For those who are wondering - yes, we are still planning to push through with the book!

We’ve spoken recently to Roel, R.O.X.’s marketing head and affirmed that we will be pushing through with the Manila to Morocco book project, launching sometime towards the end of the year. We’ll also be coming up with travel guides of the cities we visited - London, Paris, Madrid, maybe Seville (definitely NOT La Linea), Fez, and Marrakesh.

When we visited Roel at R.O.X. last Friday, they had this cool installation from The North Face featuring a map of the world with a lot of free pins. The idea is, everyone who goes there can pin all of the places they’ve been to. When we saw the map, it was really full - even the Siberian parts of Russia and Antarctica were pinned! It’s really awesome to know that Pinoys have been all over the world.

Lastly, we were in Beijing recently (which is another topic in itself!) and when we went to the Bookworm, a library/bar/meeting place we met this awesome guy named Guim Vals Teruel who came up with the idea of the Electric Bicycle World Tour. He is going on a 3 year ride around the world around his electric bicycle to promote environmental awareness, and when we checked his itinerary we found out he’s going to the Philippines! He’s going to be here in around September, so I chatted him up, gave my card and told him that we’d help him during the Philippine leg of his trip. Should be an exciting event for us to be part of!

I’m already close to the end of my 1st trimester and i’m happy to report that it has been an easy ride so far. I have not experienced any morning sickness, no food aversions nor unreasonable cravings, not much pain except for occasional headaches and slight contractions (sometimes i even forget that i am pregnant, until i see my baby bump and breakouts on my forehead). For this, i have my running to thank. I guess it’s because of the active lifestyle that i got used to. We have also been watching childbirth videos and much of what is taught, i can relate to because of the running training i went through. Among these are breathing techniques, focusing on a single focal point during labor, practicing relaxation while going through something strenuous, etc.

I still try to run just to remind my body of the rhythm but i keep it short (max of 5k) and relaxed. I’m happy that i’ve been able to convince Gabby to run with me too.

I hope that the rest of the pregancy will remain worry-free!

Last November 18, we learned that I’m five weeks pregnant with a little Gablet. We were so happy when we found out and immediately announced to family and friends. We got the usual congratulatory greetings but also a lot of “then you have to stop running, Mench” kind of messages. Although those messages were really meant well, i could not help but feel a little upset. I’ve been training to run a full marathon and have been running quite regularly for most of the year. I’ve come to really love this sport and have become really passionate about finally running a full marathon before the year ends. The messages on my running dampened my spirit a bit but the fact that i was expecting was a stronger and happier emotion. So Gabs & i agreed that before we decide on anything, we will consult our doctor and get clearance that it’s perfectly okay to continue my training.

So we consulted and we we’re happy to find out that it is alright for me to continue my training since i have been running regularly anyway. It is not a drastic change nor an introduction of a new exercise regimen so it is okay to continue. However, our doctor strongly reminded me to “listen to your body always and more closely”. This should be my mantra whenever i run. This means that i should be very alert on changes in my body as i run. I have to check that i am not overexerting myself, gasping for breath and over heating.  Hydration is  very important since my body temperature should not rise more than 38 C. Overheating my body affects the baby severely. I should also be mindful of my heart rate per minute. It should not exceed 140 beats per minute. Good thing that with training, i was able to lower my resting heart rate to 55-60 beats per minute therefore, it takes a lot of effort to reach the maximum level. Although it may seem like a lot to think about, a good gauge that i’m okay while running is that i can still carry on with a conversation and not  be breathless during the exercise.

So i’ve still been running to prepare for the upcoming SIngapore marathon scheduled next week (Dec 7). I am more careful, running at what i call a “pregnant pace” and listening to my body with every step. I do my 10k runs but finish it in an hour compared to the usual 53-55 mins. Although sometimes i miss the speed, i’m just happy that i can continue doing something that i really love to do. I still have to go to the doctor for ultrasound and check up before leaving for the marathon so that she can assess if the baby’s condition is okay before giving me the green light.

