A European hotel with floors for just women...what about us guys?

I spotted an item at travelmole.com this morning about how a hotel in Copenhagen, the Bella Sky Comwell (horrible name but interesting architecture, as you can see), is going to dedicate an entire floor to women travellers.

I believe this has been done before in North America and other spots, but it's still an interesting concept. Apparently the hotel had women serve on a focus group and found out they liked the idea of being more secure (i.e., away from guys). They also feel rooms are going to be more hygienic if only women use them (a suggestion I resent, being a person who picks up after myself in a room so the poor cleaning staff can get a break), and that they, naturally, favour somewhat different amenities than male customers.

Big bathrooms with a tub (I'm all for that, especially in the winter), large shower heads (I don't know why), a good hairdryer and a mirror that magnifies for make-up application. The travelmole story said women also want free wi-fi (don't we all?), iPod docking stations, a full-length mirror, good magazines (probably not the same ones the guys want), plants and slippers.

I don't know, but I suspect most women would like this picture I spotted of the Peninsula Tokyo Hotel and one of its bathrooms. Not bad, eh?

They also said they want lighting stations that are easy to understand, and hail to that. I can't tell you the number of rooms I've stayed in, including one in New Delhi last week, where I was simply buffaloed trying to figure out how to turn up lights.

Why do hotels feel the need to install systems that give you six types of lighting and fancy buttons and crazy switches? What's wrong with a simple light switch, or maybe a dimmer? Do I really need a program that takes a half hour to figure out just so I can have my drapes open 3/4 of an inch at a time and slowly raise the level of sound on the radio so I can ease into my morning? No, I do not.

When I wake up at night to pee, I want to flick a switch and find the toilet and not launch into arithmetic algorithms and get out a manual that tells me how to turn on the friggin' bathroom light.

There are, of course, some things us guys would want to see in a hotel room. How about urinals? Wouldn't that be nice? Also: giant tv screens that get all the latest channels and, in Canada, also get ESPN so we can watch all the March Madness we want and not rely on Canadian stations. Mini-bars that don't charge $15 for a bottle of beer would be nice.

The women in the Copenhagen hotel group said they'd like some place in the hotel to buy tights and emergency kits of lip gloss, eye shadow and mascara. Me? I want a hotel shop that sells spicy chicken wings 24/7 and good-value California Cabernet Sauvignon, not to mention better bookshops with more than just those horrendous Girl with the Dragon Tattoo novels.

I see the point of female-only floors. But this creates a real problem because I think what most guys want on their floor, more than beer and chicken wings and giant TV's and even free movies and wi-fi, are women.

Just a hunch.

AIR CANADA DISCOUNT NEWS

Some interesting comments came out in the wake of Air Canada's suggestion that it might launch a discount airline. It's certainly good news, but one expert quoted by Canadian Press suggests we might not want to open the Champagne just yet.

A new low-cost airline flying to vacation spots in Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe would inflict more pressure on the industry to constrain fares, at least until a rival is driven out of business, said Chris Murray of PI Financial Corp.

“In the short run there may be (some bargains) but ...I wouldn’t expect it to be driving fares down to the craziness like we’ve seen before, the $1 to London flights,” he said in the CP interview.

Quoted in the Toronto Sun, analyst Rick Erickson of R.J. Erickson & Associates said the move likely would help keep prices in check. He suggests flights might commenct next fall or winter.

Erickson noted that Air Canada has steadily been losing market share to such discount airlines as Transat A.T., Westjet Vacations and Sunwing Travel Group.

PAT DOWN OF A SIX-YEAR-OLD? GET REAL, TSA

This I spotted from Associated Press today, and it really makes me wonder about some folks in the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. (Most of them are great, so please, no letters).

A Kentucky couple wants the TSA to change how it screens children after their 6-year-old daughter was frisked at the New Orleans airport.

Selena Drexel told ABC's "Good Morning America" Wednesday the family was returning home from a vacation earlier this month when their daughter Anna was selected for a pat-down.

