An adventure which threatened to turn nasty had an unexpectedly
pleasant ending.
TWO DAYS IN TANGIERS
The ferry lurched furiously, huge seas crashing against her sides. Although the
weather had been reasonably calm leaving Gibraltar, the storm had increased
steadily as the vessel entered the Straights of Gibraltar. By now the passengers were
suffering and there were few people on deck or in the public rooms.
Head over the bowl, retching on an empty stomach, seasickness had her firmly in its
grip. Frightened and alone, all she wanted was to get back to dry land. What on earth
had made her decide to visit Morocco on a day pass? ‘As soon as we dock, I’m
getting on the next boat back to Gibraltar’ she vowed, ignoring the fact that would
double her discomfort and sea-sickness instead of alleviating it.
At last, after what seemed hours, the ship docked in Tangiers and she tottered
ashore. Due to the storm, no further sailings were scheduled. With dread she
realised she would have to spend the night there.
The worst of the storm was over but a fine rain was failing, bathing the scene in
watercolour greens and greys. Softly illuminated by the last rays of the setting sun,
the town looked like something out of ‘Aladdin’s Tales.’ The taxi passed a tiny donkey
with a figure sitting sideways, covered from head to foot in a burnoose with only a
pair of dark eyes showing. Wars had changed the faces of cities; and a desperate
battle had been waged in the Western Desert by the British and Germans, but there
was a scene from the Bible.
By the time the taxi reached the town, dusk was falling and her first priority was to
find somewhere to sleep. Her arrival had been noticed and she was marked as a
stranger. Soon a gaggle of small boys was following her, offering their help. They
offered to change her English pounds for Moroccan Dirhams insisting that their rates
were better than the banks. Not trusting them, she insisted instead that they take her
to a cheap hotel. After many whispered consultations, she was led deeper and
deeper down narrow twisting alleys further and further into the Souk. Apprehension
twisting her guts, she realised that as a young single woman in a Moslem country
she was fair game and that anything could happen. As the walk continued, her fears
grew stronger. Maybe she should break away from the boys and find her way back to
the main shopping area where there were still a few people about. If she left it longer,
for all she knew they might be conducting her to a brothel or a ‘White Slaver’s’ den.
Then escape would be impossible.
Finally, after interminable twists and turns the biggest boy banged on a heavily
carved door set in a whitewashed wall. After repeated knocking, the door was slowly
opened to reveal a dark, mysterious room lit by the yellow glow of an oil lamp set
below desk level. The illumination threw into sharp relief the face of a negro wearing
a red fez, heightening the dread that gripped her. An air of menace seemed to
pervade the room, and this, together with the blackness of the night outside, the long
bewildering walk through the Souk, her weariness after the rough voyage, and the
awful seasickness increased her feeling of dread.
Negligently he demanded her passport, slowly turned the pages and entered the
necessary details in a ledger. He then firmly locked the passport in a drawer and
pocketed the key. Only then did he consent to show her the room. Heart thumping,
she took the key from him, entered and quickly locked the door. She placed a chair
under the handle hoping to keep out intruders. Crossing to the window, she closed
and barred the wooden shutters and, feeling very frightened and regretting her
impulsive decision to take a day trip to Tangiers, she rued the impulse to visit this city
with such a bad reputation for drugs, smugglers, and the ‘White Slave Traffic.’
Momentarily expecting to be dragged out screaming, all the stories she had been told
rushed through her mind. Too frightened to sleep, she lay on the bed leaving the dull
20-watt bulb to burn through the night. Afraid of what the dark might bring, she kept
her money, watch and return ticket strapped around her waist and lay fully dressed to
wait until daylight. Time passed slowly, filled with her longing for daylight, and her
determination to return to Gibraltar the following day.
Some hours later, she was woken after a restless night by a tinny banging and
knocking. Leaping up she opened the shutters. Bright sunlight and blue skies greeted
her eyes. Glancing into the gloom of the narrow street she saw the source of the
noise. A small herd of brown and white goats were delicately picking their way along
the alley, munching cigarette packets, orange rinds, banana skins, fag ends and
anything edible. The Middle East’s answer to a refuse removal service, it is one that
comes with a built-in re-cycling system. The tinny banging came from the bells
around their necks and the knocking was their insistent kicking against the wooden
doors begging for scraps of stale bread.
Not long after her rude awakening, a scratching at her door alerted her once again
and, removing her primitive safety measures, she opened it to see a small boy.
Cheerfully wishing her “Good morning” he motioned her to follow him. Wondering
what further dangers could lie in wait for her, she doubtfully obeyed. Using sign
language, he led her up to the roof, where she discovered a charming scene of gaily
dressed tables under colourful sun umbrellas set for breakfast. Small posies of fresh
flowers decorated each table, large jugs of orange juice, croissants, and even
Cooper’s Oxford Marmalade filled the buffet table, while smiling waiters in red fezzes
and white “khansus” stood ready to take the guest’s orders.
Mewing seagulls paced the parapet in the sunlight, and far out she could see the
mirror flat sea with a couple of freighters waiting to enter harbour. In contrast to
yesterday’s terrifying gale, the sea this morning was docile and quiet, reflecting
nothing of the previous storm.
Amazing as it might seem, the frightening place of the night before was not the local
brothel, nor was it the headquarters of the Tangiers branch of ‘White Slaver’s
Unlimited’ ready to abduct her and sweep her off to life imprisonment in a sheik’s
harem.
The place the small boys had so carefully conducted her to the previous night was a
charming and well-run package tour hotel, geared up for the quick turnaround of
weekly plane-loads of holiday tourists from Britain.
Like all tourists on package holidays to the Costa del Sol or the former Spanish
Morocco, they arrived raring to go and ready to enjoy every moment of a cheap
holiday in Tangiers. Like all tourists, they expected to find the beer, the babes and
the beaches as enticing as in the travel agent’s brochures, and hotel “Bab el
Mansour” was doing everything it could to come up to scratch.