MEKNES was a fail | MOROCCO Motorhome Aventure

MEKNES was a fail | MOROCCO Motorhome Aventure

Why do you think it’s… low? Sorry brother, no. Somebody maybe *** with it. – I think so. Oh my gosh! We driving right past the medina walls Hopefully this is not it. We’ve realized that we made a big mistake and we really messed up. Meknes was a fail for us.

Welcome to our channel. We’re Andre and Lisa, a married South African Italian couple, who have been traveling together for 20 years, exploring more than 50 countries. Since 2018, we’ve been full-time nomads, with our goal being to make travel a sustainable long-term way of life. For the past three years,

We’ve been winding our way around Europe with our 21-year-old motorhome, Milli. We’re starting 2024 with an exciting adventure to Morocco. And although our plans for the year might change, we’re hoping to visit Sardinia for the first time, get back to Denmark for summer, then make our way via Eastern

Europe to Greece for the winter. So hit that subscribe button and join our adventure. Ah tea! Nice. Yes, before we go. Cheers. Cheers. Bonjour. Asalaam Alaikum. And welcome to Morocco. And welcome to Camp Zerhoun. Something, something. This is a campsite just 20 kilometers north of Meknes. And it’s a lovely, lovely campsite.

We arrived here with the idea of just spending one night, and we’ve been here more than one night now. If you’re new to our channel, we’re currently traveling in Morocco. And if you haven’t seen our last video, we visited the beautiful blue city of Chefchaouen. And today we’re leaving this beautiful little peaceful,

Super peaceful campsite. Super peaceful campsite. We have to go past the supermarket to stock up on some basics. And we’re going to try and see the Medina of Meknes today. Yes, I’m very excited for that. And the reason why we’re pushing things a bit is that today’s a Thursday,

And on Fridays, things are a little bit quieter generally. Oh, this tea is burning my hands. It’s burning my hands. It’s burning my hands. It’s going to be an interesting couple of days because from Meknes, we’re going straight towards Fes. First some tea. Mint tea. Driving through these unknown foreign cities,

It’s such a.. it’s a challenge in more than one way. You have to somehow navigate the bad road, the uncertainty of how drivers will behave, and then you can’t help and want to look around because there’s so much newness around you the whole time. It can be quite intimidating for obvious reasons,

But Meknes so far actually hasn’t been that bad, although we weren’t planning on coming in on this road, hey Lisa. No, we were not. But we’re almost at the shops. Inshallah. Inshallah. Inshallah. We don’t know what Inshallah means. It’s a phrase, Arabic phrase used very widely and it loosely translates to

“if it’s God’s will” It’s got a spiritual connotation to it in a way, it doesn’t have to. Anyway, let’s get to the shop. Marjane. It’s going to be a quick stop. It’s not a shopping day. This is a.. Meknes day but, this half hour drive was hectic. Often you’ll find these Marjane.

A Marjane is actually a.. Marjane. Sorry.. Marjane. It’s a Moroccan supermarket chain. This is a hypermarket, often found clustered with a Decathlon or Electroplanet or a LC Waikiki. Now the French supermarket chain that’s the biggest, here, is the Carrefour, obviously. We’re going to pop in here quickly and get a few basics.

Lisa’s in her element. I don’t know, you brought me here. Lisa’s going to make a B-line for the pastries. I will say, first observation, actually it’s a little bit difficult to film here because so many people look at my every move, because I stand out a bit.

But a great selection everywhere on anything. You can find like, fillet cut by the butcher for you, about EUR15 a kilo, breads, vegetables. And the selection is just incredible. Yeah, no look You can buy everything by weight From macaroni, to herbs, to… All right, there you have it. Marjane experience.

Very, very nice shops these. The only thing we find a bit tricky, what we’re used to, is getting like lettuces and baby spinach. And that’s a bit tough. Fresh salads. Fresh salads. Yeah, that’s washed because we don’t really, we can’t really wash stuff in our camper.

But we’ll try maybe a big Carrefour next time. I think first observation is the local stuff is incredibly good value like herbs, spices. Olives. Most foods like dry foods are crazy cheap. Breads are incredibly cheap. Meat is incredibly cheap. And dairy stuff is a bit more expensive.

