Hellooo...

Salaams,

"Bro bro bro, what you need to do is get some 19 inch alloys, not some puny 17 inch ones. Then you need to sort your exhaust out and get some tinted windows in too. Also some two tone paint work will go nicely..."

Yes, i'm back in Burnley (I never knew Jim Bowen was from Burnley...!!! (look at the bottom of the link...)


Well hello folks, I'm back. It feels pretty weird blogging again as its been such a long time (well it feels like a long time but it's been just over a week) but I'm sure you guys survived without me (well i worry about some of you but I'm sure your all OK)

Anyway last Friday i flew into Liverpool from Granda and alhamdulilla everything went fine. The biggest worry for me prior to the flight was weight issues (no, not personal weight but excess weight with baggage...) When i flew from Egypt to Morocco i had 37KG with me and in Spain i had added a few KGs more. Since i was only allowed 30KG with Ryanair, and it was £5 per extra kilo, this was going to be a problem. Thankfully though, through a combination of my Bengali "salakhi"-ness and stupidity on Ryanairs part i only ended up paying only £3 extra. For my main bag i only put half the bag on the scales whilst i distracted the woman with some random thing so it only weighed in at 20KG and for my hand luggage since it was 12KG and your only allowed 7, the woman said that i had to declare it and it would be £3 for this extra bag. I thought i would have to pay £5X12 since i was 12KG over for declared luggage (sorry, this is turning into a maths lesson) but nope, it was just the £3 for the extra bag...

Regarding Spain, the 4 days i had there went very quickly but alhamdulillah i had a fantastic time. It was sad to think though that all the areas i saw were once part of the Islamic empire but it was due to infighting on the Muslims part that we lost all this. One of the guides said that when the last Islamic ruler (cant remember his name) was fleeing from the Christians, he was at the top of a hill and could see all the land before him at which he started crying. Seeing this his mother replied "You cry like a woman for what you could not defend like a man". Hard hitting...I wouldn't want to mess with her.

On a separate issue, it was quite interesting visiting lots of churches/cathedrals after having visited so many mosques in the other countries. Having done so though, i have to say i'm even more disillusioned with Christianity. The churches i visited in Spain were Ridiculous - one wouldn't think Christianity isn't a monotheistic religion visiting them. In all the churches there's paintings of people everywhere; on the walls, on the doors, on the ceilings, EVERYWHERE, plus at every opportunity they have statues of every Tom, Dick and Harry it seems. So expecting to go into a place of worship, when you first enter one of these churches it turns into quite a shocking spectacle. I really don't know how you could have a "religious" experience in an environment like that. Some of the stuff was pretty shocking too - like semi nude statues/paintings, ridiculous amount of Gold (or gold plated) ornaments etc etc...the whole atmosphere just didn't seem very conducive to "communicating" with God...bring on the mosques i say!


But yes, all the traveling is over and i am back in Burnley. I was genuinely looking forward to coming back, but after a few days, this excitement is already turning boredom. Saying "there's not much to do in Burnley" is quite an understatement, but worse for me anyway is the general lack of opportunities for people leading to drugs, drugs and drugs (and all the other things associated with drugs) flourishing in Burnley. It's very Very sad, when over the last few years whenever i came back to Burnley during the holidays, and this time round coming back from my travels, the same people are on the same street corners doing the same thing (nothing). And the worst thing is they seem quite happy to be in this position. The sad thing is there seems to be very few people in the community who care about these people leading to it perpetuating and no end being in sight.

Regarding me, as i think i've mentioned i start work on 20th July in London. Although it seems a while I'my i'm actually quite busy with a few things in the meantime. Obviously the World Cup is taking many an hour of my valuable time, but i'm having to also do a very gay online course for my employer to be which needs to be finished before i start work. Plus since my Arabic books have finally arrived i have no excuse not to do a few hours of Arabic every day. On top of all this i was thinking of starting some driving lessons since i can't drive yet...and i was expecting a relaxing few day before i start work...!!

The future of this blog - yes, this needs to be discussed too. As odd as it might sI'm, i'm not actually a big fan of all this blogging business. Initially i thought all the people who blog are quite sad as why do they need to share they thoughts with random people, haven't they got friends..?? (obviously my hardline stance has changed somewhat). But i think the remit of this blog has expired since my travels have finished now. Anyway i think there's a few more things i want to say along with a summary maybe of what i have "learnt" on my travels as requested by one reader before this blog will be laid to rest. So watch this space.

Salaam,

ps, for Burnley people, this is quite an interesting read...one of the stats it shows is Stoneyholme being in the top 1% for deprived areas in the country...rest of the UK people can put in their postcode on the main page to find out about their area.

