Morocco was never on my bucket list. When reserved to transport there for work, we knew a plcae and that Hollywood done a film called Casablanca, yet unequivocally did not know what to expect.

After spending 3 days during a discussion in a hotel in Rabat, a capital, we was prickly to get out. The one possibility to try had not left well, after a cab took me to what was presumably a mega-mall that incited out to be tiny some-more than a three-storey preference store. At initial we was disturbed about being scammed — there were no other Asians when we walked out on a travel and we avoided creation eye strike even with emporium owners who smiled as we passed. My English-language skills didn’t get me unequivocally far, as roughly each Moroccan speaks French as their second language, after Arabic.

Other excursions were some-more successful: we schooled to ask for poulet shawarma, receiving a image full of grilled chicken, salad, rice and uninformed pita. This was a prolonged approach from Hollywood glamour, and there no one is personification As Time Goes By in a background, yet it was an accomplishment.

On my final day we was giveaway to try and was dynamic to get to know a genuine Morocco. And there was no approach we could cruise my Morocco outing to be finish yet a revisit to Casablanca.

That would have to wait.

Armed with a map of Rabat yet perplexing not to demeanour like too most of a tourist, my initial end was a 10-minute travel from a hotel: Hassan Tower.         

Also famous as Tour Hassan, a landmark is a shaft of an deficient mosque. When building started in 1195, it was dictated to be a largest shaft in a world, and a mosque would also be a world’s largest. In 1199, Sultan Yacub al-Mansour died and construction stopped. The building was 44 metres high, a bit some-more than half a dictated tallness of 86 metres. The rest of a construction with 200 columns was abandoned.

The red walls of mill and silt outward are rhythmical by soldiers on horseback, yet there is no opening fee. Anyone can usually travel into a site. As we walked closer, we was dumbfounded by a tower. Even yet it wasn’t complete, a scale is considerable and it was a stately sight.

The Mausoleum of Mohammed V is a chronological building located on a same site and contains a tombs of a Moroccan aristocrat and his dual sons, a late King Hassan II and Prince Abdallah. Inside a tomb, there was a male singing verses from a Koran with a pleasing voice. There is someone reciting a Koran around a clock.

Leaving Hassan Tower, we followed a map downhill toward Avenue Al Marsa, where a Bou Regreg stream that flows west to a Atlantic Ocean solemnly suggested itself. The Moroccan supervision has built a pleasing place to hang out along a river, and as we walked along, we saw many immature lovers sitting together. we also sat and enjoyed a gentle morning intent while a cold sea zephyr solemnly strike my face. Staring during a calm, transparent H2O that reflected all above a aspect was a pacific experience.

Further along a opening was an extraordinary and surprising organisation of buildings situated on a hill. This was what we was looking for: a Kasbah of a Udayas.

The Kasbah, a outpost or Islamic city, was built during a power of a Almohads (1121-1269). Having broken a Kasbah of a Almoravids, a Almohads began reconstructing it in 1150, adding a residence and a mosque. It was postulated Unesco World Heritage standing in 2012.

I rushed adult from a stream to see it like a child using to a candy store. What seemed in front of me was a steer that would have been intimidating in a past — a large, light brownish-red wall to keep a enemies out. Finding a entrance, we was astounded we could get in for free.

A Moroccan male was watchful inside. “Good morning sir, where are we from?” he greeted me. we answered, yet he seemed unknowingly of Thailand. He started revelation me that a pinkish wall inside a kasbah was built from a silt of a Sahara desert. He offering to give me a debate and did not mind when we pronounced I’d cite to travel around alone. He wish me a good day and told me where to travel to and what to demeanour out for.

Walking by exuberant doors took me initial to a pleasing garden and afterwards to a coffee emporium that boasted a monumental viewpoint of a mouth of a Bou Regreg stream assembly a Atlantic Ocean.

