MOROCCO 9 DAYS TRIP
The hype is on, spring is here, and our Easter holiday is approaching soon! So, for this Easter, me and my friends planned to visit Morocco!!! Hence, the planning began....
We started off with the flights, browsing for the cheapest route as we have limited student budget..oh well~~🙈🙈 In the end, we booked Ryanair, on the 17/4 from London to Marrakech and 25/4 from Rabat to London for £32.65 return.
How can you not visit the desert when you travel to Morocco?! I read many blogs of travelers, emailed various travel agency to enquire the price. We decided to book a tour with Marrakech Day Trips, offering us 95 euro per person (for a group of 14) for the 3 days Desert Trip (with accommodation, breakfast, diner and transportation included). The trip gets cheaper with more people.
Malaysians need to apply for visa (Singapore and Hong Kong passports do not require visa). To apply, you must get all the required documents ready.
(http://www.moroccanembassylondon.org.uk/en/viisa.html )
Documents to prepare:
- Original passport + copy of first page with photo + copy of legal status in UK (student visa in our case)
- Copy of detailed flight itinerary
- Student Status confirmation letter
- Accommodation details in Morocco
- Proof of travel insurance (We purchased from StaySure for approximately £11 per person)
- Bank statements for the last three months (Copies)
- 2 recent passport size colour photos
- Application form (which could be downloaded from the website)
- Postal order of £25 per application (the amount might fluctuate following the currency, double check before purchasing)
- Special delivery (with tracking) for the embassy to send the completed passport back to you.
We applied for the visa via post as we were outside London. Of course, feel free to make a trip to London if you prefer. Post application is invalid if you are in London and you will have to book an appointment to visit the embassy with all the documents required. You could book the appointment via the website. One thing to note: it is possible to send multiple applications together (this could save the special delivery fee). The whole visa application took about 9 days and we got our passports back, with the visa attached.
With that, the journey began! As our flight is from Stansted Airport, we took a night train to Kings Cross, then the Stansted Citylink to the airport. Stansted Citylink runs from 2.30am to 11pm, every 30 min and it costs £9 per journey (fixed price). Here is the link for your convenience: https://www.stanstedcitylink.co.uk/en/stansted-airport-to-london-centre
After 4 hours of flight, we arrived at Marrakech Airport. (Be aware that only 1 standard size packet of 100ml liquid is allowed per person aboard! Airports are very strict with that) We arrived at 10am, but waited for at least an hour plus for passport clearance 😑 At the airport, we exchanged only £20 to local currency, as there are better exchange rates in the city. We also bought sim card and data package in the airport. There are mainly 2 types of sim card provider in Morocco (inwi and Maroc telecom). Inwi is cheaper and have better coverage in the city; Maroc is slightly more expensive but have good connection even in the desert. There is a Maroc Telecom office in Marrakech airport, hidden behind all the currency exchange stalls after the passport clearance.
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| Marrakech airport from the outside |
The hot weather hit me when we exit the airport! I feel like I was back in Malaysia, with the weather being 35 degrees!! After getting settled, we took a minibus to our airbnb (this was agreed beforehand and provided by our host for 200 MAD in total). After checking in, we started to explore the city. We exchanged the rest of our money in Hotel Ali (located somewhere near the Koutoubia Mosque, beside the square) for the better exchange rates. One advice from me: try not to get scammed. In my case, I was so bad in negotiating the price and ended up paying so much more as compared to my friends 😪. People say that it is normal to negotiate the price to half of what was offered and make your way to an acceptable price. Oh well, just not my strength. I tired, and just managed to cut down the price by a tiny bit 😕, well, at least I tried...
Attractions in Marrakech:
1. Djemaa el-Fnaa: This is the market place which is very happening at night, crowded in the morning too. There are many stalls, cafes and restaurants in the square. Try the orange juice, it's everywhere in Morocco, freshly squeezed for you! (but do make sure you ask the price before you order, just to prevent them from charging you a super high tourist price)
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| View of Djemaa el-Fnaa in the evening from the top(one of the cafes) |
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| Sunset view from the rooftop |
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| Dinner in one of the cafes (I can't remember the name) with beautiful view! |
2. Koutoubia Mosque: Non-muslims can't enter, so we just took photo of the exterior.
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| Koutoubia Mosque |
It is open 8am-5.30pm, normal price will be 70 MAD, but with a student card, we managed to get in for 35 MAD (exclude museum).
