Morocco (December 2018)

I just got back from my trip to Morocco and in planning the trip I referred to many blogs so I thought I'd do the same and share my experience along with some tips for those who are thinking of going. 

Hands down my favourite picture from the trip.

All in all I would rate the trip 8.5 out of 10. Roughly that's an A and now you're probably thinking the trip went smooth and all but no no no you have no idea. Let me fill you up with the details on how I got to 8.5. 

In planning this trip I had a few priorities:

1. Get return tickets within £50 

2. Negotiate the cheapest price for the tour guide (which included all our expenses except for lunch everyday, tips, and spending money)

3. Go to the top tourist attractions (Fez, Chefchaouen, Sahara Desert, Atlas Mountains, and Marrackech) within 6 days. (We reached at 1 a.m. in the morning because our flight was delayed so we technically only spent 5 days and 5 nights in Morocco)

4. Cap the whole spending for the trip to £500 per person 

*Take note that none of my friends put these expectations on me, I did so myself.

Wakanda forever, friends forever. The man in the middle is Abdullah; our driver throughout the trip. 

Why go to Morroco in December? To run away from the cold in the UK plus personally I don't think going to any European countries during winter is a good time. Initially I targeted to plan the whole trip during the beginning of the summer holidays (June-July) so I could get it out of the way before class started but because the academic timetable wasn't out  yet I couldn't get confirmed dates to buy flight tickets. And we all know that usually the earlier we buy flight tickets the cheaper it is. So yes, time was ticking. I did however do most of the research in June; read blogs and summarised everything in my phone.

I finally got confirmation from my friends on when their Christmas Holidays started on the 21st of September, and yeah you bet I bought flight tickets the very next day. Okay so y'all remember how number one on my priority list was to get return tickets within 50 pounds? Well I skipped two days of my Mandarin Chinese class because of that which days my teacher had scheduled our mock exams :) Before y'all start judging I actually asked the teacher whether I could do it in the new term and she said she'll probably do it again because most of my classmates aren't coming for the mock exams anyway so yeah, I'm not that bad okay plus I think I'm the only one who hasn't skipped any classes *rolls eyes

I think we look cute here

Okay I got my return tickets so next on the list was to negotiate the cheapest price with my tour guide. As reference,  (I've been bugging her with so many texts since June asking about Morocco, shoutout to you Qisya!) my senior who went in a group of 7 spent £465 for the tour guide for 8 days. That's around £58/day, I'm going for 6 days with a group of 6 (initially 6 then we ended as a group of 8) so my cost should be around £348.75. But the thing is if you refer to my third priority, I wanted to go to several top attractions so in the end, I planned out an itinerary with my tour guide; Ben, that was very similar to my senior's so yes my Morrocoan friends, that's why ours was a bit rushed and we were always behind schedule except for our last two days lol. 

Initially Ben set the price at £450/person hah! there was no way I was paying or letting my friends pay £450. I countered Ben's £450 attack with a £350 and he started going 'oh no no sister trust me you cannot get that price' which I replied with 'the thing that I'm worried about is that my friends won't be able to afford that especially because we're all students' Okay to be fair I knew £350 was asking too much especially since he charged my senior £465 for roughly the same itinerary. Lastly, (lol this was all happening through ws call) we settled at £390. I was okay with £390 but definitely not content. I was definitely gonna grab any further chances for discounts the moment I smell them. I had another senior who I could use as reference but she spent around £820 for 8 days and nahhh we're not living that kind of life now are we.

Our tent in the Sahara Desert. It was proper cold. I had to use 5 blankets.

A month after I settled everything one of my friends asked if his mom and sister could come along (this was how our group of 6 expanded to 8) I didn't really know what to expect travelling with somebody's mom who I haven't met before but I was still open to the idea and so were my other friends. I know some people would not be okay with this but all my friends were positive about it when I called to ask them and that's when I knew I chose the right group of friends to travel with; the open-minded and chill type :) Thank God. Okay now y'all recall the £390 I got for the tour guide? I remember clearly that Ben said in one of our phone calls that the more the people the cheaper the price per person. B I N G O. And you bet I used exactly what he said to ask for a further reduction to the £390 and that my friends is exactly what I got :) We agreed to a £380 per person and honestly I felt so proud and happy *happy dance (the same dance you do when your food arrives to the table)

Low quality picture, high quality people. (Taken in Chefchaouen)

