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8 Day Trip to Morocco

The squad takes an 8-day trip to Morocco on another amazing adventure with Gate 1 travel. We have been trying to visit Morocco for years, COVID delayed the trip, but we finally made it in January 2022 and are so glad we did!

You know we love a guided tour, and this trip did not disappoint. We take you with us on our trip to Morocco to see the highlights of Morocco including Casablanca, Rabat, Fez, Marrakesh, and the old Roman City of Volubilis to see ruins, mosaics, mosques, and some of the most beautiful, centuries-old architecture. 

We recommend visiting with Gate 1 Travel or another tour company. We did a lot of research on how to travel in Morocco and ultimately found it would be a lot easier to go with a tour company that organizes all transportation, hotels, meals, and experiences throughout the trip.

Morocco is such a unique destination and we didn’t see all of it on this trip to Morocco. We will definitely be back to explore at a more leisurely pace.

Trip to Morocco – Episode Transcript

1 (59s):
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad Podcast. Today we’re taking you to Morocco, which was an eight day Gate one adventure. We actually had this exact tour booked for January, 2022, but it was canceled. So we rebooked for January, 2023 and we are so excited to share all of our tips and stories about this trip with you guys.

3 (1m 21s):
Super excited to talk to you guys today about this one. So much anticipation leading up to it. It was canceled last year like Britney said because of Omicron, but another classic Gate one adventure, which are always really, really good. Plus we had our honorary Squad members, Cassia and Ryan with us. So this was also really exciting because again, when we met in May of 2017 when we had done our Gate one China, you know, we’ve traveled with them since on several other vacations but not back on a Gate one. So it was nice to kind of bring back the crew, so to speak, and do it on a Gate one, which was really, really exciting.

2 (1m 58s):
So I didn’t go on this trip with you guys. I’ve seen the pictures. It looks beautiful, it looks amazing. But before we actually dive into your trip, like what was it about Morocco that made you choose this vacation? I

1 (2m 10s):
Honestly can’t tell you what made me choose it other than I’ve seen like pictures of Morocco and I’m like, I wanna go there, I wanna experience that. And there was a Roman City ruins that we were gonna go go see and that really intrigued me as well. So it was just like the beauty going back to Africa, but d a different part of Africa. It was also the affordability of the tour as well. So there was a few different things that really drew me in and I was like, well when’s a better time to go to Morocco than now?

3 (2m 37s):
Yeah. And when we saw the price, and we’ve mentioned this before to you squatty, sometimes the price will dictate it and I don’t wanna say the price for Morocco dictated it, but it was a very good price. But for all the reasons Brit just mentioned also, again, you know, we’ve all as a Squad been to the Middle East, but so to speak, this is a different region of the Middle East, even though it’s like North Africa, you kind of have that North African influence, but it’s still like an Arabic Middle Eastern country so to speak. But it’s different variants and it’s really known for, its like architecture. I mean if you just Google online like Morocco, you see all the beautiful like mosaics and tile work and everything that they really put into their buildings and it’s just so beautiful. And that was really a highlight of the experience also.

3 (3m 18s):
So combination of those factors,

2 (3m 20s):
Those are all good things that would attract someone there. And you said that price somewhat dictated going to Morocco during this time. How did you end up booking it?

1 (3m 30s):
So we booked through Gate one and Gate one sends emails out with sales and coupons and things like that. So with everything said and done, we paid 1395 per person for our flights, our hotels, our transfers, all of the tours that we did. And it included several meals, not all meals but all breakfasts and then a few lunch and dinners. And I feel like that’s a really great price to get to Africa and do all of those things. Yeah, that also included the flights being out of LA and sometimes with Gate one, all of their specials may be out of like the east coast primarily.

1 (4m 10s):
And so we did have to add a supplement fee to change our flights to go through LA and it was only like $64 per person. Oh it’s not bad. And no, it’s not bad because there’s no way we can get to New York at $64 per person unless we’re using like points or other travel hacking ways. So we felt like it was worth it to just go out of LAX for the convenience and not have to find our own flights to New York.

3 (4m 34s):
And I really love that question that you had Kim because Brittany kind of answered number one on the tips cuz we were getting right into the tips. But I know you said beforehand you had that question and one of the tips that we have is sign up for the Gate one emails. They’ll send a lot of times those little flash sales and everything like that for you so you’ll be apprised of what good deals they have going on. And so we did end up seeing that one, it was on sale and two, because we’ve looked at it before, the promo that we actually got to give us more money off was like a, what was it? It was like an internet like retargeting tool. Cause they had seen that we looked at it before and it was like $400 off on top of that. So if you sign up for the emails, you’ll see their flash sales and then you’ll be going to their site and then you could get those retargeted emails for even further discounts.

3 (5m 22s):
And that’s what we got on ours.

1 (5m 23s):
Yeah, and we’ve actually put out an episode all about guided tours and I know some of our squads have reached out to us saying they’re a little hesitant about guided tours, but I really do recommend Gate one and Gate one come on, like let’s partner up, let’s have a partnership. But Gate one is great and I feel like it’s so underutilized, especially with people our age. It’s a great way to get great value out of a trip. There was actually people our age kind of on this trip. We met a lady named Suzanne, she was 39 and then there was also a younger couple that got engaged on the trip as well.

2 (6m 0s):
Suzanne’s listening to this episode like why are you telling the world my age Brittany,

1 (6m 5s):
She’s not all I know.

2 (6m 7s):
That’s awesome that you guys met people that were friendly and got to make friends that were, you know, somewhat closer to age. That’s really cool.

1 (6m 15s):
Yeah, that was really nice. And another tip that we have for you guys is we were kind of surprised many places don’t serve alcohol in Morocco. It is a Muslim country and because of that, you know, it’s kind of forbidden. And then there’s also like in the main areas when there are lots of mosques, alcohol can’t be served within like a certain proximity to the mosque and then they also, certain establishments can’t be within a certain distance and sell alcohol. So it’s like 300 meters is like the limit. So anything within a 300 meter range can’t sell alcohol. So if you have two restaurants next to each other and they’re not that far apart, they both can’t sell at the same time.

3 (6m 56s):
Wow. And this kind of really shocked me because you know, again we’ve been to the Middle East, you know, and when we were in Lebanon, that’s not really a thing. Yes it’s a Muslim dominant country in terms of its population, but they don’t have those type of rules in place. Of course when we were in Dubai we didn’t really go out of the touristy areas, but we kind of knew that thing. But it shocked me about Morocco because Morocco was a very modern country so to speak. You know, in terms of one, their infrastructure leniency and tolerance to all sorts of other religions and everything like that. So I wasn’t really expecting the alcohol rule to really come into play, but it definitely did. So if it’s one of those things, if you know going into it, you know, just to know.

3 (7m 38s):
But at the same time, if you’re staying in any nice hotel, that hotel is gonna have alcohol for you but don’t expect to pay local prices so to speak. I mean the, these are definitely American prices for the alcoholic beverages if you’re looking to drink while you’re there.

1 (7m 53s):
Another tip that we got is to be mindful using the ATMs. Sometimes they’re out of money and so it won’t spit any money out to you, but it will internally have said like it deducted money from your account and then you Oh

2 (8m 6s):
My god.

1 (8m 8s):
Yeah. And then you have to like fight the charges with your bank and

2 (8m 13s):
It doesn’t give you a receipt.

1 (8m 14s):
Nope. So just keep that in mind, like you wanna get it from like banks with a person in it so that you are getting actual money. And we also got a tip from our tour guide not to go to the ATMs after dark for that reason as well. And because of crime in certain areas and Jamal’s card actually almost got taken or eaten by an ATM and did not spit out any money. So we were like, okay, we’re gonna go a different route.

2 (8m 43s):
Wow, you guys actually had some bad luck there with the ATMs

3 (8m 48s):
That we did and Ryan actually had bad luck with the ATM when he finally tried to pull it just as well. You know, we were in a big area when we were in the city of Fez finally trying to get some cash. I was able to get some, but then there was an ATM around the corner that was also part of the same bank that our tour guide said, Hey, people could go here to kind of just ease the line of everyone who wanted to pull. So we weren’t all congregating from that one and they weren’t able to pull out money. I forgot what the exact issue was for them. So it, it may be one of those things again, just take those tips, you know, if you’re gonna pull from an atm, definitely do it during bank business hours. That way if you don’t get your money you can go in, speak to somebody.

3 (9m 29s):
Otherwise just go the route of exchanging physical cash because it’s known that that is an issue sometimes in Morocco of not receiving your money when you put your card into the atm.

1 (9m 40s):
Building off of that Cascia, when she called her bank, she actually found out that if your pin number starts with zero, that sometimes they’re not accepted in other countries internationally your bank card may not work because of that reason. If you’re in starts with zero. And my last tip, and this isn’t related to money but I just wanted to add this in, is in Morocco they typically speak Arabic or to the tourists, they try to speak to you and French

2 (10m 6s):
But not English whatsoever.

1 (10m 9s):
Well most Moroccans do speak English. So once they realized that we’re American, they would greet to us in French and then they could probably hear our terrible accent and then they’d be like, oh we’ll switch to English for them and then they would talk to us in English.

3 (10m 23s):
Yeah, so I would say language barrier if you’re in touristy cities of course. So, and again we didn’t talk about where we went. I mean we were in Casablanca, Baat, Fez, Marrakesh, those are like the four big major cities in Morocco. You’re definitely gonna find people that speak English of course, but don’t expect everybody to but people within the tourist industry or where you would have questions or going to the bank, they’ll definitely know it.

