Onwards from the campground - we drove into Rabat city around 8am...rush hour so it took ages and I'm sure the locals were thrilled to see the giant yellow truck :P. We drove to the embassy area where I
had to rush off to make copies of my second passport so that I could lodge it with Mauritania while my first passport was at the Mali embassy. Hopefully by Friday we'll know more about my ability to get
a Mauritanian visa...anyways...we rushed around getting cash and copies and visas...and then finally we left Embassy Land and went a bit more into Rabat. By this time I had decided for sure I was staying
in Rabat that night whether anyone else stayed with me or not! Luckily some others stayed or I would have had quite the adventure alone!!!!
So Our Tour Leader said it was no problem for me to stay in town-and Geoff heard and he and Eti decided they would stay in town too...and so I asked my lovely tentmate Jo if she wanted a night on the town too - which she of course agreed to. I must say - the rest of the truck looked quite jealous :P although they are trying to be super tough and prove that they can do the expedition travel and camp out every night. We got
lots of coments about "oh, upgrading already" and stuff like that! But I can take it - I'm on holiday and have nothing to prove to these people or myself! I know I can stick it out and camp in a shithole if I have to - but I don't have to and I'm here to experience Africa and the people - which isn't happening in a campsite out of town. So yay...we offered to do truck guard duty for the last shift since we would need to pack our bags then a group of us went off to explore.
So we wandered towards the road we assumed would take us to the city centre - armed with my Lonely Planet map and the truck driver's general idea of where we were on the map. We wandered across
a giant road and met a random Russian guy. He told us the best way to the city centre was by taxi to this specific McDonalds. So we trooped back to the shopping centre and the 7 of us climbed into 3 taxis (the
won't take more than 3 people each!) And ended up at the McDonalds. That's where I posted the last couple of posts from as there was free wifi! There was also a very lovely flush toilet!
Now - Russian guy must not really know much about the town. He sent us to Old Rabat - which is kinda boring (and Rabat in general in known and not an exciting city...so this was really blah). We had a crappy
lunch in some corner restaurant. Then we basically walked around there for a little bit before we had to head back to the truck to meet everyone and find out what we needed to do the next day to meet up
with everyone.
So once we were free from the truck we taxi'd back into town (to the right part this time) and headed towards Hotel Splendid, which the lonely planet recommends as a lovely cheap hotel. We go to check-in
and uh-oh...problem!!! None of us have a passport with us!!! The tour leader has all of our passports so that she can take them to the embassy in the morning. The hotel guy says no hotel will let us stay because they need our Moroccan entry numbers! No amount of Eti's sweet talking makes him change his mind. So we leave...we can't go back to the bus because its in the middle of the woods like 30 minutes outside town
and we have no idea where. Geoff needs more passport photos so we get some of those and Eti tells the photo guy our troubles. He's nice and agrees with us that the police can help. So he calls the police
station for us and explains our situation. They tell him to send us over. So off we head...to the Moroccan police. Now we stopped quite a few times trying to decide if its a good idea to turn ourselves over
to the police in Africa and tell them we have no passports!! We tried to call the tour leader to see if she could give us our Moroccan entry numbers but she didn't answer my call or text...so we finally decide yes-we'll have to go to the police. If all else fails we can sleep in a jail cell :P as we approach the police station Eti asks a man where it is - he is lovely and looks very concerned and asks if he can help. We say no and
tell him our problem and he says - ah yes of course the police can help us. So that makes us feel better. So in we go! The police are lovely actually! They took all the info we had. Geoff and Eti had copies of their passports, I had a copy of my second passport (not the one I entered the country on) and Jo had nothing but she knew her passport number and stuff. So he took that info and we sat and waited. And waited. And waited. All the police that came by smiled and waved and I think chuckled a bit at us. But no worries...they were friendly.
The guy came back down after like 45 mins and told us everything was ok for Geoff, Eti and me but he couldn't find Jo. Turns out he had her surname and first name mixed up so off he went - sorted that out and
even called the hotel for us to tell him we were ok!! Yay!!! We had beds all sorted and had a nice experience learning that Moroccan people are very friendly and helpful! Which we wouldn't have learned
sleeping in the woods outside of town. We didn't tell everyone else this story - but they were quick to tell us the AMAZING party they had and how they were all so drunk a few of the fell over and that they
didn't go to bed until after 4 am. But I was happy with my shower and lovely Moroccan dinner of Tajine and Moroccan wine and my breakfast at Cafe Majestic of beautiful patisserie!!!! Yum!!!!!
had to rush off to make copies of my second passport so that I could lodge it with Mauritania while my first passport was at the Mali embassy. Hopefully by Friday we'll know more about my ability to get
a Mauritanian visa...anyways...we rushed around getting cash and copies and visas...and then finally we left Embassy Land and went a bit more into Rabat. By this time I had decided for sure I was staying
in Rabat that night whether anyone else stayed with me or not! Luckily some others stayed or I would have had quite the adventure alone!!!!
