We went back to the Gold Souk again yesterday. Chase was in need of a haircut, so we stopped at the “Gents Hairdressing Saloon ” (not a typo, that is what they call them here, although most of the ladies ones are salons). I am not allowed in, so I waited out on the street. In the 20 minutes it took to get his hair cut, I saw only 8 other women, and none of them was “Western.” In that time, hundreds of men were walking around.
Our next adventure was riding across the creek in one of the abras. They are small wooden boats that taxi across the creek. At any given time, there are dozens of them cruising around. It costs 1 dirham each for the ride, although on the ride back, the kids were free! One dirham converts to about 30 cents.
When we first arrived at the Gold Souk, nothing was open, so we walked around the labyrinth of lanes. At around 11:30, the call for prayers began. There are at least a dozen mosques in the area and each one announces the beginning of the prayer time on a loudspeaker. We haven’t learned what they are saying, but it usually sounds like a song or a chant. There are 5 prayer times each day – 1 or 1 ½ hours before sunrise (now that is about 5:30), morning (11:30ish), mid afternoon (2:30ish), after sundown (7:30ish) and 10:00ish. The exact times change with the lengths of the days. We live relatively close to 2 mosques, so the early morning on tends to be a wake-up call.
About 2:00 we decided to have lunch. We actually found the café we enjoyed last time, but they weren’t open until 2:30 and they sent us down the street to another place. We ended up in a place that advertised an Indian buffet for 15dirham ($5.00). We are trying to get the kids to be more adventurous in their eating and this place offered a variety that they would eat and could get full on. The restaurant had the buffet on the main floor, but they wanted us to sit upstairs in the family room because the main floor was for men only. The food upstairs was different, including fish heads with the teeth and eyes still in! They brought us platters of the downstairs buffet meal to our seats upstairs.
Finally at around 4:00, most of the little shops were open. We were on a mission to find a specific item that Zoe wanted. She finally managed to find the item at the price she would pay. The vendors assume we are tourists so they attempt to overcharge us. Their next assumption is that since we are expats, we must have lots of money. Zoe really had to work hard yesterday. Chase also managed to complete his National attire by haggling for a dishdash.