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4. El-Badi Palace: open from 8.30am-5.30pm (closed 12.45pm-2.30pm)
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| view from top |
5. Medersa Ben Youssef: university, 20MAD entrance fee
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| the beautiful design and interior architecture |
6. Bahia Palace: open from 8am-4.30pm (closed 11.45am-1.45pm)
7. Henna Cafe: place to chill and get henna done by experienced henna drawer.
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| 75MAD for this design |
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| 50 MAD for this |
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| our cute camels |
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| fantastic experience |
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| Group photo with the camels~ |
At night after dinner and music, we went into the dark desert, laid down and admire the stars! It was the best night ever for me!!! A dream come true!! Too bad I could not capture the picture of the stars... One regret for us will be the sunset and sunrise not being in the best condition as it was cloudy and blur. Throughout our journey in the desert, it was just filled with sand and sand storm! Literally sand everywhere..in your bag, mouth, ears, eyes, clothes....... After a quick freshen up and breakfast the next morning, we departed for Fes. It was a long and tiring bus journey and finally arrived in Fes in the evening.
Fes left us with an unforgettable experience. We were looking for our way home at night and got lost, because google map could not locate the exact location of our Airbnb and the alleys were too similar we got all confused. Seeing that we were lost, the local kids started to approach us, stating that they could guide the way. We were afraid that they will ask for money after taking us to the destination, hence we just asked for direction. However, they followed us to our raid and it was a close call where we managed to close the door before they enter the raid too. They continued to knock the door for quite some time and luckily left after that. That alley was really doggy and that night was the most ''chi-kek' night ever! never thought that we will be afraid of kids!!! 😮 Enough with that story, here is the list of places to visit in Fes:
1. Bab Boujloud: main gate into the medina
2. University of Al-karouine: could not enter, could only have a glimpse from the top
3. Medersa Bou Inania
4. Medersa el-Attarine
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| Friendship Star in one of the Medersa |
5. Tanneries: place where they process leather. The products there are full leather and are of good quality. Too bad we are still students, with low budget, could only admire and window shop.
6. Borj Nord and Merenid Tombs: best view for the whole Fes, nice place for sunset view
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| My friend trying to act cool, but not very cool after all~ :p |
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| Jump shot by my friend~ |
7. Qaraouiyine Mosque: non-muslims could not enter
8. Jnan sbil: Garden for photos!
9. Fes el-Jedid, Mellah (did not have time to go to these 2 as they are too far away)
The next day, we took CTM bus to Chefchaouen (aka the blue city). CTM have a website but only customers with Moroccan card could do online purchase. We had to go to the office in Fes to buy our tickets and we were lucky to secure the last few available tickets! We also purchased the tickets of Chefchaouen to Rabat for the day after (as there is only ONE bus per day for that route!!!)
CTM bus price:
Fes- Chefchaouen : 75MAD
Chefchaouen- Rabat: 100MAD
(5MAD per luggage, paid on that day of travel)
It was a 4 hour bus ride and we arrived in the pretty blue city! My favourite colour yay!!! We had lunch in Bab Ssour, they serve the best tagine and cous cous ever! 'Ho chiak!' After lunch, we were off for photos, photos and photos.. 😁
CTM bus price:
Fes- Chefchaouen : 75MAD
Chefchaouen- Rabat: 100MAD
(5MAD per luggage, paid on that day of travel)
It was a 4 hour bus ride and we arrived in the pretty blue city! My favourite colour yay!!! We had lunch in Bab Ssour, they serve the best tagine and cous cous ever! 'Ho chiak!' After lunch, we were off for photos, photos and photos.. 😁
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| 4 pretty girls~~ 🙋 |
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| Best Candid photo of the whole trip! Love it xoxo |
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| Hassan Tower |
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| Titanic~ |
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| My 2 housemates that are like brothers to me~~ 💓 |
I am so grateful to have this bunch of crazy friends in this trip and my university life. Everyone played an important and unique role and they are irreplaceable. This might be the last trip together, as we will be graduating this year. I will treasure all the moments together and will definitely miss everyone for sure😉!!
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| Lots of love 💓💓💓💓 |
Wrote this blog because of post trip blues.. And now, back to studies...........as final exams are just round the corner......😱😢
ta-ta-for-now 🙆
kyt~