The encampment inside was postcard perfect, with houses embellished blue and white situated on many opposite levels. Small alleys would lead to somebody’s home, and each residence we walked by would exhibit another smiling face. Some even offering Moroccan tea, that we found strange, yet we was tender by their friendliness. we couldn’t trust we trafficked median around a universe to see a same Thai-like grin in Morocco.

Across a travel from a encampment is a endorsed touristy area locals call a Medina of Rabat. It is a homogeneous of Chatuchak marketplace in Bangkok, offered all Moroccan: teacups, leather, cloth, desserts and most more.

Reaching for a stars: The Hassan II Mosque has a world’s tallest shaft during 210 metres.

Though a hotel receptionist endorsed to tighten my bag parsimonious and reason on to my camera carefully, walking around a marketplace area was hassle-free. we felt protected there and spent during slightest dual hours walking around and articulate to people. Like other traveller towns, there was something of a traveller taxation and we supposed that we competence have to compensate some-more than a locals. However, after negotiate we found some good deals we was happy with.

By this theatre it was afternoon and half a day had gone, yet my categorical design was still to see Casablanca. The unequivocally name of a country’s biggest city had an roughly fabulous peculiarity to it. we asked a male connected to a discussion about holding a train, yet he was some-more than happy to expostulate me there instead. we took him adult on a offer, as it was about an hour down a loyal highway and we should be there by 3.30pm.

The film was all shot on a Los Angeles sound stage, solely a method filmed during Van Nuys airport, yet a city has fundamentally turn related with a classical square of cinema from 1942. Rick’s Cafe usually existed on celluloid until 2004, when a distraction of a legendary solitaire corner bustling by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman was built by a former American diplomat. This was a one plcae we longed to see above all else.

As we altered closer to Casablanca, selling malls with general discerning food grill bondage started to appear. The trade thickened, and nonetheless removing to Casablanca was easy, removing around was usually as bad as Bangkok during rush hour.

My guide, who even during a start of a pleasing loyalty was gentle adequate to call me brother, endorsed we revisit a internal marketplace first. we wasn’t going to intent given he took me there for free.

After this, we asked about saying Rick’s Cafe. we was told it was too commercial, too touristy, and that there are some-more authentic locations where we can knowledge Morocco as a Moroccans do. So he took me to Starbucks. He was unapproachable of a complicated strides a city was making, a attainment of an Imax cinema and a fad surrounding Ikea. At 5pm, we headed to a beach to see a sunset. My beam told me we would adore it. He gathering me to a Hassan II Mosque, a largest in Morocco and seventh-largest in a world. Its shaft is a world’s tallest during 210 metres. It was finished in 1993.

In winter, a intent sets early. By 5.40pm, it started to penetrate into a Atlantic Ocean. The colour of a shaft altered from a splendid white to a soothing pink. The mosque itself was overwhelming from outward and, from what we could glimpse, even some-more extraordinary on a inside. we didn’t get to try inside given it was roughly time for dusk prayers and we wasn’t going to peep my camera in front of those behaving their rituals.

I incited my courtesy to a sea instead. we have to acknowledge that there is zero utterly like a nightfall during Casablanca. The sky solemnly incited orange, afterwards pinkish lingered while dark gradually crept towards a horizon, and it was one of those moments when we realised how pleasing a universe is.

On a lapse to Rabat, we suspicion of what happened during a whole trip. we didn’t design to be so dumbfounded by a culture. The design tender me enormously and we altered my whole viewpoint about Morocco and a accessible and frank people. In a space of a day, we fell in adore with a country.

GETTING THERE: Flights from Bangkok to Rabat start from 45,000 baht return.

Picturesque: There is copiousness to see in Rabat, from a Bou Regreg stream that meets a Atlantic, top, to a brightly phony houses and shops dark divided and connected by alleyways.

Unfinished: Hassan Tower, that was started in 1195 yet never completed.

Sacred site: The tombs of a late King Hassan II and Prince Abdallah.

Shoping haven: Inside a Kasbah of a Udayas in Rabat.

Kaleidoscope: Sunsets from Rabat looking over a Atlantic unequivocally are something special.

