Arrived in Kutaisi

We wake early to take our 9am bus to Kutaisi, Georgia. This bus is newer and clean but they have strict rules about what bags they let you take to your seat so we have to quickly decide what we need for comfort for the next 4 hours. The driver swerves and occasionally honks and yells at cars going too slow but also at cars that pass him up while he is in the fast lane. Crazy drivers seem to be a theme of Georgia.

The apartment we have rented in Kutaisi isn’t the best place I’ve stayed in. It’s clean but lacking some things of convienence that make a stay more comfortable (like having to climb 5 flights of stairs or missing dish towels). Fortunately the host happily communicates with us through a translator app and we are in a central location.

We drop our bags off and walk around the corner to meet our day tour that is scheduled today. It is now shoulder season so our group tour ends up being a private tour instead. Initially it feels awkward but we soon value the personal attention.

The city of Kutaisi used to be a more popular tourist location due Kutaisi having direct international flights to certain cities but with the opening of the high speed rail between Tblisi and Batumi Kutaisi has become become less popular.

We start our tour in Central Park, a charming park next to the Colchis fountain and the Meshkhishvili theater. The Colchis fountain was installed in 2012 to feature the historic Colchi kingdom. All of the gold emblems on the fun fountain are enlarged reproductions of artifacts found during excavations of the colchi period.

While we explore town we are told local stories about some of the people honored with statues. We admire the street art and learn about one district that was settled by the French. We see a Catholic Church in its historic beauty before it is due to be “renovated” to an Orthodox Church. When it is converted, they will destroy all the original catholic parts. While not the only religion in the country, Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the most popular.

Kutaisi is a sleepy town compared to Tblisi but has its own charm. This boy with a hat sitting on the bridge is a character in a popular Georgian film.

Our tour guide takes us through the local market and we learn about the Georgian spices and treats.

At tour ending we ask our guide for restaurant recommendations and she recommends the restaurant in the Magnolia Hotel, a charming authentic Georgian food experience. I am excited to try new dishes. I enjoy most of what we try except the chicken dish I ordered as my main dish. My stomach is still uneasy from the day before and I am having a hard time with the grease content of the recipe. I will be happy when my stomach is back to normal.

We are tired from traveling today so we return to our flat for an earlish night, enjoying a nightcap from one of the few bottles of things we have picked up to sample along the way. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain all day so we re-arrange our excursion plans last minute to turn tomorrow into a lazy in town shopping day. It proves a good idea because it does start raining early in the day. I brave the rain briefly in the morning to get a decent cup of coffee but eventually we have to eat so we choose an art cafe not too far from our flat. We share a pizza and delcious salad.

We visit the market afterwards. Thank goodness the market is mostly under a covered area. First we visit an underground clothing and accessory market, much of it catering to older conservative women. We then return to the food market where we buy some spices and various goods. We spend some time trying to shop in the cheese section but it is impossible to get the attention of one of the cheese women since she is currently occupied with yelling at a woman at another booth right now. We return later to buy some samples of cheese from a woman who is not yelling.

We feed some street dogs hot dogs and are tired of the rain. We return to the room to try the pomegranate wine we have purchased yesterday from Armenia. I am not sure if we have a bad bottle or the wine is just really that bad but we end up pouring most of it down the drain. A wine has to be pretty bad for us to waste and this vinegar wine is terrible.

We finish the evening at the fancy restaurant around the corner. We are entertained by a pianist and violin player.

Tomorrow we have another day tour planned in town. Hopefully the weather is good. We’ve had too much rain so far.

Marrakech

We arrive at Marrakech in the afternoon. The long winding drive has many on our tour exhausted but there are still some hours of daylight left today; plus there is a threat of rain the rest of our travels so it’s best to take advantage of today for seeing the city. My travel companion and I grab a taxi to the Medina. We have a struggle at first obtaining a taxi but somehow we end up in a taxi share situation where a very nice man in the passenger seat used to live in a city two hours from where we are from agrees to share a taxi with us. I missed the transaction happening but he pays for the taxi ride for us when he gets out of the cab.

We walk around the Medina expecting to watch the sunset on a terrace with a cocktail but apparently not many terraces allow alcohol so we just have a coffee and a snack and watch the sunset from the last one we try; we don’t want to miss the sunset.

We decide to go elsewhere to have a drink but on the way we get caught up in the evening excitement of the Medina. There are food stalls, musicians, games, and the regular cast of scammers out to make a buck. You definitely have to be alert but at no point do I feel unsafe while walking around. After some shopping we find a cafe terrace with a view of a side street where we relax and watch people walk by. After a drink or two we decide we want to head back but we can’t resist a detour through the souks. Shops are closing up for the night and it forces us to go back to the hotel and rest. We have a hard time finding our way out and end up down deserted alleyways since we have no sense of direction here. Luckily we are able to backtrack to the main area. We try negotiating with tuk tuk drivers on the rates that our tour guide suggested but none of them are budging so we end up agreeing to a higher rate. Perhaps our guide doesn’t realize how much inflation has affected the tuktuk community? We later realize we misinterpreted the advice. Apparently we have been lowballing tuktuk and taxi drivers all over the city. Locals are probably surprised with tourists driving such a hard bargain. In the grand scheme of things the amount we are saving is only a couple dollars. I’d just be happy we aren’t getting grossly over charged for services.

