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| FES - PANORAMIC VIEW |
Morocco has
made a bid for the 2026 football world cup. A rival bid has been made by the
United States. The country’s strong point that the Moroccans have cited in
support of its bid is that it is one of the safest countries in the world. If I
were on the committee that decides upon such matters I would strongly recommend
the case of this sun-drenched North African country surrounded by the Atlantic
Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert. Most importantly, it is
within easy access of football fans from Asia, Europe and of course Africa. The
USA, on the other hand is far away from anywhere even within itself – just
imagine it has three time zones. Travelling to that country and within it is
expensive and is certainly well beyond the reach of most not-so-rich people of
what wealthy countries like to talk of “the Third World”.
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| FRENCH CAFE MARRAKESH |
The talk of
Morocco, which rarely finds its way into news reports of any kind, rekindled
memories of my visit to the country sometime back. It left a pleasant mark on
my mind and if there is one country that I would like to visit again it is
Morocco. And no, I have not been engaged by the Moroccan tourism department to
say nice things about the country to help them win the world cup bid!! As an
Indian I can say without hesitation that I found the culture of that country
most comfortable. I should mention here that I also visited a few European
cities too during the trip. The roads, the alleyways, the people, the shops and
the bargaining were new yet at the same time familiar. We don’t know Arabic or
French, the two languages commonly spoken in Morocco, but there were still no
barriers to communication.
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| STREET IN OLD TOWN MARRAKESH |
Though there
are not too many, in the streets there are beggars and like in India they are
part of the background landscape and are not jarring. There are beggars in
Spain who sleep in cardboard boxes but they arouse pity as one sees stark poverty
right next to great opulence. In Moroccan cities, except for Casablanca
perhaps, the West lives cheek by jowl with the orient. One will thus find a
planned town with grid-like wide streets and an old town called Medina in the
local language, where on display are the layer upon layer of hundreds of years
of culture much like the layers of different ages in archaeological
excavations. The towns are by and large clean though by no means as spic and
span as European cities. But to me that is natural and provides an ambience in
which I can relax. Marrakesh, Fez and Tangier, the three Moroccan cities I
visited, are all like this. Of course they are tuned for tourism as is evident
in the crowded markets. The people of Fez look down on the medinas and markets
of Marrakesh which they say caters to tourists. Not that the Fez medinas
are any different.
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| ALLEYWAY IN FEZ |
There are many
tourist guides who of course also nudge you to do some shopping of course to
push up their commissions. One of these guides tried to impress us in Fez by
boasting about its 9000 alleys. Had I been from West with its grid street plans
this would have awed me and I would go around in fear of losing myself in them.
But being an Indian I know how to successfully negotiate alleyways, lanes and
by-lanes without using the gps. I also know how hard it is to find an address
in such mazes which is why I asked Azzedine, my host, to pick me up from the
train station at Fez where we had arrived from Marrakesh. Finding taxis is a
difficult task since there aren’t too many. In Tangiers they have Mercedes-Benz
taxis but these are ramshackle models dating back half a century. But the one
thing that stands out is that Morocco is very colourful place – bright colours
wherever you look.
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COUNTRY SIDE IN MOROCCO FROM TRAIN
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All in all an
agreeable experience.
