From Thursday, February 25, 2010
View Doha to Casablanca in a larger map
CAIRO AIRPORT, around 7PM local time. It's raining in Cairo -- lightly at the moment, but enough throughout the day to give the runways a slick, unsettling sheen. For today, I'm only here to change flights between Doha and Casablanca. Once in Morocco, I don't really know where I'll end up. Our plane just took off, so the wet runways aren't such a problem anymore, but instead it's the streaks of lighting flashing across the sky. They're in view outside the window, crackling just beyond the wingtip.
Normally I love flying.
CASABLANCA, past midnight local time. Morocco is three hours behind Qatar. The Moroccan dirham (MAD) trades at roughly 8 dirham to tfhe US dollar, or $12 for every 100 dirham. I'm staying in a 90 dirham room, somewhere in the middle of -- well, I'll find out the neighborhood tomorrow.
Without success, I did try to plan out one thing for this trip ahead of time -- the hotel or hostel where I'd stay for the first night. Yesterday morning, I thought it could be a good idea to make an advance booking, so I googled the cheapest hostel I could find and dialed them up:
"Yes, hello," said a gruff voice on the other end.
"Hi, is this the Casablanca Youth Hostel?"
"Yes."
"Do you have a bed for tomorrow night?"
"Yes."
"Could I make a reservation for tomorrow night, then?"
"Yes. We will have a bed for you." He hung up.
I landed in Casablanca around 11PM today -- too late to catch a train from the airport, so the only other alternative was a taxi from the airport.
There are two types of taxis in Morocco: grand taxis and petit taxis, generally used to cover inter-city and intra-city distances, respectively. The former was the only type parked outside the terminal. The cars are old boxy Mercedes that cost 300 dirham a car from the airport, shared amongst whoever is riding. Not able to find anyone at this hour going to the same part of town as me, I sucked it up and paid for a whole car.
As we pulled away from the airport, I gave the driver the phone number of the place where I was staying. He called them up, and some unexpected arguing in Arabic ensued. He then handed the phone off to me:
"Do you have a reservation?" said the man in the phone.
"Yes, I called yesterday."
"That was over the phone ... did you make a reservation over internet?"
"I called, asked to make a reservation, and you said you'd have a bed for me."
"Yes, but that doesn't count! There is a group here tonight, and no beds left!" Hung up again.
For a minute, I sat there in the taxi, which was by then zooming down a highway into the city, wondering if I'd end up finding a place tonight. Having heard everything, the driver he said he could drop me off in town, and then a petit taxi could take me around until I found a hotel -- he knew of a few places, but not their rates. More taxi fare! Talk about an expensive ride from the airport. There wasn't much I could do at this point, though.
The driver flagged down the first petit taxi he saw and told the new driver my dilemma. I unloaded my backpack from one backseat and tossed it into the next, and we were off again. Let me say now that Casablanca looks super seedy at night -- the tiny red car that I was now riding in turned off the main road and into a grungy, poorly-lit section of town, each turn taking me onto a road literally shadier than the last.
The first hotel we stopped at was 450 dirham a night -- next. The second, no vacancies. After 10 minutes of trying hotels that were like these -- either out of my budget or completely booked -- we finally found the "Hotel Touring," where I am now. The room was a little musty but good enough, so I paid the driver for putting up with me and he sped off. The man working the hotel desk was friendly and helpful -- he also hoped I could translate a Japanese entry in his guestbook for him, and was a little disappointed when he found out I couldn't. Anyway, I was exhausted by then, so I said good night and went up to my room, where I'm about to crash.
Bumpy start today, but inshallah this week is going to be an adventure.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Going to Morocco
Tomorrow I'm jetting off to Morocco with Baby Blue backpack -- the one I bought on sale in a rush right before our first holiday here, the one that's seen me through five countries, the one I've inevitably grown attached to -- slung over my shoulders one more time.
View Larger Map
I'm solo travelling this time and have only the faintest sketch of a plan in my mind. All I know for sure is that I arrive in Casablanca Thursday night, and whatever happens, I'll have to be back in a week.
View Larger Map
I'm solo travelling this time and have only the faintest sketch of a plan in my mind. All I know for sure is that I arrive in Casablanca Thursday night, and whatever happens, I'll have to be back in a week.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
World Schools Debating Championships
So, I've been on a long hiatus. Starting from where I left off, I flew off to China back in December. I landed in Beijing and Nanjing to find all blogging websites and Facebook blocked (quipped someone later, "Then what's the point of the internet?"). As a result, I decided at the time to just put blogging on hold for two weeks.
Needless to say, it's lasted a little longer than that. Time to start up again.
This year the World Schools Debating Championships are being held in Qatar, and today was the Octofinals round, with the motion: "This house believes that we should have no laws which restrict free speech."
I got to sit in on one of the match-ups today: Wales vs. Israel (I did a double take too. Yes, here).
Anyway, both teams were very good -- I've never been on a debate team, so this is really the first time I've gotten the chance to see high school debating at this high a level.
P.S. Wales won.
Needless to say, it's lasted a little longer than that. Time to start up again.
This year the World Schools Debating Championships are being held in Qatar, and today was the Octofinals round, with the motion: "This house believes that we should have no laws which restrict free speech."
I got to sit in on one of the match-ups today: Wales vs. Israel (I did a double take too. Yes, here).
Anyway, both teams were very good -- I've never been on a debate team, so this is really the first time I've gotten the chance to see high school debating at this high a level.
P.S. Wales won.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)