The Kasbah, Tangiers Morocco Africa

We went to The Kasbah...hearing those words made me think of Humphrey Bogart and the movie Casablanca.  However, the word means a place local leaders lived and were protected behind walled cities.  Often built on a hill on high ground as added defense.  We took a day trip (through Julia tours, please see previous post as you do NOT want to take their tour), from Spain to Tangiers, Morocco in Africa.  I expected a historic area of interest, almost thought of it romantically.  What I saw instead was a bit like a ghetto.  Old, dirty, poor area not well preserved or taken care of.  You can see bricks, above as there is some new construction and or rehab going on in some places.  The man with the cap is our tour guide for the African side.  You see the back of my head...I'm the one in the teal sweater.  You can get a feel for the hill, the archway ahead takes us to The Kasbah.  We were walking in the Old Medina.

 Tangiers is basically devided into 3 sections, Old Medina (center of the old town), The Kasbah...walled area, and New City...up the hill away from this area.  A small residential area.  You can see 3 doors and addresses all very close together, with a mailbox.  We were told colors have meaning, but we actually didn't see many colors, not did he tell us what they meant.  One would assume this residences are quite small but how close the doors are.

 One of prettier doors, no doubt this is a more wealthy residence.

 Notice the wall on the left and how narrow the streets/pathways are.

 We saw very few women and virtually no children in comparison to the number of men we saw.  Twice a week the peasants bring in their farm goodies and set up shop, right on the ground.  You see all kinds of dress, but the men seemed to wear more western wear then the woman did.

 Another such business area.  Hard to imagine driving here with the narrow areas, people and commerce.

 Hard to see, all pictures though can be clicked to enlarge, the sign says Kasbah.

 We saw less then a handful of pretty doors.  This Green door is photographed alot.  Seems all tours stop there to have the guides point out this is wear  HenriMatisse, the famous French painter lived.

This is in fact titled Window at Tangiers.  Clicking on the photo will take you to the info on Wiki.  Looks like it was prettier in his day, if this was what he saw looking out his window.

 The wall from the outside.  Kasbah's were also often built on a harbor...again for protection.  Here they had both high ground and a harbor so would have had a good vantage point.

 Scales and a bag of green beans being sold right in the street/walk way.

 Many little store front type shops in the narrow walk area's.

 Nothing is seems comes in containers

 Some areas were a bit wider.

 I can't take credit for these pictures of the snake and the snake charmer.  I needed to be able to run so was well back with camera away.  As a person who can't even go through the snake house at the zoo....I wanted no part of this.  The few children here in this picture were about the only ones we saw all day.

 Shortly after this the snake was put back into his box.

Another photo where you can get the feel of the up and down nature of the area.  This was a little nicer area then many.  That's hubby on the left in the black.

My bubble was burst regarding going to Africa and Tangiers and The Kasbah.

• You don't even get your passport stamped showing you were in Africa, instead you get a stamp that shows you left Spain by boat and reentered by boat at Tarifa
• "The Kasbah" was nothing like what we all saw in the movie, Casablanca.  Just a poor area that's old and dirty and fairly uncomfortable.  (however I think with a different tour, or a private tour one might actually see and learn something about the area).

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Don't Take a Julia Tour

Well this bus break down in a mountainous area was a bummer, but it's not the reason I do not recommend Julia Tours.  This was inconvenient and cost us about 1.5 hours of time, and we had to pay to use the bathroom facility here.

I've never had to pay to use a bathroom...but they were making some decent money on that venture.  But, as annoying as that was that's also NOT the reason I do not recommend Julia Tours.

We were picked up at our resort, Marriott's Marbella Beach before daylight.  We knew the departure time to be early and to be an estimate based on the tour description.  We were heading to Tangiers for the day, which meant a 2.5 hour bus drive, then a high speed ferry from Spain to Tangiers.    I do not recommend this tour or the Julia line for the following reasons:

• Very disorganized.  The guide, Pedro spent his time giving driving instructions to poor Paco, our driver instead of providing us with information beyond very limited tour information.  And when he gave instructions to Paco, he was anything but nice.  Very rude infact.  
• The tour could have been better to alter how people were picked up and transported to the port for departure on the ferry.
• Un-like all other tour buses I've been on, there were no toilet facilities which wasn't communicated, and should have been so folks could plan.
• Due to their poor organization, we were apparently running late, causes Pedro to be even more grumpy.
• Arriving at the port where he needed to take care of passports wasn't well done.  We sat on the bus while he went inside.  Then after his return he didn't return our passports; but waited until we were in the area to depart on the ferry...mass confusion there as there were many tour groups.  And he offered no one time to use the bathroom facilities there.  We could have been there, used the facilities while he took care of business with the passports to save time, AND or he could have passed them out on the bus which would also have saved time, been less chaotic and confusing.
• He was rude to many people in our tour group.  Treated people like they were kindergartners. 