With the little bundle in my tummy, i may not finish the marathon in four and a half hours as targeted but i’d still be happy with any time that i finish. I also promised to myself and to Gabby that as soon as i feel that something is wrong, i will stop and not force myself to continue. Good thing also that my running partner Eddie Liew is there to check on me during the race. And i just feel really blessed that Gabby has been very supportive of my running.

This marathon will be truly memorable to me not just because it’ll be my first but because i’m running it with my little Gablet

Below are some funny lines we heard as we were wandering around Morocco:

“Abu Sayyaf, good man, good man!” - by Mohammed the Taxi Driver after he learned where we were from.

“It’s made of leather, not plastic.” – by an annoyed leather seller in Fes after Mench bargained 1/3 of the price.

“You won’t see anything there, it’s closed.” – by a persistent boy who wanted to guide us. We resisted so he just told us that there is nothing to see where we were headed since it was closed. Huh, the souks closed?

“Konichiwa!” – by too many Moroccans who couldn’t figure out where we were from. Bad for us since the Japanese are top on their list of big spenders and we did not fit that profile at all.

“It’s impossible” – by a few shopkeepers after Mench tried to bargain with them.

“Are you students?” - by a shopkeeper after we did some hard bargaining. Maybe he thought that we were on allowance that’s why we had so little budget.

For the past days, we have been fulfilling the dream honeymoon that was but an idea early part this year. It started as a random idea that served as the motif of our wedding and has now transformed into the adventure that is Manila to Morocco. We are still in awe on how it was possible for us to have pulled this off despite having limited resources and hectic schedules. It was mostly due to the generosity of people- friends, families, colleagues and even strangers who shared not just pledges but also their time (they know that without us around, they would have to assume the responsibilities that we normally take on) and more importantly, shared the enthusiasm that further fuelled our passion for this trip. I feel so much blessed because of this and will forever be thankful.

As we go through the trip, we have written about our day to day stories and posted photos as well. You have been witness to every experience that we’ve had so far. But what we have not written is how this trip has shaped us and continues to shape us.

First it has made us realize what is truly important to both of us. We discovered that we were not into collecting stuff but collecting experiences. It was okay not to have the branded clothes, the high tech stuff nor the expensive dinners as long as we worked on making an experience happen. And this is true not just for this trip but in the way we have led our life for the past years. We enjoy meeting new people, trying out new things and hobbies, opening ourselves to spontaneity. We are particularly drawn to people who have diverse lifestyles, connectors who link us up with new acquaintances, places that have a unique vibe and experiences that enable us to meet more interesting folks. Because of this mindset, we have come to meet individuals who have made this “collection” more interesting and colorful.

We have also come to discover how we wanted to lead life for the rest of our time – to just let it flow. When people ask us if we are all set with our trip, we just say “Hmmm, more or less.” This basically means that we have fixed some parts and others are left to be uncovered along the way. And this is how we have also been, just constantly being open to opportunities, ready and agile when lightning strikes. It is different from just letting things happen to you without effort. It is an active kind of flow where you make known to the world what you are about, what drives you, what you are passionate about. It is a kind of living that is deliberate in the sense that you seek things and experiences that you love, those that make your heart sing. It is a life that is not fully planned but has a general compass of where you want it to head. Yes it is important to prepare and plan ahead but coupled with the unexpected, it gives a nuance and color to life like no other. Just like in our trip, we know we are headed to Morocco, we planned certain parts but others are made up as we go along. Things did not turn out as planned but these little bumps have made the trip more memorable.

Thirdly, we have come to the decision that we want to do this kind of trip every year of our lives, as much as we can. Now we are dreaming of South East Asia backpacking with friends next year, Central Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy), South America, Eastern Europe, South Africa, nearby countries around Israel or China-Nepal in the coming years. There is so much more to see out there and we plan to see these as we build our family. Now we are imagining traveling with kids in kangaroo packs, backpacks now filled with baby stuff and training kids to live on the road. We are also dreaming of growing old and just traveling the world all over again when the kids have lives of their own and are traveling on their own as well.

