I arrived in Marrakesh from Essaouira after a three hour bus ride around 3:30pm. When I got to the train station (where the bus also drops off), I tried haggling with several drivers to get a ride to the medina, but they all wanted twice what I’d been told was reasonable. I finally gave in since I didn’t have many other options and it was too far to walk and was dropped off near one of the gates. I’d told the driver which gate I needed to be dropped at but ended up being taken somewhere totally different.
I wasn’t sure where I was going but decided I’d just wander a bit until I found a sign that would give me some idea of where I was. A guy came out of a store and insisted on helping me. I declined his help and he replied that he wasn’t a guide, just a guy who worked in a store who liked helping people. I told him that I wouldn’t pay him for his help and he just laughed and said “no, it’s okay, I’ll help you, I don’t want any money”. I gave him the name of my hotel and asked him to just point me in the right direction rather than guiding me there, but as usual in these situations, he didn’t listen. Much like when this happened in Fes, I kept repeating as we walked that I wouldn’t pay him, and he kept insisting that this was fine.
We arrived in front of Riad Agdim where I’d booked a room in advance, and he placed his hand flat over the bell and then said “now, you pay me”. I noticed that when he’d “rang” the bell he didn’t actually press it, but just placed his hand over it to make it look as though he had. Realizing that he’d done this so he could try to intimidate me into giving him money while we were alone in the alley where no one would open the door (since the bell hadn’t actually been rung), I reached around him and pressed the bell as I told him that I wouldn’t be paying him. He smacked my arm as I was ringing the bell to try to stop me from pressing it, and I told him pointedly that I’d told him that I wouldn’t pay him and that he’d already agreed to that, and that if he wasn’t actually okay with not being paid that he shouldn’t have insisted on guiding me in the first place. Unlike when I was in Fes and I gave the boy who’d “guided” me to the closed museum money just to leave me alone, by this point in the trip I was totally fed up with being ripped off by so many people that I defiantly stood there staring at him while he towered over me, and refused to give him money knowing that someone would soon show up to open the door of the riad and scare him off. He must’ve realized that it would be a bad idea to still be standing there threatening me when someone from the hotel opened the door, so he stormed off angrily, yelling something about how he hated tourists. A few seconds later the hotel manager opened the door to let me in.
After checking in to the riad I left to go find the Koutoubia Minaret, which is part of the Koutoubia Mosque. Like all other mosques in Morocco (with the exception of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca), only Muslims are permitted to enter, so I was only able to see the outside.
01 | Koutoubia Minaret (click for more info)
02 | Near the Koutoubia Minaret
03 | The grounds of the Koutoubia Mosque
From there I walked to the Ensemble Artisanal store to get a feel for prices since I’d be doing some shopping later. There wasn’t much I was interested in though, so I didn’t buy anything. I went to the Jemma El Fna for dinner. Jemma El Fna is a large public square that’s been the heart of the city since the 11th century. Around dusk it fills with pop-up stands serving cheap and delicious food. I ate at one place that had amazing lamb, one of my favorite kinds of meats, and fresh juices. After that I went back to the hotel and went to bed.
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