Monday, March 26, 2012

Day 261 : Exploring Marrakesh

Explorer BusWith only 2 full days to explore Marrakesh, I decided to check out the explorer bus, which goes on both an “Oasis” route as well as a “Historic” Route, while allowing you to hop on and off at numerous fixed stops. 

On the Explorer BusI paid 145 Dirhams for a 24hr pass and was given a set of earphones which can be plugged into a audio console on each seat, providing various language options to listen to the tour narrative as well as description of the key highlights along the route.  Most of the seats on the Explorer Bus were located on the open air upper deck, and with the blazing Moroccan sun and a burning 38 degree celsius, I was very hot!

Camels in OasisThe route went through some really pleasant views of the city (new city) and I understood why one of the routes was called “Oasis”, as it was just as the name described, and where some really beautiful hotels and a golf course was also located.  The new city was filled with more modern buildings and shopping malls along with a couple of interesting stops such as Jardin de la Menara.

Royal Theatre in New CityJardin de la Menara

For the historic route, it passed through some historic buildings including the infamous Menara and entrance of Royal Palace.  The entire route including the hop on and off and venturing out to some of the sights at each stop took me a good part of the entire day, that by the time I got back to Place Jema el Fna, it was close to evening. 

DenturesThe orange juice and dried fruit carts were all lined up and it was too tempting to resist a good refreshing glass of orange juice after the long day.  There was even a dentist who had a “store” on the main street, with loads of dentures on the table!  Something which I never imagine to be so public.

While on the way back to the hostel, I came across an old theatre house called Cinema Eden, which was still using the old film technology for screening movies and even got a personal tour of the cinema film room.  You don’t get to see many of such places around anymore, how nostalgic!

Cinema EdenMovie postersFilm spoolCinema film room

No comments:

Post a Comment

Day 169 - 170 : Flight back to Singapore

I left Stefano's house at 7.45am to catch the 8.07am train to the airport, which later required switching to an airport shuttle from T2 ...