Morocco (September, 2014) – After a few days we started to recognize familiar faces along the path from the private riad to the Jemaa El Fna. We easily navigated warding off rowdy vendors by joking around. With the carpet merchant; we insisted we would only enter his shop if he had flying carpets because it was a critical need. With the potter it was much the same, although my request was for a genie in a bottle. I suspect all he really wanted was some company, instead of trying to sell me stuff he invited me for a cup of tea. What I discovered was that being a silly and playing into the tourist stereotypes meant the vendors stopped asking for our attention in the normal sense instead we had funny encounters, and after a few days the added wave and 'le bonjour'.
