Exploring El Badi Palace and perfecting the art of souk shopping

After an eventful morning of hot air ballooning and camel back riding, we still had a full day of exploring ahead of us. It was time to take to the medina with my new fiancée. Has a nice ring to it, huh? We were definitely excited to check out El Badi Palace… but even more excited to start shopping in the souks. Okay, maybe it was just me that was excited to go shopping.

We hailed another taxi from Bab Moussafa for 40 dirhams and were on our way!

El Badi Palace

The entrance fee to El Badi Palace is 70 dirhams per person like many of Marrakech’s main attractions. This abandoned palace was the grandest we toured, consisting of over 350 rooms, gardens, and courtyards. This sprawling palace was huge and took us about an hour and a half to cover, though you could never tell its size from the outside.

There were underground tunnels and chambers with exhibits on the conditions for the slaves once kept there. As we walked through different areas of the complex, there were various exhibits on the history of the palace. It was commissioned by sultan Ahmed al-Mansour to commemorate the victory of the Battle of the Three Kings. The main courtyard had a grand sunken garden, still lush with unkempt greenery and trees growing in it.

Although what remains is mostly ruins, the essence of the grandeur El Badi Palace once had remains and is definitely worth the visit!

Snack break at Soul Food rooftop

While walking the medina we often got stopped by many restauranteurs with rooftop locations. They always asked us to look at their menu or to come in for some couscous. Today we took one of them up on that offer and decided to give our feet a rest at Soul Food. I’m so glad we did because their briouates and chocolate mousse were delicious!

Walking into Soul Food you are immediately drawn in by the colorful tilework, lush greenery, and mirrored windows in the entryway. The rooftop was also a nice and quiet reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the street below.

Time to hit the souks!

Today was the day I accomplished most of my shopping. We most scoured the souks near Jemaa el-Fnaa in search of the best items to bring home. Here are my tips for some successful bartering:

Don’t appear overly eager. Merchants prey on that! Stay cool and always be willing to walk away from something. I promise there are 10 more somewhere else in the souks.
Never go with the first prices they give you. The shop owners love to barter! Personally, whenever they give a price, I offer a price 40-50% lower. We usually end up meeting in the middle.
Be willing to walk away! If the price is too high for you, just walk away! Usually, this tactic will get them to agree to a better price, but even if it doesn’t you can try your luck in other shops.

Here are some photos of the items I got: Mugs and matching plates, glass tea light holders, a ring box for my engagement ring (I added cotton and red felt when I got home!), and a large serving dish. Unfortunately, the serving dish broke while we were still in Morocco but we still brought it home to repair! We also got scarves, clothes, and other souvenirs for friends and family.

Dinner at Lao

Tonight’s dinner reservation was at Lao. Spoiler alert: this was my least favorite of all that we tried. I’ll explain why soon. It took us a second to find it – the entrance is just an elevator door tucked in a corner. Once inside you head up the elevator and into a well-appointed and luxurious-looking restaurant. We arrived right when they opened and got a wonderful seat overlooking the part of the city below.

What I loved…

Lao is a beautiful restaurant with a great view and a nice luxe vibe. The music was also good.

The sushi menu was delicious. We had the volcano roll and sushi amuse-bouche and really enjoyed it!

Our hostess was lovely. Our hostess was very friendly and helpful when the first dish (baked chicken) I got came out extremely dry. She made the night even more special by sending a dessert with a sparkler to our table. All while playing Michael Jackson’s “You Are Not Alone” to celebrate our engagement.

What I didn’t love…

The server we had was not familiar with the menu and did not like most of the items on it. When we would inquire about dishes to see what he would recommend – he made a lot of faces and said he personally did not like them. This made it difficult to decide what to get.

This con applies to non-smokers only, it’s a smoker-friendly restaurant. We realized this later on as the restaurant filled up and many tables lit up. Both Devon and I started to get a headache from the strong haze of cigarette smoke that filled the restaurant. It definitely killed the ambiance for us.

Our waiter constantly hovered over us when looking over the menu (this took time because an English menu was not available so we needed time to translate). And yes, we did tell him we need more time and to come back late – but I don’t think he understood English well. He would just say okay and then stay there. So I ended up ordering something I did not like – TWICE.

Service was extremely slow. Our reservation was at 7:30 pm (when they open) and we didn’t leave until 10 pm.

What did we eat?

Final thoughts on Lao

I would only recommend Lao if you are a smoker. Personally, I could not get past the smoke in the air or poor service. I think we would have had a better experience with a different server but overall I will not be visiting again.