And I am finally halfway blogging through my trip: I have a feeling by the time I finished this series, my next holiday would start. Lol. Anyway, this second part of this long trip took me to Morocco. I never expect to travel there one day but since it’s a ferry ride away from Spain and the friend wanted to make it happen, it had become a destination on my travel map. We planned to visit 3 years back, then Covid hits and plans got shelved. So we went to contact the tour operator (Love World Tours) which we had liaised the first time round and decided to use them again

The tour is customized to your preference. You can choose the places you want to visit/ hotels you wish to stay/ restaurants you want to go to. We like the flexibility of arranging the itinerary so here’s a snapshot of the places we had planned to visit for our 7-day itinerary: Chefchaouen, Fes, Sahara Desert, Marrakech. And the tour operator threw in some pit stops along the way as well. In all we paid EUR 787 per pax (hotels in Ouarzazate and Marrakech included). This does not include the expenses and restaurants we had chose to go to (cos we are very picky with food. lol)

Anyway back to my travelogue if you are interested to find out about Morocco

We woke up with a home cooked breakfast before checking out and waited for our driver to pick us up and send us to Tarifa port. We had arranged the pickup with zonetransfer.com and seeing how they were running late, we began to panic and started brainstorming what to do next. Thankfully they appeared eventually and we reached Tarifa port 3 hours later 

Eggs, bacons and sausages. What’s not to love?

The city of Tarifa feels different from the rest of Spain

We were running abit late and the queue to check in was long

But thankfully the ferry was still there

Something hilarious happened at the immigration where the officer asked where we were from. He asked if we needed a visa to enter Morocco and we said no. But we legit panicked cos we started doubting ourselves. Then he asked again if we needed a visa to enter EU, and we confidently said no. I guessed he has never seen a Singapore passport before. Lol

We had to haul our luggage up the rack, before climbing the stairs up to the passenger deck

We opted for the premium class so we get some privacy but we still had to get our passport stamped anytime during our journey and before we disembarked. Getting the stamp is very important and they emphasized repeatedly through the radio 

Our ticket also entitled us to a free drink so coke it shall be

I’m not sure if the food is free.. but likely not. lol

Just cos, Singapore passport. lol

And this was the seatings for the standard ticket

The hour-long journey passed in no time and soon we made our disembark at Tangier port where we found our driver – Mohamed easily

Hello Morocco!

When you don’t know where to go, just follow the crowd. lol

I had to say the trip out of the carpark was eye-opening as people were shouting at each other and the car horns just went on non-stop. For a moment; I felt like I had some culture shock 

And as we drove through the city, we could hear Quran being blasted as it was time for prayers

We had requested to have our lunch first where I found a restaurant (Anji Chinese Restaurant) serving Chinese food, much to the friend’s delight.  Funny how once we stepped in through the restaurant and the staff went 三位吗? I mean, we could be from Japan or Korea you know? Lol  

100% for deco. lol

Yangzhou Fried Rice Dh58

The friend was just very happy to see rice, even though the rice was tasteless and definitely not the Yangzhou fried rice we know 

Kang Pao Chicken Dh88

But this was neutralized by the Kang Pao chicken which tasted more sweet than spicy 

Green Beans w Shredded Meat Dh68

And balanced out with the salty green beans

Steamed Shrimp w Garlic Dh158

Thankfully the steamed shrimps with garlic saved the day and it was still an okay meal overall

There were lots of Chinese customers and we saw them with pots of dishes. Also we ordered iced Chrysenthemum tea only for them to serve us piping hot teapot of tea with iced cubes separately. Well( I guess beggars cannot be choosers in foreign land. We were glad we found something comforting after many days of travel

And oh, most places in Morocco (other than big establishments/hotels) accept cash so do remember to have cash on hand. And in our case, we borrowed money from our guide cos he said the money exchange at Fes was better

After we fueled up, we were ready to proceed on with our journey to see the Hercules caves next

But first at a pit stop at this photo point which points Mediterranean Sea to the right and Atlantic Ocean to the left. I think the guide was more enthusiastic about this. We were like … okay. Lol 

But okay, the ocean

We reached Hercules Cave after a short drive where we had to pay Dh60 to enter the attraction which in my opinion was a waste of time. I wished I knew someone would tell me to skip this and we could have drove straight to Chefchaouen directly 

In any case, we were done in 5 minutes 

So we made our drive to Chefchaouen where we stayed at Dar Elrio for the night. It’s a cozy Airbnb-style with a few levels of rooms – only stairs and no lifts. Thankfully the staff helped to carry our luggages up for us which they also made us pay for tips at the end. I also remembered it was then the friend got angry with us for wanting to stay-in while she really wanted to roam the streets. Well.., I was about to concuss from exhaustion and hey! It’s my first time sitting out. Lol. So I told the other friend to accompany her instead. Ha

