Christmas in Morocco

We spent Christmas this year in Marrakesh, Morocco and had a wonderful time! Morocco as a country has it all - snowy mountain peaks, desert, long coast line, and lots of traditional crafts and a strong sense of pride in their traditional cuisine. Needless to say we were pretty excited about visiting this North African country.

For our first day in Marrakesh, we arranged a private city tour to get an introduction to the city. The most interesting part of the city was inside the old walls where the famous Jemaa el-Fnaa square can be found. 

Our tour started outside Koutoubia Mosque, the tallest minaret in Marrakesh. While we were getting our introduction, our guide said hello to a passing tour guide and commented to us that it was his cousin. He said he has over 200 cousins...and he said he knows them all!

We stopped at a traditional Moroccan restaurant for lunch with our guide. After lunch, we went to Jemaa el-Fnaa square. Unlike many of the items found in shopping areas that we've been to, these items were not made in China, but many of them by craftsmen in the market. We got a tour of the leather, metal and wood carving - it was very interesting to observe the older craftsmen teaching their trade to the next generation. Melissa even got to try her hand at some carpet making.

After the tour ended we hung around for some shopping and ended up in a rug shop. As soon as we walked in,  we were being invited to the showroom and offered a cup of Moroccan mint tea. I have read that it is rude to decline so we accepted and I told him off the bat we were just looking and not buying anything today. After a few more cups of tea and a few dozen rugs, we had each found our favorites. Melissa found a "nomad design" summer carpet and I found exactly what I came to Morocco for, a Beni Ouriun wool carpet - perfect for the winter time!  Before we knew it, we had negotiated a price and Melissa was signing her name to the back. The rugs would have to get shipped back to HK, which we have now already received..yeah!

In the late afternoon, the juice stalls start rolling in. There are a couple dozen - all side by side selling the exact same fresh orange juice and mixed juice (orange, grapefruit and lemon). Trying to differentiate from the crowd, each of the juice stands call out for you to come by and have a sample at their stand. We tried the mixed juice and it was amazing, needless to say we ordered a cup and took note of the stall number. We came back to the same stand every day.

In the evening, we found a nice restaurant with a view to watch the hustle and bustle of the market light up and carry into the night. During the day, the square is filled with snake charmers, fortune tellers, henna painting and guys hawking monkeys for tourists to pose with for photos. In the evening all that gets pushed aside for the famous food stalls.

Before heading back to the hotel Melissa made a stop at the local sweets stall.. and she tried one of everything - just not all that night!

On Christmas morning, we got up bright and early (before sunrise!) for a hot air ballon ride. This was not our first hot air balloon ride, but I was still a bit nervous at first. This time we were prepared and had plenty of layers of warm clothes and our wool hats too. As the sun rose up over the mountain range, it exposed the countless small villages and family farms that scatter Morocco's country side... it was beautiful!

There must be hundreds of these horse drawn carriages in Marrakesh. Groups of these carriages wait outside tourist locations to take you on a ride around the old medina, but like everything in Morocco you have to negotiate. We asked about the price which was about 50% more than we were quoted earlier in the day with our tour guide, but after turning our back and begining to walk away the driver relented to our price and we jumped in for a ride. The trotting of the hoofs become therapeutic after a while. You would think the streets would be dirty with all of those horse droppings, but there are bags to "collect" the droppings.

Every evening we ended up back at the square for dinner and a bit of shopping. One evening we came across Marrakesh's must have dish that was recommended to us a few times.. tangia slow cooked meat in coal embers. After seeing it in the market, the closest I will get is taking a photo.. the presentation alone straight up scared me!

 While checking in for our flight from Casablanca we enquired about an upgrade to business and we were given an offer we could not refuse!

Last Stop - A Few Days in Macau and HK

Our first day in Hong Kong we took the ferry over to Macau. After arriving in Macau, our first stop was Margaret's a bakery which I stumbled across with my mom. They have excellent Portuguese egg tarts. Cynthia and I enjoyed them - but Greg, not so much - it was painful watching him eat it. 

With the Macau Grand Prix in town we had a very hard time getting taxis and the hotel shuttle busses to the ferry terminal were all running behind schedule. After the hotel shuttle finally left, we headed to the much closer Cotai Strip which is basically hotels and casinos -  essentially the Vegas of China.

Back in Hong Kong, we took Greg and Cynthia to Temple Street Night Market for some dinner and shopping. It was a bit challenging at first for them to eat with the chop sticks but they were hungry and learned fast.

After dinner, they did some souvenir shopping and stumbled across a painting they liked.

One evening we took the tram up to The Peak. Knowing the line can be horrendous I got our tickets earlier in the day, but we still had to wait in a line and endure over 30 minutes of pushing and people trying to get by you... as if there was some place to go. Once it was finally our turn to line up for the tram and the gates were opened, there was a small stampede as everyone massed around where they thought the tram's door's would be. Luckily for us one of the doors happened to stop right in front of us. I held the crowd back and allowed Cynthia to board then Melissa and myself, but Greg got pushed around and it was like watching water move around a rock. At one point I didn't think he was going to make the tram, but luckily he did - but had to stand in the back.

