I'm going to Morocco for Two Weeks

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

We’re heading to Morocco, and we’ve done a lot of research, and talked to a lot of Moroccans. In many ways, there’s LESS crime there than the USofA.

It’s almost funny. Every time some nervous nellie warns us about a specific danger, someone who knows will contradict them.

Just last week, we had someone warn us against walking around without an armed tour guide, and four hours later we told a neighbor about our trip and he mentioned “…oh, and we spent entire days walking around the little neighborhoods outside of Marrakesh.”

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This reminds me of a paradox I’ve observed over my many years of traveling.

There is a well-established service sector around the world that caters to the tourist. Some location wants to increase its tourism revenue, so it sets up one or more visitor offices, prints maps and guides in several languages, advertises, and so on. Local businesses spring up, offering personal guides, or Vespa or Segway rentals, or other goods and services attractive to the visitor; restaurants add translations to their menus or print several separate versions with flag icons to mark the language; and so on. As a foreign visitor, you go to this place, and as long as you stay in the main city center where these services are clustered, you feel safe and taken care of. I call it the “tourist bubble,” and you feel like as long as you stay inside it, your worries are reduced. If you venture outside it, you take your chances.

But in my experience, the reality is actually the opposite. The pickpockets and hustlers concentrate themselves inside the tourist bubble as well, because that’s where the tourists are.

I mentioned Tunisia above. It’s an excellent illustration. In the tourist-oriented town centers, you have to keep your radar active, because you are constantly being approached by locals who want to lead you to their cafe, or take you on an “insider tour” of the mosque, or sell you a burner phone or a photo opp in front of a mangy camel, or whatever. It’s endless, and if you let it get to you, it can be exhausting. But it’s the price of visiting that you have to fend off this stuff, and honestly I don’t hold it against them, because relatively speaking I’m a wealthy Westerner whose monthly coffee budget would feed their whole family, and if they can get me to spend ten euros on a pair of knockoff sunglasses, it’s trivial to me but it makes a huge difference in their day.

But the point is — if you get outside the tourist bubble, this stuff diminishes greatly, or disappears. If I’m the only tourist in a location, I have found it’s a lot less likely that I’ll have trouble, because the hustlers don’t bother to go where there aren’t any tourists.

In Tunisia, we rented a car and spent hours and hours over a couple of days exploring the interior of the country, from the famous pink lake to the spectacularly overlooked and undervisited Roman coliseum at El Jem. We stopped for lunch one day in a small village, picking a corner joint by impulse. The proprietors were amazed to have random foreigners dropping in, and the whole meal we were stared at by the old men sitting on the patio with their tea, but we got terrific service and excellent food, and afterward we had good (if choppy, due to our iffy French) conversation with a local guy who made his living scrounging up parts for mechanical repairs, everything from motorcycles to dishwashers.

At no point during these non-bubble days did we feel like we were at any kind of risk. The most noteworthy bit of uncertainty happened when our car was waved down by a couple of bored national policemen with a radar gun. For a few moments we wondered if this was going to be a disruption to our day, but as soon as they realized we were visitors and ticketing us was going to require some additional paperwork, they just shrugged and waved us free.

I really can’t emphasize enough the paradox of the tourist bubble. You feel safe because there are people whose livelihoods require them to make an effort with the language, but that superficial comfort creates an illusion of safety. The reality is, as long as you do the minimal homework to stay out of the really rough areas, you’re usually a lot better off — not just in terms of scammers, but in the overall quality of your experience — to push yourself out of the bubble and poke around the less-commonly explored areas where the country’s people actually live their non-tourist-focused lives.

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I’ve never been to Morocco or Lisbon, so no specific advice there; but I do have some for dealing with jet lag: get out into the sunlight.

When I flew to New Zealand, I arrived exhausted and cramped after 14 hours in a steel tube, and wanted nothing more than to collapse into bed, though it was 7 a.m. local time. I forced myself to get out and wander around Auckland. It was difficult - I sat down in an excellent natural history museum and almost fell asleep on the bench - but I spent most of the day outdoors. Went back to my hotel in early evening, fell into bed, slept for ten hours, and when I awoke was completely adjusted and didn’t have a problem with jet lag for the rest of the trip.