Lastly, it has highlighted that when both of us work together towards something, great things can happen. And this trip is a testament of that – a unified goal for both of us that seemed audacious at the start but is finally coming to fruition. Along the way, we have petty misunderstandings, get cranky (that’s me; Gabby just gets hungry J), get irritated with each other but we both know what we are working towards so all’s well still. We have also come to accept our differences and still working on it since this is a lifelong challenge. Whenever I feel slighted over something that Gabby does, I still am vocal about it (sometimes so much so) but I know that it happens because that’s just the way he is. And I guess he feels the same way too.

So it may just be 25 days of our lives but this trip has taught us life lessons that will continue to shape how we lead our lives in the years to come. It has fuelled yet more dreams and opened up more possibilities. It will be the experience that we will look back to as we work towards the other trips of our lifetime.

We got up early and took a grand taxi to the Menara airport, Marrakesh’s international airport. It was fairly modern and impressive-looking – although distinctly Moroccan, unlike the generic airports you come across around the world. We boarded the RyanAir flight that we booked 6 months before – finally, all of these things that we were dreaming of, we finally fulfilled them and now our trip is almost done.

Going home from North Africa to the Philippines is a 2-day process. First, we have to fly back to London, where our return tickets to Manila are booked. Then, we have to take a 17-hour Qatar Airways flight, with a 6-hour layover at the Doha International airport. So although our trip is officially done by Sunday, we don’t actually get home until Tuesday – with Philippine time 8 hours ahead of London and Morocco.

It felt really great flying back to London – our first stop in the trip. Apart from going back to the metropolitan city we enjoyed best, our good friends Nicky and Vane were there to welcome us back, and after some last minute pasalubong shopping, we had dinner at a proper Chinese restaurant – the closest thing Pinoys can get to familiar food in the Western world! After dinner and a last drink at the pub, we went back to their apartment to figure out how to carry all of our luggage home. Fortunately, Mench is really an expert at packing our stuff – I don’t even try. With some difficulty, we got everything together and managed to get on the Tube train to London Heathrow Airport – as usual, the last one approaching midnight, managing to catch it by barely a few minutes.

Now, we were around 8 hours early at London Heathrow for our flight back to Manila. We figured that booking another night at the hotel and the transportation to the airport in the middle of the night would be a lot of unnecessary expenses, so we just decided to use the rail pass we already had for the day and take the last train to Heathrow. As a result, we were there in the middle of the night – with everything closed, and nowhere to go except some aluminum seats where we would spend the next few hours while waiting for our flight. We do not recommend this experience – it’s a cold and miserable one, not being able to sleep in the terminal while sitting on not very comfy seats! But at this point we did not want to take on additional costs, and even though Mench was getting very cranky at our less than ideal situation, we stuck with it (there was no other choice anyway) until the check in counters opened at around 4:30AM.

Now we’re really on our way home. It’s time to get back to our daily lives while at the same time savor the experiences that this trip has afforded us – and share about it with others as well, to inspire people to fulfill their own dreams of travel around the world. Our Manila to Morocco trip is done!

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As we were nearing the end of our wonderful journey, we decided to take the last day in Marrakesh in stride.

We started off with nearby Koutobia, the majestic minaret towering over the medina. This minaret was very much similar to the Giralda Tower we saw in Sevilla. Since we also wanted to go back and see Jardin Majorelle in the Ville Nouvelle, we took a taxi to the modern city. The drive dropped us off first at the Artisan Center which he recommended for souvenirs. We did not find anything we liked though so we walked around the Gueliz area to find a nice place to eat.

We chanced upon Café du Poste, a nice restaurant serving modern fusion cuisine. We were greeted by a suave maitre’d who we though was more French than Moorish. By this time, we were tajine-ed out and tired of having kebabs that we wanted to have a different fare. Gabs ordered eggs and bacon and I got a fish millefeuille. It was definitely something different from what we’ve been eating for the past days and we were so happy.

We took a look at the more modern parts of the city where there was Zara and other fashion brands. Then we set-off for Jardin Majorelle. On our way there, we were approached by an old man telling us that the Jardin was closed on weekends and we should just go to the mosque since this was open to the public. We followed his advice and set out for the mosque inside the medina but later asked ourselves whether the man was just pulling a prank on us because it was kinda weird that a major sight is closed on weekends when more tourists are in town. Oh well, that’s Morocco for you.

