A-Trekking I Will Go!

Meknes, Fes and Ifrane
Day 1 (cont'd.)

Sorry it's not rotated :(

Fes

The ride to Fes was breathtaking!  The Moroccan countryside is something that will render you speechless.  I really appreciate the backdrop of lush green landscapes and neatly arranged farming lands and hills and mountains of endless green.  We never got to Fes until around 7 something/8 in the night and when we got there, we were less than pleased.

So here we are, in beautiful Fes - tired and aching from the long bus ride - and we end up stopping in front of this very questionable "hotel" in an equally alarming neighbourhood. Yikes! It was just for the night so we didn’t think much of it but we hadn’t seen the rooms as yet and little did we know that we were out for a RUDE awakening!  

Before we had the privilege of even seeing as far into the "hotel" as the waiting area, we were hit with some awfully disappointing news, and the worst kind too; and I'll tell yah, I was NOT in the mood for any of this!  You know the kinda news that would make a traveler go bonkers and shoot evil glances and snares at anyone who dares to utter so much as a syllable because they had been on a long journey and were hungry and tired and EXTREMELY disappointed after seeing that the hotel they would have to stay at had no stars to its name ? Well multiply that by six because they told us that our rooms were being divided into groups of SIX!!!!

Now this would have been less alarming if they hadn’t informed us beforehand that it was going to be two people to a room.  I have little patience for these kinds of things becase what I hate more than a poorly planned trip is being lied to by the arrangers of a poorly planned trip!  So I refused to speak to anyone and EVERYONE got the stink eye.  It gets better! (please note that this is sarcasm)

We get to the room and the list of possible things to be mad about gets much longer;

1.      Beds were harder than the ones in Rabat which already felt like rocks.
          There was no heating

3.       It was freezing cold outside and it felt no different inside

4.       There was no hot water

5.       There were no regular toilets (google Arab/Chinese toilets)

6.       They expected me to bathe over the toilet mentioned above with cold water

7.       One of the pillows reeked of skin infection

8.       I opened my window to be greeted with the view of a shanty town

Now I know this may make me sound like an uppity bitch but a girl needs what a girl needs.  I’m not used to certain luxuries back home but then again, the conditions are far different.  Like, it wasn’t necessary for me to have hot water at home but when the weather is 6 degrees celcius and lower, hot water is kinda required.  Do I ask for too much?  So like the true westerners, my three travel buddies and I decided to fork up some cash and pay for better living conditions.  

Some people were offended because WE decided to use OUR money and move to a BETTER hotel, but it’s not our fault that we wanted to bathe in hot water and sleep in big, comfy, warm beds now is it?  We were much more at ease in the morning. Besides, they wouldn’t have liked having me around any more than they already didn’t, had I not had a good night's sleep:S. 

But getting to the other hotel was by no means a walk in the park.  We had to walk around to find one. Luckily we had dinner at this restaurant where there was a cashier who was very friendly and helpful.  He steered us to a pretty decent hotel and was very good for conversation.

Hot chocolate after dinner... yummy!
(We were having a distinguished pinky drinking contest hehehe)

When the first hotel had no rooms, we made our way to a second. When they had no rooms, we made it to a third.  The third had rooms but we never got our rooms until quite a while after. Apparently, you need a passport to book a hotel room in Morocco and Kim and I had conveniently decided to leave our passports behind in Rabat.  We had to journey to three different police stations in search of a letter that would allow us to get a room without them.  Luckily, there were some guys on the trip who were driving and they were helpful enough to take us around to the police stations.



Let’s just say, by the time we got the rooms, it was well into the night and we ended up spending only a few short hours in the warm, comfy beds.

Those few short hours were worth it because I was in no way or form willing to risk pneumonia and back aches in the cold, hard beds from before. 

A better view from the better hotel the next morning :)

Kinda blurry but it's not my fault ... or is it ;)

Next day, more drama.  The wonderful planners of this ultra mega awesome trip decided to add a passenger or two from Fes to come along on the trip to Ifrane.  Yet again, without notifying the drivers!  Needless to say there was much commotion.   Boy, if my mother heard about this!

By then, I was past the drama so I just ignored what was going on. Besides, I had a good night’s sleep and no one was going to have the satifsaction of spoiling my day. Well with the exception of my personal body guard whom I did not request.  He had been monitoring my every move from the minute we left Rabat until we returned and he would be so kind as to take a seat beside me when the person who was sitting next to me decided to get up.   The saga continues!!!!!  Ifrane here we come!