We were told not to eat the olives or bread set on the table at a restaurant when you are seated. If we did we would be charged for them. We did not find this to be true. Most meals we ate at Moroccanish restaurants we ate both a few olives and a couple of pieces of bread and nary once did we get charged. If you opt for an international meal these two appetizers will not appear.
Always insist the Petite Taxi driver use the meter before jumping into a cab. At train stations, and in Marrakesh in particular, they are reluctant to do so. We just walked a block or so away from the taxi stand, hailed a cab on the street and always got the driver to use the meter. One ride in particular we were told the fare from the train station was 50MAD we walked across the plaza and got a cab on the street the metered fare was 11MAD. At airports we did not find any Petite Taxis and the Grand Taxis are all negotiable so you should know about what fare you should bargain for before entering into negotiations. From the Casablanca airport we knew the fare should be around 300MAD and knowing that helped we rode both ways paying that much. To that, showing the money helped both times as soon as I took the 300MAD out of my pocket it was snatched from my fingers and we were off to the taxi and on our way.
Morocco has been a tourist destination for well over century. They know how to deal with tourists and travel is very easy. We only used a guide when we had to get some place by car. (I wasn’t about to learn the ins and outs of Moroccan driving.) We had no problems what so ever. Often when traveling, language can be a problem but the languages spoken in Morocco are Arabic, French and English. We speak English and that was our first try. Both of us, Debbie more so, speak bits for French and that got use through a few situations. Arabic was not of any help as we have no idea. I suspect that was what the locals used to talk behind our back, ‘stupid tourists’, when we had accidentally done something inappropriate or dumb.
As a method of payment, credit cards worked very well except at the smallest of places and weirdly enough in the Fes Medina. In Fes even our hotel was going to charge a user fee to pay with a card. Nowhere else did we find that. ATM’s have pretty good rates if you take out a larger sum of money, like 3500MAD. If you keep your eyes open and check, the money changers you can get good rates as well. The rates vary a lot so if you are going to use one check out several as you walk by.
Something I never noticed before, but I don’t know why I should have, sheep walk with their heads down as if they are ashamed of something.
When I had just started driving there was a motorist’s code, when there was a speed trap ahead or some sort of police stop the oncoming drivers would flash their lights to warn you. That does not seem to be the case anymore, here at least. In Morocco they still flash the lights, two flash means heads up and one means all clear. The light flashing is accompanied by hand signals in return with thumbs up indicating an acknowledgement and thanks.
There are scooters in Morocco but we noted that the numbers increased big as we approached Marrakesh, our last big city stop on our trip. I noted that a lot of the drivers were very young. One of our drivers informed me, no license is required to operate smaller scooters under a certain cc.
I don’t know where the powers that be in Morocco expect the population boom to come from but we passed new subdivision after new subdivision being built. Even the finished buildings look only partially occupied but many, many more buildings were under construction adjacent to the finished ones and the infrastructure, roads and lights, are laid out for more to come.
Again as we traveled farther south irrigation became evident. Aqueducts were apparent in the distance and along the roadways. They had a real funky way of getting the water across entry roads and driveways. The water in the ½ pipe fell into a cistern on one side of the roadway. A pipe dropped down and under the driveway. On the other side was another cistern with an exit ½ pipe at a lower elevation then the entry ½ pipe. The sytem works the same a say a p trap under a sink.
During our time in Morocco we visited 5 different Medinas. They are all about the same but do have subtle differences. They were all worth the time but if you have to miss one or two don’t fret, you will get the idea by seeing some of them.
We had the possibility to visit 3 Kasbahs. In the end we got to one. The first one we arrived too late in the day and had to miss. The second one was basically closed because of major earthquake damage sustained a few years ago. The last one, Ait Benhaddu, is where several famous movies have been filmed and because of its fame it is very crowded. We arrived early and managed to see it without being elbow to elbow. They are very different from the Medinas and I wish we had the opportunity to see other Kasbahs.
All in all a great trip and would recommend Morocco as a place to visit. My recommendation would be to do some research into the off season because we were there during that time of year and it was still crowded. I would imagine during peak season it would not be a happy place.