Marrakech -> M’Hamid -> Zagora -> Marrakech
So, wassup with the second half of the Moroccan trip? Something golden…. Yes, the desert🐪 We took a trip down to the desert at M’hamid and I am going to tell you our most disappointing yet fruitful story!
M’hamid
Why was it disappointing? Well because we signed up the accomodation via couchsurf, wanting to learn more about the Moroccan culture. After Xin’s previous rave couchsurf experience, we wanted to have more of those exchange. We thus gave up a desert tour from Marrakech and took the 8 hour bus down to M’hamid. Turns out that the couchsurfer is actually a tour agency and they baited couchsurfers to the desert town and asked them to sign up for an overpriced package if they want to go to the desert. Seriously, for that price they are doing 1 night and I could have signed up for a similar price package in Marrakech and they would be doing 3… however, we were bitter that we travelled all the way down to M’hamid and decided to go for the package.
Thankfully, there were no one else who signed up for the same day (yea, there were other couchsurfers who got baited) and we had the tour and the guide to ourselves. Speaking of the tour itself was okay, they brought us to the sand dunes via 4 wheel and the camel. We saw the best sunset in our entire exchange and we also had a mini campfire where the tour guide and other locals began performing their local songs. We got to see a blanket of stars as well in the skies, which is pretty amazing! The major thing was that the desert was really cold in the night and this meant that there was no hot water to shower and we slept while we shivered. Or did we even sleep. It was so bad that we were counting down the hours to sunrise: Lesson learnt, while winter is good to visit the desert (off peak and less hot, try not to stay overnight, or bring a sleeping bag at the minimum). Else, come in April or October.
Okay, back to the complaints. When we got back to the couchsurfing/tour holding area, we were in horror when we saw like another two groups of couchsurfers there. Oh seriously, and because we have already paid and done our tour, the guides were giving more attention to the other couchsurfers. We were like transparent there, even though they did cook for us and all in the presence of the others. Once they left for their tours, the interactions between the hosts and us became almost zero. We wanted to see the desert town which the host promised to bring us and initially they were reluctant to do so. It was only till the host was due to receive another couchsurfer and needed to cook dinner that we managed to go and see the town. Sighs, all we felt then was that we wanted to get out of the desert and back to Marrakech, but the bus was booked for the subsequent day:(
Thankfully, we realised the next couchsurfer was a Chinese who is living in Spain and we hit it off really well. We communicated with him in Mandarin on purpose to warn him about the trap and he was actually quite chill about it. He has been couchsurfing for the past 2 years (WOW!) and he was really open out the fact that he quit his job because he got tired of it and used pursuing masters as an excuse in Spain to travel around XD. Super cool guy! He even offered us Lindor Chocs when he figured out that we haven’t eaten dinner and would be hungry, aww:) He’s the only reason that we were glad that we stayed behind.
The other reason why I said that the desert trip is fruitful was because of Mouad. This pol science student which we had met on the bus en route to the desert. We originally did not have a good impression of him as he came onto the bus looking rather shady and started talking to us randomly as we alighted to look for the toilet. In fact, when he invited us to his place in the town slightly away from the desert town we wanted to go, we were abit scared. However, the impression changed when he helped us to bargain with the taxi driver that was bringing us to M’hamid. We decided to try going over since we wanted to experience local life and it was not possible after the bad experience with the couchsurf host. Thus, we took the leap of faith to go over to the town, Zagora.
Turned out that Mouad was really friendly! He brought us to his house, taught us to make Moroccan mint tea and explained to us his family structure:) And despite revising for his examinations, he took the time to make us comfortable:) He also brought us to his family’s house where his mum, sister and grandma were there. We were welcomed warmly by the entire family:) And Mouad’s mum even cooked for us! Mouad’s nephews tried to converse us in English and they are really curious about the world. So we opened out instagram and facebook for them to see XD. Mouad’s sister was quite funny as well because she keep asking us how to make our hair straight, but we told them its the genes HAHA! Afterwards, before we left, the family even took a photo with us for memories sake:) so nice of them, but we can’t post the photos with the ladies because it is not really nice for them in their culture.
Thanks to Mouad, we got to see a Moroccan life and also the ambition and desire of an ambitious Moroccan wanting to see the world! We have learnt a lot from him and despite not being an official couchsurf experience, its more than enough:)
And that was the end of our Moroccan trip, and also Xin’s final trip in Europe:(
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Well goodbyes are the hardest words to say. Tears just say it for us!
CinqeMinte 