Cozy reception

And our ‘suite’ room where we had a huge living area and could be transformed into a sofa bed

The bedroom and the toilet where water flowed really freely

We had our welcome tea at the rooftop and it was nice enjoying the cooling weather for once

The iced tea was really nice and is said to be a Moroccan hospitality. This was the only place we had it iced while the rest of the establishments served us hot tea. My guess was one of the owners was from Taiwan so she decided to make some Taiwanese-style shaken iced tea for us

I ended the night with icecream for dinner and went straight to bed

Breakfast was included in our stay but we were so early the kitchen wasn’t ready. So while we waited, we explored the reception a little and saw these really cute sighs!

lol.

Then breakfast was ready. It was quite a spread 

Just look at this. Feast for the eye

We were given time to see the blue city and we tried to find the Instagram places for photos. Well, we did manage to find them in the end

First, a shot of the village – checked 

After roaming the streets for awhile, they looked pretty similar to me. Lol. They are all blue!

Still, a tick off the bucket list!

Then it was a 3-hour drive to Volubilis to see the archaeological sites of Berber and Roman history 

The view we get most of the time – land + no trees = very hot

Never did we know we will get this sight 80% of the time of our trip. lol

In all honesty, if you had visited the Roman ruins before, I would strongly suggest to skip this cos they are all similar. I was in a state of annoyance after a long drive + hunger pangs + hot weather I wished we had just proceeded on for lunch. And the friends didn’t seem very interested either given this is their 3rd time to ancient ruins site

Ruins – A land of imagination 

When we heard we were going for lunch, we were really happy. We were brought to try this place (we didn’t choose, the guide selected) that serves tangine, a traditional Moroccan dish braised with spices, garlic, lemon and onions 

And we realized this Restaurant Palais Ismailia was probably one of the designated tourist restaurants cos we see this group of tourist wherever we went, till we could recognize them. They probably were going to same places as us 

Hi people from the same itinerary!

A+ for menu cover

Each set comes with soup, salad, mains and desserts 

Moroccan Soup 

I thought this tasted strange. The combination of tomatoes, chickpeas and lentils probably doesn’t suit our palate. We had no confidence in the rest of the meal. Lol 

Moroccan Salad

Which nobody touched. Lol: they were just not appetizing enough 

Chicken w Lemon & Olives

To be honest, it wasn’t fantastic. It was okay lor, tasted like chicken. But we just needed something to fill our stomach so we shall not complain

Tangine of Grinded Meat w Egg 

We thought this looked good but sadly, this was lamb meat. So…. Meh

Oranges w Cinnamon

The friend wanted the oranges w cinnamon cos they probably can’t go wrong. But the oranges were so sour and the cinnamon was too strong. One wonders how does this combination even work. Lol. Maybe if the oranges were sweet, they might taste even better 

Caramel Cream

And the caramel pudding went to the other end of the spectrum. It was very, very sweet. Maybe we should have just gone for the fruit salad instead 

Anyway with lunch over, we went on to have a tour of Meknes, the imperial city of Morocco on a caleche ride. I liked that we didn’t have to walk, and we could take in the sights on it. But the horse wasn’t the best-smelling, so the whole ride was.. challenging 

Unfortunately the site of Bab Monsour gate was under renovation

So here’s a random gate 

And we past by some street stalls which they looked very hot sitting there

After our tour ended, we made our way to our accommodation for the next 2 nights – Palais Bahia in Fes which we had booked ourselves. The hotel was located at the old city so cars couldn’t enter. There’s a central carpark for drop off / pick up and the luggage boys would wheel their trolley to the parking lot 

Like this. Lol

We were fairly amused.  But as long as it’s not us wheeling the trolley, whatever works 

The route to our Riad took 5 minutes but it was an interesting journey. The locals looked at us curiously and tried getting a response from us shouting in Chinese. Well, we pretended we didn’t understand and tried following the luggage boys closely. And we were so glad we finally reached our Riad

I love the central space of our Riad with its high structure and bright interior. We were so tired we decided to plop down at the sofa and not moved while the host prepared some tea and snacks for us 

So pretty

Then we were brought up to our room to chill for abit before we go out for dinner. We had originally planned our dinner at a Korean place but unfortunately they were not opened that day. Boo. And our driver doesn’t seem very familiar with the area so we settled for fried chicken in the end 

The driver even took some time to drive around to see what else was opened but realised there was really nothing much opened that evening, so Chicken Mac it shall be. We had a challenging time crossing the road. Why he didn’t want to make a uturn so we didn’t have to cross the road – I had no idea. Anyway, the restaurant was crowded. Thankfully we got a seat in no time. If I were to compare this to a fried chicken shop in Singapore, there is none. Lol. It’s a very different kind of chicken place

