Fes

Location: Fes, Morocco

Our hotel in Fes was right by the train station. We woke up on Wednesday morning and found a taxi to take us to the Medina (city-refers in this case to the older cities). Every town in Morocco has a medina. Newer developments have sprung up outside the medinas, but the way of life inside has remained fairly constant for hundreds of years. Fes has what is considered one of the largest, and most complex medinas in the world. There are about 9000 different alleyways, and each one has a variety of shops, selling things like fruit, spices, grains, electronics, clothing, animals, leather; practically anything you can think of. Some pictures of the medina of Fes, known as Fes el-Bali:The first picture shows a Bab (gate) to the medina. The alleys are very narrow, but that doesn't stop people from driving donkeys or mopeds through it. It is very easy to get lost inside. This is something that the locals know, and brings us to a fundamental truth about Morocco: as a tourist, you will be accosted by everyone you walk by. They all want to help you out, show you the way, encourage you to buy things-all for a fee, of course. In order to successfully not get fleeced at every turn, you must be comfortable with saying "no", ignoring their entreaties, and walking away. If you so much as show a fleeting interest in any single shop, the proprietor will spring to life, and aggressively beckon you to the store. However, you can get some great deals on some very nice things. We saw plenty of stores that had beautiful lamps made of camel leather, great Moroccan rugs, some amazing art; even one store that housed Jewish artifacts. In this store, I saw a copy of the Passover Haggadah, written with ink onto a book made entirely out of leather. It was beautiful, but expensive. We also didn't know where it came from; whether or not it was ransacked from a Jewish home, or something similar.

Leather is the predominant commodity of the Fes market. There are leather tanning pits inside the medina that have been in existence since the 1400's:
We got a great view of the tanning pits by following a guy up to his leather shop, overlooking the pits. Of course, we were then expected to look around and buy something. This brings us to the second truth about Morocco, and most other Middle Eastern and Northern African countries. Bargaining is a must. A good rule to follow is, whatever price you are given, divide it by half, or possibly even lower, depending on what it is. You'll go back and forth for a while. If you don't think your price is low enough, start to leave. They'll start coming down to another price, or may even give you the last price that you suggested. I did some bargaining for a belt, though I didn't go low enough initially. Still, I got a nice handmade leather belt for 200 dirham, or about 21 dollars. Ben had had some experience with the barganing in Cairo a few weeks ago, and got a leather jacket marked down from 3500 dirham to 1365 dirham, which is about 150 dollars.

Overall, the markets of Fes were amazing. It was very hot, but the shade of the alleys and the several 1 liter water bottles we went through made it tolerable. The people were not as pushy as I was led to believe in the guidebooks. There were very few other tourists here, most probably opting to go to Marrakesh, which we left for that afternoon at 4:50pm. The train to Marrakesh was comfortable, but long, and we arrived at Marrakesh at midnight.