All Over...Nearlly

Salaam,

The last two days have been fantastic - yesterday was spent mainly in The Alhambra and then some other sites in Granada, and then today it was a day trip to Cordoba to visit The Mezquita and some other sites there...

But the long six months has come to an abrupt end..the internet cafe is closing so i can´t write properly and tomorrow morning i fly back to the UK...

It´s been a fnatastic six months and i think i´ve learnt a lot (not all arabic) and inshaAllah i will benefit from this for years to come, but from tomorrow it´s back to Burnley and then getting ready for work for the 20th of July...Yikes

More when i get back to the UK inshaAllah

Salaam

Blood, Sweat and Tears...Viva la Espanya !!

Salaam,

There was a Lot of blood (not mine) a lot of sweat (mine) and quite a few tears (not mine again). To explain;


Yesterday was a long day. A Very long day. It all began at 7 am when i caught the train from Fez for Tangiers and ended at 11 pm when i arrived into Granada, Spain.

It seems weird that travelling can seem so exhausting as after all, physically you´re not really doing much for the majority of the time. But for those who have had to travel long distances know, somehow or the other, it seems to sap the energy out of you. For me the main problem was my luggage. Wherever i go i´m dragging 35kg with me and after a few minutes it gets very exhaustive leading to me sweating away. Its got to the point where i´m actually ditching stuff on my travels. In Marrakesh i left behind some clothes, in Fez some trainers...etc etc..im trying to look at the funny side of it all...trying...

Alhamdulilla it all went OK though. Even though i didn´t really have much of it planned, it all seemed to fall into place. I arrived into Tangiers at 12:30 and got to the port to find there was a ferry leaving in 10 minutes. Perfect. Then when i got to Algeciras, i found there was a coach going from the port to Malaga in 20 minutes. Perfect, perfect. 16 hours after i left i got into Granada.

Ah the blood and the tears! And my god was there quite a lot of it! Sunday was dedicated to shopping in Fez, so i was just wandering from shop to shop. As i mentioned before it can get quite claustraphobic in the souk as the streets are a few feet wide and its usually full of people.

Anyway i was in a shop when suddenly i hear screaming and shouting, i look out and i see people running ans carmbliong over one another and then a guy running waving two HUGE swords, one in each hand (i exaggerate not, these were HUGE, at least a foot long, with teeth (i.e. not just a smooth blade)). I could see he was chasing someone. The guy he was chasing then ran into the shop next to where i was, followed by the guy with the swords then all i heard was two screams/groans and all i saw was the look of horror on the faces of the women opposite that shop who actually saw what was going on. And then the guy with the swords came out into the street with his bloody swords high in his hands, for a moment stood still in the middle of the street and looked up and down, and then ran down the street.

For a second everything seemed to stop. Then lots of people ran to the shop where the incident took place and there was absolute mayhem. As i went forward, the guy who got stabbed emerged from the crowd, stagerring and bleeding heavily from the head and the stomach. Somehow he just walked away and people let him. After this it all seemed to go back to normal straight away, like this was a normal thing in Fez, and the emphasis seemed to be to clean the blood up ASAP to hide that anything did happen. And then within a few minutes it was all back to normal...

I was pretty shocked to say the least. I´ve seen a few dodgy things in Burnley but this is up there with them...Anyway five minutes later, and i was walking up the same road, and i see three police men running down the road with HUGE (again im not exaggerating..these were huge as in you can´t get your hands round them huge) wooden batons. Someone was gonna get a good beating.

Obviously i don´t know what it was all about and what happened to the guy who got stabbed and the guy who did the stabbing, but the shopkeeper said it was most likely to do with drugs. Sigh. Its very sad (again) but in Fez and most of the other Moroccan cities there seemed to be lots of druggies and alcholics lying around on the streets, usually in the poor areas. A sad situation common in most Muslim cities.

Anyway i am in sunny spain and loving it. Today the weather was glorious. Beautiful. Amazing. It´s quite a change though from visiting lots of mosques to visting lots of cathedrals. Also it´s hit home i´m back in the west in terms of finding halal food and the leud behaviour of these people. It´s been a long 6 months in the Muslim lands and maybe i´ve taken a lot of these advantages for granted...May Allah protest us all


Salaam

Fez

Salaam,

Yesterday was quite stressful. I got into Fez around 3pm and got to my hotel only to find that it wasn't around 200 Dirhams as i expected, but 450 Dirhams (unfortunately for me the music festival is until today so everything has doubled in price for the week)

Since this was outside my budget i dragged my 35kg of luggage (this has by Far been the biggest problem..i don't know how i've amassed all this since i came to Jordan with 25kg and have already shipped to the UK 30kg of books).Anyway i went to two other nearby hotels but they were fully booked. So in the mid-day heat i decided tha i couldn't be bothered going to another hotel so would stay at the expensive one for one night and find something more appropriate for the next two days later.

