Ramadam

Day 64
Sunday 30th August 2009

We decided to take the foot of the gas a little todayand explore our surrounds. Different readings suggest that while the Fes Medina is it's history dating back 1500 years the Ville Nouvelle is very much modern Fes.

The problem we were having was that it was slap bang in the middle of Ramadam. Meaning the 99 percent of Moroccons who are Muslim wereimpacted by the month long fast. The knock on impact was the opening and closing of shops and cafes were different from the norm. It was very difficult to get a bite to eat at a cafe in the day fore ample as people would rest during the day having been up in the night eating. You actually felt strangely guilty eating in the open during daylight hours in the knowledge that the people around you couldn't eat, drink or consume anything until sunset.

For our evening meal we somehow managed to sit down at a cafe just as the sun was about to set. There is a standard Meal that Muslims eat at sunset made up of dates, soup and milk. Everbody else in the cafe had this set meal in front of them untouched willing the sun to set so they could devour it. However, of the people we'd spoken to so far many explained it wasn't the eating that bothered them so much but more the thirst. This would be a whole new proposition down in the desert though.

We proceeded to order and fortunately for us our meals arrived after everbody else had started to eat. There was no way we would have started anyway.

Our hotel broke the bad news that we couldn't use their showers before our overnight coach journey. It was over 40 degrees today so we weren't in the best shape. They did however recommend a hotel down the road that had a private shower block. Bizarre as it seemed we were led into this secret room behind reception where we had showers before heading for the coach station for our 9.30pm nine hour journey to the desert.