Diary Entry II; A 2 night-3 day experience in the Sahara featuring Morocco Expert Tours.

Bonjour b*tches, Sahara edition.

(Fun fact: Although the main spoken language in Morocco is Arabic, the second unofficial language is French. Since Arabic causes my writing to be typed the other way round, I welcomed you in French. #SorryNotSorry)

This post is dedicated to my 2 night-3 day hectic experience in the Sahara, featuring my lovely collaboration with Morocco Expert Tours.

Morocco is super Instagrammable. With colourful buildings and doors to pose next to, to literally a sea of orange sand to frolic in. I’m just kidding, I’m not that shallow. Morocco is bursting with history and culture (e.g. 70% of the population are Berbers and it’s one of the world’s largest producers of illicit hashish – yes, I went with that fact). Its natural ambience and architecture gives you the feeling that you’ve time-traveled to another era. I personally felt like I was starring in Aladdin, but I’ll try to not be as basic and base my views on Jasmines P.O.V.

Morocco Expert Tours

So, being a SM addict who saw all kinds of pretty pictures of people in the Sahara desert, as well as having a keen interest in exploring all corners of this planet earth, I was dying to get on a camel and roam the sands of the Sahara.

However, one little problem. I had a total of 5 days and nights in Morocco, and being a stubborn S.O.B., I wanted three full days in Marrakech. Have in mind that the Sahara desert (and I’m talking about the big sand dunes part) is a good 9-10h drive from the airport and consequently almost no one, or no tour agency, had the offer of a 2 night-3 day tour starting from the airport all the way to the desert and back. And that’s where Morocco Expert Tours came to my rescue.

I contacted Youssef, the real MVP, and he helped make my trip fit for my needs, so he made a special package for me. #Blessed.

So we embarked upon our adventure to the desert, at 10 am, right after my BFF and I landed in Marrakech airport. Two lovely guides, Hassan and Mustafa, showed us all that Morocco had to offer.

The Sahara Tour

I’m going to cut to the chase and show pictures rather than yappity yap yap my way through my experience.

Local women Argan oil making Morocco — First stop: How local women make Argan oil.

Vamos Bitchachos snake road in Morocco Tizi n' Tichka — Tizi n’Tichka; “a mountain pass in Morocco, linking the south-east of Marrakesh-Safi to the city of Ouarzazate through the High Atlas mountains”. #Drama

Aït Benhaddou Morocco Ruins Tour — Aït Benhaddou from afar

Aït Benhaddou Morocco desert tour — Aït Benhaddou from up close.

Road of the thousand Kasbahs Morocco desert tour — “Road of the thousand Kasbahs” – look at them sand castles.

Then we finally arrived at our first overnight stay at the lovely Xaluca Dades Hotel. A beautifully decorated hotel with ancient Arabian/African vibes and endless panoramic views of the Dades Valley.

The next day we continued our adventure towards Merzouga and the desert, but had a few other stops on the way:

Vamos Bitchachos Morocco desert Sahara tour — A quick stop at the village of the “blacks” to enjoy their music and lifestyle. (Calm down, that’s what they’re called).

And finally, the moment I’d been waiting for. The whole ‘mounting the camel’ sitch.

Female Bedouin Morocco Sahara desert — Meet Fatima.

Glamping; Desert Camp Bouchedor

We ventured on our adventure to the camp where Morocco Expert Tours organised a lovely, luxury tent in the middle of the desert called Desert Camp Bouchedor. And boy did they not kid about the whole luxury-in-the-middle-of-f*cking-nowhere thing (more below).

We got on our camels and “camelled” our way there and let me tell you this folks; a camel ride is not comfortable AT ALL.

Camel riding in Morocco Sahara desert — Muhammad, our expert camel rider (cause that’s a thing), let me “drive” my camel solo.

Especially when theres a surprise f*cking sand storm that comes out of nowhere. Fun fact: sandstorms are pretty common in the Sahara desert, and while they won’t kill you, they can annoy the sh*t out of you.

Camel riding in the Sahara desert in Morocco — Vamos Bitchachos sandstorm riding a camel in the Sahara desert, Morocco.

So what seemed like half the Sahara sand in my ear later, we finally arrived at this beauty.

We were taken to our room which was a legit f*cking room in the middle of nowhere – can’t stress that enough. Electricity, shower, soap are all provided! I know that many people lean towards the more adventurous type of backpacking, sleeping in tents and camping, but for some of us, that just won’t cut it.

So yeah, a normal bed is provided, and all necessary amenities to enjoy the Sahara desert whilst not… feeling like being in the middle of the Sahara desert.

We unfortunately did not get the chance to watch the sunset. Thanks sandstorm. However, that didn’t stop me from making the most of it!

Sunrise

The night was beautiful. We had traditional Moroccan food prepared by the Bedouins, were taught how to play traditional music and spent the night stargazing as one rarely has the chance to see such a mesmerising thing. We then went to bed where I hardly got any shut eye (oh, yeah, it gets SUPER warm in there) and then the 5 AM wake up call.

