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Published: December 2nd 2006
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Just the 5 of us!
Chilling in the industrial strength hammock! Imagine being the hottest you have ever been but having to wear long sleeves and knee length shorts as you're in a Muslim Town - that was the first joy of Stone Town - religion has a lot to answer for! Thank God for the air con in our hotel rooms - what a treat! We spent the afternoon wandering around Stone Town checking out the diverse architecture - Arabic, Indian and European influences with amazing carved wooden doors and lots of winding alleys just like Arabian nights! There were lots of little interesting things to buy such as paintings, carvings and lamps etc. As soon as it turned 'pimms o'clock' we headed to Africa House Hotel and sat on the balcony watching the most amazing colourful sunset over the water. We then ventured over to the night market to try out the local delicacies. This was one crazy food experience with stand upon stand of exotic fish like Snapper and Kingfish, and array of Crustaceans, Squid, Octopus etc as well as all sorts of meat and a very bizarre Zanzibar Pizza which was more like an omlette! We took a particular fancy to Sugar Cane juice which we saw being
freshly juiced through a mangle. We took the risk and tried some of the food although most of it was questionable. All 10 of the girls got fleeced for traditional Zanzibar headscarves which we since discovered were made in India - they saw us coming a mile off!
The following morning we piled into an oven baked mini bus to visit the islands spice markets and plantations. We attempted to walk through the meat section of the market but ended up running past split intestines and livers, dry wretching over fly infested Buffalo horns whilst trying to avoid blood splattering up the back of our legs. The spice plantations were great. We saw all sorts of different things - Tumeric, Cardamon, Cloves, Cocoa, Pepper etc. We took various spiced teas under the shade of Banana trees - how very civilised! We also got the opportunity to try various fresh fruits such as Lychee, Pineapple, Grapefruit and Jack Fruit. After further spice plant observations we walked to a hilltop village for lunch in a stone hut where we had to take our shoes off and sit on the floor. Our hearts sank (esp Jo Whit's) when they whipped the lid off
the food to present crusty anihilated whole Mackrel, Spinach surprise and murky brown rice. However, 'When in Rome' we did as the locals did and it was actually very tasty. As we headed up north we stopped and had a gander at the Sultans bath and watched 'Butterfly' a very humourous Zanzibarian climb barefoot up the tallest coconut palm in the world singing at the top of his lungs, swinging his legs around the tree and dry humping it! James Thompson if you lived in Zanzibar this would be your ideal job!
We arrived at Kandwe Rocks in the north in the afternoon on a road worthy of a 4x4 down to the beach. Imagine a tropical paradise island worthy of a Bounty ad - this is it! Aqua seas and white sands as far as the eye can see. We stayed in a beautiful beach bungalo surrounded by irridescent flowers and lush palms a stones throw from the waters edge. It was too hot to stay in the sun for too long so most of the afternoon was spent in the shade of the beach bar taking in the picturesque surroundings - what a hardship! The evening was spent
getting wasted, playing bongos by the fire and piling 5 of us into what must have been an industrial strength hammock. The swinging was a bit too much for Drew at one point when he asked for the hammock to be turned off! Our new gang of 5 consists of us, Drew, an Aussie from Hicksville, and Cam, a waster from Melbourne - we all make a lovey couple hey Jen?! Foolishly we had agreed to split the cost of the lads $300 deep sea fishing trip and had to get up at stupid o'clock in the darkness the following morning in the midst of a huge thunder storm. There is something seriously surreal about watching the sunrise from a hammock whilst being swung and sung to by a Maasai called Kilimanjaro!
You couldn't exactly call it fishing, more crashing a trawling trip with 3 mute locals whilst having a kip! It was lovely to be on the water though in a traditional wooden boat and in the space of 5 hours we managed to catch 2 fish - a Jack Fish and a Barracuda. Fortunately, the Barracuda was big enough to feed 8 of us that night in the restaurant. It was a real tasty feast - even Jo Whit liked it - what a revelation!
A massive congratulations to Jen and Tony who got engaged that night hence another huge session as Tony put a wad of cash behind the bar - cheers son!
After a lie in the following morning, we got a ride back to Stone Town with Zanzibars very own Colin Macrae who had the bus on 2 wheels round blind corners. At Stone Town we took the ferry back to Dar Es Salaam - an experience never to be repeated. After passing through customs we were herded into a chicken coop and toasted alive whilst waiting for the ferry. The locals seemed to have no concept of queueing and the very narrow gangway onto the boat ensured an unbearable amount of pushing, shoving and thieving - visiting hell was an unplanned part of our itinerary, but interesting non the less.
We managed to glimpse a little bit of Dar Es Salaam both before and after our trip to Zanzibar. It was a combination of a large modern city (by African standards) and a fishy market town with a sprawling population. It's not the most attractive city in the world but is saved by its surrounding beaches where we spent the night recouperating from the hectic 3 days we'd just had.
Malawi is the next stop on the fun bus. We'll let you know what that brings.
Kwa Heri xxx
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