Buying a carpet in Tinerhir

I took a private company bus. It was cheap, but a baby was crying, and a boy next to me vomited, it was terrible. There were two bus companies, private and CTM (state management company). CTM was expensive and used good buses. After leaving Ouarzazate, the bus ran on a road its surface was not hard for a while. It shook passengers and luggage on a rooftop. I worried that the luggage would drop down. It took 30DH from Ouarzazate to Tinerhir.

Leaving Ouarzazate, the bus was going through a wide plain, where no plants, only stones, it was all brown color I saw. If I would have been left here alone, I would become the sand of the Sahara.

Suddenly, the bus stopped on the plane. I got off the bus with other tourists. Well, well, a man from the bus company got under the bus, and he was repairing something.

I found a French girl on the same bus and said hello.
“Bonjour, tourist?”
“Yes, tourist. Where do you come from?”
“Tokyo, Japan. What happened?”
“I don’t know. It’s broken. We have to walk from here.” (laugh)

Some Moroccans joined.
“Hey, Japanese, Welcome. Where are you going?”
“Today, I go Tinerhir. Then, Erfoud, Fez, Meknes.”
“Ah, Meknes is good place. Do you know Yokohama?”
“Yes, near Tokyo.”
“I have a girlfriend in Yokohama”
The French girl said,
“A girlfriend, you have girlfriends all over the world. Do you have a girlfriend in Morocco?”
“No.”
“Hey, Where did you come to Morocco?”
“Tokyo.”
“Directly from Tokyo?”
“Ah, from Paris. I came from Paris to Ouarzazate.”

While we were chatting, the bus had been repaired, and we could go.

After that, I talked to a Berber man who sat next to me on the bus. He showed me a budget hotel in Tinerhir. It’s 30DH. In Tinerhir, I had a cup of mint tea with him, and I asked him how to go to Todra gorge. I was hungry and said so, and he said, “Come to my house, You can eat Tajine.” Tajine was a famous cuisine of Morocco. Then I went to his house.

On the way to his home, we went to a Berber drug store, and they let me see and smell their various spices and drugs, such as saffron and some drug to treat a blocked nose.

At his home, I met his brothers and sisters. When I was drinking tea, his sister asked me to see a carpet. Ah, ha, that’s why they had invited me. I saw a carpet and she explained about it.

There are two kinds of carpets. One is weaved by once, which uses silk to weave a pattern not so much. Another is weaved twice, twice means that they weave the background with wool at first, and stitch patterns with silk next time. Weaving once takes 3 weeks to complete, and weaving twice takes 2 months to complete. When I went to Turkey before, I didn’t buy a carpet. But I had wanted a carpet at that time. I had seen a wonderful carpet, I had wanted it very much. I asked for a price, it was 3950 DH. It was too expensive.

Tajine had cooked, and we all had it. It’s delicious. I had tajine, oranges, and tea. They talked about carpets again. I said if 2000 DH then I would buy it. But, it seemed a nonsense price for them. They said 3350DH, it’s too expensive. 3200DH, they discounted. I said, “How about 2500DH?” They looked like it was not happy. I said 2600 DH, and they said 3000 DH.

I was talking about prices with my elder sister. A man who was translating said to me, “Between two prices, 2800 DH is reasonable.” and “Do you have some Japanese goods? If you give us two T-shirts, 2600DH is OK”. So, I gave them three T-shirts and a towel, and we agree the final price was 2500 DH. Eventually, I bought it. I didn’t know a reasonable price, so I had to judge a price whether I could satisfy it or not. Anyway, it was a very very great carpet.

I had a bitter smile because they said It was OK to pay by credit card. Their uncle had his business about golds, and he could handle a credit card, they said. I wanted to pay by cash because I felt using a credit card was unsafe. I didn’t have so much Dirham, so I said to them I wanted to pay in Japanese yen. They had a table of the currency exchange rates. It’s the exactly same as the one I saw at the bank at the airport.

I wanted to buy a djellaba. The djellaba is a long, loosely fitting hooded outer robe with full sleeves. I said so to him, and he said, “tonight, my mother came home and we can show you”. At night, I went to his home again, but he said, “my mother is not here. so come tomorrow”.

