• Home

Tangier Tales

This used to be as far as you could go. The last stop on the ancient Mediterranean ferry line that began on the shores of Syria and Palestine and called in at Rhodes, Alexandria, Rome, Libya’s Leptis Magna, Marseilles and Barcelona. Beyond even Hercules’ pillars that marked the go-back point for everyone from the Greeks to the Arabs. Beyond here, there were either dragons or you simply fell off.

It’s been some time since they took down the ‘There be Dragons’ sign on the outskirts of the city and replaced it with the glowing McDonalds’ one, but even until relatively recently, this whitewashed pearl on the Northwestern-most point of Africa simmered with a slightly end-of-the-world feel. A city that was an international zone where anything and everything seemed to go and where people came with the specific purpose of getting lost. Bogart went to Casablanca, but it’s clear the inspiration came from Tangier.

Years after the last drink was served in Rick’s bar, rockstars then came looking for other ways of getting lost. Amidst the haze, they ended up finding funky Gnawa musicians and taking them out on the road with them, giving the world tastes of the fusion that would become Trance music. Jimmy Hendrix stopped by en route to his Castle Made of Sand in Essaouira while Beat poets came for similar reasons and ended up fixing lunches in William Burrough’s haunt, the El Muniria hotel.

Hippies and hipsters might have been the most recent stars to spread their notoriety over Phoenician Tingis, but it was a local boy who first spread its name beyond the Levant — a young man who saw it in completely opposite terms from those running away, as a beginning rather than an end. A traveller who set off on a pilgrimage to Mecca that would end up being the longest ever recorded journey — that is, until the invention of the steam engine made camel trains and sailing ships passé. The year was 1325 and the wanderer, Ibn Battutah.

I had come to Tangier on a traveller’s pilgrimage to his tomb and to see what might be left of this traveller’s spirit and how his legacy fit in with the modern-day boom town replete with skyscrapers and row upon row of new beachside construction.

At first glance, the man who clocked over 
120,000 kilometres seems ever present, the French spelling of his name can be seen everywhere. You can step off a ferry from Spain with his name emblazoned on the side, book a flight at the numerous travel agencies that boast his name, bed down at his hotel and even get a quick shave and a haircut at his coiffeur. All of which seemed easier than finding someone who had the key to his tomb.

It used to be that the only way most travellers came to Tangier was by sea. Ibn Battutah himself once disembarked in the nearby resort town of Asilah. Every other hour, ferries ply the strait of Gibraltar moving merchandise and people in a metaphoric flow, one that is symbolic of a place sandwiched between two continents: Europe and Africa.

Whether you took the fast ferry or the slow one, every traveller had a tale of stepping off the dock in Morocco and being met by hoards of new found ‘friends’ wanting to help them into a taxi, find a hotel or even what the rockstars were coming for, all of course, for a price.

A few of those anecdotal new found friends still eagerly wait for fresh prey to step slightly confused off the boats, but their numbers and past zeal have been drastically diminished by new low cost flights with companies like EasyJet, AirBerlin and Ryanair bringing in thousands of tourists each day from Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Milan, Vienna and Berlin.

The Moroccan authorities themselves have decided to get halfway serious about limiting the hassles that tourists visiting the city, and Morocco as a whole, face. Taking their cue from the intensely touristed beaches that lie just 20 kilometres north across the water in Spain and the massive revenue they represent, the government is finally getting around to reigning in the infamous ‘faux-guides’ who at times used to turn visits to Morocco into frustrating tri-lingual insult matches and unfortunately, gave travellers a completely skewed vision of genuine Moroccan hospitality.

With the arrival of the lowcost flights, boutique hotels have also sprung up out of the warren of lanes in the old city to complete the oriental weekend getaway fantasy. Beautifully refurbished ‘Riads’ offering views across the strait and authentic hammams have been added to the still present accommodations that Burroughs once knew and that older backpackers might remember from 20 and 30 years ago.

The new coats of whitewash that give the boutique hotels their Mediterranean dazzle have also been splashed over the Medina or old city. Once crumbling old houses are being renovated behind casts of wooden scaffolding and the Kasbah, the walled fortress that surveys the bay, is getting a much needed facelift. The extra paint and care has had an effect, raising property prices for views to Spain to a point that would make even the most well-heeled traveller blush.

The real boom, however, lies outside the thousand-and-one-nights walls of the Medina. Tangles of cranes sprout like bamboo reeds just beyond the cleaned-up white strip of beach. As the Spanish property market crashes and burns, investors are parachuting across the sea and holiday homes are springing up everywhere.

Multinational companies are also fleeing the growing wages and increased environmental controls in neighbouring Spain, and are setting up shop on the outskirts of the city, bringing with them an army of expat managers from Madrid, Barcelona and beyond. Ten years ago you might have been addressed in French as you entered a shop, but now the tourist lingua franca is that of Don Quixote. Gourmet restaurants have followed in their tracks and now pepper the new town, delivering fusion tapas to upper crust locals and expats alike.

One thing that hasn’t changed since Matisse studied this city’s unique blue is the sheer pleasure of sitting at one of the tables back in the Medina at the Cafe Tingis on the Petit Socco, drinking mint tea and watching half the world go by. Times have changed and Andre Gide’s table is no longer reserved, but the cast of characters amidst the Babylonian swirl of languages is still enough to infuse many a travel diary with some of the unpronounceable spices on sale at the nearby souqs.

Up the hill from the Petit Socco on the Rue Siaghine in one of the hundreds of shops selling colourful Moroccan Zellij tiles and Tagine plates. I finally caught a fleeting glimpse of Battutah buried under a mountain of pointed yellow leather slippers.

Bargaining hard to get the price down to just over what I would pay for the same thing in Madrid’s La Latina, I mentioned Ibn Battutah’s Rihla to the young salesman and his countenance suddenly softened.“Have you actually read the book?” he asked incredulously. “Of course, that’s one of the main reasons why I’m here, to do a traveller’s pilgrimage of sorts to his tomb.”

“My father was a language teacher and I learnt to read using that book! A very special discount for you, my friend.”

Maybe Ibn Battutah’s notorious travel luck had rubbed off after all. The traveller might not have recognised his native city when returning to it after a quarter century, but nor would a visitor who had been here just a decade ago.

Change is definitely in the air and a serious 2.0 update is well underway.

What was once an end-of-the-line stop might lose in an all-out beauty contest between Marrakech and Fez, but for what it boasts, Tangier’s imperial aloofness is something that the others can’t touch.

Where to Stay

Ÿ

A quiet place in the middle of the action seems impossible, but try The Tangerina and see for yourself.

www.latangerina.com

Phone: +212 53 99 47 731

Ÿ

A boutique hotel in the heart of the old city is Riad Tanja.

www.riadtanja.com

Phone: +212 39 33 35 38

Getting there

Ÿ

Low Cost flights now leave almost every major European city, making weekend getawayspossible.

Low Cost flights now leave almost every major European city, making weekend getawayspossible.

Low Cost flights now leave almost every major European city, making weekend getawayspossible.

• UAE