Morocco 

My trip to Morocco was very much a trip of two halves - I first spent a week with 8 friends from London doing a lot of the main tourist sites in places like Marrakech and Essaouira  before buggering off by myself for 10 days to some farther flung places, the highlight of which was spending New Years Eve in an old Nomad's camp in the Sahara desert. 

Visiting the Sahara was one of the most awesome experiences of all my time travelling, it was just so vast (it is about same size as the USA after all), and some of the giant dunes near Merzouga in Morocco were 100 meters high and all that could be seen from the peaks was sand rolling off beyond the horizon. The sand was so soft  - to walk across the Sahara is to be at least ankle deep in it at all times, and on some of the giant dunes the bottom half of my shins would disapper into the sand as well.

Another highlight of Morocco for me was the small town of Azrou - I was lucky enough to be there on a Tuesday which is the weekly market day for farmers from all the surround villages and rural areas.  The market was also completely untouristed (well, apart from me and the one or two other white faces I saw over 3 hours) - local Moroccans haggling over the prices of camels and so on, it was just brilliant!