ASILAH, MOROCCO

The next day I was going on the 9:00 a.m. train to Asilah, which is a small Atlantic coast beach town popular with Europeans in the summer, but dead in the winter. This was Abi’s suggestion for my last stop and I thought it sounded much better than one last day in Fez or going to Tangier itself. It would also mean I could get to Tangier the next morning and make it all the way to Granada, Spain in one easy day. I got on the train on time and my first class cabin was empty except for me and another guy. A while later the other guy got off and I was alone, but it turned out I should have gotten off there too. According to my official schedule, there was to be a 90-minute stop in the hub city of Sidi Kasem, but no change of trains. I was reading and I was sure I would notice the stop and was planning on just staying on the train. Two long stops in the wrong direction from where I wanted to go I finally figured it out and got off. To make a long story short, I took the next train to Sidi Kasem, but had to wait there for almost 3 hours for the next Asilah-bound train.

Sidi Kasem was where I had met Abi (Abdellatif) the first time and I’ll be damned if I didn’t see him there again. He was accompanying his young nephew to Tangier on his way to Spain. He saw me first at the station and the three of us got in the same first class car toward Tangier (Asilah is about one hour before you get to Tangier). His twenty-year-old nephew was going back to school in Spain after a family visit and talked about girls and sex nonstop, just like most 20-year-olds do. He was nice, but that got old pretty quickly and Abi had already just zoned out while his nephew talked my head off. After about an hour the kid went to find a specific black woman on the train that he said he was in love with. After he found her back in second class he came to get smooth talking Abi to help him speak to her. They both left the compartment and I never saw either of them again after that. The train got to Asilah and it stopped near the town, but not in a station. Another guy standing near the door told me that it wasn’t the station, but I could get off there if I wanted to walk into the city from there. Just as I jumped down onto the sloping rocks the train started to move again, but I had landed safely. It looked like the train stopped a few hundred meters further along, but I was already hiking into town, about a mile away.

Just before I got to the main part of the city a friendly English-speaking local guy came up to me and asked if I needed a hotel room. I told him I was going to a place already and he told me that place was closed for the season. I didn’t believe him and kept walking and he kept walking next to me. We got to my hotel and it was, in fact, closed for the season. It was supposed to be quite nice and only $25 per night, but the Lonely Planet guide also recommended another place right next door that was cheaper. I went in and rented a room there for about $9 with the bathroom and shower down the hall. It was a nice enough place, but in reality it was about the size and look of a skid row hotel, however it was in the middle of the new city and right across the street from the entrance to the Medina.

When I came back down to find the bus station for the next day my volunteer guide was waiting for me. He showed me the bus station and gave me a short city tour. I told him I didn’t need a guide, but he said he was just being friendly and practicing his English (this was BS as he already spoke very well). He said if I wanted to I could buy him a couple of beers. This sounded okay and he was nice, but when we got to the liquor store below my hotel he said he preferred whiskey that he could get at another place so he would just like the cash. He said whiskey costs 50 Dh and I gave him 25 Dh and wished him luck getting the rest. It was worth it to me for a short city tour, but these guys are pretty relentless with tourists.

The town was dead, but that was nice. It looks like it’s a very nice beach town for summer, but it was only about 60 during the day and maybe 40 at night so obviously it was not beach weather. I am pretty sure I was the only guest at the hotel and I went to a brightly lit restaurant down the street where I was the only customer for 30 minutes until a family came in to eat. The food was actually very good and so cheap that I ordered two entrees and ate the main part of each. The bill was only around $7 even with that and the service was very good.

I went to the liquor store to buy a couple of beers to drink on the balcony in front of my room and the guys in there (as always) asked where I was from. The owner-type guy laughed and said “Bush is crazy, Bush is crazy” after I said I was from the U.S. but he wasn’t threatening or angry at all, I think he just liked to say ‘Bush is Crazy.’ The next morning he saw me on my way to get coffee and he called me “Los Angeles”, the same as he called me the night before.

I woke up early the next morning and toured the empty Medina and took a few snap shots, then went to get breakfast and coffee up the street. Everyone in the town, including the guide and the Bush is Crazy guy were extremely nice and I felt very welcome. I didn’t really do much or spend much time there, but I am very glad I stopped there as it helped reinforce my first impression of Morocco from Rabat. The people seem bizarrely nice to tourists and foreigners and that felt great when I finally realized most of them were genuine and not just after my money.

I took a local bus at 10 a.m. the next morning that arrived in Tangier and hour later. I bargained a cab ride down from 30 Dh to 22 Dh to the port and got there in plenty of time for the 12:30 boat to Tarifa. I was planning on going to Algeciras since that is where you get a train or bus to Granada anyway, but the woman at the boat company said it was best to go on the boat to Tarifa and take their free bus to Algeciras that would be waiting. When the boat pulled into its slot I noticed it was the same Scandinavian crew and ship from 6 days earlier. The boat left almost on time and before I knew it I was back in Europe.