Like cheese is very, very pricey unless you go for local cheese and yogurt. But there’s a crazy variety available. So you really can find every type of French and Italian cheese. You’re just paying a massive premium for it. Very expensive. And OK, we’re going to hit the road hey?

Get the stuff packed in. The tire pressure montir just beeped. Why do you think it’s low? Sorry, brother. No. Somebody maybe **** with it? I think so. When we got here After we said no to somebody. Yeah. You never know. All in a day of van life, trying to inflate tires

Inside the Marjane parking lot while being harassed by beggars and… There’s really a lot of people hanging around here. Not sure if he’s going to make it, but we’ll get close to where we want to be. Yeah, that’s why you have tyre monitors and pumps, I guess. We’ve pulled into a service

Station here and they have got air. There’s a guy manning it and we saw the people in front of us just give him a tip. So we will do the same. And hopefully we can actually get the pressure up here to five bar. I think this is our parking. Bonjour Thank you.

For one night? No, only for a few hours. How much? 10. Perfect, thank you. What’s your name? My name is Mourad. Mourad, thank you Mourad. Our day turned out a little bit hectic, more hectic than expected, but we made it into Meknes, so this parking we’re in is actually on Park4night.

There’s a little dude here, it’s guarded parking. If you don’t stay overnight, it’s just 10 Dirham. 10 Dirham for the day, to go out and see places and I think it’s double that, it’s 20 for the night. Don’t know if he’s here the whole night though, so… But it’s actually not bad, I

Think it gets quiet here, but we’re going to take a walk down to some of these gates and just have a squirrel around. We don’t know a lot about Meknes, we know it’s one of the imperial cities of Morocco, or it used to be. In fact, in the 1600s, it

Was the capital of Morocco. Yes, in 1673. And at that point, a lot of palaces and fountains and boulevards were built, and it created what they used to call the Versailles, the Versailles. The Versailles of Morocco. The Versailles of Morocco. I tell you, just arriving, here, there’s definitely a grandeur to it.

What an experience that was driving in along these old walls and through them. Our plan was not to stay over here, and I don’t think we’re going to, so we’re only going to walk around for a few hours, hopefully get a coffee, check out the Medina, and then

We’re going to duck towards Fes. Bab El Mansour. Here we have it. This is Bab El Mansour, one of the nine gates on this walled city. There’s nine remaining gates, and unfortunately, most of the original ones are under construction or reconditioning like this one. This one’s been like this for a while.

This opens into Lahdim Square. Should we just go straight through the centre here to see if we can see something on the square. Apparently, this is a pedestrian crossing. According to me. Take your life in your own hands. No not this one. After this one No, go.

So far, we’ve only seem to find.. I don’t know Flea markety, trinkets, cheap clothes. Obviously, we haven’t found the real Medina yet. I’m not sure. Hopefully this is not it. I don’t know what this is. Rziza. Rziza This is the dangerous area. Shall we sit here?

I think it’s time for my first coffee of the day. It’s an emergency coffee. So this is a typical undercover wet market. You see the style of market everywhere in Asia, Southeast Asia as well. There’s nothing new. And obviously, Africa. It can be a bit overwhelming if you’re not used to it,

But it gives you a good indication of how people actually shop locally. Whether I’m going to buy my fresh produce from the store right next to the goat’s head, is debatable. Look at that. Oh, that’s nice. Doesn’t that look beautiful? Merci! Oh, it’s good coffee too. Here, like just smell.

They’re grilling meat, barbecuing meat. And they’ve got the breads. Oh, this is the meat that you get with the onion and everything inside the bread. I think we have to try one of these. It smells so good. this guy got some proper fire going on.

We’re not shy try to try street food in Asia but for some reason, my self-preservation mode is kicking in horribly when I walk through these little vendors chopping meat randomly. handling it… what can I say. I think you’ve been in Europe too long. Yeah, yeah. Definitely, I’m seeing your age.

