Driving here was like playing a video game. I wondered how many bonus points I’d get for not running over a biker or cyclist that came out of nowhere. The camels and carriages were one thing, but foot traffic in old Marrakesh felt like mayhem that could make this more fun if I was sitting on the safety of my couch, wearing VR goggles. Here, I was more cautious on my clutch.
Roundabouts lurked with many ready to lurch, narrow streets made for slim margins and the hustle of the marketplace whisked you into the whiz of this world.
Night or day, the souks of Marrakesh are vibrant and alive. Mazes, music, scents and shuffle surrounds one’s senses.
Consistency (and creativity) within the chaos at the micro level makes the macro ooze with even more character. It amused me as to how humans try to find the eye of the swirls around us. Scurrying to control what we can … if piles of incense and ingredients had found their place within the entropy, I wondered what we’d need to do to stay sacredly aligned.
It was easy for me to gloss over the Musée Yves Saint Laurent that many seemed so glossy-eyed over. Instead, we meandered through the Jardin Majorelle, a once private garden that was later opened to the public out of financial necessity.
A desert mirage of 300 plant species from five continents surrounds the Musée Berbère, an electric-cobalt blue art deco studio that was also created by Jacques Majorelle, a painter that had interests in ethnobotony, and after whom that trademark colour Majorelle blue is named.
With approximately 900,000 visitors annually, the gardens purchased by YSL and his partner Pierre Berge now rank as the country’s most visited attraction. While his ashes are scattered here, “at the age of three in the Algerian town of Oran, Yves Saint Laurent advised his aunt to change her dress”. And so, the seeds were sown back home for his illustrious influence on the world of fashion.
Amongst the dizzying diversity, central themes emerge. Be it in the species of plants within a garden or design styles within a wardrobe, we humans have ways of finding threads of commonality, calm and clarity. I wondered if/how this could become our collective superpower.
Also home to generous green spaces is the Bahia Palace. Of its 8000-sq-meters, only 1500-sq-meters and 150 rooms are open for the public to ogle la bahia (the beautiful). There’s floor-to-ceiling plasterwork, marquetry (veneering wood) and zouak (painted wood). Once a site of the royal residence, it is now another insta-worthy attraction within the Ministry of Culture.
Incredibly, in the OG decorations of the 19th century, the plaster (even on the ceiling) would have been carved with precision and delicate detail - while wet! Which made me muse what inscription(s) I want to leave on my wall. What are the threads that shine in your tag line?
Built in the 16th century to honour the sultan’s ancestors, the Saadian tombs remind us of legacies that can live on. Interestingly, these lavish tombs lay forgotten after it was walled off until nearly 300 years later, when aerial photography exposed the mausoleum in 1917.
From the corner of my eye, I too suddenly saw something. I stopped in my tracks and let the mayhem move on, then followed my gut. Souks in the setting sun are also popular places for rooftop patios, glee and grub - there’s a reason why resos are a must do in Marrakesh!
Little did I know then that Dar Essalam was such a coveted joint, and the “art of Moroccan gastronomy in Marrakech”.
So much so, that we had to return back to experience the full meal-deal with dinner and live music.
Ironically, noise, traffic and mayhem also hold space for centering experiences. I marveled at Marrakesh’s many threads and how they wove a tapestry of tales, each waiting to be told for travelers, listeners and locals to behold.
May the threads we weave within our lives create a canvas of calm and centredness amidst the constant chaos,
lol that would be friend
Thanks again my beautiful furor allowing me a glimpse of a different world!!