Day four, and our last in Fes, so we decided it was time for the full Moroccan experience! We started with a hammam, which is definitely not for the faint-hearted. We brought our bikinis and immediately had the tops yanked off us by the hammam attendants--quite a start! We soon got to know these slightly scary, VERY droopy-boobed attendants rather well, as they're paid to scrub you down after you've covered yourself in savon noir. They certainly don't take this responsibility lightly, and you soon feel like you've lost half your skin along the way. The attendants also very helpfully threw buckets of water over us every so often, usually when we weren't looking. All this being said, I did enjoy my hammam and really felt like I was getting to know the real Morocco. And not only that, but in such a hot country, it was the only time that I ever felt fully refreshed and squeaky clean!
Leaving the hammam, and feeling glad to once more have our clothes back on, we made our final trip into the medina. We headed for the henna souk, as we surely couldn't miss out on the chance of tattooing ourselves from head to foot! Our henna was done in a local woman's home, right in the middle of the medina. It took about 1 1/2 hours before all three of us were finished, but being sat in the living room of the house with the rest of her family, we were able to catch up on all those Moroccan soap operas we'd been missing.
On a practical note, if you're having a henna tattoo done you'll have to fit it in carefully with your plans. The henna's actually in paste form and has to be fully dry before it can be washed off, leaving the tattoo beneath. We had ours done in the afternoon, and we had to leave the henna on until the morning of the next day. This can make things a bit tricky if you've got it all over your hands!
We were finally hammamed-out and hennaed-up, so it was time to hit the road and head for Merzouga on the edge of the Sahara. We took a CTM bus from the station in Fes, and despite the coach being surprisingly luxurious, the 10-hour overnight journey was not so great--choose the people you take a seat next to carefully! That's a lot of hours you might have to spend persuading the nice Moroccan man next to you that you don't want to marry him.
Locations Visited: Fes al Bali, Fes le Nouveau, Er Rachidia, Erfoud, Rissani, and Merzouga