Day 9: Chez Ali in Marrakech

It was recommended that we go to Chez Ali for dinner and the show while in Marrakech.   It was a large facility that was located on the outer city limits of Marrakech.   It was advertised as 'Fantasia' but it reminded me from something you would find at Disneyland.   It was a large complex that was built to look like a castle.   Inside the walls, there were dancers, musicians, and many individual colorful tents for eating.

After a very huge and elaborate dinner, everyone moved to an open air arena in the middle of the complex where they performed a show with horses, dancers, music, and even a flying carpet.  It was a very fun night and a good way to end our first day in Marrakech.

Picture of our group at the entrance to the Chez Ali complex.

Once inside, you were able to walk around where they had many small groups of dancers and musicians.  This is a picture of the women in our group dancing a bit with some of the dancers.

This is our server bringing the first of several large tangines for dinner.   It was enough food to feed an army and no one went home hungry.  :-)

Rahul having fun with the plate of vegetables and cous cous.   Although you can see it, there is also meat underneath the stack of vegetables.   Can you believe that they brought three plates this size for our group of ten people?

I thought this vegetable plate was beautiful and it was definitely delicious to eat.

Rahul, myself, Mihoko, and Tracey for our last course of fruit.   Even though we were all stuffed from dinner, we ate the fuit because it was so delivious.   Morocco is known for their oranges and it is one of the vegetables that they export to other countries.   We saw orange trees all over the city of Marrakech.

This is an orange from the plate of fruit that they brought us.   It doesn't get much fresher than this.... looks like it was picked off the tree a few hours earlier.  It was one of the best oranges that I've ever tasted.

Another dance performance that they did by our dinner table.

After dinner, everyone moved to the open air arena to watch the show.  This was the initial parade before the show started.

Close up of the camel and his trainer.   You can see one of the castles in the background.

This is our view from where we were sitting to watch the show.   If you look closely, you can see the audience on the other side of the arena.

Horse parade during the show.