The couple posted a video of the search on YouTube.

The girl's father, Todd Drexel, says Anna was confused by the search and started crying afterward because she thought she'd done something wrong.

Selena Drexel says such searches are inappropriate for children because they're usually told not to let adults touch them in sensitive areas.

In a statement, the Transportation Security Administration says the officer followed proper procedure but that the agency is reviewing its screening policies.

No kidding.

 

 

 

Air Canada to launch new, low-cost carrier? Sounds like good news for consumers

The Canadian airline industry keeps getting more interesting every day, and this time it could be good news for the little guy.

Reporting in today's Globe & Mail, reporter Brent Jang talks about Air Canada's plan to create a "discount, leisure airline to complete on routes to Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and other popular vacation spots."

The Canadian industry has been in turmoil for some time, given the Sunwing-Signature merger in 2009, the growth of Porter, the coming (May 1) return of Air Canada planes to the Toronto Island airport, and West Jet's attempt to muscle in on more of the Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa biz market. The Air Canada discount move would be yet another shift in the industry landscape.

Jang's story talks about Air Canada starting with 10 planes and potentially increasing that to 50, a move that he says "will ratchet up the competitive pressure on tour operators such as Transat A.T. Inc."

Air Canada, like other airlines, is just emerging from a rather nasty economic hole, so it's an interesting statement on their part.

I, of course, would LOVE to see more chances for Canadians to save money on flights. The cost these days is absolutely horrendous. I just looked last night into the details for a flight to San Francisco in June and the best deal I could find on Air Canada was almost $800! Even flying through Buffalo and making a stop along the way didn't seem to help, with the cheapest ticket I could find being something like $500.

I guess we know where some of that money is going. Reports across Canada this morning suggest Air Canada union folks are outraged over the news that Air Canada chief exeecutive Calin Rovinescu last year collected salary and benefits that totalled $4.6 million. That's a 75 per cent increase over the $2.6 million he got the previous year, according to Reuters.

AC union folks called Rovinescu's 2010 earnings a "disgrace."

"The Air Canada bargaining committee and our union will be demanding equal improvements and solid gains from Air Canada," said Ken Lewenza, national president of the Canadian Auto Workers CAW.

Reuters reports that Air Canada's shares are down by more than a third this year, partly on worries about strikes at Canada's biggest carrier as it negotiates new labour contracts with all its unions.

 

Victor at Le Germain launches new menu celebrating Toronto’s neighbourhoods

Here's a report from Lorianna De Giorgio of the Star’s web team from an event the other day at Hôtel Le Germain in Toronto, a personal fave of mine.

Toronto wouldn’t be Toronto without its diverse neighbourhoods, and the eclectic mix is spotlighted at Victor Restaurant and Bar. 

The Mercer Street restaurant housed in the Hôtel Le Germain, underwent a major redesign last year turning it from a French eatery — which its owners felt was too physically disconnected from the hotel itself — to a place that's more integrated with the cozy lobby. With the new look, came the Taste Toronto menu, which offers dishes inspired by the city’s neighbourhoods.

Neighbourhoods include Little India, Chinatown, Korea Town, Little Portugal, Little Italy, Japanese Village and Kensington Market.

The dishes from Little India’s channa masala and mango chutney to Korea Town’s glazed short ribs and kimchi hand rolls, are designed as individual appetizers or combined to create a mixed tasting meal.

Little Italy is represented with delicate miniature tiramisus, while Chinatown’s fare offers seared scallops with guylan and black bean sauce.

Executive chef David Chrystian, whose past positions include Patriot, Accolade and the Drake Hotel before coming to Le Germain five years ago, launched a prix-fixe version of the Taste Toronto menu under a different name about a year-and-a-half ago, with the older format focusing on four courses and only one neighbourhood.

