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Published: August 16th 2010
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Just returned from an amazing two week trip to Tanzania where I climbed (most of) Kilimanjaro and spent a week on Zanzibar. Both deserve a bit of time so in the interest of this entry not being incredibly long I'm splitting them up. First on the agenda: Zanzibar!
Zanzibar is pretty much what one imagines when conjuring up images of a paradise beach vacation. Sugar like white sand, impossibly blue water, amazing scuba diving, beautiful sunsets... you get the idea. But first, how we got there.
After Kili we spent the day in Moshi showering (alas no hot water) and then boarded a bus to Arusha where one of my friends from U of T, the lovely M, had been living all summer working for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. We had to wait, as always, for the bus to be completely crammed with people before the journey could start. As soon as the bus started to move this guy stands up and starts speaking in Swahili. He looked a little off-kilter with his head cocked to the side the entire time he was speaking and his eyes going a little lazy. At first I wrote him off
as just another religious fanatic preaching about Jesus until he started to pull out all this stuff from a plastic bag. Turns out the guys is a travelling salesman in the most literal sense. Although I don't speak enough Swahili to understand I can pretty much guess that he was doing infomercial like ads for the products he was selling. First came the little glass container of green liquid which was some kind of sinus clearer and smelled like eucalyptus (I know because the woman next to me actually bought it). Then there was toothpaste, moisturizer, skin lightning cream, hair serum. The list continues. Guy literally spent over an hour hawking his pharmaceutical goods to the passengers of the bus.
Once we got to Arusha I got peer pressured into going out until 3:30am despite the fact that we had woken up at 5:30 and hiked for 5 hours that day. Damn you FOMO, you always win (for those not in the know, FOMO stands for "Fear of Missing Out"). The next day we wandered around Arusha, bought some things at the market and went for a delicious brunch. The next morning we went to the airport and boarded
a plane for Zanzibar.
Right, so Zanzibar. The day we arrived we took a
daladala in from the airport and made our way to the Princess Salme hostel. For anyone headed to Zanz I would definitely recommend this place - the rooms were really simple (like bed and mosquito net and that's all) but it's clean, the owner is a really lovely woman and they have an awesome included breakfast on their rooftop terrace. We spent the afternoon wandering through Stone Town's winding streets and drinking beers at a bar called Livingstone's which is the old British consulate building watching the sunset. Then we headed to the daily night market where we gorged our selves on fresh fish and "Zanzibar Pizzas" (pretty much a stuffed crepe). Zanzibar is really interesting because of the mix of Arab, Indian and British influence throughout the island. The population is 95%!M(MISSING)uslim and I probably saw no more than 5 Zanzibari women with uncovered hair the entire trip. The food at the night market was a mix between Indian (a lot of Masala fish) and Middle Eastern (fallafel etc). The architecture is also decidedly Middle Eastern with peaked windows and Arabic inscriptions over
doorways.
The next day we rented a car and drove up to Mnemba to go diving. The diving was amazing, I had like 30m of visibility and the coral and fish were in abundance. That night A took the night ferry to Pemba, the island next to Zanzibar renowned for it's diving and less touristy feel while I opted for a few days on the beaches of Kendwa. I ended up doing my Advanced Open Water diving certification which was a lot of fun and I got to see many cool fish. I did a night dive which was especially awesome. On our last dive, again at Mnemba atoll, a pod of 8 dolphins swam right up to us. It was awesome. I also spent a good 5 minutes chilling with a sea turtle and swimming around with it. Other than that I spent most of my time enjoying the beach and sunshine and working on my tan (I wore sunscreen, don't worry). Kendwa is supposed to be a big party scene but it was refreshingly calm - enough going on that it was enjoyable without being overwhelming.
All in all Zanzibar was really amazing, so beautiful and
a lot of fun. The religious and historical aspects of the island also provide for interesting walks and give it an additional appeal aside from the beach. I 100% recommend a trip! there'll be back soon with a chronicle of the Kili experience and hopefully to upload some photos.
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