The next morning is our last group activity. We have a Moroccan cooking class at a riad in the medina. We learn how to make two types of salads and a lemon chicken tagine. We put together all the Moroccan spices or Ras el Hanout and as a group prepare our own tagine dish. I can’t wait to try these recipes on my own when I get home.

We say goodbye to our group and head on our own adventures – as much that is possible in the rain. More on that later.

Casablanca

We have a mostly uneventful flight to Morocco. Flight one is on time and as planned but I slept maybe fifteen minutes the whole time due to a fidgety neighbor that would change positions every couple minutes and startle me out of any sleep I managed. Our second flight was delayed but we were getting to Casablanca so late in the day that it wasn’t going to be a productive sightseeing day anyway.

We have a driver arranged from our tour company so it’s and easy ide to our hotel except he doesn’t have bills to break our larger bills acquired at the airport ATM so he gets a very good tip. We’ve heard it’s often difficult for people to make change for the larger bills (equivalent of a little over $20 USD) so we make it a mission to use grocery stores and such to pawn off big bills as much as possible during our travels.

We checked into our hotel but soon take the elevator to take a quick look at the loud dance club happening on the hotel rooftop. Thinking we’d have a nice view of the city and a nightcap before bed we instead have the elevator open to cigarette smoke, a bouncer, and very loud thumping. We take one look at the crowd and decide sleep is a better option tonight.

Both of us sleep completely through that first night, in fact we could have kept sleeping if we didn’t have a tour scheduled in the morning. That almost never happens. Everything is great about the room except the semi-opaque bathroom walls. I mean there is some privacy but when you are sharing a room with a friend there are bathroom walls that can give you more privacy.

Breakfast at the hotel is satisfying and a great way to start the day. Turns out it is the best breakfast spread of our travels.

We arrive a day early before our scheduled tour in Casablanca because we are so used to having flights delayed or worse that we wanted to make sure we make our official tour that starts in two days. In the morning we book a day tour since our upcoming tour does not include any sightseeing in Casablanca. Casablanca like every city in Morocco started as a nomad city along the trade route that has been governed by many different peoples but became the unique city it is because of the French occupation in the 1900’s. They set out Casablanca to be its crown jewel with all its ornate art deco architecture. It was also a key port city due to its location near the oceans.

Our first stop is at the Hassan II Mosque, a large mosque dedicated to the Moroccan King Hassan II. It is the second largest Mosque in Africa and was completed in 1993. So much detail is given to the interior including the painted parts using natural colorings and cedar wood from the Atlas Mountains. It is built over water as a floating island over the Atlantic Ocean. You can only tour this with a guide and we were luckily because it is quite empty when we toured.

After the tour we drive to Corniche, the waterfront region that usually is happening with poolside fun and outdoor cafes. It is off season so there is not much going on besides families walking along the water. We also stop to get a foggy view of the mosque and watch some fishermen during low tide.

We stop briefly at the Sacred Heart Cathedral which now serves as a function hall and is no longer open to the public.

We stop at the Arab League Park but I realize later we only see a small part of the park. This large oasis in the middle of town was inaugurated in 1919 while the French were still in power.

The we go to the Square of Mohammed V, the place also known as pigeon fountain. The square is surrounded by the opera house, and many French inspired buildings. It is here that I see the art deco post office which I will briefly visit the next day.

We stop at the Church of Notre Dame of Lourdes. There is a service going on so we only look inside quickly and decide to come back tomorrow during our self tour.

We visit the old Medina but we don’t actually shop today but just look around the area. We visit the surrounding neighborhood. Many of the buildings here are run down.

We view the large port under construction. The current king, Mohammed VI, is making an effort to expand the port for tourism and cruise ships and yachts.

Last on our tour we visit a spice place where we learn about spices and some of their other oils and natural remedies. I end up buying a thing or two there. It is before I learn the art of bargaining so I am sure I am getting ripped off.

Our tour is over and our guide recommends a restaurant near our hotel. It isn’t the most amazing meal but at least we are trying some new things. My friend who is mostly vegetarian is finding the vegetarian versions of dishes not as full of flavor as she likes. My chicken dish is bland as well. I am discovering that Moroccan dishes don’t add much salt and leave it to the individual to salt to taste. I am so used to everything everywhere being too salty for me so its definitely a change.

