We picked up our car to get on our road trip over the Atlas Mountains and towards the Sahara Desert. No sooner did we get on the road, than we immediately hit not just city traffic, but ancient city traffic. How am I suppose to handle driving in a rental car when I have motorcycles passing me from both sides, ancient one-lane city gates to cross through, and people darting in and out of traffic? How am I suppose to do it without a horn! That's right. We had done all of the cross-checks, marked the dents in the car, and tested the lights, but we had forgot to check the horn. We banged on various places of the steering wheel in a variety of ways to the sound of no horn! How could we not have a horn?
As we got out of the city safely, sans horn, Pallavi turned to me and said, "good job. I think you're almost ready to drive in India." I am terrified to drive in India. I am not ready to drive there. I barely made it here. My secret was just to follow the guts of the guy in front of me. Copycar all the way. Plus, at least here there aren't cows and stray dogs to deal with.
The drive over the mountains was beautiful. It's been years since my family drove through the more arid Rocky Mountains down near New Mexico, but the general mountain scenery reminded me in many ways of the Rockies. That is where the similarities end. Now, Mom and Dad taught me how to drive in the mountains with trucks and with construction. They didn't teach me how to drive when there isn't any signage that construction is coming until some random guy just stops traffic without the use of a stop sign. First world driving! Where's the stop sign buddy? Also, construction generally means you are driving on a real road in my first world driving experience. It doesn't mean you are driving on a dirt road for multiple kilometers.
Also, how do you pass the trucks going 10 km per hour on an endless zigzag mountain road without a horn? You say a prayer and just gun it! That is how the Moroccans do it, or so I realized watching car after car pass me. But the piece de resistance? The white European doing it. Well dang it! If that European can do it, I can do it too!
We were so happy by the time we reached a place called Ait Benhaddou. This is the site of an 11th century fortified kasbah that now has a new story: Hollywood movie location. Here's just a quick sample of movies that are shot here: Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, Jesus of Nazareth, The Mummy, Alexander, Babel, Kingdom of Heaven, and Price of Persia. As we left, Pallavi remarked, "I wonder how much of our information gained from cinema is incorrect based upon just the scenery. I would have thought this place looked like Rome not Morocco?"
As we came to our final destination, Ouarzazate, I suddenly noticed that there was this little trumpet image on my turn indicator. What the heck is that? Oh wait!!! HONK!!! Found the horn!
As we got out of the city safely, sans horn, Pallavi turned to me and said, "good job. I think you're almost ready to drive in India." I am terrified to drive in India. I am not ready to drive there. I barely made it here. My secret was just to follow the guts of the guy in front of me. Copycar all the way. Plus, at least here there aren't cows and stray dogs to deal with.
The drive over the mountains was beautiful. It's been years since my family drove through the more arid Rocky Mountains down near New Mexico, but the general mountain scenery reminded me in many ways of the Rockies. That is where the similarities end. Now, Mom and Dad taught me how to drive in the mountains with trucks and with construction. They didn't teach me how to drive when there isn't any signage that construction is coming until some random guy just stops traffic without the use of a stop sign. First world driving! Where's the stop sign buddy? Also, construction generally means you are driving on a real road in my first world driving experience. It doesn't mean you are driving on a dirt road for multiple kilometers.
Also, how do you pass the trucks going 10 km per hour on an endless zigzag mountain road without a horn? You say a prayer and just gun it! That is how the Moroccans do it, or so I realized watching car after car pass me. But the piece de resistance? The white European doing it. Well dang it! If that European can do it, I can do it too!
We were so happy by the time we reached a place called Ait Benhaddou. This is the site of an 11th century fortified kasbah that now has a new story: Hollywood movie location. Here's just a quick sample of movies that are shot here: Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, Jesus of Nazareth, The Mummy, Alexander, Babel, Kingdom of Heaven, and Price of Persia. As we left, Pallavi remarked, "I wonder how much of our information gained from cinema is incorrect based upon just the scenery. I would have thought this place looked like Rome not Morocco?"
As we came to our final destination, Ouarzazate, I suddenly noticed that there was this little trumpet image on my turn indicator. What the heck is that? Oh wait!!! HONK!!! Found the horn!
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