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Published: April 14th 2009
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Monday morning, Luc and I caught a bus from Moshi to Dar Es Salaam. It left around six o'clock in the morning and didn't arrive in Dar until around 2pm. Eight hours on the bus across one of Africa's bigger countries was not too comfortable but not one of the worst journeys I have been on during my time in Africa. Luc found it very hard despite the fact she was asleep for the majority of it.
Upon arriving in Dar we were greeted by lots and lots of taxi drivers all offering the "many cheapest price" to the ferry for Zanzibar. The first price quoted was 20,000 TSH which is about £10. After a bit of arguing and me being generally stubborn we managed a price of 11,000 for a half an hour journey. Once again arriving at the ferry terminal everyone wanted us to get on their boat! Thanks to the yellow "bible" (Lonely Planet Guide) I knew which boat was the quickest, and most reliable!
Stone Town
We arrive in Stone Town just after 5pm and got into a taxi reccommended to us by the passport official! He took us to the Jambo Guest House,
which I had read good reviews about. $30 later and we were in a massive air-conditioned room. One thing we had come to realise about the coastal city of Dar and town of Stone Town was that they were uncomfortably humid and thus sweaty!
That night we headed for the beach opposite the Africa House hotel. There were lots and lots of little shacks on the beach selling traditional Zanzibar pizzas, lobster, prawns, meat sticks, pancakes and lots of other delicious grub! We ate and drank that night for a little over £5 between the two of us and were stuffed. A man approached us whilst we were eating and offered to take us to the north of the island in his minibus. We paid him a deposit and I spent the next few hours or so wishing I hadn't as I was convinced that we had just been conned. Having now convinced myself we would never see the guy again I organised another minibus to take us and as we walked out of Jambo GH in the morning we were greeted by both drivers at the same time! We came to an agreement and we were on our
way to Nungwi, which is a small town on the northern coast lined with little guest houses, hotels, restaurants and bars.
We stayed at a little place called Jambo Brothers (I see a theme here!) which was run by a man called Ali. I managed to haggle him down by $5 per night and we had another huge room this tie with 2 double beds in it! I had come to realise by this point that everybody in Zanzibar was out to make money off the tourists. I realised this was the case across pretty much the majority of East Africa but in Zanzibar it seemed even more apparent. None of the Hotels/Guest Houses had and published prices mainly due to the fact that if you arrive at your chosen place to stay with a taxi/minibus driver they will command a commission from the hotel for them bringing the business. Throughout our time in Zanzibar we attempted to arrive at places on our own but would often find out driver hiding round the corner as we approached a guest house!
We spent 4 nights in Nungwi lounging around on the beautiful beach with its sand the same colour
of sugar and texture of flour. The water was so warm it was like being in a bath, which was a little annoying as you would head to the water to cool down after being in the sun and you would just become wet but not cool!
Two more minibus rides and we were in Bwejuu, which is a much quieter area of the island on the east coast. We stayed at Shell bungalows for the first night but after talking to a guy on the beach he took us to his friend's place, which was called Pakacha, for a nicer room at a cheaper price. Pakacha was very small with only 2 rooms and as it was low season for them we were the only people there. $15 a night and we got an air-conditioned room with a fridge and two double beds. Ali, the owner, told us that if we wanted dinner to tell him early on as he needed "time" to cook it as it was cooked on an open fire. We had ordered some food around 4.30-5pm so that we could eat around 7.30pm. Nine o'clock come around and only then did our food arrive
bit it was incredible! The food was gorgeous and obviously a lot of care, and time, had gone into it. We learnt to order even earlier the next couple of nights!
Motorbikes and Bribery
We spent 3 nights in Bwejuu and hired a motorbike for one of the days. Ali sorted us out with a 250cc motocross bike for $30 for the day. We got it in the morning and travelled back up towards Stone town to the forest full of monkeys and to see some sea turtles! There are police road blocks all around Zanzibar and as we approached on of them we were pulled aside. Now I knew that to hire a bike in Zanzibar all that was needed was a full drivers license and that a motorcycle license wasn't required. The police officer asked for my papers and upon reading that I did not have a motorcycle license said that we would have to go with him to the police station and pay a fine of a special "permit fee"! I had asked if we were able to pay a "local" fine. He said that yes we could and that that was the "special permit".
Next came to fumbling in my pocket to find the smallest note I could find and he ushered me to place the money (about £3) underneath the piece of paper on his clip board. "Thanks you very much Mr, umm Hooper," he said, "You're welcome to continue!"
My first time bribing the police and not our last encounter with it.
Luc was feeling in desperate need ofr a nice pool and some poolside drinks so we headed to the nearby Breezes Beach Resort, which was a beautiful hotel and only cost us $10 for the days use of their facilities.
We spent one more night in Stone Town on our way back to Dar Es Salaam followed by a 32 hour bus journey back to Kampala through Nairobi to meet the Dental team that we would spend the next two weeks with...
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anonymous
non-member comment
photos are fab!!! did you know leanne said she wanted to keep you but i told her she wouldnt afford the food bill!!! and she told me you asked if you could sell my bday pressie!!! what is it?? xxxxxxxx linc can now get tops off tubes of cream etc he is desroying the house!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx you both look so well xxx