i'm supposed to put up some more morocco entries, but i'm not in the mood right now, i've only just come back from Ireland and i'm so tired that i've reached a point where i cant sleep cause i'm so tried which i know doesnt make sense but to me it does.

on the flight back from Dublin, i was sat next to a guy who i'm certain has a fear of flying cause he squashed himself into a ball and wrapped his arms around himself and did not move an inch until we landed in Manchester, and the poor guys luck was down cause we had some pretty bad turbulance so the plane was shaking really badly and i kept looking over to him to make sure he hadnt fainted or that he hadnt peed his pants although if he had i dont really know what i would have done, nothing i guess...

but his reaction of being afraid to die did trigger some thoughts in my head, well to be honest i've been thinking about my place in this life for some time now, what really triggered it was the death of a sister from Dundee.

subhannallah, she went to Thailand with a friend of mine during the summer period to help out in a project that helped out the tsunami victims ie orphans, she was the deputy president of her Islamic Society at Dundee University, and a final year law student.

i guess she went to Thailand with a plan in her mind, she would gain the experience, make a difference to some ones life, enjoy herself and come back refreshed for her final year, get her qualifications and probably gain more experience in her field as well as other plans, death was not on the plan, it's not on any of our plans, we dont really think about it.

she went white water rafting, she was with four others when it capsized in rough water. The others quickly swam to safety but Shenaz failed to reappear. Her lifejacket was seen floating on the surface just seconds later, she was'nt found until more than a week later where her body was found trapped under some rocks.

her death has really shook many people, she was 22 and the last thing on anyones mind is death, its a reminder and a wake up call to all of us, are we ready?

i pray that shanaz kapoor is amongst the people of paradise, i pray that Allah swt accepts her efforts. oh Allah swt grant patience to her family, allow them to be strong in this testing time, make it easy on them.

sister shanaz you are an example to us all, a reminder for us all, to Allah we belong and to him we return....

Day 2- Essaouira...

woke up early cause we where supposed to set of something like 7:30am which some people weren't happy about cause they wanted to sleep, but I had already announced it the night before that we where leaving bright and early so to make sure that every one gets an early night or you could sleep on the coach, 2 hours was more than enough for sleeping.

we were going to a fishing village called Essaouira it's one of Morocco's main fishing ports but before reaching there we stopped off at what appeared to be a house, it was basically a cottage industry set up by UNESCO for the local woman who where in need of a job but weren't able to find one, so they set up an argon factory of some sort, where they produce oil, soaps, creams, it's a brilliant idea, it means that these ladies can have a weekly income and support there family.

the oil is delicious and healthy and can only be found in southern morocco but the way its planted is amazing, if we had come around September we would have seen argon trees filled to the branch with goats, seriously here's what it would have looked like...

The trunk of the argon is often twisted and gnarled, allowing goats to clamber along its branches and feed on the leaves and fruit. The fruit itself has a green, fleshy exterior like an olive, but larger and rounder. Inside, there is a nut with an extremely hard shell, which in turn contains one, two or three almond-shaped kernels.
When the goats eat the fruit, the fleshy part is digested but the nut remains and when the goat empties its stomach the nut is found, so yep argon oil with a hint of goat pooh, mmmm delicious.

The production of argon oil, which is still done by traditional methods, is a lengthy process. Each nut has to be cracked open to remove the kernels, and it is said that producing one liter of oil takes 20 hours' work.
argon oil is slightly darker than olive oil, with a reddish tinge. It can be used for cooking and is claimed to have various medicinal properties, such as lowering cholesterol levels, stimulating circulation and strengthening the bodyÂ’s naturaldefensess.

here are what the ladies have to go through on a day to day basis, plenty more baskets to go through..

look at the age of some of the ladies, as old as my grandmother subhanallah...

this lady is placing the roasted seeds found in the nut and grounding them so that a paste is formed and this is used for soaps, creams etc...

we left the ladies to the chants of zaghareet, which is a noise formed by repeatedly hitting thetonguee to the sides of the mouth, mostArabb ladies do this in times of happy occasions.Wee continued our journey towards Essaouira, most people had bought creams, body scrubs, soaps, itwasn'tt every day we get to visit theoriginall 'body shops' of morocco.

we got to Essaouira withing 20 minutes and walked around for a while, first thing you notice about it is the fact that its windy anda lott of people are wearing leather coats,Ii loved the weather, second thing is the smell, fish, fish and more fish...

and crabs..