2 (10m 48s):
All right, well enough with the tip. Let’s go full in. I wanna hear about your trip. I haven’t heard the details of it. I just asked a couple questions a couple days ago when we talked, so I’m really excited to hear all about it. And remind me it was an eight day trip, right?

1 (11m 1s):
Yes, eight day trip. But keep in mind that whenever Gate one has the number of days listed that includes the travel days, so actual physical days, it’s really like six cuz you’re taking two into consideration for travel. But yes, so day one we left on a Monday and we left out of LAX to Morocco and our flight was at 8:00 AM out of lax. So we decided to go ahead and spend the night in LA prior to our flight just for peace of mind. So we didn’t have to wake up at like one 2:00 AM to try to get there on time coming from San Diego, we did have a layover in Atlanta and that’s where we were able to meet up with cash and Ryan, we went into the lounge, they got to experience lounge life for the first time.

2 (11m 45s):
Amazing. Did they love

3 (11m 46s):
It? So I don’t know Kim if they actually had a good lounge experience because when we first got into there, yes we met up in Atlanta but it was really, really crowded in the lounge. We had to actually wait before we could get inside. We were only allowed to get inside with like 20, 25 minutes to spare before we had to actually get up to walk to our Gate because we were boarding. So yeah, we got the free drinks and everything like that and you know, the food was okay. So for me, in terms of a normal lounge experience because of all that it was eh, but you know, their first experience, I don’t know what they necessarily thought of it, but we were so excited for lounge experience in Paris because our flight was Atlanta to Paris and then Paris to Casablanca and we actually had a five hour layover in Paris.

3 (12m 33s):
Oh

2 (12m 33s):
Yeah.

3 (12m 34s):
So super, super stoked about it. But the lounge that we wanted to go to was not in the terminal that I knew we were landing in. And so we were like, well we have five hours, let’s go. Well in Paris that’s not the case. Their terminals are segregated but like a lot of other places actually are. But you know, if you have a ticket you can get into the terminal, pass the security, et cetera. In Paris, that’s not even the case whatsoever. Like if your ticket doesn’t dictate you to get into that terminal, they won’t even let you in. So we landed in a terminal that actually had a lounge but it was a lounge that was like a hybrid lounge, hybrid like airport hotel so to speak.

3 (13m 16s):
Yeah. So the lounge wasn’t with like free drinks or like credit or anything like that. You got in and you got like maybe five snacks complimentary and that was just maybe a can of nuts, a candy bar, red Bull. So it wasn’t really a full lounge experience. So we were kind of stuck with that in Paris when we were there.

1 (13m 38s):
Yeah. But we ended up making it eventually to Casablanca and once we landed in the airport, we weren’t staying in Casablanca that day so we were transferring to another city called Rabat. It probably took about an hour and a half, two hours on our little bus to transfer and our flight was a little delayed. We landed probably about an hour late. So we were the last people getting into our hotel. So when we walked in we walked immediately into the Gate one orientation, which is kind of where you do your meet and greet and meet everyone and get your name badges and all of that. And then directly from there we went to dinner. But when we got there, you know, we were getting our keys for the first time and they realized that Jamal had a Middle Eastern name and so they told us, don’t tell anyone but we’re gonna get the best room in the hotel.

2 (14m 29s):
We’re not gonna tell anybody that happened.

1 (14m 33s):
They were, I think they were talking about like, don’t tell your other two roommate that you’re, you’re getting a better room than them. So.

2 (14m 39s):
So how did it go down? They were like marou.

3 (14m 41s):
Well so basically you know, we were the last ones to arrive at the orientation meeting. So it actually had kind of started, but we walked in within the first like 10 minutes I’m sure. So our tour guide, once he sent everybody to dinner, it was Brittany, Marrakesh, Orion and then two other people that were on that transfer with us and same flight to get in. So he had us stay behind cuz he needed a little bit of something from us and just to go over one or two things that we, you know, missed in that first 10 minutes. So then as I was done giving him whatever information that he needed, he had mentioned something to me, he said, ah, you know the hotel told me that you have the best room in the hotel.

3 (15m 22s):
And I said, oh why is that? He says, oh they saw the name Jamal, they wanna hook up the Middle Eastern. I mean he didn’t say that I’m paraphrasing but basically because of the name, right. And I thought to myself, okay, maybe he gave me a corner room that’s a little bit bigger or something with a window. So I was like alright great. But we ended up going to dinner, then after dinner went down to reception to actually get our keys and as I was getting the key, you know I mentioned the name and then the person who works at the hotel says, we gave you the best room, the very, very best room, the best,

1 (15m 56s):
The

3 (15m 57s):
Best. And so we’re going up with cash and Ryan and they had already actually been into their their room. So I was like well you know, they say it’s the best and we were on the same floor with them. So we’re like well let’s see yours first and then kind of go and compare. So we saw theirs, nice room, nothing great. I mean it was clean of course, but you know, just a typical hotel room. And then we go into ours and it was a full blown suite.

1 (16m 23s):
Yeah you walk in and there’s a foyer and then a half bathroom to the left and then you continue to wash and there’s a living room and then you go to the right and there’s a dining room and then it circles Oh wow. The master bedroom which then connects to the bathroom and they have a tub and a separate shower and then the toilet and the bidet and it’s like, you know, a double sink situation too. And what was so funny is as we were going up, Kasha and Ryan were saying that they were told they got the best room in hotel. So we were laughing like do they say it to everyone or like, did we really get something?

1 (17m 3s):
And so when we saw their room we’re like, okay, yes nice regular room. But then when we walked in ours we’re like, oh shit, this is legit.

2 (17m 11s):
It was really so awesome.

3 (17m 13s):
So they definitely hooked it up and as nice as it was, it was kind of unfortunate at the same time because we were just getting in so late and in the morning we were already leaving Rabat, we were doing a city tour but we were just staying in that hotel for one night and needed to be out at like eight in the morning. So as nice as it was, if we were staying there two days it would’ve been a little bit more enjoyable but I can’t complain with the free upgrade based off of the name.

2 (17m 40s):
Was that the only time on this trip that you were acknowledged for your last name or given like bonus privileges for your last name?

3 (17m 48s):
Bonus privileges, yes. Acknowledge. When I told a few other people they realized it was an Arabic name and then they were trying to speak to me in Arabic asking and then I told them no I don’t know it fluently. And then that was kind of like really it but obviously they were excited to see somebody of course who’s American but obviously of Middle Eastern descent going back to a middle Eastern country. You know there’s that kind of like excitement of oh yeah, that aspect of things. But when we checked out in the morning, we were leaving that day to go to Fez but before we went to Fez we had the half day city tour Ofat, which is actually the capital, the current capital of Morocco.

1 (18m 27s):
And we got a local guide who joined our tour and so we were able to go outside of the royal palace and then we were able to see some ancient ruins cello from the outside. And so they also did tell us like people are very particular about you taking other people’s pictures in Morocco so it’s not like something you can really do. So they said like in front of the royal palace here you can take their pictures but when we go to other royal palaces you can’t take pictures of the people in uniform or anything like that. Like it’s forbidden. So that was a good tip to know like you can’t take pictures of like police officers or other officials in other parts of the country. And then we also went to Hassan Tower and Hassan Tower is this area where there is an incomplete mosque built there and there is a minera there and a minera, I didn’t know this until we went, is a large tower and it’s attached to a mosque but it’s where the person goes up to seeing out the call of prayer so that all of the city can hear so that the Muslims know what time of day it is and that they need to pray at that time.

2 (19m 33s):
I’ve definitely heard the call for prayer when we were in Lebanon and Dubai, but I did not realize it’s a real person doing it like live in the moment.

3 (19m 41s):
Well back in the day it used to be live and in the moment doing it a lot of times now maybe somebody still is but they’ll put it on over a loudspeaker now. Right? Or if it’s over the loudspeaker, maybe it’s recorded and they play the same one. But sometimes depending on the location, yes it really is a live person that is actually doing it in that moment. And as a matter of fact, that’s why the Minera is a tower because before technology and there was loudspeakers for people to be able to hear it, they needed to be high up and be able to shout out so that people can hear and that’s why the Minera is a tower.

1 (20m 18s):
Yeah. So his son tower is a minera but the mosque itself is incomplete and it was intended to be the largest minera in the world and if the mosque was completed it would have been the largest mosque in the western Muslim world. Why

2 (20m 32s):
Wasn’t it completed?

1 (20m 33s):
It wasn’t complete because the ruler at that time died and then construction ceased.

3 (20m 40s):
Yeah and this we’re talking about in the year 1,199. So that’s how old this Minette Tower is. It’s literally 800 plus years old at this point in time. So the tower is still there, the Minette, but you can see the foundation and of where they were going to attempt to build that mosque. But they never completed it because the ruler ended up dying. Yet across the way is a completed mosque that they have and that they’ve built more so recently. But they did not put a minette on that mosque to pay homage to the Hassan Tower that is across the way just right there. So that even though it’s not attached, that is acting minette for that mosque.

3 (21m 21s):
And in

1 (21m 21s):
This area it is guarded, it’s like in this enclosed Gate and then outside are these guards on horses guarding the ground. And then there’s also a mausoleum from Moham the fifth that sits across from Hasan Tower and it contains the tombs of the Moroccan king, Muhammad the fifth and his two sons that also had served, one had served as king and one was a prince.

2 (21m 46s):
All right, so you started the trip off with some royalty.

