Fez : Within the ancient walls of Fez

Fez is the first ever city built in Morocco in the 8th century, sits nearby Meknes, another historic city and Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Like other cities founded in those days, Fez is one of the ancient walled cities where trading and economy runs within its walls.

In the streets of the Fez Medina in my newly bought Kaftan

With that, the Souk of Fez has the most complicated, jammed and narrow streets in Morocco. Read whichever guide they have, they'll tell you that you'll most likely get lost in the Medina without an official guide. There will be boys coming offering to show you the way out, but with a small amout of cash. We were lucky enough to have some Malaysian students help bring us around and bargain for us.

The streets of the Medina in which people set up stalls selling nuts.

Donkeys and horses which are used to carry goods would cram up between the streets. Its streets are only big enough to fit one donkey and a person. During prayer times, the stall owners would just cover up their stalls and go to the nearest Mosque to pray. If it were to be on Marrakech, those nuts would be going in a minute! It seems like mosques can be found of every main street and in between shops. It can only be recognize by its minarets, not the big ones we're used to see.

The leather shop where we bought our leather goods

Compared to Marrakech and Casablanca, it was Fez that took my heart. It's people are frindly, hospitable, polite and most of all, they don't scare you off as a foreigneer. Standing alone in the streets was not a problem. Entering shops was not a problem. It made shopping even better! Their boys have sweet smiles and soft voices that would take any girls breath away. Thanks to their Arabic lineage, they are really good looking.

One thing that is not to be missed in Fez would be its tannery. Ladies and gentlements, your leather goods must come from somewhere. And Fez is one of them. Still done traditionally and organically, the tanneries of Fez is where you can see leather being made from scratch and without any machinary.

Washed and soaked for weeks

This would be where the fresh skins of animals are washed and soaked for weeks. After the skin is washed and cleaned, the skin is colored in basins on the other side of the tannery. The smell is one thing that you could never forget. Leather is made out of fresh skin of slaughtered animals.

 Coloring and drying of leather

Making leather is not an easy job. It takes weeks and months before good leather can be produced. Leather goods in fez are relatively cheap compared to other places. A bag out of cow leather would probably cost you 200 Dirhams (20€). Those made of Camel leather would cost much more. A leather jacket would be around 400 Dirhams (40€). But one problem would be the stench of the leather. Because the process isn't done with chemicals and some aren't dried properly, the smell of the leather stays and some are just so strong that I've read online that some could not use their bags out.

Besides the tannery, shopping in Fez is way peaceful than in Marrakech. Things are also cheaper here and the salesmen are far friendlier.

Handmade leather bags :: Moroccan Shoes, Babouche

Moroccan Djellaba, a clothing for men fitted with a hood.

Makes you very Jedi like.

Right before the sun sets, we rode in a van up to the ruins to watch the view of the old city of Fez.

Hiking up would take around 20 minutes, a van ride for the 7 of us costs us arond 30 Dirhams. Owh, the pleasure of have guides who speak Arabic! It was just a tiny van with 3 of them sitting at the back like assylum seekrs. It was quite funny. After watching the sunset, we went to do some more shopping. Unfortunately, the shops closes very early. And when the shops are about to close, they don't bargain much anymore. So we continued our shopping the next day. Instead, we went to take a look at the Royal Palace of Fez, Djellaba.

We're not allowed inside though. We just got to take a few pics of the gate. Then we went to have dinner which costs us less than 4€ (and I had a plate of fried seafood!) and called it a night. The cab ride back to the hostel was only 16 Dirhams. We found out that after all this while, we wasted all our cash on taxi rides, especially in Casablanca.