Page 14 - Explore Magazine Winter 2018

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EXOTIC, SOMETIMES

CONFRONTING, BUT

TRULY BEAUTIFUL

Sarah Taumoepeau, a client of Leigh Feast of helloworld Masterton, recounts her two-week tour of Morocco.

On our Royal Air Maroc fllght to Casablanca we met a lovely couple The seven-hour bus journey the next day proved to be pretty good
from Vienna and shared a taxi to the same hotel. As it was Morocco, and our hotel in Chefchaouen was amazing. It was a three-storey
we didn’t save on the fare because it is on a per person basis, which I traditional riad (interior courtyard) house painted Chefchaouen blue
should have known from having visited 20 years previously. with maze-like corridors and stairs with rooms around the courtyard.
Chefchaouen itself is an artsy, blue-washed mountain village and
We were only in the city briefly as we were planning to take a bus to while tourism has definitely taken hold, the balance between ease and
Chefchaouen, the 15th-century “blue city” in the Rif mountains of authenticity is just right.
northwest Morocco, and then on to Fez. You can’t book online so the
next morning it was a matter of going to the ticket office and then Fez was an assault on the senses. It reminded
sorting out SIM cards for our phones which are great for saving on us of a cross between India and the Middle
roaming charges.
East, with every imaginable and unimaginable
After that we had our first tagine in the medina (old city) which is
typically walled with many maze-like streets. I had a traditional beef, item for sale, displayed enticingly.
date, apricot and almond tagine while my partner Josh opted for the
chicken, olives and lemon. Both were pretty darn good. There was of I braced myself for our first real bargaining and went and
purchased a leather bag for NZ$30 which I was delighted with as I
course no alcohol since we were in a Muslim country – a bit of a hard had expected it to be more and the haggling to be harder. We could
prospect for two weeks!
have spent a fortune in the wonderful stalls and shops, but we had
Before we left we visited the Hassan II Mosque which we timed so we to be frugal with luggage.
could do a tour and go inside. Set on an outcrop jutting over the ocean Fez was an assault on the senses. It reminded us of a cross between
and with a 210m-tall minaret that serves as the city’s major landmark, India and the Middle East, with fruit, spices, leather goods,
the flamboyant building is a showcase of the very best Moroccan carpets, scarves, ceramics, intricate copper lights, food stalls and
artisanship: hand-carved stone and wood, intricate marble flooring every other imaginable and unimaginable item for sale, displayed
and inlays, gilded cedar ceilings and exquisite zellige (colourful enticingly. We got lost a lot but you can’t help getting entranced with
ceramic tiling) abound. the colours and patterns of Morocco.

HELLOWORLD : EXPLORE : WINTER EDITION