1 (21m 49s):
Some royalty and we learned a lot about Moroccan history. Like that’s one of the things I really love about Gate one and taking tours is when you go on your own you can see all of these really amazing things but you don’t learn much about the history when you have a local guide or when you’re on tour they usually do walking tours and you learn a lot about the country, the culture, the history and really can feel like the significance of the area that you’re in.

2 (22m 13s):
I felt that way as well about our other trip to the Middle East when we went to Lebanon and we kind of did have a local tour with your family bringing us around. But there’s just so much history there to share and so much that we’ve never heard of. So I bet it was really interesting.

3 (22m 29s):
It definitely really was. And you said it, we started off with royalty and I was gonna say earlier, yeah Morocco is a monarchy so it’s still an existing monarchy and Soat is the current capital. And so they really took us to the highlights of the monarchy, the current palace and of course the mausoleums of the former king. But after we were done with Hassan Tower we ended up going to the Uday Kapa, which is a UNESCO World heritage site. You know we love ourselves some UNESCO sites. So they took us to the Ode Sspa, which is a fortress that was built in the year 1150. So again, you know we’re really seeing all of this ancient architecture and buildings that were built you know, 800 plus years ago.

3 (23m 11s):
But what was really cool about this minus the history, which we’ll touch on a little bit, is it’s this walled city that’s sitting on top of the cliff that’s overlooking the Atlantic ocean cuz Rabat is along the Atlantic ocean. So it’s just this old fortress and then you look down and you see the big waves crashing ashore of the Atlantic while you’re on top of this castle so to speak. It’s not a true castle but fortress castle and it’s just this unique experience that was really, really awesome.

1 (23m 38s):
Yeah and there’s these little alleyways cuz it’s like a a walled city. So you are go, you’re exploring through these alleyways down to the Atlantic, they have these grand gateways, I really love their architecture and like their doors and gates look so majestic. And so there is a grand gateway to this fortress and it was constructed by the same ruler that constructed Hassan Tower but again after he died this area was abandoned. So that was really interesting. And so what’s really funny about while we were going through this area is they have like a ton of cats and we love seeing cats and like you know dogs and things on, on vacation Jamal caught and took a video of two cats mating,

3 (24m 23s):
Big stray cat population and we got to see the future generation in action that’s gonna be roaming around this ancient city. So that was quite interesting. I’ve actually never seen that before in person and here we were seeing it. So side little note on that, a kind of a little bit of comic relief of all the history that we were experiencing and seen there. But quite honestly that was really it for what we did in Rabat. Again just showing kind of the main minette there of Hasan Tower, seeing the royal palace and the sba and then we were driving on to Fez but along our way we had two stops, one of them being lunch and then one of them Kim.

3 (25m 3s):
This would’ve gotten you really going really excited ancient Roman ruins. Ooh

1 (25m 10s):
Yeah. So our first stop was lunch and we had the best lamb to jean. It was really, really good. And to jean’s our cooked in those like traditional clay I would say like what is equivalent to our dutch oven. And so it was really good. We also tried the chicken couscous but the tajin at this restaurant was better and then they also had the Moroccan mint tea there and I was learning that they pour it from a really high height to help aerate the tea and bring out the flavors. Oh and typically the mint tea is actually served sweet and so they usually serve it like after a meal with like cookies.

1 (25m 50s):
Sounds

3 (25m 50s):
Good. It was a

1 (25m 52s):
Often, yes we did have mint tea often and almost always it was served with cookies

3 (25m 57s):
So the lunch was really good. It was our first really taste of Moroccan cuisine because our first meal was you know, dinner and then breakfast at the hotel, which didn’t really have a lot of local cuisine so to speak, you know, it was really catering to the fact that it’s hotel tourists are there. So it was really exciting to get some authentic localized food. And the restaurant that we ate in along the way was so beautiful, like just even the mosaic work that they had in the restaurant and decorations and everything was really, really nice. So it kind of set the ambiance to be really enjoyable. But then continuing along the way to Fez, we continued on to the Roman city of Vol Rubius if I’m saying that correctly, which again is another UNESCO world heritage site.

3 (26m 41s):
And so this is on the countryside working your way to again the big city of Fez. But this was really, really exciting Kim, you know, it was no ball deck and it was no Rome, this I will not lie, but it said that it was actually really, really grand in the 18 hundreds. There was actually an earthquake that destroyed a lot of it. So you can still see a few structures that are actually standing, but the earthquake destroyed a lot of it and they know that there’s actually a lot that’s still buried under ground that they haven’t actually excavated quite yet. So they’re interested to see what more they’re actually going to discover. But what was really the highlight of this is even though the buildings themselves may have been ruined a little bit, the mosaic work that is on the floors is still in pristine condition in a few locations and I couldn’t even believe what we were seeing like ancient classical Roman floors.

3 (27m 33s):
Beautiful.

1 (27m 33s):
Yeah they had an arch and then they also, I know previously had a basilica and a temple and things like that. So we were able to see some of those structures and then we walked through the big structures first, then we kind of walked through what would’ve be their city and got to see where some of the townhouses would’ve stood and those are the townhouses are where the mosaics are because that’s how they decorated their townhouses and their homes. So it was really interesting to see that and it was just such a beautiful site and again just like Lebanon, there was no one else at these ruins. Like we were the only people there. I feel like there was maybe another, I would say less than 10 people at the site, but we really for the majority of the time had it all to ourselves and we walked through different sites and we had that local guide so we would hear about the history and what they interpreted each area to be, which was so cool because had we not had that and we walked through, it’s like what are you looking at?

1 (28m 31s):
I wouldn’t have known that that was a townhouse versus like, you know, a meeting place or a different type of building. So it was really cool to hear and see all of it. And I think Kim, you would’ve really enjoyed this part of the tour.

2 (28m 44s):
I’m sure I would’ve. I I think it is really cool when you get to see the ruins and not be in a crowded space and I’m starting to think that part of the reason it’s not crowded and like the others we went to in Lebanon were crowded. It’s like there are Roman ruins all over the Middle East and all over Italy and in that whole region they probably are just like, oh another dime a dozen ruin.

3 (29m 6s):
I know and that’s one of the things, you know, growing up here in the states and seeing a lot of stuff, we don’t really have a lot of history that we’re able to see. I mean our latest history that we can look at is like 16 hundreds. Yeah maybe Native American history and certain artifacts and things like that. But in terms of like major civilizations that we’re aware of, I mean not this far north, you gotta go to Latin America to see the Aztec and Mayan ruins, right? So here and where we are in North America we kind of have that little bubble and don’t really get to appreciate the history but it was just really cool to see it. And the mosaic work on nat tile floors were just, you know, really impressive to see those, that Roman architecture that

1 (29m 46s):
Way. I thought it was really interesting that the city fell because of local tribes in the year 285. But those local tribes just took it over and they in inhabited it for another 700 years and it really wasn’t abandoned until the seat of power went to Fez.

3 (30m 3s):
Yes. So we left the Roman ruins going on to Fez but if you’re not familiar with Fez, just go ahead and Google it one, it was actually a capital of Morocco at one point in time, but Fez is really famous for its old Medina basically like the city center that they do have with its kind of narrow alleyways and walking through and it’s famous for its leather tanneries. So if you actually Google it, you’ll probably see these big VAs of water and liquid and that’s basically the tanneries where they’ll take the camel hide, cow, hide whatever, put it in a vat and it basically gets off all the fur. Then they’ll move it to another one and this is where they’ll actually dye the skin to be whatever color that they want.

3 (30m 50s):
So they still make leather the traditional way in these vats that are 800 plus years if not older old. And by the way, I ended up by myself a leather bag while I was there too. Oh

2 (31m 2s):
You finally got your man bag

3 (31m 4s):
I got, I got myself my man duffle. That is correct.

2 (31m 8s):
I will tell you Jamal, I did Google Fez and I don’t see any vats of leather making tubs, but I do see the Fez red hats all over Google image and the beautiful streets. It looks gorgeous. It looks like there was a lot of shopping there. Did you guys do any other shopping besides the man Bagg? We

1 (31m 28s):
Walked around and kind of like looked for things. Our goal was to get specifically a Moroccan lamp. Kasha had told me about them before we went and she was like, they’re very traditional, they’re very beautiful. So our eyes were on that. We also were looking for Christmas ornaments and things so we were open to doing more shopping just we were kind of exploring and seeing what was there. But before we went into the city center of Fez, we actually had dinner that night that we arrived at a local’s home and it was a beautiful home. We had like a maza dinner and then the main ENT tree was chicken and then after we had that they did the traditional Moroccan tea and then again the cookies.

1 (32m 12s):
So it was really nice. She was very, very sweet and she like greeted us to our home and said she was so thankful to have us and host us and like the kitchen door just was so beautiful and like carved and colorful and ornate and I actually took a picture with her in front of their kitchen door cause it was just so beautiful. But it was very nice to be like welcomed into a traditional home and kind of see what a home looks like and have a traditional meal prepared by them. Yeah,

2 (32m 39s):
That’s a super cool one of a kind experience.

3 (32m 43s):
And that’s one of the things too that I really love about Gate. One is they’ll try to give you that authentic experience. Like when we went to China right and they took us to the park where the locals are exercising and doing their little bit of fanfare, they’ll always try to throw in something that’s really a unique experience. And I think this dinner with the local was that experience. But I wanna backtrack just a quick second. I am so shocked Kim that when you googled Fez it did not come up because when I Google Fez Morocco, the first photo that I see is actually the VAs themselves, but that’s neither here nor there on that one. But you can go ahead and see them. But just Google the images, I mean it’s just so beautiful classic city with the narrow walkways, the souks, which are the markets where you could do that shopping just as well.

