Advertisement
Published: October 5th 2007
Edit Blog Post
What is it Lassie? You say, Timmy is in the well? No, you say we are all in the well? Oh my, thank you Lassie Cat, you saved us.
Ok, that isn't really how it happened. I was awakened 4:30AM by the sound of wailing cat. This was the 2nd time that it had gotten into my room tonight. The first time I figured it just ran in when my roommate came in, this time I was sure it jumped in the window. But now I had to get up to get it out. As I stood up, I noticed that the floor was damp/wet. "shit, the damn cat pissed in my room, I'm going to kill it." When I turned the light on, I noticed that there was dirt/sand all over the floor. So not only had the cat peed in the room but it had been running around making all kinds of mess. Now I just had to find it in the room. I was beginning to notice that the amount of dirt and WATER in the room really seemed like more than a cat peeing, but I was still asleep. Next I opened up the door so
I could shoo the cat out. Upon opening the door I was greeted by the sound of the sea at my doorstep. Yes, the waves were breaking almost onto the porch and flowing into the room. What the heck was going on. We had a mad scramble to get everything up off the floor and onto higher ground. The sea didn't crest until about 6ish. In the meantime, we just sat and watched. In the end there was enough sand in our room that I made a sand castle.
This is not a common occurrence, but it isn't an uncommon one either. Quite simply it was a spring tide, coupled with the full moon. I have heard that next months full moon tides are going to be 10cms higher. Glad I won't be there for that.
The hotel manager did offer us another room, which we declined. We had already decided the day before to move down the beach, closer to the "Full Moon Party." Wise choice, the room was nicer and we could stumble home from the party. As Jessica put it "Tall bed trumps boat ride."
Sunset in Italy
It is a tradition in
Stone Town to go to the Africa House to watch the sunset. This hotel, has a 2nd story bar overlooking the sea. It is just a spectacular place for a sunset. And so it would have been until....
The place was suddenly overrun with Italian tourists. Now what makes this quite funny was the sheer numbers. I'm guessing about 2-3 busses full. But what really makes this funny was the obviousness of the tour. Literally, these people showed up about 15 minutes before sunset and filled the bar. All lining up to take the obligatory picture of the sunset with the sailing dhow in front. Then within 15 minutes of the sunset they were all hearded out of the place to the next attraction. I didn't get much of a sunset that night, but I got a huge kick out of watching the show of lemmings.
Seriously Zanzibar
So that pretty much sums up my two big comic adventures on the island. The beach time was good and very much what I wanted. And like all of my beach vacations "I don't know how to get off of this beach." was heard.
One quirk of the beach was
the Masai. These guys were walking up and down the beach hawking their bracelets and such. Now it is strange enough to see a Masai on the beach in his traditional red robes. But what really made the picture seem somewhat sureal was that they were all wearing modern sunglasses. I wish I had gotten a picture, because it really just looked so out of place and at the same so right.
Stone Town is truly amazing. It just has a very interesting vibe, after you get over all the touts. It is such a mix of cultures, Swahili, Indian, Arabian, and African. The town itself has amazing architecture, especially the doors. The streets are narrow and twisting. I don't know how many times I got lost, only to find myself again. But I think that is the fun of Stone Town. You can just wander and wander and maybe see the same thing again and maybe not.
These 5 days were worth the bus trip from Kampala.
Pee Pee Dance I can't forget this side story. So I one point I was discussing with Fleur important sayings to learn in a foreign language. She had said
being able to ask for the toilet was important but I told her the pee, pee dance was universal.
After getting off the ferry in Dar, from Zanzibar, we were looking for our hostel. I stopped on a street corner to look around and get my bearings, I "knew" where we were going. Well, she decided to take the piss out of one of her other friends, who had told her you can't stand still on a street in Africa or you will get mugged. So she started hopping back in forth from one foot to the other. After a few minutes of this one of the locals came buy to tell us that the shop next door had a toilet she could use.... See it is universal.
Click for all the pictures of Zanzibar
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 11; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0298s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb