Morocco 9 days trip

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.

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)

View of Djemaa el-Fnaa in the evening from the top(one of the cafes)

Sunset view from the rooftop

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.

Koutoubia Mosque

3. Majorelle Garden: Beautiful garden with exotic plants, fountains (perfect for photo shooting!)
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).

4. El-Badi Palace: open from 8.30am-5.30pm (closed 12.45pm-2.30pm)

view from top

5. Medersa Ben Youssef: university, 20MAD entrance fee

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.

75MAD for this design

50 MAD for this

On the 3rd day of the trip, we boarded a minibus and started our journey to the desert. Our driver/ tour guide (Ahmad) was very friendly, explaining to us all the famous site throughout the journey. On the way there we stopped by the UNESCO world heritage site (Kasbah Ait benhaddou) the place where they film Game of Thrones, Indiana Jones etc. Do not miss the chance to take tons of photos if you are a fan of those films! 

That night we stayed in Hotel Babylon, a very decent and pretty hotel, with local atmosphere. We had tagine for dinner and was entertained by local Moroccan music. We continued our journey after breakfast the next day. Off to the desert and the camels!!! 😍

our cute camels

fantastic experience

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

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

My friend trying to act cool, but not very cool after all~ :p 

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.. 😁 

💏

4 pretty girls~~ 🙋

Best Candid photo of the whole trip! Love it xoxo

Our last city destination of the trip is Rabat, the capital of Morocco. It was the most modern city out of the 4 that we visited, but honestly speaking, nothing much to visit. We visited the Chellah, which is a 40 minutes walk away from our raid, went to the Hassan Tower and Mausoleum of Mohamed V. We stayed there and took photos until the sunset. The duration of us taking photos is just phenomenal. It could just go on and on........... 

Hassan Tower

On the last day, we took a chill walk to the Oudaias Kasbah, enjoyed the sea breeze and view before heading to the airport for our flight. 

Titanic~

My 2 housemates that are like brothers to me~~ 💓

The shuttle bus to airport departs from the front of the Rabat Ville Train Station. There are buses scheduled regularly and it costs 20MAD per person. The journey takes about 25 minutes. Although Rabat is the capital of Morocco, the airport is super small, with only 6 gates and nothing much to eat in the airport.. such disappointment... I would also advice you to exchange your remaining MAD into pounds or Euros in the city, with a better rate. We arrived in London in the middle of the night, spent our night in 24hour McD, and took a 5.50am train back to Nottingham. With that, it concluded our Morocco trip.

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😉!! 

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~

Langkawi Trip 2015

It all started off with a discount discovered by my friend from the AirAsia website. Flight tickets to Langkawi are so cheap! RM1 per journey!!! BEST DEAL EVER! (although when we purchase, it includes the airport service charges which makes it about RM10, it's sill cheap tho) With that, the discussion and planning continues....

We intended to plan a lot, however, end up with not a lot of plans, we shall just see how things goes when we reach~ and, off we go!

Langkawi, here we come!

When we landed, the airport was a really cute one~ We planned to rent a car, and to our amazement, when we just enter the arrival hall, there are so many counters of car renting services, wanting us to be their customer desperately. Stunned, we didn't know which one to choose, just stood there and exchanged looks. In the end, we went to the one nearest to us, the counter nearest to the exit of the arrival hall. (sorry, but I can't remember the company name already x0x) We got quite a good deal, RM120 for about 2 days for a Viva (cause there's only 3 of us) and we filled petrol of RM20 (enough for the whole trip and still have some extra left in the end).

With all our luggage, we drove to our hotel --- Hotel Langkasuka. We got a 2-man room and 3 of us stayed in it to cut cost, it was roughly RM60 per person. The price was quite cheap as it wasn't the peak time of holiday. There weren't many visitors anyway. After checking in, we made our way to Pantai Cenang, and managed to capture the beautiful sunset by the horizon.

Beautiful, isn't it? 

Candid Pose~ Yeah! 

typical tourist photo~ with the Langkawi sign behind~

Another candid~~~

We had a walk and searched for dinner. Finally we settled in a small and cozy cafe beside the road. We ordered one pizza and singapore fried bihoon, which taste quite nice~ (y) 

food!