obviously where there is fish there has to be sea gulls, we where dodging themIncase they decided to drop a present onto us, 2 years ago one decided to drop its dinner all over my foot, believe me it was not a pleasant sight,Ii was so disgusted, all this goo on me, and one of my friends wasfranticlyy looking for wipes when all of a sudden aMoroccann lady out of no where comes running towards me shouting

'are you married?'

me: 'wha...what?

lady: 'Ii said are you married, (she had gotten hold of my jilbab and was shaking me when asking me this question

me: Ii was looking at her like she was an alien) uuum noI'mm not

lady: massive smile on her face, oh wow, then this is a sign, its good luck, a present from the skies, when you go home your husband will be waiting for you.

me: laughing, yeh right, sorry ladyIidon'tt believe in this stuff, but seriously what would you have said ifIi had saidIi was married, we all know thatMuslimmwomann cant marry more than one man at one time..

lady: no no, if your already then married, then it would mean that a baby would be on its way

me: laughing, ok, sure, any way nice meeting you..

so that was 2 years ago andIi stillhaven'tt married yet, but understandablyIi was trying to dodge the birds...

some more gulls surrounding this old man who was cleaning the insides of the fish...

some scenic pic of boats...

so we carried on walking and got to large, rectangular, white square called Place Prince Moulay Hassan where there where tourists sitting in a few restaurants/bars and eating lunch. The renovated recently square looked more European, it did really, reminded me more ofFrancee..

there are ramparts in Essaouira,basicallyy a large wall built round a town to protect it, but they are placed between the city and the Atlantic Ocean on a cliff coast as well.

we had to head to therestaurantt for lunch but before that we walked into a wood shop where they built every thing out of wood mainly cedar wood, smells gorgeous, Essaouira is famous for wood work and they are good at it, they havea lott ofAfricanninfluencee in there work, pretty cool,Ii bought hair clips, every timeIi put them onIi can smell the cedar..

our stomachs were rumbling so we made our way to the fishrestaurantt, nowIidon'tt eat fish,Ii cant stand the stuff soIi had steak at a fish place, and every one else had different types of aliens uumIi mean fish...

here's ookitty and blondie waiting for there fishy meal...

after the fruit salad we went for a walk and founda lott ofjewelryy shops, and girls being girls we ended spending all our time haggling over the price of beads...

shortly afterwards we had to head back to the coach, it was time to leave Essaouira and go back to Marrakech, it was nice andIi was gonna miss the cool weather although the smell of fish they can have.

we got back to the hotel andIi told every one to rest and freshen up cause by 8 every one has to be down in the lobby to meet for dinner at a traditional folkrestaurantt,unfortunatelyyIi forgot to take my camera with me soIi missed taking pic, oh well, may be 00kitty took some.

dinner was nice and entertaining, got back to the hotel and went to sleep again thanking Allah for a good day....

Cont.. Day 1 - Ourika Valley/Djamaa El Fna

so we left marrakech and headed towards the Ourika Valley which is about an hours drive from marrakech an dth drive there was really picturesque, we saw loads of fruit trees and agricultural fields and there was these really cute kids with mini baskets collecting fruits from the trees and selling them to people on the road and it amazing they all had these enormous smiles on there faces and would wave at everyone going past, could you imagine if my brother was in there place, he would be complaining about every single thing 'its too hot, its heavy, my hands hurt, I feel dizzy, I'm hungry blah blah blah'.. subhannallah these kids really deserved our money, more so than the beggars who pester you around the markets...

it was cooler than marrakech and a lot less noise as well, I was surprised to see how green it was, it really was breathtaking and you cant but help ponder over Allah's creation, purpose of life etc... That's why I truly believe that travelling really does open ones eyes and that with the right intention can be a form of worship cause when seeing such wonderous sights you cant help but say ' subhannallah, mashallah, allah akbar and be continuously reminded of Allah swt and his power and might.