3 (33m 28s):
Which again we didn’t get to do a lot in that area other than just really the leather bag that I picked up. But such an interesting city with an interesting history and let’s go over a few of the highlights of Fez.

1 (33m 38s):
Yeah, so Fez like Jamal had mentioned was actually the capital Morocco for more than 400 years. And Fez is also home to the university of, I’m gonna probably pronounce this incorrectly, Al Cain, which is the oldest university in the world as Jamal said the Fez Medina is famous for its tanneries and Medina means city. So when people say are you going to the Medina, it’s like the old city and they have like an old city and a newer city and part of the tour,

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2 (35m 14s):
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1 (36m 20s):
But we started the morning going up this hillside with our local guide and then we got a panoramic of U Fs and he showed us where we would be going for the day. He took us to the Medina. The Medina has over 10,000 alleyways. Literally if we did not have a guide you would very easily be lost. It’s like a maze in there, like everything just leads down to another alleyway. And it, it’s interesting cuz the alleys are so tiny, like sometimes I felt like I was squeezing through because of how small they are. It’s not like a an alley here in the US but all of the alleyways they led to mosques and shops and we even passed a SA stand where they had a camel hanging like a camel toy hanging in the window and they were gonna be selling camel meat later in the day.

3 (37m 9s):
Yeah, we ended up getting there too early. It was a butcher and his butcher shop is for camels. Cute. So the camel hanging toy that we saw was to let it be known that he’s selling the camel meat. I wish we would’ve gotten there an hour later and past it cuz they said that you would’ve been able to see some of like the meat and I would be really interested to see kind of like the coloration of it. But that’s one of the things Morocco aside of just like going to a lot of places and seeing traditional markets and how people get their food in other countries compared to like here, you know, you really don’t see that and I, I appreciate that very much and that was something that was really unique and exciting about Fez.

1 (37m 48s):
We also went to an authentic carpet store. They had carpets paled everywhere and again just inside the store it was just so beautiful. They had tiles, they had fountains, it was really, really pretty and they would roll out these carpets and tell us about how long it took to make each carpet. And one person works on the carpet, the larger ones take like 12 to 14 months to make by hand. And so we learned a lot about how they use like their colors and who makes the carpets and you’re not supposed to put a mat underneath these carpets where like in the US it’s popular to put mats underneath the carpets and they were saying like it helps the carpet breathe and the carpets are like self-cleaning so you really don’t have to like clean them

2 (38m 32s):
On it was self-cleaning carpet and you didn’t buy it.

3 (38m 36s):
We did not buy it. These carpets one it would’ve been a hassle to bring back. They said that they shipped it but again Brittany said one person, literally one person makes the carpet and they don’t change who makes it from the start that way they have the same stitching technique and design and everything like that. But you know if you look at a carpet or a rug that we would just buy like here in the states or maybe even somewhere in Europe for that matter, right? It’s not reversible, right? You know, you could only walk on one side. The bottom side is that harder side that kinda like keeps all the fibers and that’s not how these ones are. They are reversible and I forgot what he said, I don’t want to even call it the science behind how they’re self-cleaning, but something about like how they breathe and the material they use helps it in that regard.

3 (39m 22s):
But you know they tried to say $12,000 for one price of like one of the bigger, bigger rugs. Of course you could get one of the smaller ones et cetera. But you know, we don’t have a a home that would fit such a beautiful piece to to do such a thing. But one thing that I really found interesting about Fez that I really, really liked was, you know you’re in this old city and these alleyways and you look on the alley outside and again it’s not very impressive in terms of the architecture there at that point, right? It’s an old fortress walled city and they kept saying to us, nobody cares what the outside looks like. It’s all about the inside. And every building that we went inside of was just so ornate and well done and they’re just like, you wouldn’t think this from the outside but you go inside and it’s amazing.

3 (40m 9s):
And because it’s so compact and narrow and again classic city, you don’t really have windows. So all of the buildings that they have has its own opening to the sky and that’s really the only window. So it’s like an interior courtyard so to speak. And it’s designed to catch the rain when it rains and then it’s perfectly, everyone is sloped to actually drain out the water, collect the water. And this is obviously classical architecture and design. Before there was actually plumbing, right? In terms of what would bring you your fresh water, they needed to catch it. So they in designed their own courtyards to hold water. So every place when you entered in was at an elevated position and had a step down and that step down was where it would hold the water.

3 (40m 51s):
Now granted there’s not water there now, but just the type of thought and ingenuity that went behind these ancient and classic cities is just so impressive and really unique. You, I really appreciated that aspect of it.

2 (41m 2s):
And what was the reasoning behind making it like not beautiful from the outside? Was it some type of protection from back in the day?

3 (41m 10s):
No, I wouldn’t necessarily say so. I just think it’s like an old, you know, city. So I mean the outside is just kind of really either stone or whatever type of clay that they’re putting on the outside. So they just don’t take really care. I mean they don’t make it purposely look bad but they don’t put a lot of upkeep on the outside. But the inside of everything was just really, really well done.

1 (41m 35s):
Yeah. And while we were exploring the Medina, we had our local guide for most of the morning. So he took us by mausoleums, we went into a museum we also went into where a sultan built a building for Islamic scholars and students and staff lived there as well. And in that courtyard there was just so much beautiful architecture, design, all of that. And then they also gave us some free time so we were able to explore a little on our own. They asked us, you know, are we looking for anything in particular they could point us in the right direction. So we probably had about an hour or so to explore on our own and see if there was anything we wanted. Then they took us to lunch inside the Medina and we got some more chicken and lamb to jeans with the maza.

1 (42m 21s):
What was really nice about this tour is I felt like every time we had lunch we were s mostly sitting with cash and Ryan but also with new people each time. I don’t think we routinely sat with the same people at every meal. And so we got to know a lot of our different tour mates because we were rotating who we were sitting with, how many people were sitting at our table. And that made it really enjoyable too cuz you’re enjoying the company of the people you’re traveling with as well.

3 (42m 47s):
Yeah. And then after lunch, I think that’s actually when they took us to the tanneries, right? Yeah. So after lunch we went to the tanneries and again you can get down into the area where they have those big vats but you don’t really get to appreciate it while you’re down there and obviously people are still actively working. So they took us to this one shop of course that is selling the leather that is made down there, but it’s at an elevated position to where you can actually look down and see and really appreciate it. And I thought that was again really one of the highlights for me of Fez was because this is one of the things that it’s really, really famous for, right? And so I thought that was a really unique experience to just see this way of making leather that they’ve kept continuously through time.

3 (43m 34s):
I think they were even telling us everybody who still works down there is multi-generational of somebody who was making leather there, you know, several hundred plus years ago. So they don’t really allow people outside of that profession to go in and work in those tanneries in that spot.

1 (43m 50s):
And as we were approaching the tanneries before we went into build the building, they gave us each like a little stick of mint to smell because w your smelling the smell of the tanneries, which isn’t the best smell, I will say

3 (44m 4s):
That it is not. So yes, to be prepared for that.

1 (44m 7s):
So if you get nauseous, just be careful. But we were given mint and I was like, oh mint. And so I was smelling it and the smells didn’t bother me too much. It’s not like it’s so overwhelming you can’t stand it. But the mints a nice little refresher for your nose and your senses. So this building is like four to five stories and they sell different things on every single level. They sell leather shoes, duffle bags, purses, jackets, belts, anything leather that you want. They sell it and they have it at like four or five different stories. So we started at the top, got the overlook to the tanneries, and then we slowly made our way down cascia by a camel leather jacket, which looks absolutely gorgeous and amazing.

2 (44m 51s):
Okay. And I know you said camel leather and you’re talking about the color camel, but can you make leather out of camel?

1 (44m 59s):
Yes, it’s actually camel.

2 (45m 1s):
It’s camel leather. Yes.

1 (45m 3s):
I wasn’t talking about the color, I was talking about the material.

2 (45m 8s):
Yes. That makes it much more unique. You guys are talking about leather leather and I’m like all right, there’s a lot of places in the world that are famous for leather but camel leather now. Now we’re talking, I’m interested now.

3 (45m 18s):
Yes, yes. And so that’s funny you thought camel and we were referring to the color. No like literally camel, like the hide of the camel is what’s used to make the leather and yes other places again are famous for leather, Italian leather, other types of stuff. But again, it’s how they still continue to make it and where they make it. That adds a little bit extra unique. That’s what I think. Yeah. And that it’s camel too. Yeah. So she ended up getting herself the jacket. I ended up getting myself the duffle and originally they told cash at too high of a price. They told me too high of a price of course. And then we negotiated a two for situation of like, alright, if we get these both what’s the best you can give, you know?

3 (45m 59s):
And obviously the jackets go for more. So I got my duffle for less. But we kind of worked it out like hey, we’re both gonna be buying, what type of deal can we actually do? And I guess that is another really good tip. Anywhere where you go in Morocco in terms of like the markets, there’s no set prices, it’s all negotiation. So don’t be afraid to give them your bottom dollar and just start from there. Cuz they’re gonna definitely give you their top dollar price, that’s for sure.

2 (46m 25s):
Yeah, it sounds like Morocco is more of a hustler country.

1 (46m 29s):
It definitely is for sure. And we saw that more when we got to Marrakesh, which we go to the next day. But right after we finished with the tanneries we went outside the royal palace, so that’s in Fez. And then we ended the day walking through the Jewish quarter, we went to a Jewish cemetery and got some of history in that area as well.

