{"id":99,"date":"2012-02-11T22:17:21","date_gmt":"2012-02-11T22:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/?p=99"},"modified":"2013-02-06T09:11:06","modified_gmt":"2013-02-06T09:11:06","slug":"dangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/security\/dangers\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangers in Marrakech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most people have the wrong idea about security matters in Morocco.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from big cities where some criminal activity exists, all the rest of Morocco is pretty much safe.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, really really.<\/p>\n<p>Marrakech has hundreds of undercover policemen taking care of the streets.<\/p>\n<p>This way thieves can be watched and the general ambience of the city is rather safe.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t advise you to explore inner parts of the medina after mid-night, also the Jewish district by night is not advisable.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/images\/marrakech-street-night.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of a Marrakech street in the old medina by night\n\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Photo of a Marrakech street in the old medina by night<\/p>\n<p>Watch out for nice people talking to you and offering you drugs, and invitations for private parties, as this can end up you being drugged.<\/p>\n<p>This goes for boys and girls as some raping happens for both men and women.<\/p>\n<p>You can go into some people&#8217;s house for a party and they can drop some drugs inside your drink, or mix haxixe smoking with light pills in drink and next thing you remember is to wake up raped.<\/p>\n<p>Jemaa el-Fnaa main square is full of crazy people (a bit like all inside the old medina).<\/p>\n<p>So take in consideration that you might have a 1st degree encounter with a mentally ill person in Marrakech.<\/p>\n<p>Just maintain calm, don&#8217;t establish eye contact and move away.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, this is normal stuff you should do anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Watch out for monkeys.<\/p>\n<p>Guys thats own the monkeys will trick you and put the monkey on your shoulder.<\/p>\n<p>Some monkeys go wild and pull your hair off or might even bite you.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re coming near the monkeys, pay attention and unless you really want to make a picture with them (and pay), just stay calm and say no, go away.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Video of acrobat monkeys in Marrakech Jemaa el-Fnaa square:<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"520\" height=\"382\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fnVFWxNMh-0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Avoid conversations with drunk people, as they normally turn violent on you.<\/p>\n<p>The same applies if you sense any person affected by light drugs like marijuana aka haxixe.<\/p>\n<p>During the night, watch out for professional pick-pockets.<\/p>\n<p>Always carry your bag close to you.<\/p>\n<p>If you usually use your wallet on the back pocket, temporarily change it to the front pocket during your trip in Marrakech.<\/p>\n<p>And you will be fine.<\/p>\n<p>Marrakech Jemaa el-Fnaa square is full of both undercover police but also dozens of normal police. <\/p>\n<p>Actually, in on of the edges of the square you even have a police station.<\/p>\n<p>Also in front of the Bank Al-Maghrib you have several police vans and guards.<\/p>\n<p>While walking in the souks, watch out for crazy motorbikes that will madly pass you almost hitting everyone walking by.<\/p>\n<p>If you hear a &#8220;bip-bip&#8221;, just move away.<\/p>\n<p>Watch out for donkey carriages passing in the medina tiny streets.<\/p>\n<p>Often the only way to transport goods in the medina is by donkey carriage.<\/p>\n<p>They often don&#8217;t stop and people say &#8220;balek balek&#8221;. So, move away.<\/p>\n<p>Anywhere you go in Marrakech, watch out crossing the road.<\/p>\n<p>Drivers don&#8217;t stop on zebras and many motorcycles don&#8217;t stop on red lights.<\/p>\n<p>So you better watch out and cross the roads carefully while in Marrakech.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Video of crossing the road in Marrakech by night:<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"520\" height=\"382\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uLNVyy6qvIo\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If someone approaches you to sell t-shirts, and they put the t-shirt close to your stomach, watch out if you have a waist purse or something that can be robed with the other hand you don&#8217;t see, because it is hidden by the t-shirt he is showing you.<\/p>\n<p>I had someone doing this to me.<\/p>\n<p>I noticed him pulling the zipper of my waist bad and just put my fingers on his neck and told him to back off.<\/p>\n<p>Before you buy something, ask in 2 or 3 other shops.<\/p>\n<p>This avoids you being ripped off and payed 10 times more the real price.<\/p>\n<p>Take your time and ask around before you buy. Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most people have the wrong idea about security matters in Morocco. Apart from big cities where &#8230; <a title=\"Dangers in Marrakech\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/security\/dangers\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Dangers in Marrakech\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[47,45,44,46],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-animals","tag-drugs","tag-pickpockets","tag-police","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":714,"href":"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joaoleitao.com\/holidays-marrakech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}