All Aboard: Marrakech Bound

Am a little distracted today, I must admit. That’s because about this time tomorrow I’ll be at the airport, having likely just endured an uncomfortably intimate security check, about to board the first of three different flights, the last of which will not be landing until sometime Friday morning.

Where am I heading? Marrakech, Morocco. Gonna be helping cover the WPT event there for PokerNews.

This’ll be the second year for WPT Marrakech, an event that is also sponsored by Chilipoker (a non-U.S.-facing site). The main event sports a €4,250+€750 buy-in, a price that also includes accommodations and meals for the players.

Last year there were 416 entered in the event. I’m hearing there will be a number of big names making the trip (mostly from Europe) this time around, too. And Matt Savage, the WPT’s Executive Tour Director, will be on hand as well to oversee the sucker.

Obviously not ideal to be traveling on Thanksgiving, although Vera and I had already postponed the family stuff to December, and so the trip didn’t really conflict with anything major.

Of Marrakech -- a.k.a. the “Red City” -- I know very little. Arabic is the official language, although I imagine I’ll hear some French, too -- the one foreign language I have a shot at understanding.

Casablanca is nearby, of course. (Recognize that still pictured above?) And there’s that happy little Crosby, Stills & Nash song, “Marrakesh Express,” that describes a train trip from Casablanca.

You know that song... “All abo-o-o-o-oard, the tra-a-a-a-in.” Kind of sounds like a train chugging along, actually. With a whimsical, high-pitched melody flying along over the top that sounds like some sort of exotic stringed instrument, though I read somewhere is actually an organ. I think some of the lyrics might refer to a big marketplace for which the city is famous, though to be honest I’m not really sure.

In any case, I expect to learn a lot more about Marrakech and Morocco over the next week. Am hoping to send along a few trip reports here as it goes, but as always that will depend on how connected I turn out to be.

Meanwhile, I will probably post something from an airport tomorrow. Provided, of course, I make it through security without being too traumatized.