The tour is not what it was suppose to be.  

• The description indicated you'd learn about how they make rugs...NOT That it was hardcore in your face SALES PROMOTION.  You were suppose to be able to shop in the bazarre, but they would NOT let you do that until you sat through the SALES PROMOTION.  Then there was insufficient time to actually look around at the bizarre.  Likewise at an apothecary shop, though there was a small bit of learning there it was primarily SALES.  With both situations our guide was not around and you felt at the mercy of these sales people.  
• Lunch was nice (I blogged here about it), but Pedro our guide didn't allow anyone time to eat the desert and use the bathroom.  Those who opted (like me) to rush to the bathroom had no time to eat desert as he was ushering people out the door.  Those who didn't jump to go to the bathroom got a bite or two of desert in; but that was it.  
• At each turn you felt the guide took us where he got kick backs from bringing the tourists through.
• The touts were VERY FORCEFUL, very numerous, and would not leave you alone.  Some of this should have been controlled by the tour guide/company.  It was a very uncomfortable and stressful situation.  They forced themselves between two people walking side by side, they were in front of you, behind you and beside you.  It was often hard to even walk.  AND you didn't dare stop and loose pace with the group for fear of being lost.

I've written a review of this tour company on Travel Adviser and can see many others have as well.  It has many poor ratings and very very few good ones.  AVOID JULIA TOUR Company and select another one instead.

Blogging a-z in May, my focus is Spain Click the drop down box to leave your name and url of your blog post, not profile page.

Hanadi' Restaurant in Tangiers, Morrocco

This was probably the highlight of trip/tour to Tangiers, Morocco in Africa.  It was the ONLY place where we weren't bothered by beggars and panhandlers.  It was clean and I think probably specifically for the tourists...how close this was to the "real" Tangiers I don't know.  The restaurant is Hanadi'.  The music was fun and spirited.  Click to enlarge the photo and notice the musician on the far right.

That's hubby on the left looking at the menu.  We were all crowded into a designated spot by our not friendly or well liked tour guide, Pedro from Julia Tours.  Thus the name tag on hubby. I will blog in detail later about them and why you should NOT take their tour.

The people on our tour friendly, but we all mumbled about the tour itself.  It was a learning tour, it was nothing but sales, sales, sales.  Most of which became very uncomfortable.  The restaurant however fake it might have been was fun!  The decor full of detail and interesting and very colorful.  The meal was good, and the service was good.

Looking towards the ceiling.

Notice again the musician on the far right.  He became my boyfriend during lunch.  Seriously he never took his eyes on me.  Hubby and our travel companion Jane noticed it too.  He was cute wonderful smile, but .....hey I'm just hear for lunch and clean bathroom break.  By the way, the ONLY bathroom break in a 13 hour tour from Marbella Beach via tour bus without a bathroom to immigration to high speed ferry to Tangiers and back.

Interesting that they served beer and wine.  We felt drinking it was probably safer as it was opened at our table and we didn't have to worry about bad water from the tap.

The meal was Harira (a moroccan soup), chicken cou-cous, pinchos morunos, hot mint tea, and chaparquila pastry.

Lunch was included in our tour fee, but not the drinks.  The tea was hot tea in a glass which was hard to even hold due to the heat; but I did manage to taste it as least.  I think it was to accompany our desert, but just as many of us were served our desert our terrible tour guide decided it was time to march out of the restaurant?  He'd made an announcement about 5 minutes prior, so I made a bee-line to the bathroom, not wanting to get left...cause he really never checked to see if we had everyone which was a bit un-comfortable.

It was a warm day there in Tangiers, I got some sun on the noise if you notice.  The tables are quite low, so you sit well above the table level which wasn't very comfortable but, manageable.  Hubby and I with our stickers.  One must not loose that important sticker, Pedro was very nasty about that.

As I said very spirited music.

If you find yourself in Tangiers and want a cool, clean place for lunch...this is the place.

There official post card which my friend Jane picked up on our way out of the restaurant.

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