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12:15 pm, Aït Ben Haddou

I am writing today from one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. THIS is the Morocco I have come to see!

Aït Ben Haddou is an old fortress, or kasbah, in quite literally the middle of nowhere. It's made entirely of mud, rocks and straw around a very large rock hill. I had to cross a stream via donkey taxi (about US$1.50) and ward off the merchants, but I'm plenty used to that by now. I've been wandering for about 30 minutes on what has been the first cloudy day of my trip so far. I am taking tons of pictures and think I might have a way to upload them if I can find a stable wireless connection here.

Yesterday was quite a day. It started at 5:45 am, with no coffee and only dates and cashew cookies (delicious) for breakfast. The train ride from Fes to Marrakech is about 7 1/2 hours, including stops. For some stupid reason I thought the train might not be crowded, boy was I wrong. Most of the way it was PACKED! So I couldn't stretch really for 6 of those 7 hours, and except for a French couple across from me part of the time, I had no one to talk to...and the French couple didn't speak any English so we were limited to Franglish.

My original plan was to take the national bus from Marrakech to Ouarzazate, but it was very chaotic and I couldn't find the bus station in time to make it...so I said F it and rented a car. VERY glad I did that, for a number of reasons: one, I now have a lot more flexibility, two, I was able to stop and take pictures along the way (the scenery was gorgeous), and three, the road was a curvy edge-of-cliff mountain road for most of the way, not exactly an adventure I enjoy on a bus. The High Atlas are 12 to 13,000 feet high in this part of the country, to give you an idea of the drop-offs we're talking about here...

My hotel here is an Ibis, standard European style, basic but plenty comfortable. And I have TV! Didn't think I'd miss that but boy was it nice to see Friends and Seinfeld this morning on Dubai One. LOL.

I'm getting cold - it's very breezy up here - so I'm going to wrap up and finish exploring. TTFN!

P.S. - The blog title is what the ATM told me as it was counting my cash. Again with the broken English!!