Okay now to the part of the blog where I tell you what happened in Morocco. First of all, our flight got delayed. Okay this wasn't really a big deal because come on flights get delayed all the time (says the person who was worried she couldn't sit properly at the airport and felt bad when everyone had to stand up so long in the queue she couldn't help but sigh and felt bad inside). This wasn't the perfect beginning of a trip but it was still bearable. Due to the delay we arrived at around 1 a.m. and upon arrival we had to fill in landing cards (WHICH I DIDNT KNOW ABOUT ISH HOW DID THIS SLIP THE RESEARCH THAT I DID?) Okay guys you know my blog is the better blog cuz I'm telling you all the important details so yeah get the address of your accommodation all ready and handy! I noticed at the airport that there were many Malaysians and coincidentally I met a friend I knew from BTN (a camp we went before flying off to the UK for our studies) What were the odds?

If this doesn't scream Sahara Desert I don't know what does.

This may sound ridiculous but I was really looking forward to seeing the driver hold up a piece of paper with my name on it when we arrived at the airport cuz 1. that's the classic airport scene 2. I've never had that before 3. I obviously watch too many movies. Little did I know this little wish came with bad luck. Okay so we passed security checks and everything, and I was walking a little bit at the back of the pack so my friend got to the driver first before I could record the awaited moment. Okay never mind, no big deal. So as we were walking with the driver (who I realised couldn't speak much English) to the car, he asked me how many of us were there and I said 8 while holding up 8 fingers which made him look puzzled and said he thought 5. Okay hold up, say what??? okay okay this might just be a little misunderstanding. *inhales deeply

So he asked for a few minutes to make a call which then led us to wait underneath this white tent in from of the airport. Apparently we weren't allowed to wait in the airport although it was 1 a.m. and freezing cold. I later made small talk with the guy while waiting when his phone rang and he later passed me his phone with another guy at the end of the phone speaking rather fluent English. The guy at the end of the phone, Ahmed, told me that I booked for 5 people which made me think 'oh no, he must have missed the additional two bookings that I made' (the shock made it slip my mind that 5 plus 2 was 7 so the math still didn't add up even if he did miss the two extra bookings) I then told him that I booked 8 people under Ben which he replied with 'Who is Ben? I don't know Ben?'. o m g. All my seniors warned me of how Morocco is full of scams and in that very moment the first thing that went through my mind was: We got scammed. I thought that Ben had booked for 5 under Ahmed and took the remaining money for himself. (Crap why did I pay the full amount, I knew I shouldn't and should have just paid the deposit first) I tried calling Ben but yeah of course he wasn't picking up- classic plot for a scam movie. Seriously this can't be happening.

How to know if I took the picture? If I'm not in it.

Our trip had just started and I had already failed. In the moment I looked at my friends who were sitting underneath the tent looking tired, sleepy, and cold and I tried my best to cover how flustered I was and deal with the situation when all I wanted to do was to drop to the ground. How was I gonna tell my friends? I didn't. Well not at first. This was one thing that I realised about myself, I tend to keep problems to myself and try to act like a sponge to absorb all the effects so it won't affect the people around me. One of my friends though who was there talking with the driver with me said 'it's okay you can tell me' so I told him while the others didn't have a clue and just thought we had to wait for another car to arrive and pick us all. I then called Ahmed (the guy with good English) and tried to solve the problem. In the end we agreed to go to his Riad (a traditional Moroccan house with an interior garden or courtyard) and book extra rooms. At that point I was planning on paying for the extra rooms because the only thing on my mind was making sure my friends especially my friend's mom had a place to sleep for the night.

Personally I wanted everyone to enjoy the trip like how happy they look in this picture, but I guess that's stretching it too far, I can't control everything.

In the car, I borrowed the driver's phone and continued to call Ahmed. I had printed off the itinerary so I had the name of the riad that we were supposed to go to and Ahmed went all 'I've never heard of this place' PERFECT MATE PREFECT. He repeated again that he didn't know who Ben was and that I made the bookings directly with him when I know for sure I didn't. The only person I dealt with was with Ben who according to Ahmed didn't exist. Okay here's the part where my brain started to click. How did this dude know my name and flight details if not from Ben when he claims he doesn't know Ben? Then I asked him how he knows about me which he said it was because of my emails with him. OKAY PAUSE. BILA MASA PULAK AKU EMAIL MAMAT NIE??? (Translation: When did I ever email this dude??) 

