Atlas shrugged

There was no heating. But I’m probably getting ahead of myself.

My wife likes to encourage us to eat organic, try vegan/vegetarian cafes when we see them and visit the occasional Eco retreat, which is my fault really because I took her to one for our first new years eve together. My mother, bless her heart, tells me that if you’re not going to say something nice you shouldn’t say anything at all.

I listen to my wife but rarely my mother…

To be fair, the things that sucked about dar tassa were pretty minor and wouldn’t have even got our attention if it was an $8 hostel… But it was $200 a night so I get to vent. So quickly, in no particular order here are the lowlights:

1. Dinner was supposed to be included in the price, but they claimed it wasn’t and then argued with us when we showed them exactly where on their website it said that dinner was included.
2. Our charter taxi arranged by dar tassa never rocked up and we had to make our own way there. This is harder than it sounds when no one knows where it is and it’s accessed via a dirt road no one wants to drive down.
3. They were supposed to have internet and credit card facilities, plus hot water, a bath and heating… They had none of these things. I mean they had solar hot water but we all know how much that sucks.
4. We ordered a total of three hot meals while there.. They took 2 hours each to prepare and 2 of them came out of the kitchen cold.
5. They had nothing to drink except bottled water.

Having said all of that the staff were super friendly and very nice, and this was the view from the roof terrace:

And then later in the day:

So yeah, definitely worth the visit. Not convinced? Here’s the views from our room, which was beautifully finished in a traditional Moroccan polished plaster that I am now in love with.

We spent news years eve here and it was beautiful, but the lack of internet meant we had to roll the dice on our accommodation when we got back to Marrakesh. We tried a riad from the lonely planet but a trustworthy guy standing outside told us it was full, as were most of the other riads in the city due to it being both new years day and a Muslim holiday. Luckily his cousin had a riad just around the corner!

We said thanks but no thanks and walked past him into the riad…

I thought he was very dedicated to his scam but it turns out he was actually just the owner…the riad was actually full and he ended up calling his cousin for us. The cousin walked us down the very crowded street, but then turned off…

Into this less crowded street, where we were still feeling OK, until..

We turned into this street where I was sure we’d get stabbed, until…

I saw this sign for a VERY expensive hotel I had seen online and knew we couldn’t afford ($300 per night min), at which point I thought we’d got a sweet Arabic version of last minute dot com, until…

he took us through this door, where I was sure his gang of thugs was waiting inside…

This lovely private apartment we had to ourselves, which had a nice warm heater and great hot water. Granted, I booby trapped and barricaded the whole place and wasn’t entirely comfortable until we’d survived the night, but in retrospect, a fantastic location and authentic Moroccan accommodation experience.