Marrakesh from above...

So after a nice break in Eassouria it was back to Marrakesh for a last three days before moving on. Importantly I was able to spend my birthday in Marrakesh and was spoilt with the lovely suprise of a early morning hot air balloon ride over the countryside just outside Marrakesh! This of course meant an early morning start and we were greeted by our guide and hot air balloon owner Hamid - who proudly informed me that he knew where Brisbane was as he drove there from Sydney when he recently visited Australia with his wife - which is a rareity as the majority of Morroccans just cannot afford such and expensive trip. There were 6 other people from the UK also coming along for the ride that day and they were quiet lovely. To make sure we were all awake as we are driving through this sand dune area hamid says let me wake you up - the jeep is still in motion as he jumps at and runs to the back of the car and opens the door where we are sitting on the bench seats and says "Are you awake now?" as he is running behind the jeep that is still in motion - it was the craziest thing I have ever seen but hysterical!

We arrived at a flat site in the countryside where Hamid and his team unloaded the hot air balloon in pieces off the back of a trailor, which I will admit at this point was a little scary to not see it all together when we arrived. BUT, it was really interesting to watch them pull it together and we got to enjoy a beautiful sunrise whilst snacking on chocolate croissants and tea. When the time came to go up I couldn't beleive the noise from the flame above us - not to mention the heat! No wonder Hamid was bald - I was suprised that any of us had eyebrows left after this trip. When the flame wasn't blowing it was really peaceful to just be floating over the villages. Talk about a birds eye view - we were told about the holes that we could see in the dry ground below and how these are all attempts by the Berbers to dig wells and look for water. It's crazy there are whole towns and just a tiny well to support them! We were up there for around 45 min and it was just amazing and something that I hope to do again.

As we were looking for a landing site as it goes according to the wind, Hamid calmly tells us that we need to go up as the wind was blowing us towards some power lines - lovely Hamid couldn't you have just sorted that out without telling me???
The group before us that came down had a tiny crash landing with the basket dragging along the dirt ground, so I was bracing myself for the same kind of landing. Instead
Mr Hamid decided to give us a perfect YouTube moment and land the hot air balloon right onto the back of the trailer on the track from which they were to load the balloon back onto!!! I thought he was joking, but them I realised he was deadset serious and he did it perfect I couldnt beleive it! It was really interesting to see that with the landing he has his crew on the ground driving and trying to work out where he will land.

We asked how do local land owners feel that he lands on their property and he said they are usually ok, sometimes you have to pay them for some damage to their crops but when he started the business he took all the local families up for a ride and to get them onside and it appears to have worked a treat. It was really beautiful when we floated over one village and a mum was outside with her son pointing at our balloon and waving - it was a sweet interaction from a different perspective with the locals.

At the end of the trip we were taken to a local Berber village that belongs to the crew that have worked for him for the last for years. It's a massive collection of mud brick homes - very simple dwellings where they use bamboo in the roof for "Berber air conditioning". The Berber fridge is a basket hanging in the shadiest and coolest room of the mudbrick homes and this is where they will place their milk, butter, yoghurts, cheese and meats to keep them cool and clear of animals and flies. They showed us the old kitchen versus the new kitchen that the community uses as a result of the women cooking lunch for the tourists who do the tour like us - I still cant work out where they cooked.

Electricity is something very new for this community and Hamid told us that when they first got the solar panels on the roof which the government gives them, the grandmother was so excited about eletricity that she stood there flicking the light switch on and off to show the tourists how it works, not realising that this is something we take for granted in our countries.
The toilet was suprisingly clean - a tiled hole in the ground in the middle of a room and outside is a massive terracotta pot filled with water, which you take a small bucket and dip in to take water into the toilet with you to flush - luckily Berber Belly wasnt playing up that day! :)

After our tour of the village someone had cheekily told Hamid it was my birthday so next thing I know there is a huge cake, decorations and even my age printed on the cake. Hamid had even made a whole CD of birthday songs in both English and Arabic which they blared out of the 4WD parked next to us for the next 30 minutes!!! I think Im mentally scarred by that song for life!!! We were then taken for a camel ride which was randomly placed in a parking lot in the middle of no where and the old mercedes taxis of Morocco would pull up with tourists who would pay a fortune Im guessing to walking around this palm tree parking lot in the midday heat on a camel for 10 minutes.

The next day we took another tour with Morocco Explored this time up to the Atlas Mountains, Ait Ben Haddou and Ouzazzarete. Thankfully we were in a comfortable Toyota Prado as we drove up the windy Atlas roads from 8.30am until 1pm where we were able to visit these sites then drive back at 2.30pm to arrive at 7pm - it was a really hard drive for me as I felt motion sickness the whole time and migraines threatening to ruin the trip.

Ait Ben Haddou was an amazing site that is now UNESCO heritage listed and currently being conserved - its an old mud brick kasbah that has been used in movies such as the Gladiator & The Mummy - it's absolutely beautiful and a real exotic oasis only fitting for a magical childrens story. The drive was truly beautiful and the mountains so amazing I couldn't beleive they weren't paintings. Our driver was very lovely and understood that Im a little snap Jap happy when it comes to taking photos, so would constantly stop the car for perfect photos.

The riad we stayed at for this second visit to Marrakesh was beautifully renovated riad run by a French guy and had a resident turtle that just strolls around the roof terrace. The cheeky guy even nibbled on my toe at one point, thinking that I was food - yes it hurt! He was so cute I wanted to buy one from the markets and sneak him on holidays with me - why cant we have these kind of turtles in Australia??

For the last night in Marrakesh, I decided I wanted to go and check out the newly revamped La Mamounia hotel, which is the location they shot the recently launched Sex in the City 2 movie. I didn't think I would be that into it, but I must say I was truly excited as we took a horse and carriage to the hotel which was the perfect way to arrive and once inside it was the most gorgeous hotel ever!!! Next visit to Marrakesh I need to stay there! The ambience and decoration from the gardens, the foyer, the pool and piano bar was stunning and of course I ordered a Cosmopolitan as this is something the girls would have done right? I could really see the spots that I guessed they must have shot some scenes, so Im looking forward to actually seeing the movie so that I can see if I was right. There was no more perfect way to end the stay in Marrakesh!

Next blog... Fez and the Scared World Music Festival.