Perfect, I caught him. I then asked him 'what's my email address?' anticipating a random email address for him to create up. Then he read 'my' email address and it was something like Anis Sofea. O M G. Now it made sense. Remember how I told you that there were quite a number of Malaysians at the airport??? One of them was my friend who's name was ANIS SOFEA. SO BASICALLY WE BOTH WENT TO THE WRONG DRIVER WHO MUST HAVE BEEN HOLDING UP ONLY OUR FIRST NAMES (WHICH WAS ANIS) ON A PIECE OF PAPER. Having realised that, I told him and I gave him the name of my Riad which he looked up and called the reception. In that short overwhelming moment and with me barely keeping it together Ahmed said the last thing you'd think would give me any kind of comfort. He said; 'Its okay, sh*t happens' and that made both of us laugh through the phone in a moment when the last thing I wanted to do was smile. Okay I'm not trying to promote foul languages (Im trying so hard to not swear at all) but when he said that I couldn't help but feel this sense of relief because if you think of it, his character didn't match with someone who you'd think was trying to scam someone. A scammer would be trying to blame me when what Ahmed was doing was to try to reassure me (Well in his own way of course) 

Our first meal in Morocco: Dinner at 2.30 a.m.

We reached Ahmed's Riad and he walked us to our correct Riad (which was thankfully close by) and we were welcomed by two very professional looking guys who helped us with our bags. I saw my friend; the other Anis and her other friends at our Riad too. In that moment I was just full of gratitude. The thing is this could have all been a scam instead of a misunderstanding but no, God had mercy on me because He knew that given the pressure that I was under (I had seven people who I had to think of) that would all be too much for me to handle so instead He tested me with something I could handle. Alhamdulillah, I did sujud syukur in my room (sujud syukur is basically when Muslims put their heads to the ground in a moment of gratitude. Like how some Muslim footballers do when they score a goal) Our riad was simply beautiful and for the Percy Jackson readers out there, I don't know why but stepping into the Riad and with the excellent service I was reminded of C.C.'s Spa and Resort where Percy nearly got turned into a pig. In simple words; I was enchanted. The two guys heated up dinner for us and so we ate 'dinner' at 2.30 a.m. Even at that hour (this was definitely pass their working hours) they were still so professional with smiles on their face and served us a three course meal (No kid they gave us ice-cream!) *best hospitality I have ever gotten in my life, they were so professional they asked me how I wanted my eggs for breakfast the next morning before I slept that night.

The guy said a girl can only make three carpets in her life due to the strain it has on her eyes. So basically there is a piece of a girl's life in each carpet. I think I feel the same way with this blog. A piece of my life in each post.

A chunk of our trip included us travelling in a van to get from one place to another that at some point I wanted to puke. (Remember priority 3). On the last day in the airport I had a conversation with a lady who spent 6 days in Marrakesh alone and she was surprised at the amount of stuff we covered in 5 days (Hehehe I aced this third priority). There wasn't really any other options for us but I still felt bad for my friends and Aunty for having to sit in the van for so long. (Seriously if I had a pound for every time I felt sorry for other people, I'd be a billionaire by now)

Chefchaouen, the blue city. Pronounced as shef-shaa-wen

If someone asked me what was my favourite part of the trip this is the part where you would expect me to say; "having my friends with me was the best part" okay this is true but to really answer the question I would say I had two top favourites, the first would be watching the sunset at the Sahara desert while riding camels. The view I tell you is simply priceless. You must experience this at least once in your life. 

Surprisingly camels are more comfortable to ride compared to horses due to the padded seats.

Another fun experience which was unplanned is when we went to grab dinner at Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakech. Basically Jemaa el-Fnaa at night is this huge market and just so full of life (fellow Malaysians can probably compare it with a massive Pasar Malam). The best part was that the moment we entered the main part we were literally ambushed by people trying to make us eat at their stalls. Mind you all the stalls where nearly identical and were probably selling the same thing. If I only remember one thing from A-level Economics it is that when in a competitive market, prices tend to be fixed cuz naturally if one person were to lower the price the others will follow suit to remain relevant in the market and this will continue till they settle at a price that is attractive to customers but at the same time allows for profit. So with the same price and roughly the same product, the only thing they could do is to fight for customers. Like literally. 

