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Published: February 10th 2008
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Lifes a Beach
Hut where Janice and I spent a very lazy couple of days on the northern beaches of Zanzibar After spending the night at a Masai campground near Chitimba (where we had the best group meal on the trip so far), we crossed the Tanzanian border and headed towards Dar es Salaam. The capital of Tanzania in everything but name, Dar (as it is affectionately known) is a fairly large city that is hot, dusty, dirty, full of traffic and incredibly humid despite being right next to the Indian Ocean.
That night we rested up and escaped the heat in the camp's pool while hearing from our tour leader about the options for our four day / three night excursion to the Spice Islands of Zanzibar. Unfortunately it was then that we learned that our booked beachfront accommodation in Zanzibar, Sunset Bungalows, was not actually available due to some kind of miscommunication. This was a real blow as we were really looking forward to chilling out on the beach for a few days and having a beachfront bungalow was a big plus.
After six hours of tossing and turning in a pool of my own sweat, we got up, packed the tents and headed to the ferry that would take us across to the port of Stone Town
in Zanzibar. Thankfully this ferry was nothing like the one that took us across the channel in Dar and we got to relax in airconditioned comfort for the entirety of the two hour trip.
Arriving in Stone Town, we took a look at the hotel that had been booked and were quickly convinced that making our own arrangements had been the right decision - it was also then that I resolved to find our own beachfront accommodation for the two nights we had planned to spend outside Stone Town.
The names "Zanzibar" and "Stone Town" evoke images associated with Sultans, Palaces, colonial Africa and the British East India Company plying the spice trade across the shipping routes of the 16th and 17th Century. It was also the base from which David Livingstone petitioned the British to rid Africa of the slave trade....and succeeded.
Once the capital of the Sultanate of Oman, today Stone Town is a bustling port city that has maintained much of its cultural integrity - once away from the touts selling tourist trinkets and the constant cries of "taxi, taxi" - it is easy to lose yourself in the narrow alleyways and, surrounded by
the facades of buildings influenced by Swahili, Portugese, Arabic, Indian and European architecture imagine yourself in a town that was once the center of the global spice trade. Due to the great blending of people and cultures over the last few hundred years, Zanzibar's people are quite unique and it certainly feels very different to the other cities and towns we have visited in Africa so far.
During our day and a half in the city, we managed to cover quite a bit of ground - we explored the narrow alleyways and bazaars, visited Beit-El-Ajaib (the House of Wonders) built by Sultan Seyyid Barghash, the Anglican Church and site of the Old Slave Market, the birthplace of Freddie Mercury (lead singer of Queen) and the Arab Fort which is now in quite a delapidated condition. We also visited the local market which was fantastic - no other foreigners and hundreds of locals buying fish, spices, vegetables and fresh meat butchered on the spot!! The sights and smells of the market were intense and abundant, but it was one of the highlights of our trip to the island.
The following day we headed up to Kendwa Beach to our
A Hard Day's Night
This girl looked exhausted after the night markets the previous evening beachfront accommodation at Sunset Bungalows; yep I had managed to book our own cottage on the beach despite being told that the bookings had been lost and the property was full by our tour leader (to make matters worse we later found out that the booking hadn't been lost at all and the whole group could have stayed there).
In a way it was better for us as we were able to enjoy two whole days on our own and just relax - it was the first time we had really felt like we were on "holidays" since Cape Town (sad but true). Sitting by the beach, cocktail in hand and looking at the beautifully clear, turquoise water was tough, but we managed. The water there is so nice - you can see underwater for ever and the water is deep enough to swim regardless of the tide. Also, our bungalow was within 50 metres of the beach, modern and airconditioned - we could have stayed there a LOT longer.
Unfortunately all good things have to end, and after two nights we had to head back into Stone Town to meet the rest of the group and head
Never the Twain
Rare sight of a mosque and church side by side...if only it could be so easy back to Dar. Upon arrival we learned that the tour had officially been changed and we were now finishing in Arusha and not Nairobi. Then it was a mad dash to the airline office to try and book flights so we could still get to Nairobi and make our connection to Cairo - so much for leaving Zanzibar in a relaxed frame of mind!!
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I love bar (Zanzi).
I could feel certain elevatations in the level of your combined accomodation happiness throughout this entry. The history of Zanzibar seems tangible, and the church/mosque photo is indeed (as they say) worth a thousand words...