The new menu, which launched in March, allows diners to try a variety of cuisines in one sitting. (In the photograph, you’ll see, from left: samplings of sushi pizza of albacore sashimi, lobster roe and wasabi mayo, plus mango chutney and channa masala). Prices range from $14 to $79, depending on the number of dishes ordered.  

“The concept of the restaurant, and now the menu that we’re serving … is something that we should all be proud of as citizens of the city. It’s an amazing city in its diversity,” Chrystian told a few dozen journalists and editors at a media night April 7. “And here we are doing nothing except trying to showcase that for perhaps the rest of the world, but also for ourselves.”

The intimate space with its masculine old-world charms features a private dining space closed off by a floor-to-ceiling glass and metal wall, two zinc bars, custom wallpaper, limestone dining tables, and white oak and brass sofas with plush purple velvet fabric.

It was designed by Toronto architect and designer Jenny Francis, who has successfully beefed-up Victor’s image from French and slightly stuffy, to classically cosmopolitan.

 

 

Jaipur's fabulous Gangaur festival...camels, dancers and painted elephants

JAIPUR, INDIA – Sometimes you get lucky on the road. And then there’s times you see something really cool just by coincidence.

Such was the case this week when I checked into the Samode Haveli hotel here in town (thumbs up for one of my favourite hotels of all time) and then found out that my second night was going to be the Gangaur festival, which celebrates the union of the god Shiva with his wife, Pavarti.

It’s a time when women give blessings for their husbands and when those seeking a husband pray for good luck in the quest. More important for tourists, this early April event also means a ton of colour at the annual parade.

We gathered near the City Palace around 6 p.m. and found some massive elephants painted with lively, flowery patterns of pink, yellow and bright green; common for festivals in India from what I can tell. They were seemingly mugging for the cameras, raising a foot in the air every so often as if taking a bow as they waited for the action.

A brass band was playing tunes that sounded like John Phillips Sousa mixed with Ravi Shankar, which is probably a terrible example but the best way I can think of at the moment to say it sounded both western and eastern. Either way, it was pretty cool.

We began to see that the parade was going in another direction, so we walked a few feet further down to a courtyard area. I found a place to stand in the shade and with a good view.

I could see a group of about eight young Indian men gathered in the street, and they were staring up at me. I admit I started to get a little uneasy, but then I saw them look over at what I later found to be a British family. They walked up past me to the family and started asking to take pictures of their infant, who was resting in a Snugli on the father’s chest (and boy that had to have been hot). It was quite cute, and I immediately, of course, felt awful about thinking they might be up to no good.

Within seconds there were a dozen cellphones out, snapping pictures of the family’s children – a boy of maybe 10 and a girl a few years younger. The boy seemed a bit wary but the girl kept turning to her mother and grinning a grin that said, “Can you BELIEVE this?”

The youths kept crowding around having photos taken, time after time, in different positions. Finally, as they started to leave, the mother who had been mugging for the Indian youths turned to one of them and held out her hand as if demanding payment. The kid didn’t get the joke at first, then howled and dashed away with his buddies.

The parade got underway shortly thereafter and we had to find a place to watch as we’d accidentally chosen a poor spot. We nestled in among a crowd on one of the main bazaar streets, which have old-time colonnades made of pink-coloured stone – painted that way in 1876 to welcome the King of England, I believe.

The elephants came first, followed by bands, gaily-decorated camels and horses, beautiful dancing girls, some water buffalo and, finally, Shiva, carried on the shoulders of parade workers/volunteers.

It lasted maybe a half hour but it was outstanding entertainment, and definitely something I’d recommend to anyone planning a future visit.

More to come later on Jaipur and India in general in the pages of Toronto Star Travel.

 

India's Golden Triangle - palaces and forts and energy galore in Jaipur

JAIPUR, INDIA - They call Delhi-Agra-Jaipur the Golden Triangle of India tourism. After a day here, I’d have to think Jaipur doesn’t get the share of love it deserves.