I was walking somewhere at the front of the group and everywhere I turned someone would block my way with menus in their hands and saying stuff like 'You don't have to buy I just want you to see the menu'. It reached the point where we were circled by a bunch of guys. I don't know how but we managed to push our way out which made us realise that we needed a strategy. I noticed that although all the stalls were similar, some had calamaris while some didn't and bruhhhh that won my heart. We then entered again with a mission- look for calamaris. This time a guy was pulling one of my friend (Adam) by his sleeve and I thought that was too much I was angry. I said straight to his face; 'Bro this is too much, let go of my friend'. We then continued walking and one guy offered free drinks (This caught my attention but I was thinking that we need to act tough and not settle straight away plus he didn't have calamaris!) We then saw one that had calamaris and I told the guy 'That guy offered me free drinks, can you give us free drinks as well?) He said yes. Hahahahahahahahahah XD If you haven't realised by now, I really enjoy bargaining a lot. I like doing it cuz it's super fun and feels like a game and like all games; I like to win.

If you watch closely you can see one of the men in action trying to get customers. Hint: Far left

Our last day at Marrakech was just free and easy. BIG TIP: If you're thinking of buying souvenirs or Argan oil or whatever it's best to buy in Marrakech. I really don't know why the other blogs I've been reading said Marrakech is expensive cuz noooooo it was way cheaper with bargaining potential compared to other places.

For the food in Morocco, I'd say it depends on where you're eating. The food we had at our first Riad, Marrakech, and at the Sahara Dessert was better than the ones we had at restaurants. And I didn't have an appetite throughout the trip so yeah maybe food is not the best thing that Morocco has to offer. Oh yes, before I forget about the last priority heheheheheheh I think roughly I spent around £500. I think.  (I'll calculate again properly when I have time on my hands) I know the rest of my friends for sure didn't lol.

My last meal in Morroco didn't disappoint

So besides the hiccup we faced in the beginning everything was just lovely. Oh so I thought :) God just had to throw in another challenge for me but okay can't really say no now can we. We reached the airport early; a little less than 3 hours till departure. I had checked in online, printed the tickets, had no luggage to check-in, and I had asked a worker if I had to do anything before going to the gate and the lady said I didn't so I thought I had everything under control. I was wrong. I made the mistake of waiting at the area before you pass the security check for departure. I thought what could go wrong? I did everything and we had big bottles of water and that for sure couldn't pass the security checks so I thought we could afford to walk to the departure gate a little late to have time to drink the water. Again I was wrong. 

We were all happy and bubbly walking to the officer at the security check until he said that we had to have our visa checked. SAY WHAT NOW? It was 7.30pm (if I remember correctly) and our flight departs as 9pm.  I rushed to the counter where you drop your bags but nobody was there and one of the workers said the counter was closed and I was too late. MATE, YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME NOW. My friends then found the customer service counter where I had to show all the passports and all our tickets. In that moment in front of the counter while the lady was doing only God knows what (tbh I don't know what she was doing because we definitely didn't need any visas) I closed my eyes and prayed silently to God to help me out. I thought worst case scenario I'll pay for new flight tickets. I mean It was my fault anyway. We then got our tickets stamped and everyone ran to the gate. The same officer then said we had to fill in a boarding form. PERFECT. You just had to throw that to me now, didn't you. We all frantically filled up the form (WHICH AGAIN I DIDNT KNOW OF EVEN AFTER READING BLOGS. Seriously bloggers out there, please include these things in your post, it helps a lot). The stretch to the departure gate was super crazy everyone was just scrambling to pass the security checks and everything. I made sure I was last because if anybody was to miss the flight it better be me and not anyone else. We made it. Phew. Actually we did more than 'made it'. Some people  even came later than us because they too had the same problem plus the plane got delayed and flew an hour or more behind schedule, so yeah, such unnecessary drama. 

What is life without people and experiences that give meaning to it?

Looking back, I can't help but smile at the drama at the beginning and the end of the trip. Morrocco was amazing even with all the hiccups. If I had to sum up Morocco into one scene it would be a vibrant, colourful, and loud scene in one of the markets that simply overwhelms you. 

You know how they say you never really know someone until you travel with them and I think this is spot on. In the many things we had to face together I had the chance to see my friends for who they were. I would like to thank them for being so supportive and encouraging. I honestly felt like I didn't do that great of a job in planning the trip but my friends kept on thanking me and to be honest they're just amazing people. May God bless.  

Love you guys. 

p.s. Feel free to ask me anything about Morocco in the comments section down below and I'll try my very best to answer them.

         

                                                                      Till I write again oxo