I love Morocco. But I’ve always called Tangier the Tijuana of Africa. That has changed. Tangier was a neglected hell hole for a generation. It was an international city — favored by the West and therefore distained by Morocco’s last king. He made a point to divert all national investment away from his country’s fourth city.
The new king, who took the throne in 1999, believes Tangier should be a great city again. The first city he visited after his coronation was Tangier. The difference — as I just learned — is breathtaking. The place is still exotic…but likeably exotic.
Checking into Hotel Continental, flamboyant Jimmy, who runs the shop, met me. Six or seven years ago, I told him I was from Seattle. He said, “206.” Now I test him again saying I’m from Seattle. He says, “206, 360, 425…new area codes.” He knows every telephone area code in the USA.
Hotel Continental has you looking for the English Patient. Gramophones gather dust on dressers under mangy chandeliers. A serene woman paints a figure eight in the loose tiles with her mop, day after day, surrounded by dilapidation that never goes away. As I updated the information in my guidebook, I found a rare and nonchalant incompetence. My guidebook listed the hotel’s phone and email data more accurately than their own printed material. It’s a 70-room hotel with not a sheet of paper in its office.
Roosters and the Muslim call to prayer work together to wake me and the rest of that world. When the sun is high enough to send a rainbow plunging into the harbor amid ferries busily coming and going, I stand on my balcony and survey Tangier kicking into gear. Women in colorful, flowing robes walk to sweat shops adjacent the port, happy to earn $8 a day sewing for big-name European clothing lines. Cabbies jostle at the pier for the chance to rip off arriving tourists.
It’s an exciting time in Morocco. The king is modernizing. His queen was a commoner. Moroccans say she’s the first to be seen in public. They have never seen the king’s mother. They actually don’t know what she even looks like. Walking the streets, you see a modest new affluence, lots of vision and energy, and no compromise with being Arabic.
They don’t emulate or even seem to care about the USA. Al Jazeera blares on teahouse TVs — with stirring images of American atrocities inflicted on fellow Muslims. But people seem numb to the propaganda. I felt not a hint of animosity to me as an American, something I was concerned about. There was no political edge to any graffiti or posters.
My guide, Aziz, explained to me the fundamental difference between Islamic and Islamist, and then said Morocco is Islamic.
Wandering — especially after dark — is entertaining. It’s a rare place where signs are in three languages, and English doesn’t make the cut (it’s Arabic, French and Spanish). Aziz said when he wanted someone’s attention he says, “Hey, Mohammad” (or “Hey, Fatima” for a woman). It’s like our “hey, bub”…but very respectful.
The market scene is a wonderland — of everything but pork. Mountains of brilliant olives, a full palette of spices, children with knives happy to perform for my camera. Each animal is slaughtered in accordance with Halal: in the name of Allah, with a sharp knife, head to Mecca, drained of its blood.
Until now, I’ve recommended that day-trippers from Spain just hold their nose and take the organized tour (with all the groups from Spain’s Costa del Sol). A Tangier guide meets you at the ferry (after the hour-long ride from Spain). They take you on a bus tour of the city, a walk through the old town, lead you to a few staged Kodak moments (camel ride, snake charmer, Atlas mountain tribal musicians) and then you go to a clichéd restaurant where you eat clichéd food with a live band and a belly dancer (which has nothing to do with Moroccan culture, but tourists don’t seem to care). Then you visit a shop.
They must make a healthy commission, because the round-trip ferry ride with the tour cost essentially the same as the round-trip ferry ride without the tour.
During my stay, I met gracious Moroccans eager to talk and share. About the only time I saw other Western tourists was when I crossed paths with one of the many day-tripping tour groups. Those finishing up their tour walk in a tight, single-file formation, clutching their purses and day bags nervously to their bellies like paranoid kangaroos as they bundle past one last spanking line of street merchants, and make it safely back onto the ferry.
I was so comfortable and they were so nervous and embattled. The pathetic scene reminded me of some kind of self-inflicted hostage crisis.
Return to Tangier!!!
Rick
I’m happy that your opinion of Tangier has changed.
I was there in 1998 and followed your advice to take the bus tour.
What a gruelling day. It was very interesting to see the city and the different culture
But there was a lot of pressure to buy things you may not have wanted.
