OK, so here we are on the way to Morocco and I always thought it was a little dorky to take pictures of your trip en route "here I am boarding the plane" - but this was our only "taste" of London - even though we did stay there one night on the way back.Here we have liquefied scrambled eggs, baked beans, interesting grilled wild mushrooms, unsalted "bacon", grilled tomatoes and bangers that were under so much internal pressure they violently exploded in your mouth with the slightest bite. I'm thinking this is the breakfast Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten would have eaten on a daily basis! God save the Queen!
So in Morocco (Marrakech) we land and all roads and transport are at a standstill. After asking around we find out that the King of Morocco and the president of Egypt will be driving by soon. Sure-as-shit, 20 minutes later here comes about a million black Mercedes followed by a stretch Mercedes Limo, no tinted glass and there they are. They both look over and we make eye contact and they both flash me the "rock on" sign. I gave them a look like "whatever dude" and pulled the camera out but started to panic at the last minute thinking pictures of the king might be grounds for Ji-had.
For all you olive lovers out there - Morocco is like a crack house. Tim, this is what HELL looks like - no beer and only olives to eat.Speaking of beer - it's a little hard to find in Morocco, but it's there - you just need to know where to look. Pot (kif) is easy to find and you can buy as much as a "hay bale" on the side of the road in the northern part of the country.
If you're looking for kif, carpets, baskets, mint tea, or fake minerals and fossils, you've come the right place. If you're looking for a cheese burgers, beer or bikini babes you've come to the WRONG place.
The "Place Djemaa el-Fna" - the central "square" in Marrakesh is kinda messed up. It's full of snake charmers, storytellers, healers, henna painters, acrobats, freaky meats, freaky fruits and....tourists! It's a big ol' dirty hippie drum circle come round midnight and they drum and drum and drum. Holy shit, thought it would never stop. It's stinky and sticky and smoky and there are plenty of people waiting to rip your tourist ass off by charging you 10 times more for something that you can find for normal price elsewhere in the country. Don't believe the hype, Marrakesh is a bit cheesy if you ask me.
The call to prayer always starts with a guy that sounds like he's ready to sneeze; "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH....." and then some arabic words that I can't understand. We stayed across the road from the big mosque in Marrakech so we were "treated" to this several times a day - starting a little before 5:00 am. It's loud as hell but actually pretty cool.
Marrakech has several really cool "madersas" which were actually old boarding schools converted into museums. After laying lots of tile at our house here in NM - I can appreciate how much work is involved in these huge places - hundreds of thousands of square feet of intricate tile setting. That must have really sucked.
This is why Moroccans have thighs as big a Miguel Indurain - "squatter" toilets...gotta love em...unless you got something that might take a while.
Off to the Sahara.
