a nice seat by the window, charged up our phones and waited for the gate to be called. Marvellous, gate 109 – it’s probably the furthest gate from terminal? There was an interesting mix of passengers from business types to backpackers. Not too much of a scrum to get on the plane and we soon got settled in. The front row seats 1D and 1F were vacant and the retired couple (in front of us) and Mr and Mrs elderly Botox (to the right of us) asked the FA if they could move forward if no takers. They were soon thwarted when single chap in Row 2 upped seats and moved to seat 1F. Cue daggers and hard stares from Retired and Botox couple! We had a couple of bottles of champagne each before choosing our food. Retired couple decide to recline as soon as possible although when the food was delivered we politely asked the FA to ask them to return the seat to upright so that we could eat. Time passed – there was no in flight entertainment (as expected) but magazines were offered and we had newspapers from the lounge to read. Alison had downloaded a couple of TV programmes onto her iPad as well. Drinks were finished off and then we were coming into land. Outside was an interesting arid landscape which got ever closer as we filled in our immigration cards. We landed on time and disembarked into the warm sunshine and walked across the tarmac into the terminal building. Immigration didn’t take too long to get through despite being no fast track so no issues there, all very thorough if a little bureaucratic. Oddly enough, our hand luggage was scanned before entering the country but not our rucksacks, not sure what they were scanning for? It was a lovely modern terminal building: Once in the hall we queued up to get some Dirhams as you can’t buy them outside the country, the exchange rate seemed fair enough. Our riad had arranged for their driver to pick us up from the airport and after tracking him down we were on our way. We walked out to the car in the beautiful hot sunshine exchanging a few niceties in broken French and English as our driver skilfully negotiated the local traffic as there appeared to be no rules whatsoever. We arrived outside a large mosque and the driver parked up, grabbed our bags and led us to our Riad down a couple of side passages in the old part of town. Riad Mur Akush riadmurakush WOW! – what a place! From the moment we arrived we were very warmly welcomed by all the staff (Mustapha, Mohammed, Kate and Maria) and made to feel right at home and one of the family, nothing was too much trouble. We sat in the courtyard and had some mint tea and snacks chatting to Mustapha with him teaching us a few words of Arabic and Berber. We had such a laugh with him over the few days and he nicknamed us Mustapha and Fatima! We got logged onto the free Wi-Fi (which was very fast) whilst we relaxed in our surroundings. All very clean, calm and peaceful. The whole place was exactly as shown on their website which made a refreshing change to other places that we’ve stayed in. The rooms are all arranged around a central courtyard: One bedroom plus a dining room and the reception area and kitchen are on the ground floor, 3 bedrooms are on the first floor and 2 bedrooms and a small terrace are on the second floor, with a roof terrace on the top. Our room: Our room was simply superb with a bedroom: Lounge area: And bathroom: and after a little bit of unpacking we freshened up and got changed. Alison was a bit concerned beforehand about what to wear – we’d read about keeping fairly well covered up but we saw women in all states of dress on the way from the airport. In the end she wore some longish shorts and a baggy t-shirt which was about right. Some obvious tourists were wearing vest tops and very short shorts which possibly caused some raised eyebrows, but there was certainly no need for the jeans and jumpers that some women wore. We took a stroll to get our bearings and headed off to Jemaa el Fna, the main square in Marrakech which is the central area where everyone gravitates to. We hadn’t gone far when a man approached us and started talking to us explaining he was from our Riad and had just come off duty. He asked where we were going to which he said “oh don’t go there, it’s closing for the day as it’s the Berber women’s carpet co-operative day.” Ok, we thought, thanks for that. “Come with me, I’ll show you where the best examples are” as he led us off down several side passages and into a carpet shop. Words were exchanged between him and the owner and he left us and then we were told all about carpets and their production. All very interesting I’m sure and then many carpets were taken out of racks and placed on the floor for our consideration. Then the penny dropped, we been taken in hook, line and sinker! Forget this I thought, so I turned to Alison and said, c’mon, let’s go and we left the shop despite being offered a “best price” and carried on our way. I was a bit miffed that we’d fallen for that old chestnut but no real harm down apart from pride being hurt, well done that man for trying. We headed into the souks and then became thoroughly lost. The whole area was fascinating and confusing in equal measure. The assault on your senses was total with all the sounds, smells and sights and everywhere looked the same. People offered you absolutely everything but a firm but polite “non merci” and a hand wave did the trick, there were no follow up requests. The other thing to watch out for was the mopeds, donkeys and carts that seemed to come at you from all directions. There was no area that didn’t get traffic – pavement or no pavement! I felt fine, not threatened or in danger at any time but Alison was getting more and more uncomfortable with the whole situation (it was quite overwhelming!). There is a method to madness in the souks with items for sale being in distinctive areas, not that we knew that before the start though. We must have gone round and round in circles for well over an hour and Alison was thinking that we wouldn’t ever get out! Eventually we popped out into Rahba Lakdima (Spice Square) and it was good to see some daylight for a change. We ordered a couple of Diet Cokes in Café Des Espices and sat on one of the upper levels and watched the world go by, fascinating stuff. Luckily, this place had free wi-fi so we plotted a route back to our Riad (via the main square) which didn’t take too long. The square was amazing – we would definitely come back when we had more energy! On reaching the Riad we crashed out for a while on the roof terrace, happy to have made it back in daylight hours! Before we left the UK we had arranged for food to be prepared for us tonight in the Riad as we didn’t want to wander around aimlessly looking for a suitable place for dinner. We asked Kate where the nearest place was to get some booze but it was miles away and she said she could rustle up a bottle of red from her secret stash and just charge it to the room bill. We got ready for dinner as delicious smells were wafting up to our room and when we got down into the courtyard the table had been exquisitely laid out. After being delivered some nuts, bread and olives the first course was soup. Absolutely superb, we could have stopped right there to be honest. Next course was a lamb tagine with vegetables, all freshly cooked and presented, probably enough for a family of 6! During the course of the meal we were serenaded by Mustapha on his Berber Gimbri and then a banjo! It was all very odd and entertaining in equal measure. Coffee / chocolate mousse was served and then Moroccan coffee to finish as we sat under the stars before we called it quits settling down for the night as it had been quite an eventful day. __________________ http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sign...igpic534_1.gif 1988 ~ Contemporary ~ Honeymoon 1989 ~ Off site 1994 ~ EuroDisney ~ Santa Fe 1999 ~ Off site 2001 ~ CBR (Aruba) ~ Poly (Tahiti) 2003 ~ WL & HRH 2004 ~ Pop Century, RPH, CSR, PBH, Contemporary 2006 ~ DLP ~ Newport Bay 2007 ~ POR ~ HRH ~ GF 2008 ~ All star sports, BCV, RPH, Vero Beach, VWL 2010 ~ OKW ~ BCV ~ HRH ~POP Century ~ Vero Beach ~ VWL 2013 ~ AKL ~ HRH ~ BCV ~ Vero Beach ~ VWL Edited at 01:33 PM.