I arrived in Fes pretty tired and was ready to have a relaxing evening. The lonely planet recommended a hostel in the new section of the city. I got lost and ended up taking a two hour detour around Ville Nouvelle.
Finally arriving at the hostel I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. One of the better ones Ive seen for sure. I tried to check in but the manager informed me that I needed a number from my passport stamp (which I didn't have).
Another 45 min walk brought me to the police station to try to sort out this passport issue. I didn't want this to happen at every hotel/hostel I went too. The guy responsible for passport control had no idea what was wrong and did nothing to resolve the issue. Actually he gave me a get out of jail free card (some Arabic on the back of a napkin), in case I ran into more problems.
I grabbed a taxi, got lost in the taxi, got into a fight with the taxi driver, got lost again, called the hostel that was now full, then found a hotel. Stress!!! So over three hours waste I was finally planted in Fes.
The following day was spectacular! Fes El-Bali (old Fes), is an incredible maze of twisting alleys, blind turns and hidden souqs. Little has changed here in hundreds of years. My trusty camera was up for the task!
The first thing to do was find the tanneries. Back in Thailand I met someone who had the coolest rug-sack-type leather bag. I had to have one! My entire trip to Morocco stems from finding one of these bags!
Moroccan leather, and more particularly the Fassi leather produced in Fes, has for centuries been highly prized as among the finest in the world. I found a smallish sized bag made from camel. I'm going to get another lighter coloured bag in Marakesh. Although the smells of the bag isn't the typical cow leather smell, its smexy! No doubt it would be a huge expense back home.
My lonely planet made it clear that you (the tourist) can't actually get into the dye pits themselves. Another challenge! Bribing my way with baksheesh, I found myself walking through the beehive like pits able to take in the smells and colours of the ancient process. The boy guiding me through spent a great deal of time with me.
He brought me into the slum areas where I could watch people skin goats, cut the fur off the skin, then hang to dry.
From the tanneries I decided to wander in search of weird souq items. I found huge hanging dolls, baby turtles, lamb hooves, baby bird's of prey like hawks and eagles, and potions for camel sickness.
Walking back to my hotel I came upon a cool Muslim graveyard overlooking the Medina. Not sure if I was breaking any rules I kept my head down and camera hidden.
Until next post,
D.
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