Quick visit to Marrakech

This way
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After lots of chilling out by the pool and a few runs along the sandy beaches we headed to Marrakech for a whirlwind visit.  Having done a fair bit of travelling over the last few years we thought we'd seen our fair share of dodgy taxi drivers vying for our custom - this was something new.  As the bus arrived into the station a mob of 50-70 (it was a bit hard to tell as the mob consisted mainly of arms and legs) descended, and in a bid to be first to welcome us to their city and offer us their service, started pushing, yelling, hitting, stomping, biting, grabbing each other in order to be first in line (really … not writer’s embellishment at all …).  Amazing.  After arranging our personal cabbie we departed to the yells of abuse from other disappointed drivers.  The problems began when it became apparent that the taxi driver actually didn't know where the hotel was despite his protestations.  As we drove past the line of unwanted cabbies he started asking for advice on the best route - he left disappointed as they alternately laughed, abused or slapped him.  Finally made the destination much to our cabbies surprise, even though he tried to look like he had the whole thing under control.

Snake charmers in Marrakech (we snuck the photo otherwise, like everything, you have to pay)
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The medina in Marrakech is home to the greater proportion of the cities million inhabitants.  Think now of the medina of Essouaira as Levin.  In comparison Marrakech's medina would be Los Angeles.  The sensations - noise, heat, colours and unusual objects (snake charmers really do exist), constant touching but above all the smells are absolutely incredible and completely overwhelm you. 

The souk (market) in the medina is huge, and the guidebook had said that you're guaranteed to get lost as its basically a 5k square maze with no street or passage signs.  Thankfully we managed to get out of there relatively unscathed (we did the right, right, right rule to get back out). 

The Medina - it was very full on
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Back on the outside of the souk we decided to do a bit more sightseeing which also included laughing at the tourists that were silly enough to get close to the various monkey men, funny dudes dressed up as Moroccan makarena dancers or other multitude of salesmen that were able to get a piece of them.

Deciding we'd had enough we thought it was time to leave the wonderful medina and head back to the relative calm of the hotel.  The thing about the medina that we weren't told is that nobody can leave once you get inside.  There are no street signs, no visitor information kiosks and definitely no helpful locals.  Even google earth has decided not to map an area that corresponds to downtown Wellington in size.  After walking in the right direction for about an hour we figured we were almost there when we started to experience people telling us that we're going the wrong way - without asking where we were actually going.  Very helpful Moroccans when you want to go BACK INTO THE MEDINA, but not at all helpful when trying to get out!

This way
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Amazing city.