2 (46m 49s):
What does a Jewish cemetery look like?

1 (46m 52s):
It was very interesting, it was very old. But they have these, I, I don’t even wanna say they’re like tombstones cuz they don’t look like our traditional tombstones, but they’re almost like rounded. I don’t know, like they’re

3 (47m 5s):
Almost, they’re almost like rounded seno tafts so to speak.

1 (47m 9s):
And all of it was white. And then they had these on the ends of the, I guess the tombstone, they had areas where you could put candles for prayer and things like that. But it was, I don’t know how to really describe it, but it does not look like our cemetery. There’s no grass. All of it is like cemented and they bury the bodies like several feet down underneath.

3 (47m 32s):
Yet the tombstones, if you want to call ’em the tombstones cuz it’s, again, it’s not like the header, it’s almost like a long above ground coffin eno taf type thing. So it’s built and stacked up above ground, but the bodies are buried below. Below.

2 (47m 47s):
Yeah, I, I just googled a picture of that and that is interesting. I’ve never seen anything like that. They’re like arched coffins above ground.

1 (47m 56s):
Yeah. And so we were walking through and I’m thinking like how do they even bury people in here because there’s no grass. So like how do you get to the dirt to then like put them underground? But it’s an old cemetery. So there are some recent people that have been buried there. I wanna say the last one was built, he showed us like in 2021. And so I, it was very interesting to see. And then they had a specific section for really sad children and babies that have passed away. So they’re, they’re little coffins, they’re like a lot smaller of course. So that was really sad. But we

2 (48m 28s):
Learn a way to end your day in Fez.

1 (48m 32s):
I know,

3 (48m 33s):
I know. It was a little bit of a downer but it was also quite interesting, right? Because you know, not getting into politics and politics aside, right, you obviously, if somebody pays attention to the news, they really hear that there is obviously sometimes grievances and issues with the Muslim world and then you know, Israel, which of course is inhabited mostly by Jews so to speak. But Morocco like I was saying earlier, it’s a very tolerant country in terms of its acceptance of religion and there is a big Jewish population that is their Christian population. There’s actually a unique history also just as well during World War II where it was requested of the Moroccan king to send his Jews obviously to Europe and if he wasn’t gonna send them, put them in the ghettos like they were doing and he actually, you know, refused.

3 (49m 26s):
And so they have a really strong history and connection with all sorts of religions, again from Judaism to Christianity and in terms of that tolerance. So I think they’re paying kind of homage to that uniqueness of Morocco within the Middle Eastern world for that.

1 (49m 42s):
So that was our time in Fez the next morning, which was day five. We were traveling to Marrakesh. I will say that this was probably my least favorite day. It was a travel day, 10 hours on a bus and we were traveling through the Atlas Mountains but we were at a high elevation and the Atlas Mountains looked nothing like the Rockies. I didn’t feel like they were impressive.

3 (50m 5s):
Well at least the area of the Atlas Mountains that we were were thriving. If you wanted to actually go higher, they do go a lot higher. And that’s the, that’s the mountain range that divides realistically the Atlantic and Mediterranean from the Sahara Desert. So it is impressive in certain areas, just not in the areas that we drove it.

1 (50m 22s):
So we did a few stops and would lunch and so total travel time is 10 hours. However, we could have gone a shorter route. But apparently Gate one states, oh they wanna take us through different areas and go so that we could appreciate the countryside. I don’t feel like this is the way to appreciate it. I feel like there are other ways to do that and I would’ve preferred to take one the shorter route and spent more time in Marrakesh or to have taken a plane and also spent more time in Marrakesh. I feel like while we were on this bus ride, everyone either slept on the bus or kind of like dozed out and it was cold in the morning so our windows fogged up so we really couldn’t see out for a few hours to even like appreciate the scenery.

1 (51m 5s):
So I will say like, you know, Jamal and I have talked about writing an email to Gate one saying like, this isn’t the best use of this day, perhaps you should replace it with something else. Cuz they usually are receptive to feedback. But anyways, we did it, we stopped for lunch. We were supposed to be getting like sandwiches. We were,

3 (51m 23s):
Well that’s what it was gonna be told to us is that it’s sandwiches.

1 (51m 26s):
Yeah. We were told you’re either getting a chicken sandwich, a minced meat sandwich or a vegetarian sandwich. And so I think most people pick, can you choose? Yeah, you can choose. So we picked chicken, well the chicken wasn’t chicken sandwiches, it was chicken kebabs, which were good. Ooh, even better. And the minced meat were like, is that ground beef? Like what is that? It ended up being like their version of the Middle Eastern dish Kafta. So I think they, they could have done a better job explaining what we were going to eat for lunch. But it was really good and it was served with rice and a salad and then they had a nice dessert with it too.

3 (52m 1s):
Well I don’t think it was Gate one who had the problem with that. Maybe it was our tour guide. Because two days before we had this lunch, he wanted to know what we wanted for lunch when we stopped on that drive day from Fez to Marrakesh. And he said it was gonna be sandwiches and maybe it was and ended up getting changed and then they just gave it out like on plates. I don’t know. But neither here nor there. Definitely e enjoyable to have the chicken kebabs for us. That was nice.

1 (52m 28s):
Yeah, we did end up in Marrakesh by the end of the day and our hotel was beautiful. It was so big. It had like seven different buildings with like the rooms and like the lobby was just grand and like luxurious. It was really, really nice. And at this point, cash and I, we decided to go and book a time slot for the next day to do a traditional Moroccan spa, which is called a Hamam. So we booked that and we went out for hookah and ate dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. So we explored the town and the nightlife a little bit. However, the hookah bar did not have any alcoholic drinks. So they had, they had a section on their menu that said cocktails.

1 (53m 12s):
Then we’re reading the descriptions and we’re like, it’s just like fruit cocktails, like mixed shrimp

3 (53m 19s):
Cocktails,

1 (53m 21s):
Fruit cocktails, like different types of like strawberry mixed with mango or pineapple. So it was, oh my

4 (53m 28s):
Gosh, not the right kind of cocktails.

3 (53m 30s):
Yeah. But you know, by the time we ended up getting in, like we were in a good location in Marrakesh our hotel. And again, beautiful, beautiful hotel. But the highlight of Marrakesh of course is there like Medina city Center where they have the evening markets, food, the snake charmers, the individuals with the, the monkeys and stuff like that. You could take photos too and all the souks and markets. But we were close enough but not close enough that we wanted to invest that type of time to walk. So we were like, alright, there’s a Lebanese restaurant that’s just down the street from the hotel really close. There’s a hookah bar that’s actually around the corner. Let’s just kind of play it mellow tonight. And obviously every time I go to the Middle East I love to smoke hookah.

3 (54m 14s):
And this was really the first place that we actually found it in prevalence. Which again was another thing that shocked me, you know, cause it’s very common in the Middle East, but I didn’t really see it a lot in Morocco until we got to Marrakesh. So that was what we did for the evening, which was very fun I thought at least.

1 (54m 29s):
Yeah. So then the next morning we had our morning tour of Marrakesh. We started at another Minera and they, they brought us to a spot that was really picked dressed and it was in front of this beautiful fountain. We got to take some really nice pictures there. And then I didn’t know what people were talking about, but people were like, we wanna see the water man. I’m like, what’s some water man? Well it’s like a traditional rocking man who sells water in brass cups to thirsty people. And so they had a water man there. We got to take a picture with him when we took a picture with him like, you pay for the tip. And he’s like making all of this noise and like yay and like shaking around like his little brass cups around.

1 (55m 10s):
So it’s like really loud and like everyone’s getting into it. So that was really cool as well.

3 (55m 14s):
Yeah. And the waterman, obviously there’s multiple of them. It’s not just one, but really it goes back to the history of, again, you know, we’re in the desert areas so to speak of Morocco. It gets hot. So back in the day before there was actually plumbing and easy access to water. He carried a lot of water and then people would pay for him to like have a cup of water. So now it’s more really like a touristy thing. Yeah, he probably still does it and sells it. Doesn’t really need to sell water in the winter cuz it’s not very hot. It was actually nice and cold when we were there, but it, it’s more of a touristy thing now to go see the watermen.

1 (55m 51s):
And then from there we went to these sedan tombs. So where the royalty were buried and again like the architecture there was just so beautiful. There was a, I would say it’s a room that we got to walk up to. You can’t enter it, but just the architecture on the inside and the carvings of the ceiling and the mosaic floors where all of the tombs are were just like so beautiful. I took a video of it cause it was just so grand and it was just really nice to see. Then we also went to an Argen oil shop and learned all about Argen oil products and their nutrients and antioxidants. And then of course we bought a ton of Argen oil products.

2 (56m 32s):
I was just gonna ask you that. Please tell me you bought Argen Oil.

1 (56m 35s):
Yes we did. We got some skincare cream, we bought the oil. Jamal got a lip balm for his lips. They also sold other things too. So they let us test a ton of their products. It was very informational. So apparently in Morocco you usually apply Argen oil to your entire body and your hair once a week after hamam, which is the treatment that we got later. So I can’t wait to dive into that, but it was a great time there.

3 (57m 5s):
Yeah. You know and it’s one of those things where people think like, oh they took you to, I mean I would call it almost like an apothecary. It really is with just making products of course from local ingredients and yeah, now there’s the skincare industry and all this stuff, but of course real medicine and things that heal come from the earth. And of course they sold this back in the day in those classic, you know, apothecaries and now it’s kind of like a touristy thing and you don’t even need to really buy. But it’s really interesting to just hear a, okay, this is what we’ve been doing since time. These ingredients are here. This is kind of what it’s used for. Almost like when we were in the Amazon Kim, right. You know, and we were going through and they told us literally what every plant had a purpose for.

