Marrakech - Take your pick, it's a Marrakechi speciality

Marrakech (Morocco)

It's funny, the more I reflect on Marrakech the more and more I begin to like it, even though I'm sure I got ripped off on every corner, had my mobile stolen and was eyed off by ALL the pick pockets in D'jemma el Fna as an easy target it still seemed to have something magical about it.
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Knowing the dodginess of this place I did manage to spend a great night watching the sun set over the main square, sitting back drinking their main speciality, a sweet mint tea, which is 1) very refreshing and 2) more than an enjoyable drink to have even if the temperatures were pushing up to the 40 degree mark. I've forgotten the balcony where I took up residence but I spent hours just watching the square and the way that the mood of the square changed into the evening, swelling constantly with more and more people as the night drew on. It's just during the sunset phase that the square comes alive as all sorts of entertainers mark their territory and start performing for the crowd. Obviously these days it's predominantly tourist orientated but it was more than a lot of fun to walk around and check out the snake charmers, henna tattooists, jugglers, storytellers (even though I couldn't understand them, all were vibrant and animated), musicians, etc. Not only are there entertainers to draw you in but the numerous food stalls set up just on the edge of the souk fills the air with strange and wonderful smells. The foods were also quite varied from the standard kebabs, kefta and grilled meat cuts to a lamb heads broth (which was fantastic), grilled heart, lung, etc. Just walking through the food stalls and trying to dodge the spruikers is quite an art in itself. They are however good natured about it ,(the spruikers), and should you choose to not dine with them for an evening they'll simply ask you to remember their stall number for the next night.
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The only real problem that I encountered in the square were pick pockets. I understand that this is an ever present danger wherever you travel but due to the sheer number of people and the fact that the mind of a tourist tends to be concentrating on 100 other things going on around them other  rather than the idea of having their wallets / purses stolen, it makes the foreigner an easy target. So I guess I was deemed quite an easy target by the professional thieves that inhabited the square, and thinking about it, yeah, I would have looked like a shoe in. There I was, walking around the crowded circles engulfing each entertainer, camera in hand and at the ready, not looking to be even giving a second thought to the whereabouts of my wallet, but alas, I was. I think I was a little more than hyper vigilant as I was constantly checking to see if it was still there every 30 seconds (thinking back on it, I should have just left the damn thing in the hotel). In any case, I was standing on the periphery of one crowded circle, just taking my camera out and getting prepared to shoot. Now I don't exactly remember if I spun to see if anyone was in close proximity to me (which I was also doing every now and then), or if I caught someone out of the corner of my eye that felt  too close to my person for things not sexually related, or if I simply sensed that someone was in my personal space but I spun around at exactly the right moment. As I turned to face my potential thief  I'd have to say that our faces would not have been more than 30cms apart. I immediately did the wallet check and realised that it was intact, I smiled more out of relief than anything and just said to the guy 'you nearly got me didn't you, huh ?' . The young guy just smiled and casually walked away from me. I don't know if he understood  my exact words but we both knew that I had just had quite a fortunate escape. Now I don't know if it was a sense of bravado or whether I was pissed that I'd nearly been ripped again but I took out my camera and started to film this guy as he decided to stalk other prey, basically I just wanted to ask him about what he had just tried to do. As I closed in on him he just continued smiling and walked further away, still looking at other crowded circles and other easy targets.

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The fun begins
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My encounter with the Marrakechi pick pocket crew didn't end there however. As I walked away from the crowd and back to the food stalls two young Moroccan guys approached me and asked to shake my hand. I denied them their request and walked amongst the food stalls which is an area that is well lit and safer / easier to negate in terms of pick pocket threats. As I moved up and down the stalls I noticed two Moroccan guys on one side walking parallel to me, I also noticed another guy on the other side of the stalls tracking my movements also. Just to make sure that I wasn't paranoid I walked back to my starting position, turned once again and then walked back up that way I had just came. It was more that obvious these guys were following my moves and they made a piss weak attempt of hiding it. I sat down at one of the stalls for a while and these guys stopped, kind of hovering around, waiting for me to walk on. I stared at them for a little while and gave them a wry smile, showing them that I knew their game but also thinking that I was now in kind of in a difficult position. If I was to walk away from the stalls and get into an isolated area then it was going to be relatively easy for them to jump me, so I decided to sit in my spot and wait them out. I felt certain that they would get bored with the idea of trying to exact revenge, whatever their concept of revenge was going to be. I watched these guys walk into an area of the souk where they were easily hidden but could obviously keep a sight of me, if that was their choosing. F***, now I was in an even worse position. What I decided to do was head for one of the fruit & nut stalls that was on the edge of the square. A  place that was far enough away for them to have to come out into the open in order to track me but also a place that I could spot them easily if they were to make the decision of following me. I stood there for a few minutes and waited, nobody made the move to come for me, well none that I was able to spot. On reflection my thinking was that their only intention was to make me a little paranoid, which I guess worked a charm. Never the less when I thought the coast was clear I negotiated the dark  backstreets of Marrakech relatively quickly and just hoped that these guys weren't waiting somewhere to undertake an entertaining surprise on me, thankfully it didn't happen. Lesson learnt though, don't mess around with pick pockets, just give them every reason not to choose you!