Today Kylie and I rode a sidecar with our driver Munir through the streets of Marrakesh. What a hoot! Before we got started, Munir showed us a map of the neighborhoods and explained the sequence of the areas we would visit ending with "and lastly we will visit the oasis where the camels are, we'll drop you off and you can get a camel ride back to the city." With a straight face. I looked at Mustapha and knew he had set it up. We burst out laughing.
We saw the city from a lower point of view, zipped in and out traffic tailgating like crazy. I asked Munir about that and he said they do it for a reason. Since the red lights are so long and the green lights are so short all drivers pull up close to each other in order to maximize their collective chances of getting through a green light. I guess it makes sense. There were many times when I could easily touch the car to my right or directly in front of us. We finished our ride outside the medina at the oasis ...where the camels are. And the extremely wealthy with their obscenely large houses.
Then on to Oxygen Agafay, a beautiful complex of tents in the desert. Spent the afternoon relaxing by the infinity pool and watching the light change on the Agafay Desert all around us. Had a lovely dinner by fire lamps and being serenaded by a local folk band. One of them passed around the Fez, a felt hat with a tassel, and challenged us to try to spin the tassel. There is plenty of video of us trying, it's harder than it looks and we all got a good laugh.
We stayed up as long as we could to see the night sky but I pooped out early. We slept together in a spacious tent, with one queen size bed on a platform and the three of us each slept in very comfortable beds arranged in a U shape in what would have been the living area. Awoke early enough to watch the sun rise from the canopy bed outside. It was pretty chilly so Shauna thoughfully stacked pillows and blankets for the three of us as we watched the sun rise over the desert. She is spoiling us.
Tomorrow Ait Ben Haddou (Tribe of the Son of Haddou) where Hollywood movies were filmed like Gladiator, King of Persia, Laurence of Arabia and many more.