And it felt very canned. I watched the snake charmer in the Kasbah and after –the snakes didn’t dance a lot –it was a big sale of postcards.
I felt like it would’ve been really nice to meet the people who lived there outside of the tour atmosphere but that wasn’t really feasible and I certainly did not want to wander around not knowing where I was going.
Now I would be keen to go back to experience the city and its people as you always say “traveling like a localâ€. And I would like to stay overnight this time to experience the city more fully.
So, what is the difference between Islamic and Islamist?
And, the reason those tourists are clutching their purses and bags so tightly is because they’ve spent too much time on this web site. I swear… I understand that being forewarned is being forearmed but, really, enough already!
rick, i’m so glad you wrote this. i was so excited to hear about morrocco from spain on one of your last entries but decided it wasn’t a good idea for a 30 yr old girl to travel south from tangier. i will be glad to go to tangier now and get my taste of morrocco. i think i will stay in that same hotel too. thanks again! :)
Don’t really see the difference between clutching your bag and wearing a money belt. Both seem to operate under the assumption someone will try to steal from you.
Get down of the high horse Rick and give um a little credit. At least they took the tour. Elitist comments like that really don’t make people feel comfortable to travel. Also, it takes most people a little time to get comfortable in a new environment. Not everyone has had the time/money/opportunity to travel to exotic/different locations regularly during their life. Have some faith they will do better in your eyes next time. Unless that is you want to make them feel so self-conscious they never try again.
My goodness. All these opinions. I’ll just say Morocco sounds very interesting. A very different culture than what Westerners maybe used to. I think I would love all those olives. Have a happy day, Rick! :)
Number one wife and I took the alternate independant 1 hr. ferry from Algeciras to the african Spanish enclave of Ceuta, with a non-guided walking reconnaisance of the port city, then hopped a taxi to the Morrocan border. A mob of prospective guides hovered enmass in their local flowing drab garb(can’t remember the proper name for the robe), we swept past them all and approached a tall distinguished fellow (as I am tall)and asked directions to a particular Architectural filagreed site.
He(naturally ) offered to show us and include a visit to the modest town of Tetouan, about 40 km distant. We negotiated a price for the day which included a Mercedes cab with one square wheel. Wife says she had (as always) no fear of the environment, however, in response to Chicago Mike, she has felt uncomfortable in Chicago several times.
He explained that the plywood camel cut-outs along the highway were for the sake of the tourists who expected that stereotype. We had a wonderful time in a totally contrasting culture, skeins of air drying red,yellow,orange yarn along side of narrow balcony encrusted passageways, the tourist oriented water boys, the obligatory rug shops and stall after stall of many unrecognizable wares, a banquet of life in the medina. Eventually saying hasta luego to our guide Salim at the border, and catching the cross Mediteranian ferry. Back to our German rental car which we had garaged in Spanish Algeciras.
Good memories, BE A TRAVELER, NOT A TOURIST !
Jaber
In one steep narrow passageway two women had spread a small dirty rag on the pavement and displayed a few pieces of green vegetable for sale. Two donkeys, carrying buckets of redi-mix cement for a Tangiers, Morocco, construction job appeared. As they passed, a donkey peed and pottied, some splashed on the food, but no one but the two of us seemed to notice. (1979)
A few miles past the border between Spain and Morocco (Cueta, Spain, is on the continent of Africa; Llivia, Spain is in France; Gibraltar, owned by England, is in Spain; all of them cause problems), our tour-bus just happened to stop at a place where there were both large camels to ride and small ones to pet. Emmy enjoyed riding a camel.
We discovered that bakeries in Tangiers, Morocco, sell heat as well as baked goods. Once they have the oven heated, they might as well make use of the heat. We would see little children taking unbaked dough to the bakery, and baked bread home with them. Makes good sense.
Hi Rick,
Really love this blog idea because it provides up to the minute ideas/info. By the way, my English ain’t perfect, but I think you mean disdain, not distain. Waiting eagerly to join your staff when you need guides for New Zealand.
Mike
Wauwatosa, WI
My husband and i took a group of students to Morocco on a day trip about ten years ago. They took our passports so we would not get our throats cut. We had a tour guide and one guy riding shotgun in the back of the bus. Very interesting and opened our students eye to a different world.
I love this blog thing. I can’t wait to read where you are every day.