Day 2~~

The day before, we already registered with the hotel, signed up for snorkeling and was looking forward to it! The company name is Coral Island. 9am, we waited at the lobby and the van was punctual! The driver went to a few other hotels to pick up other customers as well. The package was RM150 per person. It includes a lunch box and they provide you with all the snorkeling equipment and of course the transport from hotel to Pulau Payar. 

1 hour boat ride to Pulau Payar

After getting ready, we're ready to enter the water!!!! wohoo!!! adrenaline rush~ It was our first time snorkeling. It was weird at first, breathing through the tube (or whatsover it's called). But you'll get use to it after a while. The view underwater is just so breathtaking. Fishes of various sizes, colours and species swimming around you, literally just beside you!

surrounded by fishes~

We started to snorkel at about 11am and we must gather again by 2pm. We swam for about 1 hour plus and came out for lunch. And after that, it's photo time!! 

We were in luck!! One of the uncle that worked there is also from Penang! He then told one of his worker to bring us deeper to the sea, explore and see more fishes that are bigger! Too bad my phone can't go underwater, or else the photos taken will be so splendid! To our amazement, we saw a SHARK! not any baby shark, but already a grown up one! luckily it didn't swim near us, but the feeling of witness a shark in real life just can't be described by words. It was scary, but I had the curiosity to get nearer. Oh well, the shark decided to just show up, then swam back deeper to the sea again. We saw nemo, the corals they live in, big big fishes (really super super big!), and colourful fishes! so beautiful! Many thanks to Uncle "Jack Sparrow", as named by my friend. The memories and adventure is just unforgettable!

The sea is just so clear at Pulau Payar <3 <3 

The snorkeling drained all my energy. I was sleeping the whole boat journey back to Langkawi. The bus drop us back to our hotel and all of us had a shower before heading out again. Next stop, Eagle Square! There's nothing there actually, just the Eagle and the word "Langkawi". But as a tourist, we're definitely not leaving till we get a picture with both of them! 

How can we leave Langkawi without having a taste of the seafood? haha! so....tadah!! Seafood for dinner~~ It was just 3 of us, so we can't order much and too expensive, but it was worth! It taste super delicious! (especially for me, one that only comes back once in a year from overseas)

After dinner we went to the Pasar Malam in Kuah (Wednesday). The location of the pasar malam changes everyday, so make sure to check the location before departing. We went during the fasting month (bulan puasa), so the pasar malam was mostly like a bazaar. It was still fun, roaming though the stalls, Malaysian food, reminds me of the days in Matrics with my friends. We also bought chocolate from the duty free shops there. 

Time flies, it's already day 3~~~ last day~

We checked out of the hotel, then headed to the cable car~ 

We bought the combination of Sky Cable, Sky Dome( a new thing, and is included in every package) and 3D interactive art museum for RM20 (with MyKad). 

A selfie in the cable car~

The cable car was kind of scary, it's going so steep and keep going higher and higher, it just terrifies me to look straight below, afraid that I might fall. haha! silly me~ 

View from the top

The cable car drop us off at the centre platform for us to take some photos and look at view, isn't it just beautiful and breathtaking~

Not forgetting a selfie of course~

We then continue to the highest platform and we went to the sky bridge as well. It's so windy up there that our hair became a mess! And the pathway to sky bridge was under a construction, so we need to kind of hike our way there (free work out for us). We were sweating when we reached there, but it was a nice experience and the structure of it impressed me so much that I wonder how on earth can human build this bridge hanging so high up there.

Messy hair~~

We left when it was about to rain. We can see rain clouds coming near and can feel a storm coming, so we went downhill. We were really lucky 3 people, all the view were clear when we were there and the clouds were all over the bridge when we left. I wonder how the visitors visiting at that time can take a clear picture. We had a simple lunch at a cafe with a tourist price.

Next destination, 3D interactive art museum. 

There are so many 3D art that my camera is so busy from the start till the end. 

I feel it's worth visiting as you can take many interesting and cute photos! 

And with all these, we ended our visit in Langkawi~ It was a memorable trip with my friends and a nice catch up as well. This is the first trip together and hope it's not the last! ^.^ 

Note: In a trip like this, a monopod will come in handy as you can take pictures without leaving someone out~ haha! I also appologise for any statements that I made that offended you unintentionally. It's just a sharing and hope if you're planning a Langkawi trip, it might be useful~ 

Yours sincerely, 

kyt~