We got up Wednesday morning and hit the Hawa Mahal, the so-called Wind Palace, a towering affair from 1799 that features 953 lattice-work windows, built to take advantage of Rajasthan’s famous winds. The story goes that women would sit behind the windows and peer out but that others couldn’t see in.

It looks hugely impressive in pictures and it’s pretty cool, but I didn’t realize it was on the main street in the old town and swamped by a sea of traffic. The guide books I read suggest you can go in to what’s behind the façade, but my guide insisted that’s not the case. Similarly, the photos I’ve seen of the Jai Mahal, or Lake Palace, make it look like Xanadu on the water. It’s nice, but somehow seems much smaller in person than it does on those Google images.

The Amer (or Amber or Amher fort, depending on who or what you read), on the other hand, is far more impressive than I thought (see picture). Sprawling over the top of a ridge a few kilometers outside Jaipur proper, it’s a massive, yellow stone affair that dominates everything around it and is filled with beautiful compounds and courtyards and royal steam baths and saunas and apartments for wives and mistresses both and winding staircases and hidden pathways that were used by the women’s wheelchairs. Why the wheelchairs? Apparently they wore something like 20 pounds of jewels and 30 pounds worth of dresses, or perhaps the other way around (probably so given the heat here in summer) and couldn’t even move, so had to be carted around on human-powered “wheelchairs” in secret corridors behind the main courtyards.

Very cool, with spectacular views of the valleys. There’s also a massive fort that sits on the hill that rises high behind the Amer/Amber/Amher fort. And there’s a huge security wall, like the Great Wall of China, that rises and climbs and falls and dips and swirls over many kilometers along nearby ridges.

It’s quite something to see, and only a few bucks for entry.

Down in Jaipur proper is the City Palace, carved out by the Rajasthan and Jaipur kings over the years. There are more courtyards here and towers and also a textiles museum that shows off various clothing worn by the royals, including a royal dress worn by a king who’s said to have been 7 feet tall and weighed something like 500 pounds.

I got a charge out some of the costumes but was far more interested in the arms and weapons room, where they spell out "welcome" with guns and knives on the wall. Displays include fancy daggers that open up into something like scissors once inside an opponent's body (best not to think about that too much) and a belt that turns into a sword, (the old belt that turns into a sword trick, as Maxwell Smart might say).

Just as good as the sights, to my way of thinking, is the fabulous Samode Haveli hotel in the centre of town. I loved it as soon as I walked in and saw the courtyard with small. lit-up fountains and soaring, Indian-style arches and enclosing a lobby-like area with beautiful furniture, marble floors and brightly painted walls. Some of the rooms in the older part of the property are simply stunning. Mine has a series of arches and a giant bed and a massive bathroom at the end of a long corridor, with lovely, black- and-white prints of local notables. There's also a lovely, quiet pool with three enormous cabanas for lounging (see photo), plus they make fabulous food for dinner that you can eat in the courtyard, under the stars.

The hotel is owned by the royal family from nearby Samode, one of many parts of India that still has royalty. From what I can tell, their roles are purely ceremonial. My guide yesterday, Raju, said the royal family of Jaipur has a role similar to that of the Queen of England and still lives in the City Palace.

More to come on the massively colourful Gangaur festival, which we witnessed in central Jaipur Wednesday night. Then back to Delhi for a day before heading home to what I hope are a few sprinkling of crocuses, snowdrops and maybe even an early-blooming tulip somewhere.

 

 

The unsurpassed stillness and beauty of India's Taj Mahal

AGRA, INDIA - Talk about taking your breath away.

When you make a visit to this city in India, chances are you have one thing in mind - that magical, world-renowned tribute to love called the Taj Mahal. It's a place I've always wanted to see, so when I took in that first view on Tuesday I was, in a word, speechless. There are no words I can think of to describe that anticipation you get when you walk through a towering archway into the light and see that long fountain and the four minarets and that marble dome rising so magnificently over the Indian countryside. 

