So what to do? In dire need of a holiday and no one to go with me, I jumped on the Intrepid website and to my delight, found that Colour
s of Morocco was on sale. Trip and flights booked and paid for in just a matter of hours, I was very excited.
I arrived late into Casablanca after a non-descript delayed Iberian flight via LHR and BNC. A $200 Dirham taxi later I was at Hotel Rio, our starting point, without a reservation. I figured, it's not peak, it's Morocco, just wing it.
I met Vanessa, Kylie and Dana at breakfast the next morning. They are great! All Melbourne girls, this was going to be fun. I paired up with Vanessa for the day and she was then to become my room-mate. I could not have done better with the draw! Wise, well travelled, worldy, normal, interesting and great for a laugh, we became good buddies.
We had a brief look at the medina, but as it was pouring with rain, we retired back to the hotel for some cabele TV - first and last time I'd seen that awful movie "Say it isn't so" starring Heather Graham, Chris Klein and Sally Fields.
We rose eventually and had lunch at Le Port de Peche - Restaurant.
"A truly super restaurant situated right in the port next to the customs house. No better place to eat seafood than right at the source, supplying the right vibe for a really good seafood meal which you are always sure to get here. Guaranteed to be a real treat and always busy, it is advisable to reserve in advance as this is a very popular place to eat. Luckily they are well priced so the meal will not break the bank."
Fabulous place that the local families and tourists go to. At 3pm it was still packed with lunch-goers. We had an awesome meal consisting of calamari and paella. Downed with a couple of Coca Colas. For every penny I had for the number of cokes I drank on this trip.....I'd be able to buy another coke with it.
This restaurant was definitely the hightlight of the Casablanca.
In brief, we met the whole group, our leader Miles and trainee Summer, went out to dinner for our first tagine - great. Had a drink in the dodgy hotel bar and went to bed, as had early rise for tour of the Hassan II Mosque.
Hassan II Mosque
Worth a visit as it's pretty much the only interesting attraction in Casablanca. We then grabbed our gear and hiked to the train station for a quick ride to the nations capital, Rabat.
Hightlight there was strolling through the Kasbah des Oudaias and getting a mint tea from the Platforme du Semaphore - with a view of the river.
View of Rabat
From Rabat we trained again to Meknes, which was a lovely city. The highlights here was seeing the Bab Mansour gate which is near the medina - very ornate and colourful
Bab Mansour
From there we got a taxi to Heri es-Souani - the granaries. There we met a dude who insisted we take him as a guide. So we did and he did some hard labour for us - see pic. Also took our photos and explained a bit about the place. Very interesting stories about Moulay Ismail and the horses kept there. Apparently the place was in "The Last Tempation of Christ" movie. Go Scorsese!
Making our guide work for his dirhams!
Other time here was spent wandering around the median searching for interesting food to eat!
Donuts from Meknes Medina
General Rating: ***
Repeat Visit: **