Travelling Bead 2: Back to Marrakech ... and Silverado ....

From Missable Meknes to finds in Fes. Giddy with delight at leaving mouldy Meknes, its dark walls and cranky people, we stopped again at Moulay Idriss to buy some more old coins. A clutch of them later, we drove happily onto Fes, known for the largest, narrowest and winding souk there is. We checked into Riad Alya, leaned against the magnificent mosaics, sipped our required mint tea, sighed at the orange trees, and bowed to the calling muezzin for giving us the fortitude to endur Meknes. Shocked at the twin room we were given, a single bead on each side of a long room, separated by a curtain, we were given a large red plush velvet suite with giant marble bath, for a night. We ate a superb meal under the stars near the gurgling fountain, indulged in a bone bleaching hamam in the catacombs of the Riad where a young woman assiduously applied her muscles to our tendons, and set out to explore the souks. Happily for Reno, donkeys replaced motorbikes, the ATM's were accessible, the food was vastly improved, and if all else failed we could retreat to our riad in a few minutes.

Which is exactly what Reno did after five minutes in the souk. A guide had been hired to escort us, assuring we'd be lost forever in that damp maze. He was a creepy one-eyed Moroccan who knew only his speech, but not enough English to answer questions. He was also desperate to get us into a carpet seller, to be cajoled and bullied into buying something we wanted less than another attack of food poisoning. As soon as he realised that he a better chance of getting measles from us, he lost all interest in the tour and other than deliberately losing us among the olives, baskets, lamps, spices and dead animals hanging by hooks, grudgingly took us a long and twisting way home. I'd seen a few jewelery shops I wanted to visit, on the hunt of the Algerian rare Kabyle pieces, but the shopkeepers told us immediately that all guides were on the take and there was no way we'd get a good deal. So we took a few business cards, promising to return the following day without a guide.

The next day, after a glorious long breakfast in the courtyard, we visited an antique jewellery shop I'd surreptitiously photographed while with the guide. As I walked in, the shopkeeper greeted me with "I saw you yesterday, walking past with your guide and driver. Where are they? I can't help you if they are anywhere." I promised him they'd been dispatched, and that the driver was being kept away by Reno. I told him I was looking for Kabyle pieces. They are very hard to get, said our new friend Mohamed, but my father had a set 40 years ago and lucky you, the woman he sold it to in Paris, has just sold it back to me. Fancy that. Out they came from a broken box, from underneath a stack of old textiles, rugs, coats, dust and rags. The real thing. I'd seen a Kabyle necklace in another shop but Brahim had called ahead to warn the shopkeeper that we were coming ... and that commission was due to him.

Fresh meat readily available in Fes

I took photos of the necklace and sent them to Sarah, my bead and gem goddess, who immediately blipped back to say they were fake. Knowing what was fake, I could now trust my instinct to buy non fake. After hours of haggling and feeling we'd insulted the Mullah of Magical finds, Reno and I took a huge financial punt and bought - for a lot of money - what I instinctively felt were a good purchase. Later, back in Marrakech, Sarah trembled when she opened them. She looked me straight in the eye, and said ... these need to be sold in a Parisien Auction house that sells at high end. Phew.


Mosaic in oldest university in the world - in Fes

As a reward for buying Mohamed's father's recycled pieces, he booked dinner for us in his favourite restaurant - strangely called Fes restaurant. He chatted, we listened, we listened, he chatted. When the bill came, he smiled, and said, thank you for a wonderful meal and folded his arms. Hmmmm. We had better get our money back from the auction of the cuffs.

Fun and games in Meknes

We picked up an Italian woman who was having trouble getting her credit card to work, who'd had to leave her husband behind in Bologna because his passport had expired. We gave her a lift back to Marrakech, bought her dinner, lent her 2300 dh, and hoped we'd meet up with her in Venice when we finally got there. Leap of faith!

Moulay Idriss local dressmaker

Moulay Idriss

And so back to Marrakech ... a 6 hour drive through magnificent green countryside and then into the smog and fury of Marrakech, where once again we were assaulted by motorbikes and had to wage war with the traffic from our Riad. This time our room was off the reception area, and painted black. So black we had to open the doors to let in light, so black I couldn't put on makeup. Fortunately this time was to catch up with Sarah, buy silver from Faouzi and BH .. which I did, all 30kg of it, fossicking until my fingers bled and my nails turned black and the credit card melted. But a fabulous stash, paying decent prices for decent silver.

Sarah had a few of her goddesses from the last trip, and organised a wedding dinner for us in a trendy restaurant; started out as great fun with a horsie ride but so many people smoke in Morocco our eyes were burning after an hour. Sarah had reserved a quiet area for 10 of us in a booth, but a Moroccan billionaire who had parked his gold Bentley outside, watched over by a black Hummer and two snoring chauffeurs, bribed Sean (Sarah's husband) with two magnums of champagne to get us to move so he could take over our great spot. After that we couldn't hear ourselves swallow .. but the music was fabulous - a saxophonist and a wild drimmer - and Sarah was dancing her heart heart. She made a very touching speech for Reno and I and gifted me another bracelet ... which I will never take off. The following night, dinner at Sarah's riad, where she verified that the Kabyle bracelets were the real thing .. to sighs of relief as we'd invested a lot of money and faith in this purchase. Go to the Paris auction houses, Sarah suggested, they are doing well at high end. YEAH!

Moulay Idriss

The last few Marrakech days were spent shopping and shopping and shopping for silver... to my usual friends and dealers - and giving Faouzi a 12 kilo parcel of our winter coats and the argan oil that we'd carried from Essaouria, to post The final night Faouzi invited us to his magnificent home for a splendid dinner accompanied by his personal musicians. We sat in his ante room on velour pillows admiring his tiles during a long, long wait, from 7pm to 11 when the food was finally served, then walked back through the dark lanes of the souk, fumbling around in our dark riad to pack, and finally chugged out of the choking traffic and chaotic airport to ... ISTANBUL!