I just want to thank you for your books and information. Next year we head to Spain and I was glad to see that you included Tangier.
We are looking forward to your 2008 books, you have not led us down a bad path yet. Our last trip to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, especially Switzerland, were the best adventures yet.
Thanks
I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to go Morocco to go beyond a day trip in Tangier. The Train system in Morocco is modern, efficient safe and CHEAP. It makes seeing the country so easy. If coming from Spain, take a cab from the port to the new, very modern train station, and book an overnight sleeper for Marrakesh. You wake up the most amazing city on earth!
Do it – you won’t be disappointed
Love reading your blogs. Escorted a group tour to Tangier and Fez in 1996. There is a great contrast indeed between Spain and Morocco.
Hi, Rick. FYI: The correct word is “disdain”, to dislike or detest, not “distain”, which means to remove a stain. Thanks for the blog!
Rick,
Don’t be so confident about a money belt, thus placing “all of your eggs in one basket”. My thirty-year-old son was held up (at knife point) in a country that will be left unnamed as it could have happened anywhere. After he gave the thief his wallet (in which he fortunately was carrying only what was left of the money he had thought he would need that day), the thief told him to lift up his shirt, obviously to see if he was wearing a money belt. He wasn’t–he had left his passport, etc. in the hotel safe which I consider a better idea anyway.
We just returned from Marrakech. Not Tangier, I know. But I loved it. I felt safer there than in Cancun. One of the counselors from the kids club at our hotel invited us to her home when I asked her if she could tell me where a market was. She proceeded to bring us to her home, feed us lunch, take us through the Medina, to a supermarket and a hamman all on her only day off! The tune “And they’ll know we are Christian by our Love” came to mind. I don’t know that I would have considered doing the same for a Muslim stranger. I guess Christians don’t have a monopoly on kindness.
Seriously Rick,
what’s with the repeated put downs on Mexican cities?
As a native Tijuanense I personally invite you to visit before you go on equating to the hell hole to which all others will be compared to.
Very, very insulting comment to say the least!
Absolutely not ok to make comments like ‘The New Tangier is no Tijuana’. I lived in Tijuana for 4 years and I found this very insulting. I know we tend to compare so we can relate more but can we just leave things as how they are? Different is OK people. That’s what makes us a diverse and an interesting bunch.
I tired after 40 days you are truly an major league tourist I am just double A. One thing have a warning to stock up on bus tokens at tabac shops because many close 13:00-15:30 and all Sunday. We were stuck in Podova and Roma. Also I will travel very light and buy if I need it. I took an iron and electric shaver which I never used and other things I could have done without I am 60 now not that 25 who first went to Benelux.Italy was mostly good. What a place and nice people. Some one stole my sister medical machine but that was 1 person in Roma when we first arrived.
Rick – It was a treat reading this, but even more of a treat for us to see the picture of you with Aziz. Following your previous recommendations we hired him as a guide last summer on our visit to Tangier. He does a wonderful job and gives you an insight to the city that I’m not sure I would have had by just wandering.
Rick, your line “one last spanking line of street merchants” still has me laughing and I read it last night. To Marcela and Moises: I’m not sure what Tijuana you mean, but I’ve been to the Tijuana in Mexico across the border from San Diego several times and that Tijuana reminds me of a famous tour guide’s assessment of Moss Eisley spaceport: “A wrenched hive of scum and villainy.”
I’ve been looking for a site to confirm a schedule of a hydrofoil to Tangiers from southern Spain and having difficulty. Any advice? Also, how can I contact a recommended guide for a day tour in Tangiers, to avoid the throngs at the ferry terminal and avoid the massive bus tour?
How do you hire Aziz? I’m heading over to Tangiers next month and I would love to hire him.
Just returned from Spain…took the side trip to Tangiers and hired your friend Aziz…He was great…very helpful and interesting. Thanks for the recommendation.
Going to Portugal? Spain in Sept. How do we contact Aziz?
I would like to add that Tijuana for those who know it is NOT a “hell hole”. Far from it. There are many fine dining restaurants including, “La Diference”, offering wonderful French cuisine. There is great shopping in the Plaza Rio shopping center. The, “Circut”, is a world class cultural center offers entertainment from around the world. Did you know Tijuana has its own full time orchestra and opera company? If your an American my guess is you had no idea. It is not your grandfather’s Tijuana.
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