The next day, Greg & Cynthia started their long trek back home. Until next time! Had a great time guys - miss you and see you soon! 

Phuket Time!

After spending 4 days in Bangkok, we headed to Phuket. Melissa took the direct flight from Hong Kong and met us there. We stayed in Phuket's main beach, Patong, where we enjoyed our daily massages, beach time and of course Thai food. We also went on a day tour to Phi Phi Island.










We thought we were going to luck out with the weather but as soon as we arrived at our first snorkeling stop it started sprinkling. However, it wasn't that bad as the water was warm and you can't feel the rain when you're underwater. There were lots of colorful reef fish and some parrot fish swimming amongst the coral.

Our next stop was Monkey Beach. The monkeys got there when the island was connected to the mainland a long long time ago. After being separated from the mainland, these monkeys have learned to adapt to island life - diving for crabs and other shell fish. Some of the crew on the boat had some treats to throw to the monkeys, but the boat didn't get too close as these guys have been known to actually jump into the boats.

For lunch, we stopped at Phi Phi Island. 

After lunch, we stopped at Maya Bay (famous for the "The Beach" movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio) We took full advantage of our brief break from the rain and we all hung out in the water... until it started raining that is, then we made a quick dash back to the boat!  

Our first full day of no rain in Phuket was actually on Greg's birthday. That evening, we got some beers and headed to the beach to watch the sunset. While sitting there we were approached by a little girl selling flower leis. When we told her we weren't interested, she politely sat down right in front of us and asked where we were from and began drawing the American flag in the sand. She followed up with pictures of Australia, England, Vietnam, China and several others. We were pretty impressed and our quest to stump this 9 year old was on. After about 5 minutes of this game we were really impressed.. She knew Brazil but not Colombia so we taught her that one. We gave her a tip for her efforts and she gave us two of the leis. After going back to our conversation we later noticed she had moved on to a group of Aussie guys and she and her sister were playing cards with them. 

After enjoying the sunset, we headed to Hard Rock to celebrate Greg's big birthday. 

The hotel had a cake and candles for Greg's birthday. We sang Happy Birthday to Greg, and then Cynthia sang a solo for the birthday boy in Spanish. Happy Birthday Greg!! 

Back in Bangkok

Earlier this month, I was back in Bangkok - but this time with Greg and Cynthia, their first time to Thailand. We spent our first few days around the city doing some shopping, getting massages, and visiting all the famous temples.

Our first stops were Wat Po, The Grand Palace, and Wat Arun.

The temples from afar look pretty, but it's not until you get up close that you can see exactly how much detail and work went into building them.

Inside the temples can be equally as impressive with buddha statues - big and small, gold leaf and jade - sorry no photos are allowed of the famous jade buddha.

The reclining buddha is absolutely massive and it is practically impossible to take a full body photo, but the crowds of pushing tourists trying to also get the exact same photo make it even more challenging. 

Greg and Cynthia also did some shopping at Patpong night market. 

We took a day tour to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. On the drive outside the city we hit some scattered rain showers but by the time we arrived at our long tail boat the weather had cleared up - for a bit anyways. 

The first thing we did upon arriving at the market was to get some coconut pancakes. This was my first time to try them and they were so good - so good that I got seconds later! The lady had a large gas griddle on her boat and a long bamboo pole with a basket on the end to transfer the pancakes to her customers' boats and collect their money. 

After we had our coconut pancakes, the rain started up again. As the next thing to do was to take a boat ride along the canal in an open top paddle boat, we decided to do some shopping first in hopes that the rain would stop.

After the rain died down a bit, we got into a paddle boat so that we could visit the canal stores. Most of the booths along the canals were lined with tourist souvenirs. Something caught Cynthia's eye, so we pulled the boat over for a closer look.

After touring the market we had a traditional Thai lunch. Greg had his staple Thai dish - sticky rice with mango. Our tour guide always takes her tour groups to this particular stall. I mentioned to the tour guide that the ingredients were very fresh and before we knew it, we were being invited to check out the owner's personal garden where most of her vegetables and chilies come from.

We were given the option of taking a detour on the way back to Bangkok to see the train tracks market. Having seen it online but never in person, I jumped at the opportunity. The local market is set up along the train tracks and when the train comes (twice a day), the vendors have to quickly move all of their wares that are in danger of getting hit and damaged by the passing train. However, some things were left in place as the train passed by above them - missing them by mere inches.

This was a true local Thai market, they even had frogs for sale - with and without skin. I don't think even a Coke would help wash that down!

Just before the train came, an alarm sounds giving the vendors warning.

Passing just above the fruits and vegetables.