Fes, Morocco: Part I

Tuesday afternoon we took the train from Tangier to Fes. We opted to take first class as it was only three Euro more than the second class rate, but we have quickly learned that the reason there is little price difference is because there is also little difference in the quality of the ride. Air conditioning is something that is definitely a luxury if you are able to locate units that work – we have not been so lucky.

On the train, we sat with a man from Senegal, who was doing a pilgrimage to Fes to a very important mosque for the Muslim people from his country, and a recently married couple and the groom’s sister. Some interesting stories include the Senegal man sharing that he used to spend much more time in Morocco, but so many Moroccan’s insulted him to his face not realizing that he spoke Arabic, that he couldn’t endure the hostility. The married couple were interesting to observe. The bride had her hands and feet covered in Henna, and all three from the wedding party still has sparkles on them. Adam on our train ride had to sew his shorts because they had gotten too big and as he was asking me how he should go about doing the job, the Moroccan man said to his sister and newly wed wife that sewing is the woman’s job not the man’s. They immediately retorted to him that that is what Arabic men think, but it is not the same in other cultures in the world. I said to him that women often do sew as well, but in this case it was a challenge Adam was taking on himself.

Adam also made some friend on the train – friends whose authenticity we would later question. Apparently Adam approached this young guy who spoke English really well and they hit it off. Adam later came to me to say that the guy had offered to show us around Fes for free and he needed our hotel name. I gave it to him, since Adam was our official scammer judge. However, then the guy wanted our address. I gave it to Adam too. Then he wanted to talk to me, which I had no interest in doing, since I am now suspicious of all Moroccan’s and choose to follow’s Adam’s lead – if he wanted to go with the guy I would follow, but I wasn’t going to do any more.

When Adam came back to ask me what he thought, he shared that the guy also has a cousin in Toronto with whom he spoke on the phone. I said honestly, that I did not feel comfortable giving the address to our accomodation to a stranger that we met on a train, but that I did not interact with the guy. If there was one thing I learned in South Africa, is that people use your information to take advantage of you, and now this individual knew where we were staying, and even if he did show us around the following day, what was stopping him from calling his buddies to tell them that all our things would be unattended in this space.

I immediately saw the wheels in Adam’s head spinning. Within a few minutes he had decided that even though his bud had given every impression of being a good guy, it would be better to blow him off. Still the guy was persistent trying to make plans with us for that evening and the following day. His pleas to me were met with denials as I just wanted to rest that night. Adam was clever in saying that we would call him to confirm the plans if they were on, which his buddy didn’t like so much. But then when we got off the train, we did remark it was strange that the buddy didn’t have any luggage.

When we got to the guesthouse where we were staying, it was amazing that the owner told us a story about how two New Zealander guests of his had met a man on the train over the previous week and had agreed to go on a tour with the buddy they met. The buddy even had friend from NZ that were in town (our buddy also had a Canadian friend that was going to come along). They did the tour and long story short were scammed into buying $3000 worth of carpets and switching accommodation only to reveal this to our guesthouse owner once they realized they were in trouble a few days later. Nothing could be done. Adam and I kept our mouths shut about our encounter and were glad we had decided to blow our buddy off.

One of our biggest struggles, especially upon first arriving and especially for Adam, was that there are different prices for foreigners and that there didn’t seem to be a way to get around it as soon as we were seen. On the train he was reading about Fes and started to get upset that I had already booked our accommodation in advance for the rate that I had ($23.33/night/person) because the book said there were much cheaper options. I said that there were indeed other options that were cheaper, but that I had done my homework and this place would be worth the money. It was quite a frustrating argument on both ends because I was unwilling to back down from staying at the guesthouse as it was the one I was most excited about, I had spent a lot of time finding it and making sure it would meet our needs, and I knew that Adam would be really impressed once he saw it. For whatever reason, he was unwilling to concede to me and I was making it worse by telling him that I had arranged for someone to pick us up and take us to our accommodation for five times the taxi rate, which was still only six dollars.

However, as soon as we arrived and started our drive through the complicated city, then had to get out and have our driver walk us through the maze-like alleys to our guesthouse, Adam apologized and said it was better we had had the driver come for us. Then, when we were met by the British owner of the guesthouse in which we were staying, Riad Dar Houdou, a 200-year restored courtyard house in the heart of the medina, and were given our room on the top floor, the only air conditioned room, that opens up to a terrace that overlooks the skyline of the medina, Adam was quickly giving me puppy dog eyes knowing that he was in trouble. He loved the place like I knew he would! So much so that within ten minutes, he had decided it might be nice to skip Casablanca and stay an extra night at Dar Houdou, which we ended up doing in the end to take advantage not only of our great accommodations, but also the expertise of the trustworthy staff at the guesthouse.

 

The walk to our guesthouse had been such a teaser for the plethora of culture that lay beyond the walls of our guestroom that we quickly were out looking for dinner. Our first night, we enjoyed two three course meals at a fabulous restaurant in the medina for less than $20. The prices, even if more than the Moroccan price, are still very reasonable. After we walked for a short while seeing some of the stalls and getting our bearings, before I had to go to bed. Adam then ventured into the night to explore. The door didn’t have a lock, so he had locked me into our room, which was fine by me for the first night, until I realized that Adam hadn’t taken the name of the guesthouse, the map, the book of Morocco or even a phone number with him! I couldn’t sleep convinced that he was going to get lost in the Medina, even though I was trying to convince myself that even if he did have to stay out all night, that wasn’t the worst thing and he would be found tomorrow once everything opened again. Though he did get ‘lost’ in the sense that he was on streets he had not visited before, he found his way home knowing the general direction of where to go.

His adventures on the first night had included visiting a pool hall, making friends with many of the young men that hang out in the street after the markets close, seeing how the medina (old city) changes from a bustling place of commerce when the sun is up to a venue for young men to smoke hashish at night, and as a foreigner, apparently he was constantly receiving offers to partake, which he had to refuse.

Despite venturing the very narrow and dead-end ridden streets in the dark, Adam says that he always felt very safe. The only creature that remained in the streets besides the roaming men were the clusters of feral cats, which Adam quickly learned, despite their skinniness, are integralt o keeping the vermin at bay in the medina.