Faux Guides

When visiting Morocco beware of these "faux guides". We have had two of these approach us and we took one up on his offer. The first was a guy named Hassan, he approached me in the train station in Tangiers which is known for its dodgy people and drug tade. He insisted that my name in Morocco is Abdul and he wanted to take us on a 4 day trip into the desert for music and parties as his brother had just started up a touring company. Aparently there were only two spots left in the jeep and we were lucky enough to meet him as this is a once in a life time opportunity (I'm sure it would have been, stranded in the desert). Digging deeper I found out from other backpackers that he was going on a train to Marrakech but he told me he was bound for Casablanca and according to a traveller from Finland there was only one spot left in the jeep which was very lucky for him!

The second guide had a much better sales pitch. There was no questioning him he was going to be our guide whether we liked it or not. He was only 6 years old and the only english words he knew were "I'm your guide". He took us on an impressive tour of the town and when it was over I didn't know how much to pay him so I decided to pay him 1 dirham (10 cents) at a time until he was happy. After the first dirham he gave a small smile and was about to walk away when I give him a second dirham he had a huge smile then a third dirham and his eyes were like saucers and after a fourth dirham I thought he was going to passout. He quickly ran away after we had concluded our business (a total of 40 cents) and was showing all his friends how much money he had just made.