For history buffs, let it be recorded it was finished in 1653, having taken 20,000 workers 22 years of their toil and sweat to get it built so the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan could pay tribute to his wife, Mumtax, who died giving birth to their 14th child (geez).

My tour guide, the lovely Islam, told me the emperor's first thought was to build a residential palace for his beloved, but that it turned into a mausoleum after she died. I had no idea there were so many intricacies to the design, including the vast acres of inlaid stone - all placed carefully into carved bits of Indian marble - and jewels. You can do full-moon tours, and I can only imagine how spectacular that would be.

The building looks perfect, but Islam told me the designers intentionally made one of the columns slightly different at the bottom so they couldn't be accused of trying to be as perfect as God. He also explained how the minarets were built leaning outwards a bit so, in case they ever toppled, they wouldn't crack the dome but would fall off to the side.

I also took in Agra Fort, an impressive, red sandstone affair that stretches some 2.4 kilometers around and is five storeys high. It's where the famous Peacock Throne was once located, and it's a majestic sight. The kids (hey, and me, too) likely will get a kick out of the monkeys, too.

On to Jaipur, so more on that and a bit about a killer hotel I stayed in for the night, the wonderfully traditional Samode Haveli.

 

India's remarkable menageries on display on streets of New (and old) Delhi

NEW DELHI - The wild streets I expected. Not necessary the wildlife.

Had a tour on Monday of Old Delhi, including the lovely Jama Masjid mosque, the largest in India. A beautiful building, with great views if you pay a little extra (on top of the entry fee and the fee for  bringing a camera) for the trip up one of the minarets to the tiny viewing platform where the tour guide you didn't ask for will ask for another small fee for pointing out the sights in the distance. Lots of fun, as was our cycle rickshaw ride through the thickly populated, teeming alleyways of the old city, where we careered past carts piled with golden-yellow limes, perfumed white and red and orange flowers and stores overflowing with everything from pink saris to junky auto parts, all the while darting in and out past mopeds and other rickshaws and pedestrians perfectly used to being nearly run down 1,437 times a day without actually getting hit.

So that was awesome, as were the heady aromas of tea, cinnamon, masala mixings and fiery peppers at the Spice Market. But what I hadn't quite counted on was the animals.

Sure, I knew well in advance about the sacred cows we'd see wandering the streets. And my son, who lives here while at university for a few months, had told me about the monkeys. (I spotted my first monkey scampering on the grounds of former Viceroy Lord Mountbatten's place on Sunday.) We saw one atop one of those concrete bunkers outside a foreign consulate building later, causing my tour guide to label it a "security monkey." Not a great joke, but he wasn't a terribly funny guy, either.

I hadn't counted on the small herd of goats being paraded through old Delhi, as well as the only elephant I've seen so far, a horse rider dressed all in silver and red on his way to a (we presume) wedding and small carts being pulled by donkeys or horses. I've seen enormous camels pulling carts along the highway too many times to count (but it's hard to get a good picture out the window of your car, as this woeful effort shows) as well as giant, black water buffalo.

"In India, you don't have to go to the zoo," my tour guide in Agra explained. "The zoo comes to you."

Good point. And not just the animals. There's an enormous parade of humanity everywhere you go, and the cacophony of horns and honks is something to behold in the old city. As well as the new. Some of the "cars" on the highway, often the tiny, three-wheeled auto rickshaws that ply the city by the tens of thousands, can be seen on the highway with as many people as you'd see at a preseason "Buffao Bills in Toronto" game. (Provide your own rim shot, folks).

Our train to Agra was delayed so much we gave up and grabbed a taxi, who took us on a (for me) harrowing drive that finished in the dark as we drove past all sorts of humanity and watched in the dusk as dark figures gathered by fires near the side of the road. Pretty entertaining, actually.