And what a wake up call that was. Words cannot describe the serenity I felt in that moment. The beauty of watching the sun slowly rise from the sand and reflect its beautiful yellow rays on the never ending orange space was above all mesmerising.

And i’m not even a cheesy SOB.

Finally, the heading back to civilisation. Ten hours later we arrived in Marrakech.

Sahara desert gate wall morocco — Adios Bitchachos.

Adios Bitchachos

So folks, to conclude with, if you’re a compressed traveler like me who wants to do everything but also wants to be on the go like non-stop cause we’re Millennials and we constantly think that we’re running out of time, want to visit Morocco/the Sahara desert – and are also looking for a tour guide who’ll modify the trip to fit your every annoying need then I would redirect you to this travel agency – Morocco Expert Tours.

If you’d like, you could also mention that you’d want Evie’s planned trip for the same hectic experience!

Sahara desert Morocco girl jumping — Adios Bitchachos.

Thank you for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed it!

To read more on Africa, click here!

-VB x

An experience with the nomadic people of Tanzania; the Maasai.

Ah, the Maasai. While visiting Tanzania, one of the must-do things is devote time to experience the nomadic people. Although considered as a touristy attraction, it is still one of the most memorable experiences I’ve encountered.

The Maasai people originally came from the Nile Valley, and mostly live in Kenya and Northern Tanzania. They are famous for their distinctive customs, the way they dress and are best known for their fearsome reputation as warriors and cattle-rustlers. We were privileged enough to visit their tribes and learn more about them.

The whole family welcomes guests to their tribe with ritual music and dances. Each tribe is consisted by a father and his many, many wives, and their gazillion children.

Maasai people welcoming ceremony Tanzania — The man of the house a.k.a. #TheMaestro

The ritual was utterly unforgettable. Although amazing as it was, I unfortunately only have this amazingly shot snapchat video to give you a taste of the whole experience.

Furthermore, there’s so many fun facts to share about the Maasai people, but I’m just going to stick to what surprised me the most.

Marriage

So, as mentioned, one can marry as many women as he desires. Most noteworthy however, if he sees fit, he can exchange one or more of those wives for a cow. Not quite sure how I feel about this but anyway. Let’s move on.

Circumcision

Unfortunately, circumcision in both boys and girls take place at the age of (about) 13 years old. The “ceremony” happens by an experienced member of the tribe, without a doctor or anaesthetic. Consequently, a great deal of deaths occur each year. Nevertheless, circumcisions are what turn boys are into warriors.

Housing System

The housing system in the Maasai tribe is fairly standard. Mud, sticks, grass, cow dung, urine and ashes are the active ingredients in constructing houses. Although houses are small, their construction enables the Maasai to keep warm during winter, and cooler during summer. Most houses are temporary, however. This is because the Maasai are nomadic people and therefore change locations quite often. As an effect, they relocate, and thus re-build their houses from scratch. Another advice; if you’re claustrophobic, it’s better to skip the entering-one-of-their-houses bit. #YouLiveYouLearn.

Maasai Diet

Finally, the Maasai people’s diet consists of raw meat, raw milk and raw blood from cattle. As a result, most of the Maasai people have a dangerously low life expectancy. Evidently, this causes them to be the People with the lowest life expectancy in the whole world. The average male lives to the age of 42, whilst the women live until the age of just 44. #ThePeopleWithTheLowestLifeExpectancyInTheWorld.

To read more about this tribe, click here! For more on Tanzania and its safari, check out my other blog post Tanzania.

Thank you for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed it!

For a completely different blog post, why not check out my Bahamas experience?

-VB x

First blog post: Diary Entry I; A tale of Tanzania.

My very first blog post is devoted to my amazing trip to Tanzania. Fun fact, Tanzania actually inspired “The Lion King”. Cool, huh? This blog post is more of a train of thought, and follows a diary entry structure starting from beginning to end, i.e. Tarangire to Serengeti National Parks. However, it is still a complete guide on a Tanzania safari experience. Hopefully you guys won’t think that my thoughts are too basic. xoxo

To start it off, a group of us went to Tanzania in the beginning of September, a supposedly not-very-high-peak season period. That’s a bunch of bull. Let me tell you why. The weather was awesome. The animals were awesome. The people were awesome. EVERYTHING was awweesome. #LegoSong

Tarangire National Park

Firstly, we landed in Arusha and embarked on our adventure with a three hour drive to Tarangire national park. We stayed in the ‘Tarangire Sopa Lodge’ for three nights, and spent our days going on game drives a.k.a. safari (apparently that’s what stalking animals in their natural habitat is called). I can’t explain how overly excited I was, therefore I’ll show you with a couple of pictures to explain the whole ‘worth a thousand words’ sitch.

Vamos Bitchachos in the car on safari in Tanzania, Africa. — One: Here is me being overly excited in the car.

Vamos Bitchachos with zebras in Tanzania. — Another one: Here is me being overly excited about seeing a few zebras.

Vamos Bitchachos with elephant picture mom in Tanzania, Africa. — And another one: Here is me trying to contain my over excitement when an elephant was literally a meter away. Also, I named this elephant Eleonora, after my beloved mother.

