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August 20, 2006
Fez
Onward to Fez
While waiting in Meknes train station for our train to Fez, a friendly local approached us. He claimed that he was working for the tourist office in Meknes. Whether he did or did not work for the tourist office, it didn't really matter. He was very friendly and offered to find us hotel within our range. After telling our budget he made several phone calls and made a reservation for us in Hotel du Maghreb, which incidentally one of the better one listed by Lonely Planet. He couldn't read a map though as his dot in the map was way off the real location of the hotel.
He offered to get us a guide for the Medina. When even Lonely Planet recommends to get a guide for Fez we decided to take his offer. We arrived in Fez a bit late at night and didn't do much but touring the Ville Nouvelle. The new town is very cosmopolitan, and while sitting down in the footpath having our dinner I thought that this setting could be anywhere in the world. People dress a lot less conservative around the new town (the same can't be said with the Medina).
The Medina
Our guide arrived in the morning and he said if it was OK for us if he take an American couple with the tour. Well no worries we said. The couple was very nice people from New Orleans. With all 6 of us crammed in two Petit Taxi we drove to the Medina.
I said Marrakech was bloody amazing, but Fez is totally unreal :) Yeah really corny there.
I do think that Fez is unreal, the Medina is one of the biggest in the world, if not the biggest in the world. Boasting over 9400 confusing little alleys, this Medina is a literal tourist trap. I was glad to get a guide to take us around the Medina, my only gripe with the guide was that he took us to far too many shops that I'd like.
First stop was the tanneries, which has operated in pretty much the same way since the 14th century. It was a great eye opener to see these people do their back-breaking work from one of the balconies of the leather shop around the tanneries. It didn't smell as bad as Lonely Plant says. The tanneries is the main thing to see in Fez.
He then took us through the maze that was Fez medina to several sites mentioned in Lonely Planet. One long stop was the carpet shop, where everyone bought a carpet except mine. When I told the guy that my budget for a week is EUR300 he decided that it wasn't going to worth his time to try to sell me his carpet. That's how my credit card escaped unshathed from the carpet shop.
It was, I had to say, a really nice carpet shop, collection and the building was beautiful in one of those restored Riads. Although they said that their price was "fixed by the government" everyone managed to get 50% discount or more. We went to see the ornate Moulay Idriss II monument from the outside (non-Muslim are not allowed in), went through several souqs, shops and near the end Mark helped our guide to get his reading glass.
The souq in Fez was nothing like the main souq in Marrakech. It is waay less touristy. I think because it so spread out, there are lots of "normal" souqs between the tourist blocks. I can't describe it better than this single word: awesome :p Fez is a shopping Mecca. If you can, wait until Fez to do your shopping.
We like this city too much that we decided to stay another night to chill out, regroup and recharge.
Posted by vhadiant at August 20, 2006 10:18 PM
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