I then went to the main souk looking for a few of the sites but ended up getting ridiculosly lost. The souk in Fez is infamous for being huge with over 9000 little paths and alleyways ging in every feasible direction. And whenever i asked anyone for directions they'd take me there and then want money off me (i refused to pay one guy for literally taking me to the end of the road...and boy was he angry!)

So i prayed maghrib in one of the mosques in the souk and then with it dark outside and me stuck in the middle of nowhere, i thought Hmmmm...how do i get back to my hotel..?? Somehow or the other i got back ni one piece and just collapsed on my bed at the end of a very exhaustive day

This morning i did manage to find another hotel which was pretty nice (OK, it doesn't have a swimming pool and fountains but who cares right)

Off to watch the football now....come on En-ger laaaaand....!!!

Salaam

ps, just to let you know that you should be thankful for all these posts...all the keyboards here are the french type (those damn froggies) so all the letters are in a different order e.g. the w is where the z is etc...so apologies if there are more typos than usual...

Meknes

Salaam,

I've been in Meknes since 2pm yesterday and will set off for 3 days in Fez after Jum'ah inshaAllah

Meknes has been pretty nice, although very different from Marrakesh and Rabat in terms of size (much smaller) and development(much poorer)

I went back to the old formula of visiting museums, palaces and mosques for Meknes and alhamdulilla they didn't fail to dissappoint again. On my Morocco trip i'm visiting the four "Imperial" cities of Marrakesh, Rabat, Meknes and Fez meaning that at one point in Moroccos rich history these cities were the capital and meaning that the grandest and most splendid palaces, mosques etc were built in these cities.

Again the attention to detail and the intricate nature of the designs in these buildings was outstanding. One of the places i went to was the Bou Inania Madrassa and all the walls were absloutely covered in carved decoration; calligraphy, geometric designs and floral patterns...if only my camera was alive...! I have taken some pictures using a disposable camera and my phone but i don't think they will do it justice...

Regarding Morocco in general, it seems like quite a contradictory place...i don't think i've been anywhere else on my travels in the Muslim countries where i've seen so much flesh, open "dodginess" and alcohol etc but the next minute guys with huge beards and women wearing niqab.

By far it seems the most "practising" country i've been to as you see far more people in traditional dress, having beards and niqab and mosque attendances are pretty high. Also it's the only place where i've seen them do things regularly in the mosques. Most of them after Asr prayer have a talk by the Imam which is well attended and after Maghrib they have congregational recitation of the Qur'an which again is very well attended (i've recorded some of this on my phone..it sounds pretty nice as the recitation of the Moroccans is quite different to what we're used to hearing from the middle east)

But as i said the above is completely mixed in with guys and girls wearing, behaving and doing outrageous things openly..some of these things i'm sure are illegal to do openly in the UK...So it's pretty wierd to see these two different and quite opposing sides of Morocco living side by side.

Anyway this is quite interesting regarding Fez, but i think i've just missed out on it...

Salaam

Rabat

Salaam,

I'm currently in Rabat, the administrative capital of Morocco, but will be leaving in half an hour for Meknes

Alhamdulillah the 4 hour journey from Marakkesh to Rabat was pretty smooth yesterday and again i got to the hotel i was recommended without any problems. As i arrived quite late, i thought i would prioritise the limited time i had in Rabat and miss visiting the museums/palaces as i was "museumed-out"

One thing i didn't know about Morocco is the diversity in climate and the landscape that comes along with this. The first place i visited was the "Chellah", a old Roman fort which now contained a beautiful garden over looking a valley. The garden looked pretty much un-looked after which i liked as it gave it a "real" factor to it. There were all kinds of plants and trees and animals roaming around. It was quite eery with lots of dark overgrown areas and to add to this there were Stork nests everywhere and they all kept making this clicking noise (much like that noise the monster makes in the All time classic film The Predator...lol..i swear that's the first thing i thought when i heard it yesterday)

The views overlooking the valley were awesome and reminded me of the countryside near where i live; a timely reminder i think

After this i visited a few of the main mosques in Rabat and the "Mellah" which is the open market you find in most towns in Morocco

Anyway my train departs soon so i should best go

Salaam

Marrakesh Day 2 (Proper)

Salaam,

Yes, i wrote yesterdays entry in quite a rush; the net cafe was about to close but i thought i might as well write something quickly..

Yesterday was a pretty good day. As i said i spent most of the day visiting some of the palaces and museums in the area. Like in Turkey and in Egypt, when one visits these buildings, the level of detail of decoration is mind-boggling. One of the palaces i visited yesterday (Palais Bahia i think) took 6 years to build using the best 1000 craftsmen from the Islamic empire. And boy could you tell.

