Moroccan Adventure: Kasbah Tamadot

Last night's adventure was going to Kasbah Tamadot, Sir Richard Branson's luxury resort, for dinner. The actual dinner, an early celebration of Ami's birthday, was not the adventure, though. It was getting to dinner.

Driving in Marrakech is every bit as harrowing as one might expect in a busy, third-world city. Lanes markings are mere suggestions. Indeed, the experience we had at immigration -- with three lines of people trying to occupy what we thought was a single lane -- is repeated daily on the roadways here. Vehicles and animals of every possible variety vie for room on the road. Many people choose to enter this fray with mopeds and bicycles, which to me is more risky than amateur BASE jumping.

We have been riding in one of the larger vehicles on the road, a van that seats seven. We didn't bring a car seat for Danger Baby, and initially we were worried about getting hassled by the police for it. That worry passed when we saw a moped with one child riding in front and one child hanging onto the back. Neither wore a helmet (although the dad did).

What does this have to with dinner? Well, the Kasbah Tamdot is actually outside of Marrackech up in the Atlas Mountains. That meant about half of our hour-long trek to dinner involved steep mountain roads with no guard rails and the same traffic "rules" as the center of the city. Needless to say, the trip was harrowing at times. But like everything this trip, it was well worth it.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but even the panoramic above doesn't begin to do our dining experience justice. It was a first-class pleasure for every one of the five senses. We enjoyed breathtaking views of a surprisingly verdant valley from our high mountain perch before nightfall, and a sky full of stars afterward. The incredible stillness and quiet ambience immediately calmed us. Our meal was a five-course feast of international delights. But the most significant sensory experience was the delicious coolness of the mountain air. Marrackech is dusty and uncomfortably hot, even at night. This is mainly because the air seldom moves. But up in the mountains, breezes come often and the temperature drops at night to somewhere around early spring in New York. It impossible to explain the pure pleasure of it, especially after spending an hour in a van with a broken air conditioner. 

Let's just say that in times of future stress, when I need to "find my center" and achieve a sense of calm, I will imagine myself sitting in the lounge area of the Kasbah Tamadot, drinking a delicious cocktail made with local honey, feeling the cool mountain breeze on my skin and listening to nothing but the silence of the valley below.