Sunday 19 November 2017

Ouarzazate

Before we head into Ouarzazate we take a drive out to the fortified red-earth city of Aït Ben Haddou, a restored village. Paid for by the close by film studios. A bit of a let down hundreds of tourists crawling all over it like ants. Took a photo and turned around. Not until we'd been accosted by the usual Berber tat seller.
Marie picks up some ear rings, the price is 800Dh. Marie decides she doesn't want them at any price. As we're walking off the price drops like a stone to 150Dh. He just can't grasp the concept that it's nothing to do with the price. We just don't want them. We're just not programmed to deal with this haggling and the (in our minds)  insult that offering ridiculously low prices conveys. I'm sure westerners get used to it, as would we, but even after a month of this we still struggle.
So off to the film stuios. A bit weird to be honest. The first one, Atlas, doesn't seem to have produced much since the early 90's. The sets are remarkably intact, given that they're made of plaster, wood, expanding foam and mud🤔😂
The second one we go to is a bit more impressive, you drive to a castle used for some Game of Thrones episode's. It's pretty impressive, there's some full size trebuchets which look like they could be functional.










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