3 (57m 48s):
And so argon is one of the big things there. So they were telling us everything that really they can do and the benefits of argon, which I thought was very interesting. We

1 (57m 55s):
Also, while we were in this area, visited palaces of like the grand visor, which is like the head of government. We were invited to like a mid-morning tea and cookies. So we got to explore this area quite a bit. And then they took us to like the main city square, which is where Jamal was talking about wh where the monkeys are, the snake charmers. And we definitely have a story about that because I, I

2 (58m 22s):
Have been waiting for this part of the episode because we all know Jamal always has at least a minimum of one freakout per vacation. Even though he’ll say it wasn’t a freak out.

3 (58m 34s):
Yeah. Well Kim it wasn’t a freak out. It wasn’t a freak out. And I just want to say Brittany’s been hyping this up on Social Media like it’s been a big thing and it hasn’t been a big thing. So if I may, you

2 (58m 46s):
Blocked over the, the supposed other freak out, which was the lounge situation. I let you out of that one.

3 (58m 53s):
It wasn’t even a freak out. It’s not even worth mentioning. I’m telling you she’s hyping this up on Social Media acting like it’s something and it’s not. So can I tell you guys what happened with the monkey here so we can hear my side and understand how it’s truly not a freak out? Okay, this is exactly what happened. We are in the city square, the highlight of the hustle and bustle that is Marrakesh. Right. And I was really excited to go ahead and see, you know, the snake charmers playing their little flutes or pipes or whatever you wanna call them, seeing the people with the monkeys of course walking the souks in the markets. And of course we wanted to do, you know, some shopping. So this is like really the highlight. And we had some free time as we’re first getting in there.

3 (59m 36s):
I see the guy or one of the gentlemen of course that actually has a monkey that people will pay to take photos with the monkey on them. Now the gentleman with the monkey put the monkey onto somebody else. And so I just wanted a photo of the monkey, not with the monkey of the monkey. And so I go ahead and I take a photo of the monkey while he’s on the other person. Well the gentleman who is the monkey’s tamer sees me and then he starts chasing me like, are you gonna pay me? Are you gonna pay me? You took a photo and I said, I took a photo of the monkey with somebody else, not with the monkey.

3 (1h 0m 16s):
And by the way, I’m usually for a dollar to take a photo if it’s something I want. Okay whatever. But he saw me and it’s like he forgot to get the money from the guy who he put the monkey on because I watched that whole thing play out where he came up and he did not even take any money from the guy he put the monkey on, but he sees me and I’m just gonna throw out and say it look a little bit more touristy than the person he put it on. Which looked more like a local. So I think he came to me to try to make sure like, oh he got it from the tourist, right? And so I was like, no, I’m not going to. And then we weren’t stopping to take the photo, we were actually like continuing to walk. So we were walking and literally I’m, I’m not exaggerating for good 1000 feet.

3 (1h 0m 59s):
He followed us as we were walking, hounding me to pay him a dollar. And I did not. But as we were walking, that monkey scratched me a couple times on my arm. He scratched me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he, he was walking side by side with me, the monkey’s on the tamer shoulder and he’s close to me and then the monkey’s all scratching at me. He got me pretty good.

2 (1h 1m 20s):
So he has trained the monkey to go after the people that don’t

3 (1h 1m 24s):
Hear. So, so to speak or just in general Actually our tour guide said, our tour guide said be careful. He said this before, be careful of the people with the monkeys because if you’re actually scared of them, they’ve trained the monkeys to actually mess with you more. You know what I mean? So they, god knows what they do to train with them. But that’s again neither here nor there. The monkeys scratching at me as we’re walking away and I don’t even realize until later. And finally we get away from him after he tells me to fuck off because I’m not paying him that the monkey actually scratched me. And so I say to myself, oh no, like he scratched me like you know, I should I be kind of worried? I mean it to a degree, it’s a wild monkey.

3 (1h 2m 4s):
It’s in a market area. Who knows what it has. You know, I don’t wanna get like an infection of sorts. And so Suzanne, who we had mentioned earlier, she was with us at this point in time and she was like, oh I have some alcohol, you wanna like rub some on her? I’m like yeah I definitely do. Brittany and Kasha, the resident nurses are just like big deal, whatever, you’re totally fine. He was barely

1 (1h 2m 25s):
Scratched,

3 (1h 2m 25s):
It doesn’t matter. Barely scratched. You could still get an infection. And so I was just slightly concerned and of course every once in a while I was looking at it to make sure it wasn’t red or inflamed and just me casually checking on it. Should I take antibiotic? Yeah, it was a general question, is it worse? Hey look general. Yeah I wanna make sure it’s getting worse. You know,

2 (1h 2m 46s):
Antibiotics,

3 (1h 2m 47s):
Jamal, hey precautionary measure. I bet I was calm in my approach in asking this and she’s turning it as if it’s in into a complete big deal, which it’s definitely not. So and and and then by the way, I just wanna say when we were done with Marrakesh for the day and kind of back at the hotel, I ran into some other people on our tour and they had asked me, hey what was going on with the monkey? I totally, you know, saw what was going on but didn’t you know, catch anything of it. So I told them and I was like, oh yeah and it scratched me. All of them, all of them were like, did you put something on it? Do you need an antibiotic like topical ointment? And everybody was concerned except for Brittany

1 (1h 3m 26s):
And

3 (1h 3m 26s):
Cacia and Cacia. But everybody was concerned for me except for those two. So I wouldn’t call that a freak out by any means, just concerned that I could have potentially picked up something. And that is the Marrakesh monkey story.

1 (1h 3m 40s):
Do you believe that Kim, that Jamal did not have a freak out?

2 (1h 3m 43s):
It’s really hard to believe. I’m not sure.

3 (1h 3m 46s):
Well I’m disappointed in both of you ladies Brit, for exaggerating and as I always say that she does and for you for believing at Kim, gimme some middle ground on this one. Gimme some middle ground. Like you could see it both ways at least. Please,

2 (1h 3m 57s):
I could see you freaking out in the Paris airport when they wouldn’t let you in the other terminal to go to

3 (1h 4m 4s):
The, well it wasn’t for the lounge, it was for the sushi. Which we’ll maybe touch upon that a little bit later. Cause Brittany’s gonna put freak outs on Social Media. I need to defend myself maybe a little bit later on

1 (1h 4m 14s):
That. Well no one cared about that one. Everyone cared about the monkey one. We had you guys vote on whether or not Jamal should have paid for taking a picture of the monkey Kim. You actually voted yes. You thought he should have paid to take the picture of the monkey.

2 (1h 4m 28s):
I mean you do know that. That’s why the monkeys are there because they’re getting money from people taking pictures and I’ve been around it before where if you do take a picture of it, they do expect money. So I guess I answered like that because I don’t expect you to give the money, but I know they expect you to give the money and you should know that too. It, it shouldn’t be surprising that they chased you even though like you shouldn’t have to pay for that picture. But they definitely expect you

3 (1h 4m 55s):
To, I don’t disagree with your thought process but mine on that one was one. Of course I didn’t take a photo with it. Yes of it and they expect it. So I agree. But again, like I said, he did not even take any money from the person he put the monkey on. And I think because I was definitely more touristy and not a local, he came after me for it maybe thinking I would give more than a dollar or do something. So the fact that he even bypassed the person that took it made me more adamant that I did not want to actually pay him any money whatsoever.

2 (1h 5m 26s):
I’d also be having a freak out of this like man with a rabid monkey hounding for a thousand feet. I would be starting to get a little freaked out. But you were with the group so there’s a little bit of

1 (1h 5m 39s):
Safety. Well I mean at this point we were on our own time so like we didn’t have our tour guide or anything like that at this point. So it was just, we were walking with some other people from our tour and of course Cash and Ryan. So it was definitely funny to watch. Jamal did have a freak out, no when it was the scratch and was like, am I gonna get something from this? Do I need to put anything on it? Is it getting worse? Am I gonna get it in a deadly disease? Am I gonna die? He was having a little freak out. I

3 (1h 6m 8s):
Did not, no whatever. Well let’s move on from this. That is the monkey story on it.

1 (1h 6m 13s):
But the shops and the souks, I mean these were endless. There was so much shopping to be done at the Marrakesh market. There were beautiful lamps and like tea kes and everything that you would want you could find here at the market. And so our mission that afternoon was to find a Moroccan lamp. Kasha actually bought three of them, one for herself, one for her, her kid, and then one for the person watching her kid. And Ryan packs them in his backpack because they break down pretty easily and we bought one as well for our guest bedroom. It’s really beautiful. The one thing I realized like as we were buying it, he was wrapping it and the electrical cord was going around and I was like, oh crap, it’s a European plug, not an American plug.

1 (1h 6m 57s):
So Jamal actually was very handy and switched it out for an American plug once we got home and then we ended up spending so much time in the market that we missed our bus ride back to the hotel. Oh

2 (1h 7m 9s):
My god, I missed

1 (1h 7m 10s):
The bus. Yes, because part of it is like bartering, right? And like negotiating prices. And so we were like mid barter and Jamal loves this stuff. He loves bargaining with people. By the time we came to a price, it was like two minutes before our bus was leaving, we were far from the bus, he still had to wrap them in like newspaper and padding and all of that and we still needed to pay for it so we missed our bus. But they told us that from this area to our hotel was only gonna be like two to three American dollars for a taxi. So we were like okay, if we missed, if we missed the bus, it’s not a big deal.

