Day 54 - Beware - Animal cruelty and poor busking!

We had heard that we needed to be more careful in Marrakesh due to scammers and thieves, and while we were having breakfast we met an Australian couple at our riad whose phone and credit cards had been pickpocketed the night before, only half a block away from where we were staying. 

Marrakesh was still fairly sleepy when we headed out to visit the Bahia Palace, the difference in the streets and shops is so dramatic, everyone stays up late but it takes them a while to get going in the mornings. The palace was interesting and would have been amazing in its day, we learnt that it was looted when a rival ruler decided he wanted his palace to be better.

We decided to head down to the famed Marrakesh square Jema El-Fna before it got too hectic later in the day so we could still carry our phones and money with us. We sat in a terrace for lunch while we watched the action in the square. It was quite empty but there were a few stalls and entertainers. It was amazing how many tourists went for the snake charming and the chained monkeys. We really thought people were more sophisticated these days and would stay away from acts involving animal cruelty, the treatment of the animals was not good to see.

We went back to the square later in the evening to see what all fuss was about, but it was quite different from the reviews we had read. We had heard that there were scammers and pickpockets everywhere, but it seemed fine to us, maybe it being Friday had something to do with it? It was still really busy, and there some thick crowds around some of the performers, though there was much more patter than entertainment .. just like the buskers back home. The most pressure we felt was from the food vendors who tried really hard to get us to sit and eat one of their meals.