Islam is an ecological religion that respects nature and living forms that are God's Creation, we gotta be conscious as to what's happening to the earth, we gotta be aware of global warming and we should do all we can to prevent it from getting worse, earth is not ours to destroy and neglect we have to look after it...

this is a view from the restraunt where we ate lunch imagine waking up to this view...

after lunch we came down to the stream and dipped our feet into the running stream, so refreshing, I got the chance to wash my feet, basically wearing sandal's in a hot country where dust seems to be every were does not do wonder to my feet,

after the splashing and trying to skid the pebbles on the water and failing miserably we made our way back to the coach to go back to marrakech, most people slept during the hour back to the hotel, every so often you would catch some one trying to take photos of others whilst sleeping which is why I always sleep with my scarf covering my face, I don't want no one to black mail me with photos of my mouth wide open and saliva dribbling down my chin, hmmm not a nice sight.

so anyway we get to the hotel and freshen up and what have you and then meet in the lobby to be taken to the famous Djamaa El Fna which was proclaimed "masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity" by UNESCO. Here you can find story tellers, snake charmers, acrobats, dancers and sellers, you can drink some freshly made orange juice, have your hands decorated with henna ornaments, I had seen it 2 years ago and wondered whether it had changed or whether it was still the same, I kinda warned the group that they where gonna see weird stuff but I they still didn't expect what they saw, very weird place you gotta see it to understand, I managed to pose with a monkey and snake, my dad being his usual self bless him , when he saw the pic said 'which one is white African and which one is the monkey?'...

the snakes where kinda drugged outa there minds poor things..

it wasn't really nice to be honest, it was actually really sad that these poor animals are used for money purposes, and they are not treated well at all, put into extremely small cages, and pulled at and chained and all sorts, like I said the snakes where drugged so as not to harm anyone, there where other animals like hedgehogs and turtles. lizards etc...

it really is a weird square filled with weird people. At one point there was a massive circle of people and curiosity got hold of me, so I wnet over ans squeezed myslef through the crowds, I have to say the majority of the people where men and I knew why as soon as I saw the sight infront of me which was a man dressed up as a belly dancer he even had a noqab thing over his face and his eyes where done up the eye make up and he knew how to shake and every one was watching him and enjoying it (eugh I shudder every time) I quickly escaped.

there are a lot of fortune tellers, and black magic stalls and stalls that remove black magic etc... Its a big business over there in Morocco here's a typical stall...

its very common to see hanging snake skin, fox fur, dried lizard etc...

it was really funny to watch the groups reaction to all this, it was a very quite coach ride on the way back, every one was still in shock as to what they saw lol...

the first day was over and again I went to bed that night thanking Allah for the success of the first day and praying that the second would run as smoothly....

morocco day 1

sallam people, i'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack alhamdullilah and i have never been so happy to be back, talk about stress, i need a holiday from morocco and the stuff that happened from the start right up to the end of the trip, at one point i thought i was gonna be stuck in morocco for the rest of august lol but eventually we got back home safely alhamdullilah.

it was a different trip to the ones that i have been on and the group were really diverse and different, mashallah 31 people travelled all together and seriously as soon as the plane touched down at gatwick airport i let out a sigh of relief and even one of the girls travelling with us shouted out 'white african you are offically free now'

freedom, oh what an amazing feeling, not having people asking you all sorts of questions, or complaining bout all sorts of things, not having to make sure people are on the coach or awake, so yeh i'm glad to be back...

i did enjoy myslef to a certain extent, but it really wasnt a holiday for me and if it wasnt for 00kitty, blondie, and some others i would probably have gone mad, so 00kitty thanks so much for being you and for being a shoulder to cry and bang my head on, you are a star and you deserve a medal.

any way loads to blog about and post pictures and i'm sure 00kitty will do as well, bless her she really suffered in the travelling,

there where 2 groups flying out, my group where flying out from heathrow at 6.10pm all together we where 20 people, 00kittys group where flying out from gatwick at 4pm and all together they were 11 people, on my way to heathrow around 2ish, i get a call from 00kitty telling me that when they went for checking in they were informed that air marocco had double booked the seats and that there where only 1 seat left, obviously 00kitty did all she could to sort it out, and i was having a heart attack on the mini bus thinking to myself my god what to do, and every so often i would call her to get an update, the pilot didnt want to wait any longer so he decided to fly without 00kittys group, and no one would take any responsibility for the studpid mistake which meant that 00kitty was waiting all this time at the desk, i think it was like 8 hours later that a descion was made and they where to fly the next day from heathrow at 6pm which meant that they missed the first day of the tour at morocco, they did get compensation though but still it wasnt fair on them, i will let 00kitty explain it better than me as it happened to her poor thing.

mean while we arrived at marrakech airport about 9ish morocco time and made our way to the hotel, we had missed dinner so after checking in and taking luggage to the rooms and sorting out air con and the million other stuff that seem to happen, we decided to eat out, so out tour operator took us to the nearest eating place which was opposte the hotel and we had some weird sandwich which till now i have no idea what it was filled with, this is what it looks like after we had consumed what we could:

mmmmm, our first meal in morocco, lol, we had to leave kinda fast from the weirdo restraunt cause certain creatures of the night (hardly dressed woman) make an appearance and the desperate weirdos as well.

