year abroad in London

Travelling in Morocco provided a wonderful respite from the same old, same old Europe. Indeed, it is as fascinating of a place as it sounds.

The journey was not as smooth as it appears in the photos. With travelling in any underdeveloped countries, you always have those times when you feel like in the pits, literally as well: unkempt toilets (or lets say squat toilets), unpleasant hustlers, commission-makers trying to rip you off, insolent touts, unsolicited and unofficial guides insisting you are lost (do I look lost?), communication problems, long queues, bug-infested rooms, over-booked buses and so on.

But is it worth it? I think so.

The perception of Morocco as an unsafe and dangerous place is overstated. Yes, it is a deeply conservative place. Conservative it is, but dangerous I think not. Its just a case of dealing with the passive harassment, which unforunately can be summarized as ubiquitous, incessant and unnecessarily unpleasant.

There are natural attractions in Morocco that make it a captivating place to visit. For its size, its fits a diverse range of terrain: spanning the continent from East to West, you can cross from the vast and dry Sahara desert, to the Middle and High Atlas mountain ranges, to the busy souks and medina life in Marrakesh, to the windsurfing coastal towns of Essaouira. Along the way, if dig deep enough under the skin and past the harassment, you will encounter genuinely friendly and hospitable Berber people, as I thankfully did.