We ended up just getting lost yet again and walking aimlessly around the medina, not finding the mosque. It was okay since by this time, we really were not up for hard core sight seeing anyway. While going around, we even got to see the actual spot where the Morocco photo that we used for our Manila to Morocco Backpacking presentation was actually shot. We just took an easy time exploring the souks and the interior medina then had ice cream while people watching.

At dusk, we headed to the terrace of the Café Argana, overlooking the Djemaa as it started to come to life. Here, we had a great vantage point from where we were able to view the amazing square without being hassled by persistent shopkeepers and wily artists who charged an arm and a leg for a photo. As we watched the scene unfold, we just felt happy to have had this experience of a lifetime. It has been a wonderful ride. But it’s time to go home. We already feel it in the constant cravings for home cooked food and a familiar bed. The trip has put a permanent stamp on us and has cemented that sense of wanderlust that has always been in both of us. But after almost a month of being away, we feel that for now, it is time to go home to family, to friends, to work, to the familiarity of our daily lives. It is time to go back to a life that we will now see with a fresher set of eyes, a perspective now enriched by what we have seen in our Manila to Morocco adventure.

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We had trouble sleeping because of the cold night, sparse accommodations (of course, we were in a Berber tent in the middle of the desert)! But we eventually woke up at 6am for a great treat – sunrise over the desert.

We got out of the tent and walked along the sand dunes. Mench and I were feeling very happy, as this was exactly what we had in mind when we envisioned our Saharan trip. We enjoyed walking along the dunes for as long as we can, taking pictures to record the highlight of our Moroccan trip. We watched the sun rise over the desert and bathed the countryside with warmth. This was the culmination of over three weeks of traveling over Europe and North Africa, the ultimate adventure of the trip we entitled “Manila to Morocco.” Finally, we felt ready to come home.

We eventually came back to our tent for a spartan breakfast of jam and bread – then it was back to the camels for our ride back to Zagora.

Riding a camel sounds like a very exciting, even romantic thing. In truth, it’s a very bumpy ride, and really hurts down there! For a short camel trek of one hour over sunset and another hour over sunrise the day after, we’ve got several body aches that would last us a lot longer than that. Our respect for the Berber way of life increased after a small taste of what their lives were like.

Our driver eventually showed up and after a short break in Zagora, we proceeded to drive back through the same picturesque landscape back to Marrakesh. We stopped for lunch at Ouarzazate, a town 4 hours from Marrakesh which was being used by film companies worldwide for its desert sets. There was yet another kasbah a museum we could check out, but we were already tired at this point – not just from the overnight journey, but we were feeling all kasbah’d out and ready to go home. So we ate our lunch and just stayed at the restaurant, waiting to go back and finally go home.

We finally got back to Marrakesh at around 6pm. We said goodbye to our newfound friends and checked out the scene at Djemaa el Fna during dusk – always a great spectacle.

We had a quick dinner and retired early for the night, to prepare for our final day around Marrakesh tomorrow – and finally, back home!

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We woke up early for our 7am meetup at Imagine Le Voyage’s office near our hotel. As it turns out, we would be traveling with 3 other couples – an Australian couple living in London, an Australian and German married couple also living in London, and a Polish couple residing in Dublin, Ireland. The company provided a minibus, along with a Moroccan guide-cum driver who would be taking us to our destination and back.

The drive from Marrakesh to Zagora, our jumpoff point for our Saharan trek was long at eight hours – but it is possibly the most scenic trip we’ve ever taken in our lives. Taking the journey was almost as exciting as the destination itself, as we were treated to the full spectacle of the Moroccan landscape. Our first stop at around an hour into the trip was overlooking the Ourika Valley, at the base of the High Atlas Mountains. There we could see the mountainside melting into the valley with shrubs and mud-colored Berber huts dotting the landscape. Then the road took us up into the High Atlas mountains. Our elevation was at around 2000 meters – and at the highest point in the Atlas, at Jebel Toubkal it stands at some 4100 meters, the highest point in North Africa. It was so amazing that we could see an arid landscape before us, but look up and you could see snow capping the mountains at its highest points. We drove through the High Atlas and down on the other side, where we could see the Draa Valley, which was once a flowing river but now nothing but an expanse of red rock. We then stopped at Ait Benhaddou, a well preserved kasbah (ancient fort) 32 kilometers from the town of Ourzazate. The kasbah had been part of the sets of movies such as Gladiator and Jesus of Nazareth, and we could see a village with ruins of the old fort and a granary. Trekking up to the top of the kasbah and back took us around an hour, and going back took us some time to find the right restaurant that we started out in, though all the restaurants beside it were also filled with tour groups. I guess getting so lost needn’t be so scary if you can still see other tourists around you!