So Our Tour Leader said it was no problem for me to stay in town-and Geoff heard and he and Eti decided they would stay in town too...and so I asked my lovely tentmate Jo if she wanted a night on the town too - which she of course agreed to. I must say - the rest of the truck looked quite jealous :P although they are trying to be super tough and prove that they can do the expedition travel and camp out every night. We got
lots of coments about "oh, upgrading already" and stuff like that! But I can take it - I'm on holiday and have nothing to prove to these people or myself! I know I can stick it out and camp in a shithole if I have to - but I don't have to and I'm here to experience Africa and the people - which isn't happening in a campsite out of town. So yay...we offered to do truck guard duty for the last shift since we would need to pack our bags then a group of us went off to explore.
So we wandered towards the road we assumed would take us to the city centre - armed with my Lonely Planet map and the truck driver's general idea of where we were on the map. We wandered across
a giant road and met a random Russian guy. He told us the best way to the city centre was by taxi to this specific McDonalds. So we trooped back to the shopping centre and the 7 of us climbed into 3 taxis (the
won't take more than 3 people each!) And ended up at the McDonalds. That's where I posted the last couple of posts from as there was free wifi! There was also a very lovely flush toilet!
Now - Russian guy must not really know much about the town. He sent us to Old Rabat - which is kinda boring (and Rabat in general in known and not an exciting city...so this was really blah). We had a crappy
lunch in some corner restaurant. Then we basically walked around there for a little bit before we had to head back to the truck to meet everyone and find out what we needed to do the next day to meet up
with everyone.
So once we were free from the truck we taxi'd back into town (to the right part this time) and headed towards Hotel Splendid, which the lonely planet recommends as a lovely cheap hotel. We go to check-in
and uh-oh...problem!!! None of us have a passport with us!!! The tour leader has all of our passports so that she can take them to the embassy in the morning. The hotel guy says no hotel will let us stay because they need our Moroccan entry numbers! No amount of Eti's sweet talking makes him change his mind. So we leave...we can't go back to the bus because its in the middle of the woods like 30 minutes outside town
and we have no idea where. Geoff needs more passport photos so we get some of those and Eti tells the photo guy our troubles. He's nice and agrees with us that the police can help. So he calls the police
station for us and explains our situation. They tell him to send us over. So off we head...to the Moroccan police. Now we stopped quite a few times trying to decide if its a good idea to turn ourselves over
to the police in Africa and tell them we have no passports!! We tried to call the tour leader to see if she could give us our Moroccan entry numbers but she didn't answer my call or text...so we finally decide yes-we'll have to go to the police. If all else fails we can sleep in a jail cell :P as we approach the police station Eti asks a man where it is - he is lovely and looks very concerned and asks if he can help. We say no and
tell him our problem and he says - ah yes of course the police can help us. So that makes us feel better. So in we go! The police are lovely actually! They took all the info we had. Geoff and Eti had copies of their passports, I had a copy of my second passport (not the one I entered the country on) and Jo had nothing but she knew her passport number and stuff. So he took that info and we sat and waited. And waited. And waited. All the police that came by smiled and waved and I think chuckled a bit at us. But no worries...they were friendly.
The guy came back down after like 45 mins and told us everything was ok for Geoff, Eti and me but he couldn't find Jo. Turns out he had her surname and first name mixed up so off he went - sorted that out and
even called the hotel for us to tell him we were ok!! Yay!!! We had beds all sorted and had a nice experience learning that Moroccan people are very friendly and helpful! Which we wouldn't have learned
sleeping in the woods outside of town. We didn't tell everyone else this story - but they were quick to tell us the AMAZING party they had and how they were all so drunk a few of the fell over and that they
didn't go to bed until after 4 am. But I was happy with my shower and lovely Moroccan dinner of Tajine and Moroccan wine and my breakfast at Cafe Majestic of beautiful patisserie!!!! Yum!!!!!
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