On that night, there was a power outage in the whole village. I remembered that a guidebook described you had to a small light, because in a desert area, often power outages happened. I walked around the village, somebody was selling a small light, but I felt it was stupid to buy a light while a power outage. At a hotel, they prepared candles. After a while, a power came. They said power came within two or three hours, and they were right.

Oh, I have to say I saw very beautiful stars while a power outage. I had never seen such a brilliant Orion.

In the morning, I had breakfast at my Berber friend’s home. I would try to go to the Todra gorge. I tried to go there by taxi, but there were not enough people to go to Todra gorge. A taxi needed 4,5 people to go to Todra. While I was walking around there, I found a French tourist at a bus stop, he was waiting for a bus toward Erfoud. He said the bus would come at twelve. I would have gone to Erfoud rather than Todra. I went to an open space for a taxi, and I asked the guys “Is there a taxi to go to Todra?”. Some guy said, “I will find a car, come with me”. He said his friend would take me to Todra.

I met his friend and get in a car. His friend got off a car on the way, and a driver took me to Todra gorge. At Todra Gorge, he said, “30 DH!”. Hmm, it’s not free. It was expensive, but he said that a taxi driver got 5DH from six-person, so I had to pay 30DH. I made him discount 5DH. In Japan, a taxi costs much more, so 30DH (420 yen) was not so expensive.

Todra gorge was a wonderful place. I liked it there rather than Aït Benhaddou. In the hot Summer, you would feel a flow of a river was comfortable. At that time, it was too cold to touch the water. There were very high walls on both sides of the gorge. They were almost vertical and their height was 160m. Some groups of rock climbers were rock climbing at the walls. The gorge was very quiet. People’s voices sounded in the gorge. The walls were very impressive. I walked along the river. Passing some point, there was no water in the river. I wondered where water come from, and looked for it. Eventually, I found a spring. Todra gorge was worth coming.

When I got off the car, I asked the driver how could I back to the village. He said something by pointing at ‘3’ on his watch. So I guessed he would pick me up at 3 o’clock. I walked around there and rested at a cafe to wait until 3 o’clock. It was 3 o’clock but no car came. I decided to walk to the village. If I would be tired, I could hitchhike.

On the way, kids were calling me. “Bonjour” was better, “Japonais?”, “Chinois?”, “Jackie Chan”, “Karate”, etc. When I rested, kids come to me and talk something.

“!”#$%&'”
“What?”
”#$%&%$$$$$%&!””
”Wakannai (I don’t understand)”
“Wa-ka-na-i”(hahahaha)
“Baka! (Fool!)”
“Ba-ka”(hahahaha)
“What?”
“!”#$%&”
“What do you say?”

I ran away from them, and they threw stones at me. Not only them, but on the way to the village, other kids also threw stones at me when I ignored them. They were annoying because of said “Japonais, Japonais”, “Chinois, Chinois”, and “Jackie Chan” to me. How have they been educated in a manner? Once, they said, “Karate, Karate, Jackie Chan”, so I gave an imitation pose of Karate, and they were afraid and said, “No, No, No” and ran away. Ha, ha, ha.

The kids were very annoying on the way to the village. What do they think of foreign tourists? They were rude. They pulled the corner of their eyes outside to narrow their eyes and made fun.

It’s 15km from Todra gorge to Tinerhir. It took 10 minutes to go 1km, I walked downhill. It’s far. I found young guys were making fire, I join them to warm my body. They enjoyed it when I said hello in Arabic and Berber. They taught me how to call various things in Arabic, Berber, and French.

I taught them how to call the same one in Japanese and English. I didn’t remember and I wanted to stop it, but they were enjoying it, so I spent time on it.

I had to hurry, or the sun would set before I reached Tinerhir. I was tired because of walking 10km. I don’t care kids, couldn’t say hello. At 1km before the village, I was very tired. It was almost dark. Eventually, I walked to the village.

When I came to the hotel, the guys were having a soup called “Harira”. I pointed it and said “Give me that”, I had two bowls of Harira and a cup of café au lait. I backed to my room and slept soon.