We finally reached the small town of Zagora at around 5pm. Zagora is a town created by the French authorities in the 1930s right in the middle of an oasis, and we could see rows and rows of palm trees lined up around the area. Zagora may have been in the middle of nowhere as the jumping point to the Sahara, but it was an orderly town with wide streets and shops advertising camel and 4×4 treks into the desert at every turn. Desolate it was not. We loaded up with drinking water and took our bathroom breaks and set off for the desert.

The driver took us a few kilometers from the town limits and set us off beside the road, where our camels along with the Berber guides were waiting for us. Leaving our bus behind, we were guided to our camels (who were tied to one another caravan-style) and rode up their backs. Then the guides got the camels to stand up, and off we were for our sunset trek into our Berber camp in the middle of the desert.

The camel ride was an extremely bumpy one, but it was also very exciting as we were taking what would be the highlight experience of our Moroccan journey. We finally got off the road and were taken to some well-worn paths which seemed to be used by Berber locals. We converged with a few other camel-riding tourists, and after an hour of riding the sun was already receding. Finally, we saw dunes of sand and a few large tents propped up. This was our desert camp!

Our Berber host (whose name, not surprisingly was Mohammed) gave us some Berber whisky (actually tea), and told us more about Berber culture. They have no schools, but each Berber comes to know about four or five languages, maybe more as they interact with tourists from around the world who want a taste of the Sahara desert. A Berber guide starts out knowing Berber, but eventually picks up Arabic, French, a bit of Spanish, halting English, and who knows what else! All without no formal schooling. Then Mohammed invited us outside the tent for some prime time Berber entertainment – Berber telly, a.k.a. watching the stars.

Now, stargazing may seem campy or boring to some – but in the Sahara not only is this your only form of entertainment, it’s actually quite an exhilarating experience. We were treated to a cloudless sky with no moon as the entire sky was lit up with stars that you could never fully see when under a city. All of us were lying down in the cold Saharan night, just looking out for shooting stars (which were fairly easy to find) and admiring the beautiful night sky that you don’t see or appreciate for most nights in a year. It was very beautiful, and for such a static experience, could be the highlight of our entire trip.

After a while, dinner came – chicken tajines cooked into a bowl large enough for our group of eight. We had our dinner, and there was nothing else to do but admire the Saharan night sky one more time and then we tucked into our own little corner of our Berber tent, pulling the blanket over our heads to fight off the cold as we slept for the night.

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Since there was not much to do in Casablanca, we opted to take the earliest train at 6:50am. It was raining when we stepped out of the hotel and we just had a few minutes before the train’s departure so it was a bit of a frenzy again for us. We got to the train station in the nick of time and was able to get tickets to Marrakesh. It felt (yet again) like a scene from the Amazing Race and we were just relieved to have made it again.

The train to Marrakesh took 3 hours. When we got to the train station, we were welcomed by a very interesting and well-designs station, a fitting start for our Marrakesh experience. Before heading to the medina to look for hotels, Gabby suggested we fix our Sahara trip first at the Ville Nouvelle (modern part of the city). He found a company organizing Sahara expeditions and told me it was near the Jardin Majorelle, one of the famous sights of the city. So off we went to look for this office.

At Jardin Majorelle, I learned that Gabs knew which street it was located but did not really know hot to get there from Jardin Majorelle. He just suggested we go around the area and look for the place. By this time, I was already getting a bit irritated because I was lugging around a big bag on my back and was asked to go around and look for the expedition office, without any idea where exactly to start. What was more annoying was that Gabs did not want to ask for directions! When I insisted on asking directions, no one knew where the damn street was! So fuming mad and tired, I told Gabs that I will just stay put where I was (beside a not so nice gas station) while he goes around looking for the office. It was a residential area and I told Gabs that I don’t think the office is even located in the area – word I ate after he came back and told me he had found the place.

