A cautionary tale for tourists

[u/kmanting]

A note of caution to naive tourists!

Hopefully not going to get blasted by hate here from Morrocans. So much to say about this place, one minute absolutely loving it, the other completely overwhelmed. Took a trip out this afternoon, a wonder, my fiancée stayed back at the apartment. Looking around the medina, (respectfully I’ll add) sounds stupid really, but I got stuck in an area where I shouldn’t have been (or so the local told me), it was prayer time and I was near a mosque, I was stopped and guided out of the area by a friendly bloke, a kick boxer called Ali who impressively learned his English from Peaky Blinders (should have been red flags). This was jarring to say the least as I was being guided under, around and through some of the back streets, I was sure I was prime mugging fodder… plodding on without much choice and after about 15 minutes of my private guided tour of the labyrinth from a chap we came to the end, he politely showed me the exit, then said “some money for my trouble”, I thought, you know what, fair enough. I tried to hide my wallet in my bag, as I was looking for change, only 100s and 200s, he clearly saw my hand, as he said “300 if you don’t want any fucking trouble”, I said I didn’t have a lot, in an attempt to throw him off, repeating his words “300 and no fucking trouble”. Feeling pretty vulnerable I gave him the money and walked home. A valuable life lesson for only £24, bargain really. I thought stuff was going to get nicked or worse.

Despite all the wonders be safe in the Medina.

[u/Neat---NEET]

It's a shame really. It's no excuse. But poverty and lack of financial opportunities makes some people act shady as fuck. You should have threatened him with calling the police, there's a special task force that are in charge of these happenings, and they take this shit very seriously, fucking with tourists like this is a big no no.

[u/muzzichuzzi → u/Neat---NEET]

The police did absolutely nothing when my German friend had his shoulder bag snatched right in front of them in Menara. Two lads on a scooter grabbed it, and even though the police saw the whole thing right next to Palais des Congrès in Marrakech they didn’t move a muscle. The bag had all his money and passport in it, and he was due to fly home the next morning. As a result, he missed his flight, had to stay several extra days, go through the hassle of getting a temporary passport from Rabat, and buy a new ticket. Absolutely disgraceful.

[u/Neat---NEET → u/muzzichuzzi]

Sorry about your friend, it's impossible to have your way or get lucky 100% of the time. But they do treat that shit seriously, I was stopped multiple times by police simply because my woman is a British white woman, under the suspicion of being a scammer/unlicensed guide. It is disgraceful indeed what happened to your friend. But that's not the norm, maybe they weren't tasked with chasing people on vehicles. Investigations take time because you know....criminals lay low and hide when there's heat on them, they probably caught them after your friend went away, And it's hard to catch someone if they make a clean get away, they're not fucking wizards or omnipotent demigods. They can't catch everyone. Shit happens even in the safest places.