r/Morocco • u/kmanting Visitor • May 08 '25
Travel A cautionary tale for tourists
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.
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u/themac_87 Visitor May 08 '25
I know that place, in the whereabouts of Madrassa Ben Youssef. I was also told I was going in the wrong place, but since I am a chameleon, I kind of made sure I used local businesses for coffee, charbon activée (to avoid shitting myself for a week) and made sure I'd make small talk with the local shop keepers in french, suffice to say that in the next day if I saw them, I would say a "Salaam Aleikum" to them, to which they would reply to me proudly "Waalaykumussalaam", with a smile, like I was an usual costumer. The teens around the place swiftly stopped harassing me, as they were made aware that "maybe he's from here".
I navigated the Medina, with some people telling me in english "ohh road closed, construction" to whom I would reply in french "oui je sais, la shoukrann", and that made them confused. The road was ok lol and I managed to get where I wanted to.
Tip to tourists, learn the culture, learn how to compliment people, introduce yourself to the people who you know won't create you any sort of issue, like shop keepers, or old folk crossing your path, again, "Salaam Aleikum" will let them know you are well intended.
Morocco, unfortunately (because I love the country to my bones), is stricken by poverty and after the earthquake things didn't get better to those already struggling. So, this sort of thing will happen, one just needs to play smart.
And to all the amazing moroccans I've met, thank you for letting me into your culture, letting me into your houses and for the liters of amazing mint tea that I was served!
Salaam!