Footsteps on the Sahara (Part 3)

Beautiful Marrakech..........................

I am breaking a promise. Actually the tagine recipe that I promised in footsteps on the Sahara part 2, did not materialise. The reason is very simple and hence understandable(please). I do not have a tagine. Yet! .When I made that promise , I was a bit too optimistic on the planning side. I had seen the shop where to buy it from and thought that I can buy it ANYTIME...that ANYTIME did not occur in the history of the last few days.I did want to bring one from Marrakech but you should have seen the incredulous look in the husbands eyes ("How can you even think of taking that thing in the lugguage?"). Remind me later to tell you that story......

Anyway, whatever the reason, for the time being, I decided to postpone the recipe till later but continue my Marrakech story before I forget the interesting bits (memory being affected by age and all that..we all agree to that, right?)

So, lets visit Marrakech.

Our entry into Morocco was not very pleasant. Christmas Eve is never a good day to travel. As if to confirm that, the flight from Amsterdam to Madrid (our transit en route to Marrakech) was already delayed. We reached Madrid and nervously navigated our way from one terminal to the other by train, foot, lift, escalator and many more modes of transport as fast as we could only to find that the boarding gate of the connecting flight had just closed. Smiling ground staff informed us that "we can do nothing now , please take a right and then a left and go one floor up to the IBERIA helpdesk to ask for more information".

Not a good start to our vacation!

We followed the instructions and reached the information desk. More smiling staff informed us that there were no more direct flights to Marrakech that day. However, they can arrange for a flight via Casablanca after 6 hours!! AFTER SIX HOURS! We did not really have any option...with grumpy faces the vacation family settled down infront of the big airport lounge TV. The airlines gave us lunch and snack coupons to  make up for this fault of theirs. We were made to believe that the positive side of all this misery was that we could choose ANY airport restaurant and eat all we can with these coupons. The joy of this compensation vanished very soon when we discovered that there were about two and a half restaurants in this terminal out of which one sold only soggy sandwiches. So not so positive after all. For the next half hour, CNN and Discovery channels in the airport lounge filled our heads and minds with repeated incidents of how Syrian troops shelled their neighborhoods and how a frog in the Amazon catches a fly! After a while I could not take any more of the fly-catching frog or the Syrian troops...so I went for a walk..in and out of the airport shops..buying a Toblerone...gazing at a Gucci hand bag...sipping a cappucino....spraying some PRADA from a test bottle...staring at the flight schedule monitor with hopes of the clock ticking faster...father and son duo were busy with their i-pod, i-pad, i-phone thingies....

Finally the "boarding" sign flashed for our flight.

So we flew via Casablanca (a short wait) into Marrakech finally late in the evening.

Hold on. The story gets more interesting. We lost our luggauge.

Tired and irritated..we took the cab to the hotel...ate a room delivered pizza and went to bed in the same clothes...I was sure that the whole vacation would be a disaster.

Next morning we spent two hours at the airport to get back our luggauge...rushed back to the hotel to shower and put fresh clothes on...and then, only then our vacation started.
The hotel claimed to be a 4 star hotel. Honestly either its a different "star-system" they follow or those stars were just wall decoration. We had a  "royal-suite",whatever that meant.The first day the DVD player was not working, the second day the TV blurred out, the third day our toilet flush would not budge, the fourth day there was no coffee for breakfast. The service was very good, so good that at times it appeared as if they knew. The moment we complained about anything, the reception guy smiled and said, "I will send someone IMMEDIATELY". Look at the one of the boards they had by the lift... such a spelling mistake in a 4 **** hotel! FEIR?
;-)

However, the location of the hotel was worth atleast 2 stars. It was right in the middle of the old medina and the new gueliz area of Marrakech. That was fantastic...

The old center square is known as Djemaa el-Fna. It is a large square lined with food stalls and other shops. Fortune tellers, snake charmers, musicians, Henna artists...name it and its there.It is actually a riot of activities..all happening at once..all demanding your attention...all equally interesting as well. Coming from India, maybe the surprise element for us was lower than that for my dutch friend who was visiting Marrakech couple of weeks back.

On one side of the square stands the tall and majestic Kutubia Mosque beautiful against the bright blue sky.On the other side is a line of horse drawn carriages waiting to grab the tourist for a city trip..the owners shouting their rates, each trying to offer a better bargain. We sat down on one of these terrace restaurants for lunch and started the day with a cup of delicious Moroccan mint tea. As I took my first sip and looked outside...I knew I would enjoy every moment of the next six days....

After satisfying our stomach..we hopped into a city tour bus that took us to all the landmarks of the city. As the bus navigated its way through the many crowded roads, it strangely reminded me of India..of similar hustle and bustle back home. One thing that I found immensely pretty is how the streets were lined with orange trees, loaded with oranges. My camera could not stop clicking..oranges from different angles. People are very friendly and informal. I remember one incident. When we were getting on the horse carriage for a city tour, Arno was very excited. He started touching the horses tail and patting the animals back. The father freaked out saying (in bengali) " Arno, keno hath dicho? ei nongra hath ta abar mukhe debe" [Arno, why are you touching it? later you will use the same dirty hand to eat]! The horse man looked at us , smiled and confidently commented to Abhijit..(Offcourse he does not understand Bengali)..

"He is a kid..and he is on vacation...ignore these small things"

It felt funny.The way he said it , it almost sounded like "Chill yaar!"
;-)

People on the streets are very much aware of Bollywood Hindi Movies. Wherever we went people spoke about our movies. One shopkeeper told me, "India-our friends", another said , "Mumbai ? Mumbai". One was very excited and asked , "Sharukh Khan? Mohabattein?". Hence pictures of our big stars in Marrakech airport did not surprise us anymore!!.


Now to the subject I love. Food. DELICIOUS!
I actually had tagine everyday.
Tajines in Moroccan cuisine are slow-cooked stews braised at low temperatures, resulting in tender meat with aromatic vegetables and sauce. They are traditionally cooked in the tajine pot, the conical cover which has a knob-like handle at its top to facilitate removal. What taste, what colours, what flavours....even as I write and remember the tagine dishes, my mouth starts watering.....the best I ate was a lamb with prunes tagine.....ummm....

I will keep my promise for sure. Very soon, I am going to visit the tagine shop and get one, cook a lamb tagine with prunes and post the recipe here..Promise promise promise...cross my heart...etc...

My Marrakech travelogue ends here......thanks for listening...