3 (1h 7m 46s):
Well we were given the option if we wanted to stay, there was no timeframe of when to return because in the afternoon was an optional camel ride, which we were not doing. So they were saying if you are gonna be doing the camel ride, you wanna catch that bus to actually make it back on time to do that, even if you’re done with the Medina, want to go back to the hotel. But if not, you know, we were literally on free time but we missed it. But I wasn’t just negotiating for ourselves in the lamp, it was another dual negotiation of prices for you know, cash and Ryan and the three plus the one that we were getting. So we ended up missing it by a few minutes. But no big problem on that.

1 (1h 8m 24s):
And we decided not to do the camel ride here because I took a look at some of the pictures Gate one had offered or from the, or had said what the tour was called for the camel ride. And I looked to see the landscaped and I wasn’t as impressed And we had just done a camel tour when we went to Dubai and that was like probably one of the best camel riding experiences you can get other than like doing it in front of the pyramids in Egypt. So we decided to pass this time we’re gonna save it for another adventure since we’ve done it in the past. And so that afternoon is when cash and I decided to do our heram. The boys did not wanna do a heram together. Ryan and Jamal were just like, count us out, we’ll be drinking some beers by the pool.

1 (1h 9m 4s):
But cash and I were like let’s go for it. We’re here, let’s try it. It was super interesting. We had a very interesting experience. So we were brought into a locker room, the two of us. We were given a towel flip flops and then a G-string thong and we put it on, we were told to go into like a steam sauna, like so very wet steam sauna. And we were told to go in there for five minutes. By the end of the five minutes we were dripping sweat. We probably dripped out like a pound of sweat while we were in there dripping wet cash. And I were like, it’s definitely been more than five minutes. So she was like, I’m gonna peek my head out and find out like what our next step is cuz like they weren’t communicating with us what the process was.

1 (1h 9m 49s):
So she pops her head out, she’s like, I think we’re done in here. They’re like, oh okay, we’ll be with you in a minute. So from the steam sauna they took us into two different rooms and imagine a room that in the middle instead of a massage bed they have like a stone platform and around the platform like around the edge is kind of like a shallow inlet where like if you were to put water on it, the water would drain. So they told me to get up on this stone table essentially and they like pat it all wet, the room’s like very wet, you get on top and they wet you down and then they scrub you with a soap and they put that on us for about five minutes laid there with that on, they rinse that off, they scrub your entire body to get all of your dead skin off.

1 (1h 10m 33s):
Then they put on like, I wanna say probably like an AR oil type of situation. It was very silky, very smooth. Then they had that soak for a few minutes, they rinse that off. Then they did like a mud clay mask on our body, which they had us sit on for longer. And then she washed my hair and took that off as well. But it, the only time that they communicated with us is like when to turn over cuz you’re like turning from your back to your front and they spray you cashew was like, I felt like I was getting water boarded because they’re just like water all over you. They have this like sprayer, they’re just like spraying you down. They’re like not telling you what’s coming. So like you’re just lying there on the table and you’re trying to have like a relaxing experience and then all of a sudden water is in your

2 (1h 11m 18s):
Face. Did you have your eyes closed? So you really couldn’t see it.

1 (1h 11m 21s):
I had my eyes closed for a lot of the time because water was like consistently getting in my face. And then she was like, okay, sit on the side of the table. And then after that she like washed my hair and like put AR oil in it and all of that. So it was a very interesting experience. If I were to equate it to an a Korean spa, I think I liked the Korean spa experience a little bit more, but I wanted to try it because we were there.

2 (1h 11m 45s):
And what was the cost?

1 (1h 11m 46s):
It was 60 US dollars. Okay,

2 (1h 11m 50s):
That’s not too too bad,

1 (1h 11m 52s):
Right? The experience was an an hour. So I was like okay. And then when we were done with that they brought us water, they had us like L lounge for a few minutes in our robes and they were like, okay. After that they were like okay, you’re done. Then we met up with Jamal and Ryan and we decided to walk back to the market for dinner. On our way we actually passed a K F C and McDonald’s and we wanted to check out like the interesting things that they have on their menu that we may not have in the US at McDonald’s. They had these like Gouda cheese bites sounds good that were like deep fried. So we tried things like that and then we walked into the Medina at night, which is a whole nother experience because there there’s just so much more action.

1 (1h 12m 32s):
It’s so much more crowded and lively at night as well.

3 (1h 12m 35s):
Yeah you definitely want to see it at night. And we thought to ourselves, okay, you know the McDonald’s K F C since we’re passing it, see what’s unique, have a little snack, maybe eat in the Medina for dinner. But we weren’t able to find anything that intrigued us and they don’t serve alcohol anywhere in the Medina either. Which again, we figured that out a little bit later that there wasn’t even really, you know, one spot that we were able to find. But just exploring that night is so unique. The liveliness of it all the food vendors that are actually out there, everyone just strolling through the shops really crowded. It’s a unique experience that needs to be seen. Like seeing it during the day isn’t enough.

3 (1h 13m 15s):
You need to see it. You know, at night, I

1 (1h 13m 17s):
Think Marrakesh was my favorite city that we visited on this entire trip, but we still had one more day in Morocco. And so that last day was Sunday day seven where we traveled to Casablanca and we had a city tour there. It took us about three hours with stops to get to Casablanca. We saw the beautiful Cornish seaside and there was actually a McDonald’s there that had a prime ocean.

2 (1h 13m 41s):
Ocean. Oh I saw that in your, on on the stories that you posted on the Squad podcast. That was beautiful. It looked like a luxury restaurant.

3 (1h 13m 48s):
It really was. I mean one, the interior was really nice, the seats that they had, it didn’t feel like a typical fast food place. I mean it was really nice seats, nice benches. And then you go outside and there’s a beautiful deck that you can sit on with an Atlantic Ocean view. I mean how can you complain? I mean this was like five star McDonald experience right here just with the ocean view with it for that. And so we just kind of did that because they stopped us in this area for like lunch. Lunch. So we had an hour and a half on our own and there was lots of other restaurants to eat there if we wanted to. But just really kind of exploring that seaside area of Casa Blanca. And a lot of people think ah, Casablanca, they know that name from the movie, think it’s really famous.

3 (1h 14m 33s):
But Casablanca really doesn’t have a lot of history. It’s a big city but there’s not really anything of historical value that’s there. So it’s wasn’t really too much to do in that area other than just explore the seaside area. Yeah,

1 (1h 14m 48s):
I would say Casablanca is the most modern area. It’s like the only city that we saw, like people walking dogs down the street or like jogging, things like that. Like things you would normally see here in the US like in a big city. So it would be the city if you were to go, it’d be easy to live there versus some of the other cities that we were in. But after lunch we wanted to do a tour of the mosque called Hassan ii. And it wasn’t included by Gate one, it was only $13 per person if you were paying in rocket money or $14 a person if you’re paying in us. So we decided did you do it? And we were getting a tour of it, but it is the largest functioning mosque in Africa and it’s the seventh largest in the entire world, the Minette.

1 (1h 15m 31s):
So that tower where the call of prayer is coming from is the world’s second largest tower at about 689 feet tall. And the mosque overlooks the Atlantic ocean and part of it is actually built over water as well inside it can hold like 20,000 people and on the grounds can hold like another 80,000 people. Very luxurious, very beautiful. It even has heated floors in the winter

3 (1h 15m 58s):
And an retractable ceiling so they can open up and see the night sky during like the evening prayer. So this was built relatively new, it was just completed what they said 1993 Yeah is when they completed it. But it is one of the highlights to see if Casa Blanca. So obviously it is still functioning and why it’s not included by Gate one is because you just don’t know what time you’re going to arrive. Right? And you know, during non prayer hours they will open it up for tourists to see one of the few mosques that they actually allow people to go into. But it is just so beautiful on the inside in terms of the ceilings that they do all hand carved into like Moroccan cedar that comes from the Atlas mountains, the stonework, the bottom level that they have, which is actually the cleaning and washroom areas and the fountain that they have for it.

3 (1h 16m 53s):
I mean I, it was just so beautiful. You walk inside, you would think you were literally in a palace.

1 (1h 16m 58s):
Yeah, it does look like you’re in a palace. And they were talking about when the king comes to visit, they have them, him come through like these big double doors that like open up like a book. They have the retractable ceiling open and down like the middle walkway, there’s these little inlets for water to fill. So he would be walking down the path with the water on the side and the water is then reflecting the color of the sky. So it like almost looks like you’re walking on water in a sense. So it’s just like very grand. So we learned a lot about the history of the mosque and how it was created. They were even saying like the ceilings, Jamal was talking about how like beautiful and intricate they were. They didn’t take the wood and like carve it and then put it up.

1 (1h 17m 39s):
They carved the wood in place so people were on like ladders and to complete a one by one meter section, it would take one person four days to complete just that area.

3 (1h 17m 51s):
And that was honestly really the highlights that they there was of Casa Blanca, again a really modern city. So you can see a lot of stuff that’s modern there, but because of like historical value, that’s really the highlight of that oceanfront promenade as well as the mosque because of its significance. But that was our final day. And then that evening we had our farewell dinner,

1 (1h 18m 15s):
But between the farewell dinner and this tour cash and I decided to treat ourselves to a massage after the Hamam. Well we did the hamam, which didn’t include a massage. So then we decided to do just a massage while we were in Casablanca. That was a whole nother experience. So I gotta tell you guys about it cuz it was, it was wild. So we decided to book an hour. We were taken to two different rooms. I was asked to go in first. So I went into my room and it’s a room with a shower. So I get in there and my masseuse is in there and she like essentially just tells me to undress. So I start to undress and she stays in the room with me, which usually they kind of step out, you know, and then come back right when you’re on the table.

