Underground Moroccan Massage Hits the Spot 🇲🇦

A single day in Casablanca on a long layover, with a shopping list for a cold-weather trip Harry won’t name yet: a jacket, a ski mask, a headscarf, a sleeping bag, ski goggles.

The medina beats him twice, and he says so — the sellers in Morocco are the best hagglers he has met, and his own mistake is that it’s his first day and he doesn’t know the conversion rate. He then fails to get into Rick’s Café, and finishes with what he calls the best hammam of his life.

Obs: this source has auto-generated subtitles. Prices are spoken without a stated currency and carry the unverified marker; one name is rendered several ways and is left out.

Key moments

• [00:00] The premise — one day, on a layover, buying kit for a trip he won’t name.
• [00:00] French colonial buildings and mosaics. Very walkable, palm trees in winter.
• [01:30] He admits he hasn’t done a market run in a while and needs to get his negotiating hat back on.
• [03:03] Looking for a jacket, and being shown one sold as a genuine Moncler, which he doesn’t believe.
• [03:36] Opens at 800 (from video – unverified).
• [04:06] 450, then 400 — “same price as the original”.
• [04:37] The mistake he names out loud: it’s his first day and he doesn’t know the conversion.
• [05:08] 350, 300, and Harry’s counter of 200.
• [05:38] Done at 200. It’s bright orange.
• [06:42] His own note that if he stood out before, he certainly does now.
• [07:12] The football shirt. Aston Villa comes up; so does Hakimi.
• [08:18] Raja Casablanca, and which team is best.
• [09:20] He offers 100 against an asking price of 200.
• [09:51] Settles at 190 — a discount of ten, which he calls out.
• [09:51] The walk-away works, and barely moves it. About $15, which he says is expensive.
• [10:21] The verdict: he’s been out of the game too long, got roped into two purchases, and everyone’s happy. Moroccans are very good at this.
• [11:38] A shop selling Moroccan bags, carpets and goatskin, run by a designer.
• [12:26] Pikachu the parrot, with 18,000 Instagram followers. Born there, doesn’t fly off, and tweets when someone comes in.
• [12:56] She wants attention. Her owner’s description — an Instagram girl.
• [13:26] The shopkeeper spends the rest of the visit directing him, which Harry says is the reason the day worked; he’d been walking around like a headless chicken.
• [13:57] His read on the medina: kind people, not too pushy, prices higher than South Asia but reasonable.
• [15:00] Out of the market, and aware that a man in a bright orange jacket is a target.
• [15:30] The old city — old doors, old buildings, and every street with its own story.
• [15:30] His hotel receptionist told him to hide his phone. He says it doesn’t feel like that kind of place.
• [16:00] Table football at the roadside, and boys playing everywhere. Football, he says, may be bigger here than in the UK.
• [16:30] The Atlantic, and the Hassan II Mosque.
• [17:02] He’s told it’s the third largest in the world, immediately says he thinks that’s wrong and not to quote him, and settles on biggest in Africa.
• [18:08] It’s closed, and opens at 7pm.
• [18:40] His own caveat about speaking the only Arabic dialect he knows and expecting to be corrected in the comments.
• [19:11] Rick’s Café, from the film. The group ahead have a reservation.
• [20:12] He’s turned away — reservation required, and no cameras.
• [20:43] A shoe clean, quoted at 50 (from video – unverified), about £4, which he calls expensive and pays anyway because his shoes are ruined.
• [21:45] Bought a month ago for over $100 and, he says, destroyed.
• [22:47] The cleaner fetches extra equipment for the job.
• [23:18] More French than Arabic — and Harry’s note that Casablanca speaks a lot of French.
• [23:48] He tips well: effort over result, and the shoes were beyond saving.
• [24:22] The shoe cleaner warns him about a man who approaches, with a look rather than words. Harry reads it correctly and moves on.
• [24:44] A barbershop, walked into with no appointment, where the men waiting let him go first.
• [25:53] A skin fade, requested after the barber had already started.
• [26:21] A famous restaurant with cannons outside and a grand entrance, entered without a reservation by arriving at 7pm.
• [26:55] His first meal of the day, having lived on coffee.
• [27:26] Bread and dips — one spicy, one tomato.
• [27:56] Served in under five minutes. Beef skewers with vegetables.
• [28:27] Extremely tender, well seasoned, and not the tourist trap he expected.
• [28:57] The hammam menu: royal, chocolate, massages by the hour. He takes a combined package across three rooms.
• [29:28] Marble throughout, and a heated stone to lie on.
• [30:33] A hand scraper for the dead skin — five out of ten on pain, and the point is the parts you can never reach.
• [31:38] A chocolate and coffee scrub.
• [32:09] A face mask, and his verdict: the best hammam he has done.

Extracted pages

• Place: Casablanca
• Country: Morocco
• Tips: Haggle with a reference price, Try the street version of everyday services, Reward honesty and hard work, Be assertive with touts