1. Drink mint tea! They serve it everywhere! It’s the nation’s drink.
2. This tip is for women only, I personally found it useful to go around the souks in long sleeve tops and sunglasses to reduce the amount of unwanted attention and stares. Now I’m no beauty queen (5ft1, black hair, not amazon, blonde, you know the drill) but I still got a sh*tload of stares and a couple of hisses walking aside Gorilla. You may find it even more useful if you get your male partner/friend to act possesively when walking together, as in get him to wrap his arm around your shoulder. I found that did the trick also. Ladies travelling alone, I’d say to cover up, more so than if you’re going to church/place of worship. I hate to say all this but you’re in an predominantly Arab country now and unfortunately it’s still male dominated here. I won’t even tell you about the time when I saw a boyfriend punched his girlfriend in the face in full view of the public and again in the middle of the street. Gobsmacked (no puns intended).
3. Stay in a riad. Riads are traditional homes that have been renovated and turned into bed and breakfasts. What so cool about these place are the décor. As you enter the main door you’d normally find yourself in a courtyard, the living areas and bedrooms surrounds the courtyard. Not always but in most of them there will be a plunge pool in the courtyard also. I’m not quite sure as to the purpose of pool. Is it a plunge pool where guests could go in and cool themselves or is it merely a decorative pond? I didn’t bother asking to find out as I didn’t bring swimsuit with me anyways. www.zenithya.com
4. Visit Jardin Majorelle; it’s amongst the prettiest gardens that I’ve been to. It’s owned now by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge. You’ll see that the place is painted mostly in the gorgeous cobalt blue (so in season with Australian summer 2009/2010 right now). www.jardinmajorelle.com
5. Buy a caftan from Kasbek, 2 Sydney expats that have made the move to Marrakech and found that they love caftans but can’t find any gorgeous slinky ones. Think Talitha Getty’s photograph on Le Palais du Zahir's rooftop and you’re there.They also do alterations on the spot for free www.kasbek.com
6. Have lunch at Café d’Espices, their sandwiches are just the thing that you’d need after a morning of walking through the souks.
7. Eat pigeon pastilla; this dish is basically sweet pancake type pastry, wrapped around egg and pigeon. Sometimes you’d get almond and syrup drizzled on top of it but other times you’d get icing sugar and cinnamon. Good places to eat this is at Chez Bahia and Restaurant Argana.
8. Eat lamb tagine. The meat just rolls off the bone. This dish was surprisingly difficult to find. Chicken tagine? Right this way sir! Beef tagine? Of course! Lamb tagine? No sir, we don’t do lamb tagine. So I was all disappointed when most of the restaurants that we’d frequented did not serve this succulent dish. Luckily on our last night, we did find it and it was at Restaurant Argana.
9. Like their South East Asian cousins, the concept of queueing and lining up for their turn is a totally foreign and alien concept. So the tip here is to be assertive and push right back! Otherwise you’ll get nowhere. This is true for when lining up for the cash registers in supermarket buying your water supply. By the way before crying foul and not all South East Asians are like that, 1) I’m a South East Asian girl, Indonesian infact and has travelled extensively thoughout SE Asia in her youth, so I can say this with much authority and 2) you’re right, there are exceptions to the rule and they are Singaporeans, but then again they’d modelled their country state and constitution on Switzerland and also where the possession of chewing gum is punishable by law. I love Singapore by the way, the food is great and the shopping is amazing! But that is another top 10 list.
10. Do take a Hop on Hop off bus. It may sound like a copout for all you serious travellers out there, but after going through the souks and getting stared at and because we’d only stayed in Marrakech for 2 nights thus, time was of the essence, this bus was a godsend. It’s 130dh (dh stands for dirham by the way not dinar) and the ticket lasts for 24hours.
Photo credits: Patrick Lichfield's portrait of the Gettys at 'The Pleasure Palace', 1969