every one was really tired from travelling so we went back to the hotel and to our rooms, heres what mine looked like:

and

i went to sleep that night praying that the next day would run smoothly...

next day woke up early, got ready and went downstairs to have some breakfast, found some of the girls sat down enjoying the weather around the pool

eventually we got on to the coach, something that really kept bothering me was people's time keeping on this trip, seriously every time we would leave later than we planned because people took there time getting ready and would stroll to the coach, and most times no one would apologise for being late, very frustrating...

the paln for the day was to visit the centre of marakech which was a 10 minute drive, visiting the koutobia mosque, saadian tmbs, al bahi palace and then make our way to the eureka valleys. heres a pictureof the Koutobia minaret which is a 70 metre tall and a major landmark, that can be seen for miles away.

Dating back to the 12th Century, the minaret is the tallest in Marrakesh, topped by 4 solid gold balls. Also at the top of the tower can be seen a wooden scaffold..our guide told us that many western tourist belive that its where they hang muslim woman from which really peeved me off because i cant stand stupid people who travel to other countries and bring there stereo typical views with them, there better of staying put! any way it's real purpose is to assist the deaf...as they can't hear the call to prayer, a flag is hoisted at the appropiate times and i thought that was amazing cause islam is really considerate of all...

we took a stroll round the gardens surrounding the mosque...

we then made our way towards the saadian tombs, i managed to take some pictures of the roads..

walked past the many souvinour shops that fill the streets...

saw more minarets designed in the same style of the koutobia minaret..

we made our way to the tombs, The Saadians were an Arabian dynasty that ruled much of southern Morocco in the 16th and 17th centuries, often successfully waging war against Portuguese invaders. Marrakech was their capital. Sultan Ahmed al-Mansour created these tombs for himself, his family and ancestors. In total nearly 200 Saadians are buried here, most in the yard and the most important in the lavishly decorated halls...

some of the mosaic tiles and calligraphy..

parts of the tomb looked similar to a mosque what with all the pillars and arches..

we then had to leave and make our way to the El Bahia Palace and on the way i managed to take pic of the doors and archways of peoples homes and buildings, so many of the doors i justed wanted to take home, absouloutly gorgeous...

we got to the Bahia Palace, built in the late 19th century, is a superb example of Moroccan-Islamic architecture. The layout of the complex, with its courtyards and mazes of rooms, is typical of the style. the way leading to the entrance was lined with orange trees which apparently where not for eating but for cooking and adding a flavour to the food..

The rooms (nearly 150!), housed Ba Ahmed , his 4 wives and 24 concubines plus servants and guards. The Palace follows the patterns of typical Islamic architecture, with central courtyards, having rooms leading off, with doorways that are placed so that you can't see beyond (providing privacy) Fountains and gardens are also typical features, along with the decorative stucco panels, tiled floors, i was fascinated by the arches so i kept taking pictures of the entrances and doorways..

Each room have ist own incredible work in arcs, ceiling, walls and floors

the ceiling is so detailed...

and the fountains in the middle of the palace..

oh to have a house with an open courtyard in the centre...

one of the girls was saying that she could have her wedding in this big open courtyard, decorate it and make it look amazing, us girls are so funny, always planning weddings and what not...

i cant resist putting up another picture of arches...

we left the palace and on the way back to the coach i found this really cool spice stall..

i loved the way they put the cinnamon together, i have to say cinnamon is my fav spice, you can put it on both savoury and sweet stuff, something new i tried in morocco is cinnamon and icing sugar on banans and oranges mmmmm..

on the way to the coach i came across this graffiti which had me laughing for like half the day..

it basiclly says 'no urinating' i have never seen a sign or graffitti like that before, i just thought it was hilarious.

just round the cornor i spotted a minature begger, she was tiny, hardly there, it was really sad, every where we went they seemed to pop out of every where and anywhere, and it was hard to tell the difference between the genuine and the liar...

i ask allah swt to never put us in a situation where we have to beg to live, i'm reminded by an advice that the prophet pbuh gave which is to read surah waqi3a every night and inshallah that will protect us from poverty.

i think i have blogged enough for today, inshallah i will blog about the rest of day which involves the eureka valleys