Well, in all fairness. Last time I was really ill, I was in the Philippines, I was down and out for like a few days. And I definitely don’t want a repeat of that, do I? Lisa’s feeling better after her first coffee. But we’re still meandering through this Medina and

The market area is absolutely nonstop. But it’s quite… I don’t know. I find it… I mean the architecture is amazing, there’s beautiful walls and buildings, but the stalls here are a little bit tacky, some might say. But at least we’re not in the touristy part, clearly. Is this not the touristy part?

Well, I don’t know. This is not here for tourists, that’s for sure. Oh, okay, okay. So we’re walking literally for an hour. I think what feels like in a straight line and we haven’t even veered off. But it does get different the further you go from the square, I want to say.

Different, definitely. Different, but still no less intense. And if you look around you, you’re completely surrounded by these old square red stone buildings. Chaos, here. Oh, look at this leather works, here, though. We’re escaping the chaos. I think we might be out. Go, go, go. Guys are making coal,

Literally, selling coal, making coal. Selling coal. Slightly more industrial zone. Woodworkers, metalworkers, tinkerers restoring a building over here. Yeah, you have to actually remember to look up. Yeah, this is where the good stuff is actually, to look up here. Wow. I think it’s very safe to say we’ve.. we’re out of

The whatever that was and now we… In the next strange area. In whatever this is. This is the vegetable market. This is the everything market. I think we realized that in places like this… Actually, it’s right here. You can get so easily confused. What do you see there?

The gate, it’s just right there through this one. You can get so easily lost and confused. Meandering down alleys and actually miss… What you’re hoping to actually see and experience. So for these kind of places, maybe it’s worthwhile getting a local guide for a couple of hours just to show you around.

Now we’re all a bit hesitant about this thing because you’re always like, Oh, somebody’s going to take you to their cousin’s restaurant or their… Shop. Shop and they just… try to sell you things. …try to sell you things. But I think it really helps a lot in that sense.

But let’s just see what the other side of this gate is. Well, finally, Lisa took us to the right place. Yeah, we might be a little lost. We didn’t listen to the guy who told us we should go the other way. No, he told us go this way.

He said, here, go this way to the Grand Mosque. But is that a trap? Wow. Hello. Bonjour. Bonjour. Especially if you only have a few hours. I mean, we’ve been wandering around now for what, 3-4 hours maybe? And so far, it’s just confusion. Total chaos. Confusion.

Your reference point is we’ve been just now. So I’m sort of looking for something between our experience in the Blue City… Something between our experience in Chefchaouen and Ouazzane. And because they’re so compact, maybe it’s a very different experience. Everything is just so massive here.

It’s easy to just get so confused and overwhelmed. But this kind of feeling is more, I think, what we expected. And not that frantic craziness of these flea-markety vibes. And people say, “Meknes is…” Fes lite? “Fes lite.” It’s got like all the same elements in a slightly different scale without the intensity and

Pushiness that goes with it. What do I know? I haven’t been there. Maybe try and pop into the museum quickly. We are going to go into the museum. Now, we don’t go to a lot of museums, but I think this is going to be really nice to

Just get a little bit of the history of Meknes, seeing as so much is under construction. Hopefully we can learn something here. Let’s quickly look at some reviews of this museum before we go in. The Meknes Museum is a wonderful museum. It’s truly a waste of humanity. Beautiful museum. Dusty, saddest museum.

Uggliest museum. Very quiet. Very little. I don’t know. I guess it’s not really the Meknes Museum. Okay, I’m taking it back. We’re not going to the museum. We only have another hour before it gets, starting getting dark. We still want to make the drive later,

So we’re going to walk around a bit more, rather. Oh, cookies. We can’t walk away without cookies, hey? Can’t leave Meknes without any cookies. With nothing. We’ve got some sweets, and we’ve got some of these, which we don’t know what they are. We’ll have to Google it, I think.

Anyway, we bought a packet of baby ones for 20. 15. 15, sorry. We’ll try and make our way out of this area. Yeah, it’s fine. Make our way back to Milli. We still have a bit of a drive. I don’t know. It’s quite exhausting, this whole experience.