After lunch we visit the old souq. We walk down to the old Medina. We enter in a section that looks like it caters more to locals. Turns out there are very few tourists at all in the market, perhaps because there are no cruise ships in town today. We meet lots of cats along the way.

We stop briefly in an old riad converted into a nice restaurant in the heart of the Medina. It’s where we want to eat later but we never find our way back here on this trip.

We walk down a passage way that is decorated with random items. We watch some kids kick a ball around. It appears to be a pop up art installation in the middle of a residential street.

After our visit to the old Medina we walk under the United Nations Square and do an Art Deco tour of our own. When the French occupied Morocco they wanted to have Casablanca to be its showpiece. There are many cool Art Deco buildings that unfortunately are not all well maintained.

Street snails. I regret not trying them.

We finish the evening with dinner and a visit to a couple of rooftop bars near our hotel where we have nice views of part of the city.

The next morning we only plan to be out for a little while to visit a couple places we missed the day before but we end up spending the entire day out before meeting our tour in the evening. More on that next.

Penang Heritage food tour

As usual I started my visit of Penang with a food tour. This particular tour is given by a Boston native that moved to Penang and married a local. He used to be a chef and loves sharing his knowledge of food with others. We meet in little India at 10:30 am in the UNESCO heritage zone – George Town. This part of Penang, an island, is named after King George III. You guessed it, it was part of the British empire at one point of time. Penang was strategically important for spice trade. It is culturally diverse here now; you will see Chinese, Indians, Malay, and others. As expected there are parts of town with concentrated restaurants and businesses that represent different ethnic groups such as Chinatown and little India.

We start with a dish eaten by locals all hours of the day (but mostly breakfast) Char Kway Teow (also spelled different ways). This style is Hokkien dish of stir fried rice noodles with sausage, prawns, egg, chili paste, fish cake, chives, and bean sprouts. I can see how this is a comfort food for locals. I crave it now. At the hawker cart (Hock Poh Lye Kopitiam) we sampled this and I also tried the local iced coffee – Kopi coffee with condensed milk. It is sweet so something I probably would only occasionally drink.

Next stop is at stall for Indian-Malaysian Chicken Curry Samosas, at Penang Special Samosa . I am not usually a fan of Samosas but this one was good. Not too spicy and you don’t get the heavy feeling like most fried foods.

It is a Friday and we end up at a Muslim restaurant. Luckily we arrived early enough because it will be closing in an hour for prayers. We sample Muslim-Indian Malaysian food at Tajuddin Hussain: nasi biryani (spiced rice) with ayam rose (“rose” chicken), kambing kurma (lamb kurma), dalca (veg curry with meat stock). I love curry so much. We also try some teh halia ais (iced ginger tea) which reminds me of a chai.

We stop next at Moh Teng Pheow kueh factory, we tried some of Penang’s signature assam laksa—mackerel based broth with noodles, lemongrass, tamarind, chili, polygonum leaf, and torch ginger flower, topped with cucumber, chili, pineapple, and mint—and a spoonful of heh koh (prawn molasses). I really wanted to try the pandan tea on the menu but they were out for the day .We also tried some sweets here.

We tried some classic Penang Peranakan dishes, prepared by Girlie and Joey Chua @Bibik’s Kitchen: her signature fried chicken (inche kabin), the rose apple kerabu (refreshing rose apple salad with mint, torch flower ginger, chili, and shallots), as well as her telur belanda (sweet and sour “Dutch egg”), and sambal kacang botol (wing bean sambal) in a spicy sambal, over a portion of 4-colored rice (pandan, blue pea flower, turmeric, and white). I got to try another nice refreshing tea – I am starting to love sweetened teas; you would never catch me ordering cold tea in the USA. This tea is partially colored with a blue flower, I think I’ve seen it before in Thailand – Butterfly Pea.

A couple things I learned today….

Gula melaka or Palm sugar in Malaysia is popular. You will find a myriad of things made of this. Stores will sell the sugar in chunks for tourists to buy and take home. Palm sugar is supposed to have a lower glycemic index and has all these health benefits. I am not convinced it is healthy but I am trying a large amount of it in Malaysia.

I learned there is a three day holiday starting today. I guess at some point i need to check out the street action here and down by the Chinese Jetties (more about them later).

Next week there is a Hindu holiday that I need to read up on for my visit to Kuala Lumpur.

I learned what a torch flower is and that it is a staple in many southeast Asian dishes.

My tour guide mentions nutmeg genocide but doesn’t go into specifics so I have to google it. Side note, I am obsessed with anything flavored with nutmeg lately. The history is that nutmeg originated from this island called Banda. The Dutch got ahold of the island in the 1600’s. Apparently the local people wanted free trade agreements but the Dutch were not having it so they basically massacred a great number of the local people. There is more to it but read up on it yourself. It is sad to hear of the origins of some of your favorite things.

I am full and I read somewhere that you go watch the sunrise at the Jetties so back to my room for the day to relax for tomorrow.