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Published: April 29th 2009
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mambo friends!!
got to be quick as usual coz the computers in Africa are rubbish.
so... i made it to Africa... finally! when i arrived in dar i was told that my visa was about to expire (a mix up with the way they worked on my part...hmm...a slight waste of 50 quid), so i had to spend ages going to the cash point, then converting the Tanzania shillings into us dollars (coz thats the only currency they would take for visas!) then going back to immigration to sort it all out. grrr. finally sorted it out and headed to the ferry port for zanzi.. missed the ferry by 3 mins (what is it with me and 3 mins?) and was hassled left right and centre from all and sundry, as is customary in tanz... not what i needed at 8am. a guy carried my bag down to the departure area for me (from the company i had just bought ferry ticket from) for about 10 seconds... and demanded the equivalent of a fiver! i gave him a handshake instead. haha. then i was sitting on the big stone slabs readin my bag and looked round to see two
guys behind me reading over my shoulder! just so long as i didnt make eye contact they were fine. otherwise doom! then i heard what sounded like a massive flock of birds and looked up to see 10,000 boxed up chicks had been put just beside me... quality assured no less! awww.
the ferry was fine, they were playing the original king kong on the tv, novel i thought!. so got to stone town and negotiated (its all about the negotiations here...ie haggle your bum off!) a mini bus to nungwi where i was meeting kate and elle. it was a nice drive, the island was bigger than i thought. but v tropical. found jambo brothers hostel and the girls and headed out for lunch. luckily my seafood craving was fixed in zanzi, we ate so much seafood it came out of our ears. amazing. the beaches were so beautiful, carribeanesque... clear blue water, white sand, stunning sun sets, palm fringed, crazy boats. it was just what i needed (probably just what everyone in england needs right now!) so we watched the amazing sunset and played frisbee on the beach and went to a restaurant for catch of the
day... tuna! then headed to a beach bar, although low season meant that it was pretty quiet in zanzi, so we just got hassled by the beach boys instead and ended up playing pool with them. lol.
next day we were up bright and early to go snorkeling! there was no rain and amongst our crew was a massive king fish... lunch! we went on a proper sail boat up a couple of hours to a remote paradise island, although the island itself was private so we snorkeled in the reefs around it. i love snorkeling and diving, its a different world underwater, v peaceful. saw parrot fish and pipe fish and barracudas amongst the usual angel fish and so many others. i even saw a lion fish, but as i was following it for a closer look 2 people bumped into me (possibly with the same intention) and i got disorientated and lost it. boo. its crazy going to the edge of the reef as well, coz you see the big wide ocean in front of you and it looks incredibly foreboding... you dont know whats lurking in those dark cold waters.
we went to a different
beach for our bbq king fish then sunbathed on the topdeck on our way back. the evening was spent eating the biggest jumbo prawns ive ever seen.. it was by far my most expensive meal away so far (9 quid, in case you wonder how much ive been spending on my meals!) but so worth it.
tues 24/4/09... i required my clothes to be washed (hand washing not an option) so a haggled with a lady who said she did washing. but she was a bit of an odd one as she kept laughing and giggling with us as she was bartering, as though she was sort of flirting with us... all the women seem to do this, its very strange. im sure they dont have any intentions of that sort at all (homosexuality's illegal here for a start... and they're all christian or Muslim) so whats the crack? who knows!
so we gave the giggly woman our washing and went to change some money, getting royally ripped off as the visa machine had to go through us dollas to give us tanz shillings (what kind of stupid system is that?) so our very english pounds went through
2 exchange rates costing us 25quid. ouch baby, very ouch! but that was the only way to get any money. hmm. and another thing.... accommodation is charged in usd, but everything else is in shillings... seriously! it makes life very difficult sometimes.
the rest of the day was spent recovering from our monetary loss and eating marmite and crackers on the beach listening to ipods through the windup radio and fending off the beach boys (who, incidentally have huts that they keep their artwork in, and just leave it there unmanned overnight... very trusting id say for a pretty unsafe country... pickpocketters and thiefs a rife!)
our last evening in zanzi we gorged ourselves on yet more seafood - octopus, calamari, prawns, tuna and king fish to be precise! yum!!
an early night and me and kate were up early to catch the local bus back to stone town for our flight to arusha. the local bus was like one of those trucks you get at the pick your own fruit farms, open backed and open sided. the only difference was that the ones in zanzi were 10 times smaller and on one count had 26 people
aboard (including the 5 hangers on at the back). it was a little cramped to say the least. quite fun though, and very cheap.
zanzibar airport is the smallest thing ive ever seen, smaller than shoreham airport even! and very laid back, it took a guy over half an hr to able along to check us in, then we went behind him to scan our own big bags in through security, before going to the departure lounge that at full capacity held about 50 people, but i bet has never seen full capacity ever! maybe at the height of high season!
our plane with zan air was a tiny charter plane, it held 7 of us and one pilot. so much fun, esp the turbulence! we could see everything the pilot did and had amazing views.
within a couple of hrs we touched down to arusha... where the journey to moshi and the journey to the peak of the highest free standing mountain in the world began!
until next time lovelies!
xxx
ps, i will endeavor to add photos as soon as i find a computer thats not riddled with viruses!
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