Exotic Destinations: The View from Fez, Morocco
1 Comment »9th March, 2007; Category: Exotic Destinations
Over the last few days I have been searching the internet for blogs featuring exotic destinations. These have focussed this week on Morocco in the north west part of Africa. My wife and I would love to travel to exotic destinations like this but at the moment it is but a dream. (Update: in December 2011 this dream came true. Check the archives for posts and photos about our experiences.)
The View from Fez is a blog which has six different contributors. Fez is the third largest city in Morocco with a population of nearly a million. This blog, like so many of its type, has many beautiful photos, well worth the time lingering over them. But this blog is far more than the photos.
It includes a wonderful array of impressions of life in Morocco. It features the people, the culture, the customs and the festivals of this fascinating city. It also has hints for tourists and articles about what to see.
Links:
- Fez, Morocco – the Wikipedia article on the city
- The View from Fez – a blog about Fez, Morocco
- My Marrakesh – another blog from Morocco
- Travels in Nepal – my travel experiences in Nepal
- Travels in Thailand – my travels in Thailand
Exotic Destinations: The View from Morocco
Yesterday I wrote about my wife’s dream of travelling by train from Marrakech to Casablanca in Morocco. I thought I’d do a little virtual exploring of this wonderfully exotic destination.
The View from Morocco is a blog that takes an eclectic look at life in Morocco, a look at all its fascinating mysteries and beauties from shopping though to trekking in the mountains. It includes wonderful photos, hints for the traveller, places to go and see and even recommended restaurants to visit. Goodness – it even includes such diverse things as cycling in Morocco through to genuine Moroccan recipes!
Someday I hope we get there.
UPDATE: in December 2011 our dream came true. Check the archives for articles and photos about our trip.
Links:
- Travels in Thailand – from my journal written during my trip to Thailand.
- Travels in Nepal – from my journal written during my trek in the Everest region, visits to Chitwan National Park and impressions of Kathmandu.
- My Marrakech – a blog about lifestyle and design in Marrakech, Morocco, including beautiful photography.
Exotic Destinations: Marrakesh, Morocco
On my only trip overseas I visited both Thailand and Nepal. Both were wonderful in their own ways and they were culturally overwhelming places for a first time visitor. I thoroughly enjoyed my first, and hopefully not last, foray into other countries and cultures.
My wife and I often dream of visiting some very exotic places. We love watching the several travel programmes currently shown on local television. Armchair travelling is by far the cheapest form, followed closely by vicarious adventures via books and magazines (but not expensive if borrowed from the local library).
This is where the internet can be so useful. One can instantly travel to so many exotic and wonderful destinations with no cost, no danger and no inconvenience. Mind you, it isn’t quite the same as being there, but still very enjoyable.
One blog I recently found was a wonderful site called My Marrakech. It’s about lifestyle and design in Marrakech and has some beautiful photographs to complement the writing. Well worth a visit.
Morocco is one country my wife would love to visit. Her dream is to travel by train from Marrakech to Casablanca. Sounds wonderful. Perhaps one day we will make it. I’ll just have to keep on writing so I can take her on the journey of her dreams. UPDATE: This dream came true in December 2011. I’ve written extensively of our experiences and shown many photos of our time there on this site. Check the archives.
Links:
- Travels in Thailand – from my journal written during my trip.
- Travels in Nepal – from my journal written during my trek in the Everest region, visits to Chitwan National Park and impressions of Kathmandu.
- My Marrakech – a blog about lifestyle and design in Marrakech, Morocco, including beautiful photography.
Happy First Birthday!
No Comments »6th March, 2007; Category: General
This blog is officially one year old today.
Happy First Birthday to my travel blog.
It has been an interesting journey of discovery, frustration, elation and a very steep learning curve. This blog commenced while I was staying with my son and daughter-in-law in Sydney last year. We were having a short holiday there and Simon did all the technical stuff setting up my three blogs. He still does all the maintenance on our blogs.
Thanks Sim’.
What have I learned?
- Connecting: The writer’s life can be lonely at times – but on the positive side, I’ve made many contacts with people all over the world through their comments and links to this blog and my other sites. Thanks to all of you.
- Selecting: The blogging world is an interesting place to live in; there are many wonderful writers who are forward looking in their thinking and express that in their writing. There’s just not enough time in each day to read it all, so one has to be very selective.
- Focussing: The writer’s and blogger’s life needs to be very focussed on the task at hand. The internet can be a huge distraction and hours just fly off into the unknown leaving little time for the real work of actually writing.
- Absorbing: There are so many things one needs to learn how to do to make the writer’s life and one’s blogging ventures successful. At times I felt like a giant sponge soaking up all the information about this new venture. Putting it all into practice was a challenge. Sometimes, like the sponge, I felt so bloated; at other times all wrung out and dry.
- Rewarding: Being able to write over 900 blog posts for the last year has been very rewarding, giving me a great sense of achievement. Having a readership in the many thousands every month has its own rewards, especially when people connect via comments, some returning frequently. Receiving my first payment from my blogging was another reward and, though modest at this stage, it is a start.
So there you have it.
Happy First Birthday.
Reader’s Questions:
- How long have you been blogging?
- What have you learned from writing and blogging?
Buildings in Kathmandu
Building in Kathmandu
I was fascinated by the great variety of buildings in central Kathmandu. This was another to catch my eye and have my camera trained on it. I was puzzled by the brickwork where the grey building in front of me met the red brick building on the left. It is best viewed enlarged (click on the image).
It seems that the grey building, by its style and ornate decorations, is from an earlier era. Part of this building seems to have collapsed at some stage, possibly during the earthquake of 1934. The red brick building appears to be a more modern building, more functional than beautiful.
Notice the spaghetti tangle of cables in the lower left hand corner of the photo.