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For what it’s worth, I landed in Lisbon last night and ate at a place called Richard’s Garden about a twenty minute walk from the airport. It has two menus; one Brazilian and one sushi. The roasted octopus and potatoes were excellent as was the tuna and avocado tartar. The cocktails were tasty and cheap but kind of stingy on the booze. Checking out downtown today before renting a car and playing it by ear.

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I overlooked this initially, and I have a thought for you.

Lisbon is a beautiful, charismatic city, well worth the time to explore. It’s especially pretty at sunset, if that matters, but in general the architecture, the age of the traditional buildings (they have a bookstore that’s been in operation for almost 300 years), the winding streets, it all combines into a city with tremendous character.

When you read the lists of “things you should see/do in Lisbon,” one that regularly pops up is “you gotta ride the 28.” Here’s the deal on that.

Lisbon has one of the only surviving non-modernized city tram systems in Europe. Lots of cities have street-level trams, from Lyon to Berlin, but they’ve been modernized over the years. Lisbon’s, though? It’s the same rail routes as originally established in the first half of the last century, and some of the individual cars, painted a distinctive mustard yellow, have been in service for decades. Yeah, they’re loud and small and antiquated, but they’re also intensely charming.

In this system, the 28 is the most famous route, because it starts in the middle of downtown and winds through some of LIsbon’s most famous and picturesque neighborhoods. It’s a really excellent way to get an overall sense of the city, both in terms of the physical layout and as a taste of how the various sections of the city differ from one another in character. There’s a reason all the tourist guides mention this as a recommended activity.

There are a couple of downsides, though. First, because it’s so famous, lots of people want to do it. If you go to the city-center terminus in the middle of the day, you’ll find a huge queue waiting to board, and you’ll probably have to wait over an hour, through multiple arrivals and departures, before you get your chance. Second, Lisbon’s trams aren’t just a tourist activity, like, say, Seattle’s monorail, which is used almost exclusively by visitors; the trams are full of people going to and from their jobs, or with arms full of grocery bags, and otherwise just getting around town. As you stand in the queue with them, you will feel their annoyance at being disrupted by tourists.

But there are ways around this, and here’s my recommendation: do the route the other way, starting at the other terminus. Obviously the ease of this depends on the location of your hotel, but the idea is, instead of going to the city center and waiting with hordes of people at Martim Moniz (or avoiding the hordes by getting up at the crack of darkness), you can start outside the city core, at Campo Ourique (which also has the benefit of being next door to a lovely traditional cemetery, if you get there early). You’ll be able to board the 28 with hardly any line, and then you’ll finish the ride in the city center, where you can continue exploring on foot.

The trip takes 45 minutes with no traffic, but depending on conditions could be 10-15 minutes longer. For the best views, when boarding the 28 in this direction, pick a window seat on the right side. Then keep your butt planted until you get to Martim Moniz, because if you get off, you’ll need to stand in line to get back on (per the popularity of the route).

Have fun. Lisbon is great, a city to fall in love with.

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We spent yesterday in Lisbon city center. @Cervaise is right about how long the lines are for the 28. Less charming, but with better views are the hop on, hop off tourist buses. They are yellow in Lisbon. Architecturally speaking, the city is a little too homogeneous for my tastes but the views from its higher elevations are magnificent. Yesterday’s highlight was an Iberian ham cafe. It’s like a wine tasting. Make sure you savor the aroma of each piece before you put it in your mouth. Another food option is the enormous Time Out food court with, perhaps, a hundred or more independent vendors of local cuisine. And, damn, this town has a lot of bakeries.

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My favorite vacation of the last ten years was a couple of weeks in Morocco (this was 2017). Everyone was friendly, everything was half the price (or less) than I’m used to, and the food was fantastic. If you get to Marrakech (and you like roasted meat), find the mechoui restaurant – slow roasted lamb – the best roasted lamb (and probably the best meat at all) that I’ve ever had; enough for five people + leftovers for about $50.

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It turns out I’ve been given a particular mission for my Lisbon day: Pastéis de Belém – My sisters-in-law have been and they insist that the egg tarts are better there than can be found anywhere else.

