Early in the morning we had breakfast on the roof, with a view over all the roofs of the buildings in the old medina. We had a relaxing day today, it was about 40 degrees so too hot to do something. I started to read about the sahara (Sahara overland, by Chris Scott). We sat on the roof all day. In the evening we went to the Djama el Fnaa again, to have some food. We recognized the funny man who was working here 8 years ago too, we recollected this guy, he had grown a bit more fat but it was definitely the same guy, at stand 25. We used to call him Eddy Murphy, he makes a lot of fun and is entertaining the people who are passing by to attract them to his stall. Marrakech is not the place like it was some years ago, it has lost a bit of its charme, it’s very, very touristic now and the moroccons here lost their natural interest in people and are only interested in your money. But still, Marrakech is among our favorite destinations.
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| Our hotel in the old medina. |
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| Eating at stand 25, Djamaa el Fnaa |
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Buying something in Marrakech is a tedious job, everytime you need to start the whole procedure again when you see something you’d like to buy. This ‘what-does-it-cost, no-way, that-is-way-too-expensive, I’ll-offer-you-this, etc. etc.’ thing is fun for the first time in Morocco, but it’s quite irritating if you just want to look around and know the prices of thing to decide if you want to buy it or not. We delved in the souks close to the square but wanted to get out asap. We were definitely not interested to stop at every stop and play the game.
They all start to scream at you ‘Hey! Hey! Want to look! Look at this! We have special price for you! Where are you from? Hey stop! Don’t leave!’.
We know their trick, they ask you where you’re from and then classify you. Whey you say you’re from an asian country youre finished, they charge you the maximum, statistics learn they pay nearly the price they ask. Then, I believe second worst are americans, they seem not to be familiar with the process. West European aren’t much better either. South Europeans are better and even more the north Africans. Of course, the Moroccans theirselves know about the whole game and pay the least. I read this in a Lonely Planet before and Melissa and I started to give the strangest answers possible, like Antarctica, Sudan, Irak or just Morocco. Then they stare at you and look funny at you, their trick doesn’t help them further. Then they start to guess 
Then we start to ask them the same questions ,like wher they’re from.
Melissa was looking in a shop for a nice cushion and I was just standing next to her in the shop. One guy started to talk to Melissa and so the other started showing stuff to me, as I was standing a bit bored (hoping they would leave me alone, which did not seem to work).
I told him I’m not interested in anything but he kept on showing stuff to me. He ended up telling me that I’m not interested in moroccon handcrafts. I told him, I was, I wanted to buy his old stool he is sitting on all day. That was possible he said (of course, they would sell their own hands if you make a good offer). He asked me if I really liked it, I told him it was real ‘berber quality’ to make a bit fun of the moroccan way of trading. He could laugh about it and played the game too. He pointed at the broken part of the chair and how it was fixed wit some cheap rope saying ‘real quality!’. ‘Yeah, yeah! Real good souvenir! Real solid berber wood material from the atlas’ I yelled. He started to trade in the moroccan way too, he asked 200 dirham! So I did what I usually do an started with a stupid offer of 1 dirham, we had lots of fun and ended up at 50 dirham, still way too much for this crappy stool, but we had fun and I paid it. The other guys from the shops around all came to see what was happening and laughed.
He told me that this stool had to be packed very good and we had to take good care of it. This was the only thing we bought in the souks, we went to the market place again and gave Ramon another Henna tattoo, this time we bargained and we got if for 20% of the price from yesterday.
Tomorrow we’re heading for our visa again in Casablanca.
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| There’s enough food for vegetarians too |
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| If you weren’t hungry, you sure will when crossing the Fnaa square in the evening. |
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| And yeah, it’s like this every evening |
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| Cheese! |
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| Getting another henna tattoo. |
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| This moron proposed to get a picture of Ramon and him. Then he charged us money for it. Yeah right! I suggested him to pay us, as it seemed equally reasonable to me. |
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