Spent the night at the lovely, modern Mughal Sheraton in Agra, quite close to the Taj Mahal. There are beautiful gardens and fountains and a real sense of quiet and solitude; something that seems hard to find in this crowded city. They've taken care at the hotel to name rooms and entries and bridges on the property after Mughal emperors, which is a nice touch.

Quite modern rooms, as I said, and a pretty good breakfast to boot.

More tomorrow on remarkable Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort.

 

 

 

 

Sheraton. Agra on Wednesday report.

 

A big cricket win for India and a small taste of the pleasures of New Delhi

NEW DELHI - That was something else.

I must admit I'd never watched even a second of a cricket match before Saturday night, but when you're in New Delhi and India's trying to win its first world cup of cricket in 28 years you'd be crazy not to watch, even if your hotel is charging $100 Canadian for a buffet dinner (drinks included but it's still a fortune for Inida) and a big-screen TV.

I don't regret it, though. The food was varied and quite good, the Indian red wine (a Cab-Shiraz blend) quite decent and the cricket, well, that was about a great a sporting event as I've ever witnessed, and I got to cover the Blue Jays winning the World Series twice, a couple of major golf tourneys and the Kobe Bryant 84-point explosion against the Raptors in LA a few years ago.

There was a great spread at the Intercontinental Nehru Place, which isn't quite on the normal tourist circuit but is in a nice part of town that's a bit quieter than the "downtown" areas. And folks went pretty berserk when India rallied from being down a sizable 274 to Sri Lanka.

It was a lot crazier at India Gate, the popular WW I memorial, but it still was fun to watch folks party a bit at the hotel.

That was Saturday. Sunday was spent, among other things, touring the India Gate and the city's biggest Sikh Temple, where they serve up free lunches to anyone who comes in. My tour guides showed me around the kitched, which was stuffed to the gills with folks making bread and pickles and with giant, copper vats boiling lentils. Quite colourful and fascinating to watch (see photo).

We also checked out the Lotus Temple, which looks a lot like the Sydney Opera House, and the lovely mosque and tombs at Lodi Gardens, which are awesome near sunset and which might be my favourite stop so far in a city that's quite a blast to visit.

I love the tuk tuk's most of all; small, three-wheeled taxis that can shuttle you for several miles for not much more than two dollars. You really get to see the people - and the wandering cows on the street and the women with kids on their laps on the back of a moped and, yes, the occasional monkey or elephant - up close and it's a fabulously entertaining trip.

More on Monday, including, I hope, the city's biggest mosque and some of the flavours of Old Delhi.

 

 

A little bit of Massachusetts and a bigger bit of (scary) Morocco on tap for today

A brief session with the folks representing Massachusetts Tourism on Thursday. The state's been on a role roll for quite a while, what with all the movies featuring the state: The Fighter, The Town, Social Network, and more.

The Fighter apparently has helped turn Lowell, Mass. from an industral town in something of a tourist centre. Boston was doing fine without The Town and we suspect Cambridge does okay, even with The Social Network, but it doesn't hurt to have an aggressive state government pitching their product and reeling in Hollywood movies. Don't forget The Perfect Storm was based out of a Massachusetts fishing village, as well.

I've been to Cape Cod, Nantucket (a great place, see photo) and Boston, which I sometimes prefer to New York because it seemed more manageable in size. But it's been quite a while.

Ron D'Amico from the Connelly Partners was telling me about all the wineries (30-odd), foodie spots, fishing villages and, yes, ski hills his state has to offer. I didn't know, but apparently some of the Berkshires (which I only know about from James Taylor's song Sweet Baby James) are as high as 6,000 feet. Pretty impressive.

D'Amico said the state tourism folks are big into social media (fitting, with The Social Network, I guess) and that the Mass Insider page on Facebook has all sorts of deals, but you have to go in and say you "like" the site. They also have a Twitter handle, @visitma, and there's lots on their website,  massvacation.com (nice name).

D'Amico said the Boston Film Festival goes in early May, while there's one in Provincetown in summer and on Martha's Vineyard in September.

