Art By Tali Landsman

We took the coastal route for the short drive from Assilah to Tangier. After getting lost a bit, we met our host Peter at the big circle outside the Medina. Peter showed us where to park, and we put on our backpacks and walked what seemed to be a long walk down busy lanes of the medina, to his beautiful Dar B&B. We got an airy lovely roof top room with stained glass windows and a lovely garden. In the bedroom, the author Paul Bowles, stares at me from some black and white photos on the wall. Paul Bowles became a part of Gertrude Stein's literary and artistic circle in Paris in the 1930's. He moved to Tangier permanently in 1947. A few years back, I saw a documentary about his life in Tangier. He was married to author and playwright Jane Auer, but he lived openly as a bisexual man. Although, it seemed like his wife was the only woman he was interested in, otherwise, there were only mentions of his many love affairs with numerous young men. He was an old man at the time of th

Assilah is a relaxed beach town just south of Tangier, on the Western Coast of North Africa. Even though the code of dress and conduct is visibly Islamic, it is a place where tourists are made to feel welcome. Jules bought a traditional Pajama, which most men wear outdoors here. He definitely stood out in Assilah, where most men wear shorts during the day, and jeans or slacks with t-shirts in the evenings. Most of the merchants here speak four languages, Arabic with a Darija dialect, French, Spanish and English. When at first we came to Morocco, foolishly feeling that the people may have some anti- American sentiments, and when people asked us in a friendly manner, where do we live, we said New Zealand. After all, it is the truth for half of the year..... They nod their heads saying "Welcome, Welcome... To Morocco" And almost immediately they admit that they have NO IDEA where New Zealand is... Most people think it is in Europe, since it rhymes with Fin-land, or Fjord-land.

We checked out of our Riad in Sale'-Rabat, walked with our heavy backpacks through the narrow lanes, out of the Medina to the car park, where we left our car rental. We tipped the day guard for watching our car, and gave him an equal tip to give to the night guard. He smiled at us with a warm toothless smile filled and placed his hand on his heart, as a sign of sincere gratitude. He was wearing a long blue doctor's coat, so people will KNOW that he is a parking attendant. We chose the coastal road and drove north towards Tangier. We made reservations for two nights, at a renovated "Dar," (large house, but usually smaller than a Riad), in the beach town of Assilah. Along the way we passes small craft and artisans workshops, among them we saw mosaic tables and fountains, garden sculptures curved from yellow stone, and Terra Cotta pottery. We stopped at a beautiful long stretch of sandy beach, which was undergoing a major transformation. The whole hill above the beach wa

The morning started slowly. After breakfast, we caught up on some of our computer work and organized our photos. We also paid a visit to the local Hammam on our street in the Sale' Medina. A Hammam is a local communal bath house. Jan, the owner of our lovely Riad, gave us large plastic buckets, a low plastic stool, and a container with Beldhi soap, which is a pasty soap made from black olives. It has the consistency of dark Dates or Tamarind paste. The men's Hammam is located right next to the women's Hammam and they both share the same heating. The women's Hammam had plain tile floors and three large rooms which were supposed to vary in temperature. I went straight into the warmest room, but it was not very hot and definitely not steamy. I was told by Rachid, the owner of our Riad, that they heat the Hammam by burning wood, and that if there are not many people there, they save on the costly wood. I was hoping to get the customary body scrub with a "Kissa" w

This morning Jules rolled over in bed, checked the clock by our night stand, and declared that we were 35 minutes late for breakfast. The night before the owner asked us at what time we would like to eat, insinuating that 8am-9am will be best... Not being early risers, we promised to come down for breakfast by 9am. So we quickly put on loose clothes and ran downstairs for breakfast. We came back to our room after a breakfast of mint tea, locally baked breads, yogurt and local butter and jam. Today we decided to explore Rabat, which is located on the other side of the river from Sale'. We asked the owner what was the best way to get to Rabat from Sale' and she suggested that we walk to the river and from there, take a row boat across to Rabat. The walk was much longer than we thought, but it was fun to see the people who came to relax by the ocean and by the river. We first went to the fishermen's pier, but nobody was rowing passengers... Just some skinny kids swimming and b

We chose the coastal road for the drive from Casablanca to Rabat. Most of the Coast was taken by factories and heavy industry. There were some beaches, but after seeing all the industry, we did not feel enticed to stop. Rabat is the capital city of Morocco. Fez used to be the capital, but the French who invaded and occupied Morocco, moved it to Rabat in 1912. Among other factors, rebellious citizens in Fez had made Fez an unstable place to maintain the government offices. Rabat is located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is separated by a river from Sale' which is its sister town, and it is the city we are staying in, in a three hundred year old renovated "Riad." A Riad is a large house which always has a central courtyard to which all rooms open onto, and each Riad also has a fountain. "The Repose" is the lovely Riad we chose to stay at in Sale'. It has two floors and a charming roof top lounge. The owner is a young British woman who married a Moroccan man. As sh

The flight on 'Air Maroc' from New York to Casablanca took about seven hours. When we landed and made our way down the airplane to the exit door, I noticed that all the seats and the isles were filled with litter. Newspapers, plastic bags, wrappers, left over food and all sorts of crap were spread EVERYWHERE... I have flown many times in my life, yet I have never seen a plane so messy and filthy upon arrival as this flight was. I hoped it was NOT a sign of things to come... Our car rental company had no counter desk at the airport and it took us awhile to call and to track down the agent. As Jules was strolling up and down the airport, trying to find the agent, I tried to hook us up with a mobile 3G Internet modem for our computers, since we did not make any advance plans and instead planned to look for places to stay and what to see on the fly, by researching things online while on the road. The Morocco Telecomm agent tried hard, but was unable to get his wireless modem on ou