Hospitable: Many internal people offer to share some honeyed tea with visitors.

The ambience of home

After 3 days in a cooler climes of Morocco, we was longing some food to gentle me up. The internal cuisine was excellent, yet we was blank Thai food. A discerning hunt online incited adult a one and usually Thai grill in Rabat: Naga Thai Cuisine.

My end was usually half an hour’s expostulate from my hotel, so a concierge found me a cab. Five mins into a drive, a lady on a travel hailed down a car. To my surprise, a motorist stopped. They talked in a denunciation we couldn’t understand, and she hopped in.

The motorist pulpy a symbol on his meter, opening adult a second display. we hadn’t realised before, yet a cab complement in Morocco allows business to “share” rides, creation it some-more affordable for everyone. Up to 3 people can float during a same time.

After a novel cab experience, we was prepared to eat. Drawing adult during a Thai restaurant, my expectations were low. we positively wasn’t awaiting authentic Thai food. We were in a business district, surrounded by high-rises, yet a opening to a grill was by a complicated wooden door. It was like stepping into a imagination grill in Thailand; with an interior embellished out in wood, with bullion and red furnishings and vast paintings of a Buddha.

Sitting during accepting was Otmane Mekouar, who introduced himself as manager and owners of a restaurant. we told him who we was, and explained how most we was blank a ambience of home. we didn’t need to contend anything else — he knew accurately what we wanted.

Mr Mekouar systematic my plate like a local Thai, instructing a kitchen to whip me adult a pad krapao gai kai dao. It wasn’t on a menu, yet he pronounced it’s a plate his Thai prepare always cooks for himself.

We got chatting, and it incited out Mr Mekouar is some-more than usually a Moroccan businessman with a adore of Thai food. In 1998, during a age of 14, he altered to Bangkok to live with his brother, who was operative during a five-star hotel on a Chao Phraya River.

He attended high propagandize in a Sathon area, and spent a noted 8 years in Bangkok before going to Switzerland to pursue a grade during Les Roches International School of Hotel Management. He complicated there for 4 years, before returning to Bangkok for an internship. He worked in several hotels in Bangkok before his family asked him to go behind to Morocco.

“I adore all about Thailand, so we motionless to move it behind with me,” Mr Mekouar said. “I set adult Naga Thai Cuisine so that we could be in a enlightenment we adore each day.”

The grill non-stop dual years ago and was shortly busy, even during lunch time on a unchanging operative day. Mr Mekouar pronounced a grill has built a good repute among Moroccans, and members of a stately family even sequence their food from time to time.

My plate was finally served. Besides a duck with chilli and holy basil leaves, Chef Bank had prepared me a sharp grilled beef salad. Everything looked ideally Thai. we started eating a salad first. The initial punch roughly brought tears to my eyes. Not given it was too spicy, yet given we was impressed by a loyal essence of home.

Both dishes we had were illusory and authentic. we talked to a 33-year-old chef, Piyapong “Bank” Muenporn, who has been operative during a grill given it opened. The Samut Prakan local told me how he schooled to prepare from a immature age during his mother’s elementary food case behind home. He afterwards worked in veteran kitchens during several hotels in Bangkok before going to a Maldives for a year and fasten a organisation in Morocco dual years ago.

“I did skip home when we initial altered here. we roughly gave adult and went back, yet we stranded it out and am now partial of this enchanting team,” Chef Bank said.

Due to a recognition of Naga Thai Cuisine, Mr Otmane skeleton to open another bend in Casablanca, where he is from. He also wants to open tiny food stalls in Rabat and Casablanca, to uncover Moroccans how genuine Thai travel food works.

The authentic plate was not a usually cause that done my lunch so clearly Thai. What done it even some-more genuine was a Thai hospitality. we left a grill with a large Thai grin and an memorable memory.

TURNING UP THE HEAT: Otmane Mekouar, right, owners of Naga Thai Cuisine, with prepare Piyapong ‘Bank’ Muenporn.

Article source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/social-and-lifestyle/836688/you-can-play-it-for-me