Several years ago, I had the good fortune to celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Morocco, and was surprised to see how devout Muslims made the sun-up to sun-down fasting more bearable.

At my university, students would stay up all hours of the night, eating, smoking, and playing soccer, and would sleep as much as possible while the sun was up-- when they couldn't eat.

At sunset, we all sat down for a meal called iftar, literally "break-fast," where generous portions of delicious traditional food was served. I was surprised to hear from my Moroccan friends that some people actually gain weight during this month of fasting, as a result of overindulging during iftar and at night.

[Over at National Geographic News, they've put together a short video about the dangers of overeating during Ramadan; go ahead, take a look.]

Lest this should all sound much too pleasant and not at all like a sacrifice, I urge you to give fasting a shot. As one who's tried it many times (and succeeded only occasionally), I can assure you it's quite a bit harder than it sounds. Sadly, yesterday marked the end of Ramadan, the Eid al-Fitr, so you may have to wait till next year, when Ramadan starts on August 22.

Any Ramadan-observers out there have experience with gaining weight during the holy month?

If you are on the way to Essaouria, Morocco and you need to find a toilet, no problem. Could this sign be any more travel friendly? This shot by mce323 interests me for other reasons as well. See the man and the child in the background? Plus, there's the coffee cup painted on the wall. What's that about?

If you notice, the pink building has a crack in it. There are so many details that catch my eye. I'm also drawn in by the multiple textures. Don't you know exactly how that wall would feel if you could reach in and touch it?

If you have an image of what you've seen in your travels, send it our way at Gadling's Flickr photo pool. It might be chosen as Photo of the Day.

Flickr user mce323's photos from Morocco are making me very nostalgic. It was around this time two years ago when I visited Marrakech myself, so I was excited to browse through the photos of his trip. This particular photo he took of a sign there happened to catch my eye.

It's always fun to try and make sense of signs like this based purely on context and style. Is this advertising bike tours? Some sort of repair shop? If you speak Arabic, feel free to share below. In any case, the red bicycle in the middle looks almost cartoon-ish - as-if it was drawn by a child. I also particularly like the contrast between the blue letters, red bike and white background. Good work.

Have a photo you'd like to share with our Gadling readers? Add it to the Gadling photo pool on Flickr and we might decide to use it as our Photo of the Day.

Last night one of my Moroccan students gave me a long-standing invitation to visit there. "Sure," I said. "I'd love to." In the meantime, there are the lovely shots in Gadling's Flickr photo pool. This one by jonrawlinson is one of those perfect moments where the subject's head is tilted just right, the lighting creates the right amount of shadow to be interesting and the texture of the background, in this case, the building, looks as if one can touch it.

I wonder what the little girl is making? Each rock was placed carefully in the shape in front of her. Her hand is ready to adjust one more before reaching for another.

If you have captured a moment of a person doing something interesting, send it our way at our Flicker pool.

After a couple wrong guesses-- Mecca, Vatican City-- several of you managed to identify the spot above as being the steps of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco.

The mosque, seen here, was completed in 1993 and is the second-largest in the world, next to the one in Mecca. Congrats to those who identified the photo correctly, and to those that didn't, cheer up. Things'll turn around.

I have never seen a better photo take from an airplane. Every time I try to take one to capture the beautiful scenery below me, it comes out blurry, gray and--worst of all--indistinguishable from any other photo I have taken through an airplane window.

Here, you can actually see the city and get a glimpse of its rose-colored nature. The magical place in Marrakesh, taken by Luke Robinson. I have never been in Marrakesh and this photo just reminded me how much I want to see it.

***To have your photo considered for the Gadling Photo of the Day, go over to the Gadling Flickr site and post it.***

In his "Ask the Pilot" column over at Salon, Patrick Smith has an article of interest to every traveler who has ever wondered, in this age of layovers and transcontinental bus trips, so how many countries have I visited? What constitutes "visiting" a country? If I'm flying from Chicago to Bangkok, and I have a six-hour layover in Tokyo, does that mean I've been to Japan? If I'm on a bus from Prague to Budapest, and we stop for a bathroom break in Slovakia, does that mean I've been there?

Salon's article provides an answer-- albeit an unsatisfying one-- for those who care about such things. Smith writes that, of course, each traveler is free to come up with his or her own criteria for what constitutes a "visit," but his own criteria are as follows: "[A] passport stamp alone doesn't cut it. At the very least, a person must spend a token amount of time -- though not necessarily an overnight -- beyond the airport and its immediate environs."

What about a visit to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in northern Morocco? Here, Smith has no answers-- only more questions. "Consider the world's various territories, protectorates, self-governing autonomous regions, occupied lands and quasi-independent nations. Yeah, I know, Vatican City is a sovereign state, politically speaking. But in practical terms, is it really? Did my visits to Hong Kong count as visits to China? What about Tibet? Western Sahara? Sure those are foreign nations, but which ones?"

Feel free to list your own criteria, if you have any, in the comments.

Read the whole article here.

One question I like to ask people who have come to live in the U.S. is in regards to what surprised them the most about living here. Something they did not expect to find-- or something they didn't think about before moving here. The surprises could be sensory based, as in, what sights did you not expect? Sounds? I leave the question open just to see the variety of responses.

The question comes from my own quick impressions from my experiences living overseas. Often, as been my impression when one passes though a country quickly, certain nuances are missed, or we have one or two experiences that are hard to make a definite comment about--unless one is paying close attention as Neil did with his series on North Korea. Because Matthew is living in Japan, there are things that he picks up on that many folks in Japan for just a week, as I was when I traveled there, would not find out about as easily.

The results of my question are as diverse as the people who gave the answers. Although this is about the U.S., the question "What has surprised you the most?" can work in whatever country you happen to be living in. Let's call it a conversation starter.

We've posted a number of times here on Gadling about the impact of movies as a travel motivator. In other words, which movies portray a sense of place strong enough to make you want to visit?

Budget Travel recently came up with their own top ten "travel inspiring" movies released in the last year, with the Bourne Ultimatum coming in at number one thanks to six countries featured in the film and an exciting rooftop chase through the ancient medina of Tangiers (above). Although Martha blogged about this a few weeks ago, I'd like to update the post with a few other thoughts.

First off, CNN picked up on the story as well and recently interviewed Budget Travel Senior Editor Liz Ozaist. The interview not only expands on the article, but also includes clips from the movies. Click here to watch the video.

In addition, the Budget Travel article takes their list to the next, logical step and provides information on how to visit the actual locations where the movies were filmed. Casablanca Travel and Tours, for example, conducts a $120 tour of the Tangier medina that shadows the Bourne chase scenes.

Now, if only Budget Travel can teach us how to get our hands on multiple passports, then perhaps we can truly follow in the footsteps of uber-traveler Matthew Bourne.

If you're earning a salary in US currency and are unlucky enough to spend it traveling internationally, you know the pain of the depreciating dollar.

The rest of the world has become frighteningly expensive as the dollar continues its slide. My recent trip to North Korea, for example, was $800 more expensive than it would have been two years ago for the mere fact that I had to pay for the tour in euros. Man, did this hurt! Unfortunately, such increased costs have become a factor in many travelers' vacation plans as prohibitive prices continue to limit options.

But this isn't the case everywhere. Certain parts of the world are still "on sale" due to local currencies that even weaker than the dollar.

Countries where dollars go the distance is a handy LA Times article that explores some of these remaining bargain locations--Vietnam, Morocco, Bolivia, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Albania--and provides a fantastic short list of wonderful places that would still be worth going to even if they weren't "on sale."