1/2 Pulet Dh60

We went with 1/2 poulet cos we clearly were hungry. Then we realised oh, it’s not really fried chicken. It’s more grilled. But it was a little dry. It tasted better with tomato sauce

Grilled Sausages Dh35

I thought sausages cannot go wrong. But when it came, one look at it and I knew these were lamb. So… it’s a sign of regret

Nuggets Tacos Dh35

We clearly didn’t expect tacos to come in such form. And nuggets + tacos. Well, it exceeded our imagination. Lol. To be honest, this was decent. If I were to pick a single item out of the entire menu to eat, it would be this

Seafood Basket Dh70

We had ordered the fried fish basket but had no idea why it turned out to be seafood. So seafood it shall be. It was very forgettable

Clearly, the meal wasn’t great. But at least we ate a lot of fries. Times like this, maybe we should have eaten at our Riad instead, or had instant noodles. Probably a wiser choice

So the driver dropped us at the carpark and the kind Riad uncle was there to pick us up. To be honest, Fes wasn’t the safest, especially when we are from minority and all ladies. So this uncle walked us to the carpark and back to our Riad that day. It was a very sweet gesture though and he ensured we walked infront of him up the alleys so he can see us. Aww, that put a smile on our face

Next day was a full day of exploring Fes. So we fuelled up with breakfast, and breakfast again was such a spread

Pancakes, brownies, roti prata (lol, just kidding)

Apparently we saw this bread in most places we go and it looked like it is a staple for breakfast

I honestly wonder if they eat like this everyday. Probably not

And it’s back to the parking lot again. This time we had to make our way there ourselves cos it was too early so we plucked up our courage and started the journey. I was surprised the locals were up so early. And yes, they called out to us, followed us, pretended they know us (said they met us yesterday and we were like ?!) until we reached the parking lot and they were still relentless. We were sitting there for awhile wondering why our driver hasn’t showed up cos he was usually quite punctual, until a guy in white appeared and said good morning to us. And by natural instincts, we clearly ignored him. Then he added, I’m your tour guide for today! And we were like OH HI. Lol 

The fateful parking lot

Our guide for the day was named Muhammed and we were like oh, you are Muhammed No 3 we know. Lol He asked why we didn’t stay at our Riad to wait for him cos the walking tour was supposed to start from there and we were like oh, we thought we were supposed to meet the driver here

In the end, we started our trip to the Royal Palace of Fes which is the official residence of the King of Morocco. Nobody can enter the residence but clearly this is a famous tourist attraction

It was early still, but already so crowded

Which is known for the golden gate and the intricate details that went into it

We moved on to get a bird’s eye view of Fes where the guide also told us a short history, before heading to see pottery making

We moved on to get a bird’s eye view of Fes where the guide also told us a short history, before heading to see pottery making

The local clay found around Fez is fine in texture and predominantly grey

Fez pottery is covered with a white glaze and decorated in a cobalt blue once the clay has been processed, thrown, and dried in the sun. It is this rich cobalt blue that has become known as le Bleu de Fès

Apparently you could tell the origins of the crafts (pottery/carpets/fabric) just by looking at the colors, techniques and motifs

At the design stage where each piece is intricately painted. On a side note, I wonder if they feel like animals in a zoo with tourists looking and taking photos of them. Lol I digress (cos I felt like that sometimes in my office when they are visitors)

Showroom of endless possibilities. Well, we took a look and moved on. The friend bought a really really small tangine pot as souvenir though

They are all similar, yet very different

We then started our walking tour proper at the souk, first to the famous Blue Gate. When we were reaching, the friend commented – is not blue leh. Lol

The most iconic portal to the old medina and the world’s largest surviving medieval city and urban car-free zone. The blue on the side that greets new visitors represents the color of the city of Fes, which is famous for its pottery, painted with elegant cobalt blue designs while the reverse side, which faces the medina, is green—the color of Islam. And hence, the colour green here

Bou Inania Medersa

I really liked this colourful street that the guide brought us. It’s so vibrant and loud and it’s definitely good for the gram. That is, if you can find it of course. There are so many alleys in this traditional market you would get lost if you are not familiar with the area

The artwork is wow

Carpet next!

Moroccan hospitality again!

We took a chance to rest, pretended we were interested and then zoned out for a good 20 minutes. Lol. Just so we could rest abit more. Part of us were thinking when was lunch gonna come? 

We took a walk down the market area to see how’s life like for them. Well, there were a lot of flies. And when we saw flies landing on the meat, bread etc and we were like O.O Moving on..

