Blogs from Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa - page 12

Dagene går fort, kanskje nesten litt for fort. Det er allerede 13 dager siden vi dro fra høstvær og den vanlige hverdagen. Vi er på dag nr 7 her på Ocean Paradise Resort, og er nok en kveld klar for å innta nydelig buffet. Maten her er virkelig over all forventing. Hotellet har 100 rom, men er her er ca halvfullt nå. Lite skandinaviere, de fleste er tyskere eller amerikanere, heldigvis. Jeg er nemlig ikke fan av å reise på tur for å snakke med nabo'n. Stranden er så hvit at man må bruke solbriller selv om det er overskyet. Helt fantastisk vakker. Her blir mørkt allerede kl 19 på kvelden, noe som igjen gjør at vi legger oss i 22 tiden hver kveld, er derfor tidlig oppe å får virkelig nytt dagene. Stortsett er vi ... read more

Monday September 17 I've realised I'm falling back into my old writing style when I write days after the event. If I write on the same day, it seems to read differently. Go figure. Sorry folks! The alarm went off at 5am and even though all I had to do was dress and take my bag from the truck, I was flustered and running late when the tuk tuks arrived to take us to the first of two ferrys. The first is more of a barge that carries us, tuk tuks and all, across to the city. A short ride down the road brings us to the crowded ferry terminal though the noise is minimal. People are still sleepy. Tickets are paid for and handed out, weak black tea and coffee is tasted and discarded and ... read more

Weird "Zanzibar" facts: 1. One of the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby "road" movies had them taking a voyage with Dorothy Lamour to this mystical island. 2. Freddie Mercury, lead singer of "Queen", was born in its capital city, "Stone Town". 3. A skanky strip bar in downtown Toronto is called, "Club Zanzibar". 4. A flight on "Precision Air" gets you from the Tanzanian capital "Dar Es Salaam" in 30 minutes...15 minutes to get the passengers and the luggage loaded into the claustraphobic propeller plane and 15 minutes to actually fly to the island. It was however, a most magnificent ending to my first "African" journey. A visit to Zanzibar is in many ways, a time travel back into the times of sultans, fine silks and aromatic spices. It is a predominantly Muslim island and while I was ... read more

We got up for breakfast in the hotel before meeting our snorkel group – the boat was sooo rickety and stated it had a maximum of 25 people. Regardless, we counted 38 people plus four crew on our boat – we went so slowly. We watched all the other boats passing us. Africa again!!! We got to the snorkelling area two hours later and loved the experience. We seen lots of different fish and they all swam really close to us. All too soon, it was time to head back, stopping off at a different beach for lunch of rice, fish and bananas, basic but still nice. After our snorkelling trip we spent time at the restaurant with the rest of our group and went out for dinner to say goodbye to some of the members ... read more

This morning we did a history tour of Stone Town, learning about the slave trade in particular. Lots of men were taken from Zanzibar as slaves to middle eastern countries. We seen the dungeons where they were kept for up to three days without food or water, just to test the strength of the man. The dungeons were not big at all, yet they would cram 70 men into one and 50 into the other. We also learnt about Dr Livingstone who is credited with helping to finally abolish the slave trade, there had been people before who had tried to achieve this but it was his negotiations with scholars at Oxford and Cambridge that ruled that the slave trade must be stopped. After our history tour, it was time to head north towards Nungwi which ... read more