Zanzibar - Day 1

Getting to Zanzibar

We left our hotel, the Jambo Inn, about 9:00 am for the ferry to 10:00 ferry to Zanzibar. Our cabbie, Emanuel, took us there without hassle and dropped us off in front of the Flying Horse ticket office so that we wouldn't have to deal with the touts. Unfortunately the one we told him to take us to was the wrong one., their's left at 12:30 pm, so we had to walk to the Sea Star ticket office. It wasn't far, but we did have to run the gantlet of touts, pickpocket, etc. to get there.

We were happy to see thay they had assigned seating and that the cabin was air conditioned. Dar es Salaam is incredibly hot & humid this time of year right before the rains in late March. Not only was it air conditioned, but the seats were airline style with fold-down tables. I was delighted to use our Viao to catch up on my travel blogs and photo editing.

As we approached Zanzibar we started to see fishing boats and Dohws (small, old fashioned looking sailing boats) carrying bags or heaps of stuff. The harbor was small with only a few rusty freighters and about five or six motor yachts. We pulled up to the unloading dock without even a bump.

Again, we had to face the gantlet. cab drivers, guides, hotel touts and who knows what were shouting to us and telling us they were the "cheapest", "the best", etc. One older fellow, Ishmael, got us to agree to take his taxi for $1,000 TSh (about 90 cents), so we said we would use him after we went through immigration. While walking along we noticed that all the cabbies had badges (Ishmael did not), so we asked one if Ishmael was an officieal driver. He agreed to walk out with us and check. As soon as we crossed the gate Ishmael spotted us and saw that we were with an "official" driver. He shouted to us "he is the right one ... you have the correct person". I guess he would have been in big trouble with someone if he had pursued us with the official driver right there.

We bargained with the new driver and agreed to $2,000 TSh. With that he would take us to the Victoria House Hotel and if they had no rooms, agreed to take us around until we found a place. We had heard of the Victoria House from another travel. It was an old place and cheap, but was under renovation by a new owner.

When we arrived we were greeted by an old, heavyset woman who said, "We have no rooms. The toilet is broken." I told her that I was a mechanic and could fix it if she would let me look. Their gofer guy tokk me to a room. The toilet wasn't connected to the water supply and needed a fitting. I couldn't do anything to fix it.

When I walked back outside a younger guy, Eddy, who spoke excellent English with a Brittish accent was there. It turns out that he was the new owner and that the older woman was his mother. Eddy (his English name) who was about 30, had gone to England at age 12 for boarding school, then college, then stayed and took a job in IT work. About six months earlier while visiting his mom he had stayed at the Victoria House. On a whim he asked if the owners wanted to sell. They said "yes", so they worked out a deal. Eddy (real name Mohammed) returned to England, sold his flat for a profit, and returned to become a hotelier.

We hit things off well with Eddy and after some schmoozing, he agreede to give us a room. The one we were to take wasn't finished yet, but if was cheery and clean. he said it would be ready to use by the evening. We left our stuff in his room and said we would return about 8:00 pm.

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