Blogs from Zanzibar City, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa - page 4

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Africa » Tanzania » Zanzibar » Zanzibar City July 11th 2013

As I write this blog we are sitting at the Zanzibar international airport ready to head to Nairobi for one night before we board the homeward bound plane tomorrow afternoon so I guess this will be one of the last blogs for this trip. You can all sigh a collective sigh of relief! I wil catch you all up with what's been happening since the last time. After we finished a night at the snake park we headed down towards the East coast of Tanzania and the city of Dar Es Salaam (Dar) which took two days of continuos travel. We arrive on the outskirts of Dar at about midday and were told we had about 10 kms to travel to the seaside camp ground so should be there by 3pm? The population of Dar is ... read more
Relaxing awaiting sunset, Stonetown
Roof tops of Stonetown
Streets of old Stonetown

Africa » Tanzania » Zanzibar » Zanzibar City May 23rd 2013

On a prolonged ferry trip to a small, isolated island named Pemba, watching the Indian ocean unfold before you, one feels compelled to stare out at the sea. The peaceful deep blue expanse, with a solitary turquoise and white trailing into the horizon to mark where we came from, competing with the noises of children, families, people selling food or tying up their chickens. Mesmerized more by the sea than the people, I found myself singing to the ocean, a soundtrack to this trip i could never have anticipated: Don't throw your barbie dolls in the ocean There are more important things for them to do .....They're going to come back to manipulate you. Malibu beach party, how come I could never go? Barbie you have it all together, how come you always know what to ... read more
First Sunset in Pemba Island
Snorkel Steve beside the boat
Hermi the Hermit Crab

Africa » Tanzania » Zanzibar » Zanzibar City January 2nd 2013

For the last 4 days we've been living large in Zanzibar - the Tanzanian equivalent of the Caribbean. In a bout of deja-vu we were forgotten at the airport by our tour group and had to make a few phone calls before we were eventually picked up. When we made it to the hotel there was only one room remaining which had a twin bed. Yay... After sorting out the room, we were free to explore Stone Town, which has remained relatively untouched since it's founding. The town is well named, as there isn't a wooden structure to be found - wood being used only for intricately carved doors to important buildings and landmarks. Another suitable name could have been 'Maze Town', as there isn't a rhyme or reason to the layout of the town - ... read more

Africa » Tanzania » Zanzibar » Zanzibar City December 11th 2012

Jambo!! I have now been on my overland tour with African Trail's for just over a week. We are travelling from Nairobi down to Livingstone in Zambia. It has been incredible to say the least. After leaving Brackenhurst Conference Centre in Limuru I made my way to Karen Camp in Nairobi where the tour started. Before too long Jay arrived from Sydney (a friend from school). We were introduced to the rest of the tour group who had been travelling through Uganda. Our group is reasonably small due to the low season at the moment but they are all great people, mainly aussies too. There is Jasmine and Dylan who are on their honeymoon (the coolest honeymoon and the coolest couple!), Nora from Germany, Nicky from Aus, Jay and I and then Harley and Rachel from ... read more
Ngorongoro Crater Entry
Ngorongoro Crater
The Serengeti National Park

Africa » Tanzania » Zanzibar » Zanzibar City November 2nd 2012

Day 19 - 25 Thinking of the wee ones and Halloween! Here we are at gorgeous North Beach in Zanzibar...lately, we just keep moving from one amazing beach to another! After two long, bumpy and hot days we camped on the beach ....water 30C plus . Next day onto a small ferry to the city and then the very modern catamaran for the 2 hr ride to Stone Town Zanzibar...what a great old city...a real convergence of Asia, Africa and Europe. Stayed at a lovely old hotel after so many nights of tents! All of us went to dinner at a great roof top Indian restaurant then to the Stone Town city night market for a feast of food smells and dancing! On the 31st, off for the spice farm tour and fruit sampling en route ... read more
Jeff getting ready to dive
Where is Dianne

Africa » Tanzania » Zanzibar » Zanzibar City October 16th 2012

Stone Town kan kategoriseres med et ord; annerledes. Virkelig annerledes. Her får man virkelig følelsen av å være lang hjemmeifra. Dette er gamebyen av Zanzibar, på samme måte som gamlebyen i Panama ligger også denne på UNESCO sin verdensarv liste. Dette betyr at UNESCO sørger for å ta vare på byen slik den var før, eller at byen er vernet om man ønsker å si det slik. All rekonstruksjon må vær i samsvar med slik bygget ser ut i forkant. På denne måten vil byen aldri bli "ny". Den vil bevare de gamle konstruksjonene og turistene vil kunne se hvordan byen er blitt beholdt. Per i dag er det mye rekonstruksjon av bygninger. Byen er livlig, varm og spennende. Vi leide en privat guide som tok oss med på en to og en halv timers tur ... read more
Stone Town
Photo 4
Photo 5

Africa » Tanzania » Zanzibar » Zanzibar City September 11th 2012

Sorry for the frequency of the Travel Blogs but I am in Cape Town with great internet service!!!! Zanzibar and Driving to the Ruaha River & Iringa 10 – 11 August: After getting up at 5.15am, having breakfast in our room, we were picked up at 6.00am as we had to catch the 8.00am ferry back to Dar es Salaam. We had to go out through immigration on the Island but there was no need to show our visa when we got onto the mainland. The ferry was very fast and the waves were BIG! 5 of our group were sea sick during the trip. I was sitting in the outside section looking backward and I was doing my blog on the computer. When the computer (which was on my lap) nearly ... read more
Ruaha Neema Craft Centre (5)
Ruaha Neema Craft Centre (6)
Ruaha Neema Craft Centre (7)

Africa » Tanzania » Zanzibar » Zanzibar City August 24th 2012

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
Tourist!!!
Old Shutters of Stone Town
If the Door Could Speak...

Africa » Tanzania » Zanzibar » Zanzibar City July 19th 2012

After a night at Mikardi beach we made our way on tut tuts to the ferry terminal where we waited to board the ferry to Zanzibar. After taking a motion sickness tablet we buckled down for the two and a half hour journey, we were very lucky as the waves were quite calm. (A week later we found out that the ferry we caught had sunk with 150 people dead) After passing through immigration and finding our hotel in the maze like streets of Stone Town we found a cafe on the waterfront and treated ourselves to some delicious lunch. After lunch some of our group made their way to the slave market or did a spice tour. We decided to wonder around ourselves, we found an amazing local market where I brought some dresses made ... read more
Hungry...
Port in Old Town
Markets

Africa » Tanzania » Zanzibar » Zanzibar City July 14th 2012

A slow day today, went on a spice tour in the the morning which was actually a lot more interesting that I thought it would be - who knew that mace & nutmeg came from the same plant? Had the otion of going to the beach or returning to Stonetown after the tour and as I'll be spending the next 4 days on the beach opted to go back to Stonetown and continue wandering the narrow alleyways, it's a very cool place. Had a look at the House of Wonders, so called because it was the first house in East Africa to have electric lights, running water and an elevator - all wondrous things. Went down to Forodhani Gardens for dinner - a giant open air BBQ - probably the best thing on offer was the ... read more




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