Blogs from Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa - page 17

Nungwe, Nungwe, Nungwe. What a place? Due to our unfortunate rat situation, we had decided to move on to the next place. I understand that things like this happen and it is okay; it doesn’t make Pajé a bad place, in fact it is a crazy awesome place and I highly suggested it to those interested in kite boarding or kite surfing. It is chill, relaxing, and charming. However, I have to say I highly, highly recommend Nungwe up on the North end of the island. I will not lie for a second when I say it was one of the most beautiful and relaxing places I have ever been, even with a few hasslers here and there. They are much nicer hasslers (ever heard of it is all in the eye of the beholder); now ... read more

Zanzibar consists of three islands off the coast of Tanzania. We stayed at the Serena Hotel in Stonetown, on the main island. Across the street from our hotel was the old slave market, and we also toured a former Portuguese fort and cultural museum in building constructed by slaves. Two nights in a row, we ate a seafood smorgasbord on the hotel rooftop overlooking the Indian Ocean. We spent the rest of our trip at a resort on the northeastern coast. The hotel had two big swimming pools and an excellent white sand beach. The hotel is on a bay, so when the tide went out, we walked out to sandbars and laid around in the tide pools. Swimming in this ocean was a strange sensation because the water was warmer than the air temperature (around ... read more

Kendwa The plan was to try out the Northern beaches first - the most popular being Nungwi. On the ride, I was reading the Lonely planet about another beach just before Nungwi called Kendwa which sounded really good. Change of plan - we asked the driver to drop us off at Kendwa instead. There was a local who then started speaking to us - he works in Kendwa - and offered advice and assistance. We spent the rest of the trip speaking to him and he helped us get our things off the Dalla dalla when we arrived. Turns out this is the point we lost Don's sleeping bag and towel as they had somehow been unclipped from his backpack. Rahim (sp) walked with us and suggested places to eat and stay. He showed us the ... read more

Zanzibar has only one airport, so no risk of going to the wrong airport this time. The flight to Mombasa was on a bigger plane than the one from Arusha to Zanzibar. It is such a joy to walk on a tarmac and up a stair case to get to a plane. It feels like real travel. In cold Canada it certainly makes sense to protect the passengers from the dangerous elements outside. But jetways don't give the same feeling of journey as walking on a tarmac and up a flight of airplane stairs. Of course, we have the luxury of saying this while we're young. When we're older and feebler, we'd probably be asking for jetways in place of staircases. Another small reason why we're trying to do as much travelling at this age before ... read more

Zanzibar is a beautiful island with an ugly history. Stone town or Zanzibar town was fought over many times, but was primarily under the control of the Sultan of Oman who wrestled control and maintained it by moving his administrative offices from Muscat to Zanzibar. The ugly history has to do with Slavery. Hundreds of thousands of slaves were hauled in from the African mainland and kept here before they were shipped off to Arabia or the Americas. We visited the site of the old Slave market, which is now an Anglican church. The slaves used to be held in horrible conditions in the dungeons of what is now the church. Later on, the British banned slavery but this was not necessarily for altruistic purposes. Slavery was the source of much of Zanzibar's wealth and power, ... read more