Katfish Kapers: Looking for rabbits in Rabat and other Moroccan oddities

Morocco is a word that translates to "glorious chaos". If you read my post from December 2014 you'll understand what I mean. It's just plain different from anyplace you can visit in the US. It isn't that far from the Middle East, however, it has one main difference - it's safe. You may stick out like a sore thumb ( I look as stupid in a Keffiyeh as I do in a cowboy hat) but you're in no danger.

Not me!

I did grow the beard though.

Still couldn't fit in - too white

Took a minibus tour from Casablanca to the capital of Rabat. If you ever do this, I recommend either Valium or a good book. Anything to keep you from looking out the windshield.

difficult to capture on the fly, but that's a donkey pulled cart

I was in Morocco just after the Paris terrorists attacks. This roadside checkpoint was really not unwelcome.

Doubt a terrorist would be dumb enough to get caught by this trap, but who knows? I really think it's just window dressing for the populous. I also noticed that every single bridge over the highway had either a cop or a soldier in place (and visible).

No chief, I still don't see any damn terrorists.

I love Tuk Tuks

Morocco is "a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament". What does that mean? It means, don't screw with the king (although, to be fair, he has recently abdicated much of his power to the legislature).

This is King Mohammed VI (not to be confused with 'enery the VIII, I am I am - for those of you who remember Herman Hermits)

We took a tour of the royal grounds and it was interesting to listen to our guide talk about the current king. He was described with genuine affection (even when he was out of earshot of the armed guards). Mohammed the 6th is nobody's fool. He holds a PhD in law (earned from a French university in 1993) He's also fluent in Arabic, Spanish, English, and French. He ascended to the throne upon the death of his father Hassan II in 1999. It made me wonder how he is Mohammed the 6th when daddy was Hassan the 2nd (turns out granddaddy was Mohammed the V). Either way, he has become quite beloved. When you drive through the country (OK, when you ride on a minibus through the country - there's no way in hell I would attempt to drive on Moroccan streets) you will see an endless sea of tower cranes. Mile after mile of construction of apartment buildings. Mohammed is pouring huge bucks into the infrastructure.

Have you ever seen so many satellite dishes in your life?

Shot of shanty town taken from a moving bus, even the really poor have satellite dishes (not easily seen from this crummy photo)

Unlike dear ole dad:

from the Nationaal Archief

Hassan II had a pretty poor human rights record and (according to our guide) had lots of wives and even more concubines spread throughout the country. He managed to survive two assassination attempts. One attempt was engineered by his Defense Minister (who was later found dead of "suicide" - even though his body was riddled with multiple gunshots - apparently Moroccan CSI was not up to western standards). Unlike daddy, Mohammed 6 has only one wife AND (will wonders never cease?) she has been seen on TV, by his side, on several occasions.

Princess Lalla Salma - makes you wonder, what the hell do you have to do to become QUEEN Lalla Salma?

So where does all the money come from? Morocco is not an oil producer. It comes from agriculture, tourism, and phosphate (3rd largest producer in the world). Oh yeah, and drugs. Lots of drugs (according to a cab driver I spoke with). It's estimated that 80% of the European supply of hash comes from Morocco. It's also the European distribution point for Colombian cocaine (sort of like the Mexico of Europe).

60,000 pounds of hash drug bust (picture from the web obviously). Notice how none of the cops are wearing gloves or respirators? Sometimes serving the community has it's benefits.

The palace grounds aren't all that spectacular and I didn't take many shots.

OK, the horsie isn't actually at the palace grounds, but it looks cool (it's really at one of the nearby royal gardens)

They change the horsies every 90 minutes

Entrance to the main palace chambers

Guy in white "I am here on official royal business" Guy in red "Dude, you're wearing yellow slippers"

Not the royal cat

Neither is this one

Long running discussion about which branch has the coolest uniform.

Also got a tour of one (of the many) nearby gardens (Chella). This one had a couple surprises and I was glad I went.

Oh noooooo, more bloody ruins (Roman probably 2,000+ years old)

Kill me, if I wanted to see brick basements I could have stayed in Boston.

Here's the surprise (something for a zoologist):

Lemme see how long YOU can stand on one leg funnyman

"I'm tellin' ya Mabel, quit bitchin' at me. This chimney hasn't been used in centuries. The eggs will be fine."

These are, of course, storks. In the past, they used to do the long migration to nest on top of chimneys in Germany. Some still do, however, most of them now don't bother (nothing like nesting in the tourist gardens to ensure you get a free supply of food). In Arabic, the storks are called "Clack-Clacks". The best way to understand this is to click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4bAWNe-fMY
It's really weird to see and hear them do it (it's part of pair bonding behavior). The clacking is quite loud, you can hear them clacking away all over the gardens. One of the guests, at first thought it was flamenco dancers practicing (until I reminded her we weren't in Spain yet).

The water system (left over from the good ole Roman engineers) still works just fine. At the bottom of the spring run is a curious sight.

I didn't have time to get the perfect shot, but if you look closely at this photo of the pond you'll see an eel. Why they stocked the pond with eels is beyond me.

Back to Casablanca. Next we got a tour of the beautiful new Hassan II Mosque.

(Foggy day for photography, plus I slipped and had to Photoshop the image back to level. I could have cropped it, but it's funnier this way)

The mosque stands on a promontory sticking out into the Atlantic. Being a Southern California boy, the first thing I noticed was the nice single overhead surf running.

Not a single surfer out taking advantage of it.

The mosque was completed in 1993 and is the third largest mosque in the world - according to our proud guide (7th largest according to Wikipedia) .

Either way, it's pretty big (660' by 330'). The minaret tower is 68 stories tall.

The top contains a laser that shines towards Mecca at night.

Ironically, it was designed and built (at a cost of $600,000,000 +) by the French. The walls are made of hand-crafted marble. It took 6,000 skilled craftsmen 5 years to complete the interior. They did a damn good job.

This main hall can accommodate 25,000 pairs of knees.

The roof retracts - good thing because I noticed the mosque isn't air-conditioned.

Well done intricate marble tile work

If you look very very carefully you can see a speaker system integrated into the column.

Ceiling

Looking up a column

The glass you see in the floor normally has 2" of water running over it. It looks down into the ablution room (washroom).

Part of Islamic tradition of worship includes the need for ritual washing before praying. Washing up 25,000 Muslims takes a really big bathroom:

To be completely honest - this place somehow gave me the creeps. Notice how there are no soap dispensers or towels? The pre-washing ritual involves water only. Surprisingly, our guide for this area was a woman (she seemed slightly ill-at-ease if you ask me).

Water bubbles out of the middle and runs down all sides.

The marble craftsmanship is exquisite

The doors to the mosque are interesting (and big):

Since the mosque is next to the ocean, the doors are made out of titanium and bronze. Should last a few centuries.

The whole thing retracts into the floor.

No trip to Casablanca would be complete without taking a ride over to Rick's Cafe

Original theatrical release poster for the film Casablanca (1942).

"Principal Cast in Casablanca Trailer crop" by Trailer screenshot - Casablanca trailer. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons -

The problem is, you're in the wrong part of the world. The movie was shot entirely at Warner Brothers studio in Burbank, California. And, there was never a real Rick's cafe in Casablanca in the first place.

There is now.

"Rick's Café in 2011" by Lars Curfs. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 nl via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rick%27s_Caf%C3%A9_in_2011.JPG#/media/File:Rick%27s_Caf%C3%A9_in_2011.JPG

This Ricks cafe was built in 2004. I didn't bother going, but those that did said it was well done, yet very expensive.

Tangiers revisited a year later.

Last year this movie was playing:

Now in 2015 we have:

In the boat yard last year we had this project underway:

I guess you can say they've made progress in the last year:

To be perfectly honest, it's not the same fishing boat. The colors look neat though.

I'll end this posting with some various shots.

This is the famous Hotel Continental - tremendous amount of history

I entered this photo in the ship's photo contest. While it didn't win (my winning shots will be in future posts) it did blow away a couple of professional photographers on board.