Another quite nice place i visited was a huuuge olive garden (name beins with M...). Anyway the guidebook said there was around 15 THOUSAND olive trees in that garden so you can imagine how big it was. It was a pretty nice place to visit to get away from the mid-day heat and the hustle and bustle of central Marrakesh.

Anyway i'm off to the train station now to hopefully catch a train to Rabat, so untill next time...

Salaam

Day 2

Salaam,

Went to lots of museuems and palaces today. was nice.

Salaam

Today

Salaam,

In the words of Bill & Ted, it has been a most excellent day

Alhamdulillah i arrived into Casablanca and then into Marrakesh without any problems and then found one of the hotels i was recommended without too much difficulty

Marrakesh seems a very nice place; almost too nice as there are tourists everywhere. The thing is most of these tourists are hippies...i can't remember the last time i saw so many people with dreadlocks and tattoos...i suppose Morrocco being so close to Europe yet so different in culture is the reason why its so appealing to all these people trying to "find themselves"

The first thing that strikes you about Marrakesh is that all the buildings are pînk, or at least different shades of pink not because its painted like this but this is the colour of the material.. so that in itself is pretty cool. Also since the spanish and french have played quite a big role in its development in the past century, there's lots of areas where it feels like you're in those countries.

Anyway today i visited Masjid Koutabia, the biggest mosque in town, then i went through the souk and ended up at Masjid Ibn Yusuf and next door the Ibn Yusuf Madrassa. After this i slowly walked back through the huuuge souk, perusing all the different stalls and got back to the main square.

The highlights have been the madrassa, the souk and the square. The madrassa was absolutly beautiful with intricate carvings all around the walls, mosaic patterns on the floors, fountains, pools etc etc..also you got to see the "dorms" where the students would have stayed..you could just imagine a few centuries back it being full of students striving for knowledge. The souk stood out as it was just sooo colourful, much more than in Syria or Egypt; bright red, yellow, green, blue and it just went on and on...and then the square. This was absolute mayhem, but organised mayhem. The huge square, when it got dark, was covered with probably 70 to 80 stalls selling food, drinks, juice etc and then all around there were all these "entertainers" surrounded by onlookers...it was like a freak show with people putting 3 inch nails up their noses, people bending their bodies in weird ways, snake charmers performing, Lots of musicians playing traditional Moroccan music, old women reading your hand and telling what lies in store for you, "witch" doctors selling random stuff as cures, story tellers captivating their audience with their tales and so on...it was like a huge fair or circus had come to town unexpectedly, but thats the way it is everyday...

So tomorrow is another day of this and then after that i'll be going to Rabat for a day and then onto Fes inshaAllah.

Do dua it all works out...

Salaam,
Ps, I'm soo gutted my camera has died on me..so many good pictures could have been taken today..

R.I.P Camera

Salaams,

Got back last night from Mersa Matrouh where I had an Amazing time, alhamdulilla. It was a world away from the noise, dirt, pollution and general mayhem of Cairo. I think I went at the perfect time too as it was just before their peak season so the town as a whole was pretty quiet (and in some tourist locations, eerily quiet). But the town itself was pretty nice as the layout was planned by the British (seriously) so the roads are nice and wide, there's not too many flats etc.

But the highlight was the beaches. The main beach, Matruh people say isn't that nice, but I thought it was beautiful, compared to Alexandria anyway. The sand was white and clean, it wasn't crowded at all and the sea! the sea!! beautiful turquoise water... it was like being on a tropical island. But it got even better when I went down the coast to "ageeba" beach (I think this translates to Amazing which it was). Subhanallah.

Got shown around by the family of someone I know so alhamdulilla it was a very nice 3 days. Also ate some very nice food - since the town is on the coast there's an abundance of fish, and since I'm Bengali I didn't really complain about this. I also ended up eating squid which was very nice, if a bit rubbery. Often though I find that the simple things in life are the best,a and this was the case with food here when I got invited to someones house and ate home made felafals, bread, hummous etc. Lazeez.

But the bad news. The VERY bad news. My camera seems to have died on me. Thankfully I had taken all my pictures in Matruh, but on the coach I switched it on to look at the pictures and it came on for a bit, but then just blanked out. I thought it was due to the batteries, but back in Cairo with fully charged batteries it's still not working. So unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to put up photos of Alex and Matruh until I get back to the UK and get my camera fixed (and who knows how long that will take?). Also it means I'm camera-less for Morocco and Spain which isn't good news. Looking on the bright side, I guess this is the best time for this to happen with only a week until I return back to the UK and for Morocco and Spain I'm sure a few disposable cameras will suffice.

Anyway my flight to Morocco is tomorrow morning so today is my last day in Cairo...It's been fun but I think I was reaching breaking point with living in Cairo so it's all worked out well Alhamdulilla.

Until next time...

Salaam