To be honest, we’ve seen so much of these type of places before. The problem is, it’s not different enough. I can appreciate the architecture, but the chaos is just something I’m not looking for right now. All right, I made my way out. Okay, are we still going to Fes?

So crazy to think we parked right here. Not a bad place to park, actually. No, not bad at all. Getting here is a whole different story. Yeah. All right, well, that’s Meknes. A little bit underwhelming, to be honest. Don’t really know what to say. I think the fact that

Everything here is under construction has a lot to do with it. You don’t get a feel for the place, hey? So hopefully, I think we do need to go and see Fes, and hopefully that’ll be a nicer experience. Yeah, we’re super fancy, we’re checking into, what’s this place called?

I don’t even know what it’s called. Diamond Vert. It’s 50 dirhams per person per night and 25 for the car. I don’t even know what’s included, I’ve got no idea, but we’re going to go see. It’s unmarked camp spots, parking spots. And from here you can catch a

Taxi to Fes quite easily, I think. We’ve heard. Full service, we have coffee, restaurants, washing machine and Wi-Fi. Where are you from? South Africa. Bafana, Bafana! There we go! There we go. So we are going to get some water? Can we park anywhere? Yeah, yeah, yes, exactly, anywhere.

We’re quite nackered, it’s 6.30 at the moment. We’re going to have a shower and then we will maybe take a rest day tomorrow. See if we’ve got the energy get into Fes, explore the area a bit Cool little spot here for Milli in the corner

We’re actually lucky here, hoping for a bit of shade because it gets very hot during the day. The electricity is included here so we don’t really need the solar. See you tomorrow. Good morning We’re braving a run this morning it’s been more than 2 weeks since our last run But, we find ourselves

On the campsite here just outside Fes, there’s a little park apparently just here. We’re gonna try our luck here but maybe we’ll show you the campsite as we walk out quickly. Lisa’s so excited about this run. I can’t believe we haven’t run in so long it’s terrible. Yeah, it’s gonna be a shock.

All right, ready? No. But it’s a lovely morning and this is really the first place we’ve actually found which seems to be jogging friendly. It’s just so fantastic to have this opportunity. Look at this, it’s lovely hey. So this park is 63 acres and very popular, for obvious reasons.

This morning we’re having our rziza that we found in the market yesterday These are semolina strands wound to look like a turban and we’ve decided that they’re absolutely excellent with a nice soft fried egg. Absolutely excellent. I think they are supposed to be breakfast food.

I think this is perfect for breakfast actually and you buy them little bundles and they cost I don’t know 15. We paid 15 dirham for a bag of how many? I don’t know maybe 10 of them. And you get them small, little ones and you get bigger ones too

Let’s just wrap up this Meknes situation. The mess of Meknes. We’ve realized that we’ve made a big mistake and we really messed up. Meknes was a fail for us. I think we.. We did it the wrong way. We underestimated what we would find there. We overestimated our own ability to cope

with the stress of that specific day. And there was just too much happening all at once. But lesson learned. We are now on Fes and I think we’re going to do it a little differently. We’re talking to the guys here

Maybe we’re going to get a guide for a few hours to show us the Medina. Fes has got one of the biggest medinas in Morocco. 12 000 little streets. So it can be completely overwhelming to sort of take in what you want from it.

And I don’t have the energy to do it over multiple days. To see what we’re up to for the next video you’ll have to come back and hopefully this wasn’t too much of a boring failure in Meknes. The good news is our tire is still holding air. Very very good news.

That was just a.. not sure what that was As always thanks for watching! If you like this video Make sure that you smash the like button. Make sure that you’re subscribed and we’ll see you in Fes Bye! what did we say about not going down little alleys?

We sort of accidentally stumbled onto one of the most famous butchers in Fes Medina. My name Amad. So this is the famous tanneries. Don’t drop your camera whatever you do. That will be a disaster. Lisa don’t fall in hey! I know, this is quite precarious.

This is delicious. It’s like pudding! Amateur hour.

After a few days of rest just north of the city of Meknes, we finally left our relaxing campsite. The plan was to stock up on some basic groceries at the Marjane hypermarket and then spend a few hours exploring the medina of Meknes before making the drive to Fes..

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