No wonder we could not find it as easily, the office was located in a house with a small sign that you would surely miss if you weren’t looking that hard. (This was our first and only argument throughout this trip so I wanted to share just so you can also see that it’s not all rosy J).

At the office, we were told that we could fully appreciate the experience if we spent at least 3 days which will cost us at least 350euros each. We did not have both, time and money, so we just thanked her and decided that we will just do the Sahara trip from scratch and then we’ll figure it out along the way.

So we headed then to the medina to look for a hotel. Just like in the previous cities we have not booked accommodations in, we had a list of places to check out. We first checked out Hotel Foucauld. The hotel is near the bustling Djemaa El Fna, where all he craziness that is Marrakesh happens. The room was okay and had hot shower. The price including breakfast was at 350dirhams, within our budget so we took it since we could not wait to explore the sights.

We went straight to Djemaa just to have a feel of what the place is like. There was not much going on since the square usually came alive at dusk. So after a yummy orange juice, we set off to explore the inner parts of the medina.

We noticed that unlike Fes, which had an older, rawer marketplace/souq, Marrakesh had a more tourist- friendly, organized one. Goods are zoned just like in Fes but here, it is more distinct and differentiated. There was an area for carpets, babouches, leather, spices, pastries, nuts and dried fruits, ceramics, colorful shawls, woven cloths, antiques and a whole lot more! There also is a smattering of food stalls serving steaming soup, mint tea, grilled meat and fresh bread. Just like what guidebook says, Marrakesh is really a feast to the senses and that is just a little whiff of what is in store.

After checking out the souks, we decided to just get lost. In getting lost, we found one of the sights that we wanted to see, Musee de Marrakesh. Here we saw Moroccan architecture at its finest. Beautiful tiles and arches, detailed woodwork, fancy fountains and even hammams were up on display in this quaint museum. We also saw artists’paintings, rich fabrics, traditional Moorish garb and other artisan works.

After the museum, Gabs decided to search for the bus station to check on time skeds for trips to the Sahara. Since he did not want to constantly ask for directions, he decided to just trust a young boy to guide him. Apparently the boy did not even know where to take him so we just walked and walked into the inner parts of the medina until I got tired and a bit anxious. So I told Gabs I was heading back and didn’t want to follow the boy anymore because who knows where he will lead us. Spat number two for us, hay. Moral of the story is to just ask information offices or if not available, police or shopkeepers.

After this episode, we went back to the square in time for dusk. The crowd was not as thick as we expected, maybe because of the slight drizzle. But the show was still a sight to behold. There were snake charmers who tried to charm you to give them some dirhams, Gnaoua musicians who charged so high for a photo, story tellers, lunatics stealing the scene, bands playing and fortune tellers. But what was really interesting were the food stalls that were set-up in the square laden with steaming bowls of snail soup, smoke from grills, big pots filled with broth and what have you. What was most striking though was how the “chefs” and waiters outdid each other to give onlookers a show as they tried to entice people to choose their stall over another. Our waiter even told us that he was the guy in the Lonely Planet photo. Be careful though as they charge so much extras by giving a lot of appetizers and serving more than what you ordered. Be prepared to be a bit stern even if they sway you with their antics. This we learned the hard way when we got our bill amounting to 205dirhams, expecting to pay only 100dirhams tops. Oh well, it was quite a show but a bit expensive at that.

Stuffed with all that we ate, we took a short stroll before heading to our hotel. As we were passing through a busy street, we saw a sign for the Sahara expedition group that Gabby had been contacting for the past months (they never replied though). The group is called Imagine Le Voyage. As we were looking at the sign, we were immediately approached by a man who directed us towards their office. We booked our trip for a 2days 1 night trip to the Sahara that was scheduled to leave 7am the next day. We were so happy we chanced upon the signage before calling it a day because otherwise, we would’ve done it on our own. Very serendipitous indeed, just like much of what has been happening to us for the past years. So we happily went back to the hotel, excited for the desert trip the next day.

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