Brother, please...

I have heard cautionary tales from a handful of women who have traveled in Morocco. Men are aggressive. Women can't go out at night alone. Prepare for the badgering, even if you're head is covered -- but especially if it is not. Lonely Planet suggests "looking busy -- like you know where you are going."

I would keep and open mind and judge gender relations in Morocco for myself. I have an aversion to the popularized American-style fear....

Got off the plane after more than 30 hours in transit. So tired. Pouring rain. Hop in a taxi. The guy speaks French....which will work...certainly much better than Arabic. We seem to be doing OK. He knows the hotel I am looking for...."Il pleut" (it's raining)...weather....small talk....tourism highlights of the city.

As is often the case on this trip, he asks me if I have a husband. I wonder which way to answer this time. Go with no. He persists. I give in and untruthfully say I have a boyfriend -- hoping to end the conversation. It all starts getting a little dicey as I try to explain why my "petit ami" (boyfriend) isn't with me on this trip to Morocco (he was working, of course). My broken French, which has not been used for a solid decade, is doing little to deter the disintegration of the conversation. Before I know it, 54 year old man is suggesting I sleep with him at his house, instead of the hotel. Said his wife would not be mad. He roars with laughter and just keeps tapping me on the knee.

"Mon Dieu," I say (My God)
"Vous Etes TROP vieux" (you are TOO old)
[odd logic here, but it was all I had in my vocab at the moment]
"Et, j'ai un petit ami" (and i have a boyfriend)
"Non! Allez-y a l'hotel, si vous plait" (No. Let's go to the hotel, please)

Conversation over. Turn up radio. Windshield wipers stagger awkwardly. Old Mercedes taxi steams up uncomfortably. Nervous tap of foot. Hope this is the exit to the hotel and not his place.

Turns out he took me right to the front door of the Hotel Central and sent me off with a "Bon Soir," as if it was just another normal ride for him.

Still going to try to keep an open mind....but might be a little harder with a start like that....