1 (1h 18m 57s):
So I’m undressing and she goes shower, I was like, oh, okay, there’s a shower in the room. So I turn on the shower, she hands me some body wash. I get in and I, you know, give myself a little whi rubdown. I’m like, okay, maybe they just want us nice and clean before we get onto the table. So as I’m in the shower, she actually leaves the room, she hands me two bottles of the body scrub. So I’m thinking, do I wash my hair? Do I wash my face? Like what is the process? But she had left the room at that point, so I didn’t know. So I was like, I’m just gonna go with just my body, leave my hair and makeup in place. So turn off the water. She comes back into the room, she hands me a towel.

1 (1h 19m 37s):
I get up on the table and usually when you have a massage, you know they put a nice sheet or towel over your body when they’re not working on it. I am laying their bare ass up in the air and she starts massaging my legs and she is like done both of my legs. And at that point then she decides to put a, a little towel over my butt, but she had like gotten onto the table to massage my legs. Like she was like in it and I’m just like, booty up. I’m like, okay. She had lit these candles in the room and all of that and it’s a full body massage at the end when she gets to my head, she does like my temple, but she doesn’t do my hair. And it was a very nice massage.

1 (1h 20m 18s):
I will say the massage itself was very, very nice. But at the very end I have all of this very thick oil on my body. And so I’m thinking I don’t wanna get back in my clothes with all of this oil on. And I wanted to rinse. So then at the end she says shower. So I’m like, okay. So I go back to the shower I already use, I turn it on and then I feel a hand reach beside me and she grabs like th there’s a overhead shower and then a handheld shower. So she turns on the function for the handheld and she has me hold it. So I’m holding it. And then she grabs the body wash that she had given me earlier and Kim, she decides to lather up my entire body and bathe me.

1 (1h 21m 0s):
And she’s literally on her knees, her head is like right where my butt is and she does like my entire backside. Then she tells me to turn and then she’s looking straight at my vagina, laddered right me up, does the boobies and all and like completely has bathed me and then takes the handheld shower from me and tells me when to turn around as she’s spraying down, serve the shower. It was full service. So I leave and I had gone into the room first. So I get into the lobby and I’m waiting for Kasha and they’re like, oh, she’ll be out in five minutes. I’m like, oh okay great. So I get a text from her saying Hey did you shower?

1 (1h 21m 40s):
Or like, what am I supposed to do? So I’m like, I was showered, I didn’t have a choice. So then she comes out and then I find out she didn’t shower before because when they asked her shower at the beginning she goes, oh no I’ll do it after. But then when it came to the shower at the end she goes, oh no, I’ll just do it in my room. So she was never showered. She had music in her room for half of the, the massage but didn’t have any candles. I had no music but I had candles. Like we paid for the same experience but we got one. A little

2 (1h 22m 15s):
Different custom to each of you.

1 (1h 22m 18s):
Yes, it was very interesting. And we were telling people that we were traveling with, we were talking to these two couples and they were older and the two men had booked a massage for the next day. And when I was telling them how I was like bathed and how they like massaged me up, they looked at each other like are we gonna go through with it? Or it’s always interesting

2 (1h 22m 38s):
Getting a massage in another country.

1 (1h 22m 40s):
Yes. I mean we have so many stories and Kim and we’ve kind of talked about like maybe we should do an episode on the interesting experience, spa experiences we’ve had around the, the world. Pretty

2 (1h 22m 50s):
Sure every spa experience I’ve ever had in another country has a funny story behind it.

3 (1h 22m 56s):
They’re just not as good in other countries I feel like, you know, you’re sometimes intrigued by the price but then what you get, it’s just like sometimes they’re good. Like she said the massage was good itself. But just the kind of, I guess you said it best, the funny story that comes with it there. Cause there always is one, isn’t there?

1 (1h 23m 12s):
And that night we had a dinner, farewell dinner, got to say goodbye to everyone. Our dinner was like a three hour event with several courses and it was a really nice ending to our trip. And then the next morning we had a very early departure from Morocco. Woo. We had to wake up at three 15 to get up, get ready, and then transfer to our airport to catch your flight. We had the lounge in Morocco completely to ourselves.

2 (1h 23m 39s):
They catch and Ryan fly back the same time with you all. They

1 (1h 23m 42s):
Did fly back the same time we had, we had our first flight together.

2 (1h 23m 45s):
So did they go into that lounge?

1 (1h 23m 46s):
They did, yeah. So we got them into that lounge. I think they had coffee and pastries cuz it was very early. And then we caught our flight, we separated from them in Paris at the Paris airport. And that is where Jamal’s second minor freakout took place because on our way there in the Paris airport we had eaten some of the best sushi. It was really good at a really good price. It was like 20 pieces of sushi for like 20 euros, which is a fantastic deal. And we were craving that, but the Gate that we were flying out of didn’t have that in its area so we couldn’t go through to the other gates. And it was an electronic reader of our boarding pass. And so it was like restricting us and Jamal like was having a freak out about that

3 (1h 24m 31s):
Was not having a freak out. But you know, Brit just likes to over-exaggerate things, I guess

2 (1h 24m 37s):
Pull a lot of detail. Walk us through what happened that you think was a freak out.

1 (1h 24m 42s):
Okay, so I think Jamal had a freak out because he was really craving it and his stomach wasn’t on like its best behavior. And he wanted do something like real clean, which the sushi was, it was, it was like very nicely cut meats and it didn’t have like, there wasn’t a lot of rolls.

3 (1h 24m 58s):
It was like nigiri, not the rolls, you know, the rolls pile. A lot of sauce and stuff like that. This was the nigiri. So just the rice and the nice thick clean cuts of like pristine fish and that’s it.

1 (1h 25m 8s):
We weren’t allowed into the other lounge because it’s in a different terminal. And so we were looking forward to this and because he wasn’t able to get it, like he was like pretty bummed out and like this so stupid like the airport, airport won’t let us. And like you could tell he was visibly in a bad mood and we were looking to see what other food options were in our terminal. And it was all like really not appealing options to us. And I think like for him to see that and knowing that Cash and Ryan got to go into the terminal with the sushi, he was really bummed out.

3 (1h 25m 38s):
I was disappointed. I mean we were talking since the moment we had that sushi on our flight from Paris to Morocco originally all four of us were talking about, oh, when we’re back in Paris, we’re gonna get sushi. So I’m sitting here thinking for seven days in one week here that I’m gonna be getting that sushi. And then it’s just like that major disappointment. But again, wouldn’t call it a freakout.

1 (1h 26m 1s):
Well, I really enjoyed this trip. I, I think we had a really great time. It was really nice to go. And we’re really sorry that you weren’t able to go Kim on this one. But while we were there, cash and I have been traveling for a few Januarys in a row, so we’ve decided where our next vacation is and although we’re not going in January, Kim, you’re joining us on that. And we decided, well actually Kasha decided we’re going to Bali in 2024. Yeah,

2 (1h 26m 25s):
Bali is one I can get behind the beaches. Alcohol is there Good islands vibes. I’m, I’m here for this one.

1 (1h 26m 33s):
And I think this tour was really good. It’s the perfect amount of time for someone who wants to get a feel of Morocco but not spend a ton of time there. They do have longer tours, so depending on what you want, you could get a different experience. If I were to go back to Morocco, I would visit the Sahara Desert and I would also visit the famous Blue City. But I feel like otherwise I am good on what I experienced in Morocco.

3 (1h 26m 59s):
I agree with Brit, except I’m gonna throw in one more thing of what I wanna do in Morocco, other than those two that she mentioned. I wanna go to Tangi, which is their northern most main city or more populous city that they have. And that’s one of the ports where you can actually take the ferries across from Africa into Europe. And that’s at that narrow channel that creates the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic. One of these days I wanna sail it. So I would love to go back to Morocco to either sail from Tanger to Europe or be somewhere in Europe and go to Gibraltar, which again would be the main spot within Europe where you would sail back into Morocco. I really want to do that. Kim,

1 (1h 27m 38s):
Do you know how many miles it is

2 (1h 27m 39s):
Across? I don’t. It’s

1 (1h 27m 41s):
Like only nine miles across from the very northern end of Morocco into Europe.

2 (1h 27m 46s):
Oh wow. Well no wonder there’s row and ruins then.

1 (1h 27m 49s):
Yeah, so it was very interesting. I highly recommend this for anyone that’s interested in going into Morocco. It was a great price. There was a lot to see, there was a lot to do and I don’t think anyone would be disappointed.

2 (1h 28m 1s):
Well, on that note, we will sign off from this episode. It sounds like your trip was amazing. I’m glad that you guys got to go. Thank you all so much for tuning into our episode this week. Remember to keep the adventures going with us on Social Media. We’re on Instagram, TikTok YouTube at Travel Squad Podcast. And send us in questions of the

3 (1h 28m 20s):
Week. If you found the information this episode to be useful or if you thought we were just plain funny, please be sure to share it with a friend that would enjoy it too. And as always, guys, please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and tune in every travel Tuesday for new episodes.

1 (1h 28m 35s):
Stay tuned for next week’s episode. We have some more amazing adventures and tips in store for

2 (1h 28m 39s):
You. Bye squatty.

1 (1h 28m 41s):
Bye squatty.

3 (1h 28m 42s):
Bye.

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