Fun fact: Elephants are the leader of their pacts and make all decisions, they are considered the best mothers in the whole animal kingdom and their eyesight is shit. Just like my mom <3.

Vamos Bitchachos wildebeest flipping off in Tanzania, Africa. — Here is me flipping off the wildebeest because they killed Mufasa.

Another fun fact: The wildebeest are considered one of Africa’s Ugly 5. It is said that it’s as if it was assembled from various animal parts: a horse’s tail, an ox’s forequarters, an antelope’s hindquarters and a grasshopper’s head. Hence its ugly-ness.

To be completely honest, three days in Tarangire were one too many. Therefore if anyone is planning on visiting Tanzania, I’d suggest you limit your days in Tarangire to a maximum of two. Consequently, try to devote other days in other parts of the country such as Zanzibar. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to visit, but a good excuse to re-visit in the future. #Bummer.

Ngorongoro Crater

Moreover, our next Tanzania location was Ngorongoro National Park, where we got to see the fantabulous view of the Ngorongoro Crater. This crater was the result of a large volcanic explosion almost three million years ago and is today the world’s largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera (yada, yada, yada). As a result, the Ngorongoro crater is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, but most importantly, it looks EXACTLY like that scene from the Lion King where Mufasa is trying to teach Simba about the do’s and don’ts of being the ruler of the Kingdom. You know, the ‘everything the light touches is our kingdom’ scene.

Vamos Bitchachos simba reenactment everything the light touches is your kingdom picture with sister. — My sister and I tried to reenact that scene cause I just couldn’t not.

Fun fact: I literally passive aggressively pushed everyone away from this main viewing area to take this picture. My mom wasn’t very happy. #GettingToldOffByMyMomSince1993.

Meanwhile, we stayed in the ‘Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge’ where it was absolutely magical. The Lodge was in the middle of the jungle, and as a result, the view from our room was spectacular.

This little guy scared the crap out of me. He was just casually chilling outside my bedroom. #GottaLoveAfrica.

This is on the way to the hotel. It looks JUST like that scene from the lion king where little Simba is running away from his problems. #HowRelatable. In addition, it was an extremely bumpy ride, hence the shaky video. I swear I’m better at taking videos.

Moreover, another interesting fact about the Ngorongoro is that it’s mainly occupied by the Maasai people. If you’d like to check out the cultural side of Tanzania, click on my other blog post, The Maasai, to learn more about them!

Serengeti National Park

Moving on, our final visit in Tanzania was at the famous Serengeti National Park. The whole park was enormous and our quest to find new animals turned out a success. Below is a picture of many lions resting under the shade.

Most importantly, Serengeti was where I actually got to see a lion upfront. I f*cking lost my sh*t. You probably can’t tell by this picture, but the amount of stress I went through to take it was quite unnecessary. Fun fact: Apparently, you’re not allowed to make ANY noise around lions while on a safari / game drive because they might also lose their sh*t and attack you or something.

Vamos Bitchachos in Tanzania, Africa. Lion eating Pumba. — To my surprise, on this safari, I found grown a** Simba. Plot twist: he ate Pumba. Makes you think… #FriendshipIsNotForever #HakunaIsNotMatata.

By now you can probably tell that my favourite animal is the lion, and my all time favourite Disney movie is ‘The Lion King’.

Hot Air Balloon in the Serengeti

Last but not least, the highlight of my trip and therefore the not-to-be-missed thing to do is the hot-air balloon ride in the Serengeti Park. Despite waking up at like 4 am and having to drive in a pitch dark jungle, being able to see the sunrise from a hot air balloon in the middle of f*cking Africa is probably one of THE best experiences I’ve had. Below are a bunch of pictures and a time-lapse video I took that I think is completely worth watching.

(If you don’t get the urge to start singing the ‘NAAAAAAAAAAAAAANTS INGOOOOOOONYAMAA BAGITHIII BABA’ bit from the ‘Circle of Life’ opening song then I feel bad for you).

Enjoy my time-lapse video below (a.k.a my masterpiece) from my hot-air balloon trip. Be sure to increase your volume!:)
Song: Upendi from The Lion King 2 movie.

Below are a few other pictures I took if you’d like to check’em out.

Vamos Bitchachos in car on safari, Tanzania. — P.S: Getting off the car is strictly off-limits. Hence my dangling off of it in various pictures.

Vamos Bitchachos walking safari with sister, Tanzania. — P.P.S.: Meanwhile, we were only allowed to go on a “walking safari” once. I prioritised taking pictures of my sister and myself walking on that safari rather than any animals.

Vamos Bitchachos zebra butts Tanzania. — Some zebra butts for anyone who fancies that kind of thing.

Vamos Bitchachos zebra butt picture in Tanzania. — Here is still me being overly excited about being next to a zebra’s behind.

Vamos Bitchachos lion picture in Serengeti, Tanzania. — Badass

Thank you for reading this blog post! I hope you enjoyed it! 🙂

To read more on Africa, check out my Morocco/Sahara desert guide!

-VB x