Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Hola Casablanca!

Assalamua'laikum wbt & Good Day,

Hola from Bahamas! HAHA

Sometimes, dream high is good; especially when you need to activate the positive vibes within yourself. So yes, I will be in Bahamas, very very soon! Oh my~ Again, I am still in denial. :(

It has been quite sometimes I did not share my travel experience. In fact, I have yet to share my experience while traveling to Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Spain, Portugal, Morocco & Mauritius. I do not know either I am currently justifying or I am really busy.

Morocco has been one of my wishlists upon hearing on its uniqueness from one of my colleagues. Morocco is situated in North Africa, and most of the citizens master French language more than English. As far as I know, there is no direct flight from Malaysia to Casablanca & during my trip there last September, we have to transit in Jeddah for about 7 hours and that has made our total flight duration almost 23 hours. 

Chicken Tajin served with bread. Chicken is hidden underneath the fries :')

Malaysian who wished to visit Morocco have to apply for visa via Morocco Embassy situated in Ampang. During my trip, our visa cost was 104 MYR because we applied for double entries visa since our arrival and departure points to & fro Kuala Lumpur was Casablanca. We went to Spain & Portugal in the midst of our Morocco trip since we got quite a good deal after we bought our ticket to Morocco via Saudi Airlines. 

Honestly, Casablanca in September was quite hot, just like the city where I am currently living while waiting to my next transfer. There are lots of nice food; and my favourite was Chicken Tajin & 2 Dirham Donut. 

I have been in Morocco for 6 nights, whereby I spent the first two and the last night in Casablanca while the rest was spent in Marrakech. The other 7 nights was spent in Spain & Portugal. All in all, the overall duration of my September trip was 14 days and it is the most meaningful trip as I have visited Al Hambra Palace, one of the best history that really touch my heart :'( However, I will only shared on my trip to Morocco in this entry.

Ain Dhiab, Casablanca

We stayed in Hotel Ibis City Centre, located just opposite Casa Port Train Station that is equivalent to KL Sentral in Malaysia. There are lots of food shop nearby with reasonable price. And for this, I am thankful that we just brought 2 Maggie Cups and 2 packets of butter biscuits. Shall we do the opposite, we might end up bringing back the foods to Malaysia. HAHA :)

I took 3 hours of sleep upon arrived at hotel to minimize the jet lag impact and we just walked around the Old Medina area that day. Since we were not into shopping that much, we just tour around to get ourselves familiar with the city tram as preparation for the next day.

The next day, we went to Ain Dhiab and Hassan II Great Mosque. The view was so majestic and we were both excited in spite of the hot weather. We went to Ain Dhiab via the city tram and local bus to Hassan II Great Mosque. The bus was so packed that I need to sit at the bus dashboard since there is so minimum space even just to stand up. That's the reason why we decided to just walk on our way back from the mosque to our hotel by thinking positively that it is part of exercise. HAHA

Hassan II Great Mosque, Casablanca
On the next day, we took a 3 hours train to Marrakech. We have to cancelled our booking at Ait Ben Heddou since the taxi is quite expensive and we have mistakenly underestimated the Eid Adha factor while planning on our stay in Marrakech. Fortunately, Riyad Kenzo, the hotel that we planned to stay after Ait Ben Heddou is available for one night earlier check-in. 

I will share on my experience while I'm in Marrakech in next entry, inshaAllah. 

For the last night in Casablanca before we returned back to Malaysia, we were basically entering from Lisbon. There was some friction while dealing with the immigration there since they doubt that we will be leaving the country on the next day. However, it is resolved after a thorough explanation.

Another side of Hassan II Great Mosque, Casablanca

We basically have underestimated the beauty of Morocco and we should spend more time there and went to Fes and Meknes as well. But then, there is always next time. Perhaps with my own family later, inshaAllah. Eh? #sistetiba

Wassalam.