On a more exotic front, here's a file from Morocco from Star Travel columnist Bert Archer....

Dakhla, Morocco – We were far away from most things, in the part of Morocco referred to on many maps as Western Sahara out of respect for the separatist feelings among many of its residents. We were there for the Dakhla Festival, a cool combo of music and surfing, with a camel race tossed in for good measure.

It was the second last day of the fest. Ivorian reggae star Alpha Blondy was in the house, which in this case meant one of the tents set up for participants along the beach on this peninsula of sand jutting out from the very bottom of Morocco. So were any number of surfers – kite, wind and regular – taking time off from the regular circuit to take in a bit of Africa.

We were at the Hotel Doumss [http://fr-fr.facebook.com/hoteldoumss] in downtown Dakhla [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakhla,_Western_Sahara] -- a newly developing city, the beneficiary of King Mohammed VI’s nation-wide investments in tourism and culture -- and had asked organizers if we could spend a night with the big boys in Tent City. They said we could. But when our driver showed up about an hour later, she was in a panic. “Are you ready?” she asked quickly when she saw me in the lobby. I was in the middle of tweeting something or other about the city or the helicopter ride I’d just taken, and I told her I would be in a second. A second was no good. “No. Now!”

We were hustled into her car and driven, fast, out of town. Apparently, there were riots. And with every café’s TV screen turned to Al Jazeera’s coverage of what was happening in Libya, playing and replaying the few bloody close-ups they had, every one was a little nervous. Was Morocco rising against its king? Was this happening all over the country, or just in wee little Dakhla, population a little under 100,000?

She didn’t know. And now that I’d lost my hotel’s WiFi connection, I couldn’t find out.

When we got to the WiFi-less camp, the surfers were huddled around various energy drink kiosks mumbling and speculating. Our driver, a PR person for the festival, said it was probably just kids on drugs. When someone with a smartphone came up with pictures of a car on fire, it became obvious it was something more than that. But that turned out to be one of the only posts on the subject. News dried up, and even those with smartphones were in the dark.

As afternoon turned to night, I heard that all the journalists in town for the festival had been rounded up and brought to the camp. I was told it was for my own safety, but when I asked to go into town that evening to see for myself what was going on and offered to absolve them of their responsibility for my well being, they refused. The same thing happened the next day, when, after a few hours of peace (during which I made it briefly into town [http://twitter.com/#!/bertarcher/status/41968352997933056], the military barricaded part of the city, ostensibly to prevent any more violence. I went to the gate of the tent city to hop a ride into town, and was asked if I was a journalist. I said yes, and they refused to let me pass.

Now, there are worse places to be stuck. There was a tea tent, and the place was lousy with wet surfers. But the camp was on edge, the officials already formulating their defenses of the king and attacks on whomever the rioters might turn out to be in scattered conversations with surfers and journalists. Over the course of the two days, the rioters transformed from kids on drugs to the Sahrawi [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahrawi_people] to foreign agitators back to kids on drugs. Spontaneous outpourings of support for the king were frequent. Still not completely clear on what was happening, the director cancelled the last day of his festival. People hung out, Blondy played to his captive audience that evening as I watched the big stage erected for the week’s concerts being dismantled in town (I’d finally managed to hitch a ride when the military had begun withdrawing that evening).

As it turned out, it was – probably – a fight between people in different neighbourhoods, possibly started by a slap in the face and fuelled by internecine disdain between Moroccans and the Sahrawi people, whom one Arab Moroccan cab driver described to me as “dark and unemployed.” It had been brewing for two days, and apparently only became a real problem when the already tense police and military intervened.

The violence turned out to be isolated, and though there remained rumours of a death and a rape, things went back to normal, and some journalists who’d been expecting to file stories on the re-birth of windsurfing as a possible sign that 90s nostalgia had truly taken hold ended up with a little personal insight into just how nervous people in Morocco are these days.