11/9/08

Casablanca, Morocco

BOARDING TRAIN AT MARRAKECH STATION

It's very early in the morning and we took a short taxi ride to the Marrakech train station - gleaming as it is even at this hour of the day. To our horror, the taxi driver charged us 70 dirhams beyond the 30 we would have paid him. Arguing with the man was futile - we have a train to catch and we're short on Moroccan Arabic. He finally lowered it to 50 dirhams and off we went in a huff - a really bad start so early in the day.

FIRST CLASS SEATS

We bought our first class tickets last night, an upgrade from our 2nd class misery on the inbound journey. This is the first trip of the day and thankfully, the train left the station on time. Two other guys join us in our compartment and before I knew it, I was the only one still awake. Casablanca is three hours and a half away.


EARLY MORNING VIEW

At Casablanca's Casa Voyageur Station, we found ourselves waiting for a delayed connecting train. It's 9 am, travel to the airport takes about half an hour and our Madrid-bound flight leaves at 12 pm. I was fidgety while Mel kept his cool. Train announcements were in Arabic and French. Our train finally arrives 20 minutes late. OK, we'll make it to the airport in time, mafi mushkila.

CASA VOYAGEURS STATION

The train pulled into the airport terminal and we got ourselves into a security bottleneck right away - all bags have to go through x-ray checks, passenger or not. This measure is similar to the airport in Manila: you go through security checks even before the check-in counters. I really don't mind the extra precaution. I just wished there's a faster way of doing it.

Lucky me, despite the extra weight due to souvenir stuff I bought, my Eagle Creek backpack astonishingly still went with me as a carry-on. I guess I fooled the agent at the airline check-in counter. Iberia, here we come!

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:30:00 PM

    dishonest taxi drivers? they're everywhere. just keep your cool.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9:07:00 PM

    Dennis,
    I wish I have the luxury of time to travel like you! I really admire all the pictures you have. Until then!
    Ron

    ReplyDelete
  3. As I told you before, maybe one of these days I can be part of your travel. How I wish I can do all your travel now. You definitely have the talent to share with us the adventure and drama of your travels.

    ReplyDelete
  4. As I told you before, maybe one of these days I can be part of your travel. How I wish I can do all your travel now. You definitely have the talent to share with us the adventure and drama of your travels.

    ReplyDelete

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