Coming across a lane where they sell scarves and the guide mentioned he would bring us to the workshop later (sounds like another tourist place)

Then he began bringing us up and down, left and right, navigating the alleys like a pro and we were like how do you know where you are going given there are 9000+ alleys in here and 1000+ are dead ends? So apparently there is a trick, by looking at this

If you see a hexagon sign being displayed in the alley, it means they are dead end, while a square shape will lead you to somewhere. And we were like ooh…

The guide announced it was time for lunch (yay) and brought us, according to him, to the place that served one of the best local food –  Restaurant Nejjarine, that was also hidden in one of the alleyways

Surprise surprise. When we entered, we saw many tourists and the same group we had met from day 1. lol 

Each set comes with salad, mains and fruits so seeing how hungry we were, we ordered in no time. Even though our mains took quite some time to come. Until the table sitting next to us was about to leave and they asked if we are from Singapore or Malaysia. I guess, our accent is very distinguishable 

I have to say the salad here looked a little more appetising though they were less popular with us. Personally I like salad, but Moroccan salad really needs another level of appreciation

Skewers Beef/Chicken Mixed Dh180

We decided to have some skewers for a change, which was abit dry but flavourful still

Chicken w Lemon Dh130

I felt that if I see any more chicken with lemon on my trip, I will run away

Chicken Pastilla Dh200

The pastilla was actually quite nice. We should have ordered another portion of this instead of chicken with lemon

We discovered our love for Moroccan orange juice here. Somehow they tasted so good freshly squeezed we ordered it at every restaurant we go. Lol

Seasonal Fruits

Which tasted slightly better than the first one we had, maybe cos of the banana or strawberries or both

After lunch, we covered the remaining places on our itinerary – Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts & Crafts, Nejjarine Square, Al-Attarine Madrasa and the iconic Chouara Tannery before we called it for the day

This place used to be an inn for caravans and travelling merchants but has since been converted into a museum that stores the artefacts. The museum’s architecture is quite an artefact itself. One could take time to explore the rooms and appreciate the crafts that were used in the past

We liked that this place wasn’t crowded and we could take a nice shot of the building

Al-Attarine Madrasa

We had visited so many Madrasa we were abit confused. But what’s special about this place is that their interior that were all made different. The pavement, pillars were covered in mosaic tilework, while the upper zone were mostly filled with carved wood in geometric star patterns

Of course, another shopping pitstop along the way

Where we all got some scarves for family back home. Hearsay their silk very good, very different 

And then we were secretly brought up to the second level and we thought wah, some more? Only to realise they wanted to show us Kaftan. They were very pretty though, just that we have no occasion to wear them back home.  I mean, where can you wear to? Racial harmony?

Saving the best for the last – Chouara Tannery. This is probably the scene that appeared on every photo stock. The smell is exotic too, you will never forget it

Thankful the mint leaves. It saved us

And with that, we ended the tour with our guide. You could tell we were exhausted with loss of energy and little words coming out of our mouth. And with that, we were whisked off to our accommodation to rest for abit before dinner

Dinner was at Duplex Steakhouse which we had found ourselves (booked through IG). You need to make a reservation for this place cos I never expect them to be so popular, and possibly so cos it was a Sunday. Ohmygosh. As usual, everyone turned to stare at us when we walked in but we were more amused by the the singing that was going on. It was like KTV but whole restaurant singing

Thar’s the live band there

Cream of Chicken and Wild Mushroom Soup Dh40

Pan Fried Prawns Dh70

Seabass Fillet w Cauliflower Puree, Coconut Milk Sauce, Lemongrass Dh155

Probably the only one I wouldn’t recommend to order

Fillet de Beef 180g Dh145

Cheeseburger

Chocolate Fondant Dh40

The food was generally not bad. Even though it was a steakhouse by name, but they have a variety of food to choose from. Thankful for something different for dinner. I had enough of chicken with lemon and skewers for the day. Lol But what was most impressionable was the whole restaurant (kids included) singing and dancing at their table when the live band was on. I think the friends and I were just in for culture shock. We had never expected something like this, and the kids legit knew the lyrics to the songs. We.were.very.impressed

And when the driver came to pick us up, he asked how was dinner and we said dinner was good. His next question was – no singing? And we realised oh, it’s something very common here

And with that, we concluded our expedition in Fes. I think Fes is a stop you have to visit when you are in Morocco, just to see and explore but it’s also a place I won’t return. Cos once is enough 😀

Read here for the rest of my travelogues:

Travelgoue: To Paris & Beyond – Bonjour!

Travelogue: Ola Barcelona!

Travelogue: Rustic Granada & A Warm Seville

Travelogue: Exploring Seville, Ronda & The White Villages