The hotel I’ve booked is basically on the airport, so I think my tour (and sunlight getting/jet-lag curing) plan will be to take public transit there, and see whatever is along the way. :slight_smile:

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We stayed at the Hotel Meliá a few hundred yards from the airport and Metro station. You can get a day pass and take the Metro (subway) to Cais do Sodré (close to city center) and then Tram 15 to Belem. The day pass is 7.50 euros and will cover the whole trip. We stopped in Belem on our way out of town by rental car. There’s plenty to see there.

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Thanks, this is good info.

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Go early. The queues are insane. Literally hundreds of tourists.

I spent my time in Lisbon with a 2 year old. In Portugal that got me to jump every single queue from customs to the train ticket station. But also it got me up early, so I could get out and see the sites before the crowds.

The aformentioned Time Out “food quarter” has a shop which is an offshoot of the original, selling pasteis de belem - with no queues.

To be honest, it’s not that much different from the ubiquitos pasteis de nata, which you can find in every small (or big) coffee shop.

I’d probably recommend the Tile Museum, Castelo St George, or a trip to a restaurant in Alfama (make sure you choose one a block or two behind the tourist area). There is also good music there. I happened to be there by coincidence during the festival of St. Anthony (my given name) and explorimg the back-streets was incredible. So much good food.

Transport is really easy, great bus/tram/taxi/underground services and plenty of information available.

If you have more than just a a day, definitely go and see Sintra, which is out of town, but a worthwhile trip. A collection of insanely architected castles and some… odd wells. Again, go early. It gets packed.

In fact the best advice you can get in Portugal, is “go early”.

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FYI I followed the directions in this thread and am at this very moment eating fresh pasties de Belém in a park across from the place.

I tried the place I think you’re referring to last night. Definitely better than Starbucks, but not as good as what I’m eating now. But that might just be a batch timing issue.

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Aproveite Portugal!

It is a lovely place.

My ex-gf lives there, just outside of Porto, and thoroughly agrees.

ETA, if you are still in Belem, there is a rather nice botanical park within easy walk of the Belém cafe. (if you are into that kind of thing)

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Sounds super exciting, but PLEASE don’t do any “sneaking off”! It can be very dangerous if you are seen as a foreigner alone, especially an American.

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I’m an obvious a foreigner as it gets, and so is my wife. We went there when she was 7 months pregnant and we had a two year old daughter with us. We were off the beaten track all the time.

It is really safe - and I come from a third world country with a very high crime rate, so I kind of trust my instincts. Your mileage, as always, may vary.

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[Covering eyes and not looking] Okay, you can wander off now. :flushed:

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To be honest, my choices in life may not be great, I am awaiting my passport renewal application to be fulfilled, then I plan to go to Sulawesi, which is definitely in the “extremely hard” category of tourism.

I do speak a tiny bit of the language. I can negotiate numbers in Bahasa Indonesia, so at least I can eat at a market.

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Which one? I have never heard of Sulawesi, so I did some quick research. ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN languages are spoken there! How is that possible?! :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

At any rate, let us hope your modest “Sulawesian” language skills are not needed to negotiate your ransom.

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There are 114 languages, but several more cultures. It is an unbelievably diverse country

The Indonesian government created “Bahasa Indonesia” which is very much based on Javanese (which is similar to Malay) as the national language.

But in the rural areas, plenty of people don’t speak Bahasa. I went to Flores, for example (famous for Homo floresiensis) where very few people spoke Bahasa so the communication went from my English speaking brain into my poor Bahasa skills, into the local translator into the local language.

One of my most amusing anecdotes (well, at least to me) about travel in Indonesia was when my g/f and I took an overnight train to Cilacap, with the intention of then going to Pangandaran. The train was going to Purkoweto - so at some time around midnight the fellow travellers awoke my g/f and I but, being an extremely obscure route, no one spoke even basic Bahasa.

It turned out that half the carriages on the train were going to Purkoweto, and half were going to Cilacap, and in the middle of the night this train was about to split. Fortunately I have some talent at art, and I was carrying a journal (mostly full of scrabble game wins) and I could illustrate the possible problem once I got the idea. Unfortunately the ferry at Cilacap had broken down so we had about 15 hours in a bus to get there.

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Very interesting, and thank you!

Yet it all seems to work there! The United States is often referred to as a “melting pot” of harmonious diversity, but nothing seems further from the truth right now. We’re more of a “seething cauldron” than a “melting pot”, I’m afraid.