Blogs from Tanzania, Africa - page 11

Feeling sad! Yes, this would be the last video blog of my epic journey across Africa before my unceremonious exit from the continent. Yes, I fell in love with the continent that attracts me like a magnet with its rugged but beautiful wilderness, it’s fascinating wild life and its legendary Masai tribe. This is a slideshow of the Masai village in Ngorongoro. Let me admit it, I have an obsession about the Masai people. They continue to fascinate me from my childhood. Allow me to rewind a few decades. My father was a great storyteller and he lived and breathed into the wilderness of Assam in North east India. I recall the days when I was a kid and I used to curl up to him listening to his stories of the wild world in rainy ... read more

The KLM Airbus landed like a huge nightjar in the semi darkness of the Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania. I checked my watch. It was 9:30 pm. I looked out the window; the distant hills in the moonlit night were a mystique sketch in the horizon. Lovely! Instantly I fell in love with Tanzania. Love at first sight. Little did I know that I will be wheel chaired to a flight halfway around the world from the same airport in the next few days. No, I am not going to talk about it in this video blog. I want to share the stories of beautiful Tanzania that I have loved and been loved by the people; Tanzania that has emptied its love and wilderness to me from the day one. And no regrets! The immigration formality took ... read more

The bus ride to Mbeya was uneventful once we got going. Having eventually been put on the correct bus, our seats were occupied and the man sat there refused to move. The conductor remonstrated with him but to no avail. Instead we were put in the row in front of our stubborn friend, hoping than nobody wanted to oust us from our new-found seats. We nearly got off the bus on the outskirts of Mbeya because a fellow passenger told Trish we had arrived. The journey from there to the central bus station took another 25 minutes through heavy traffic. Getting off the bus we were charged to get our luggage back. Then we managed to negotiate a reasonable taxi fare to get to our hotel. We opted to stay in the Desderia Hotel because it ... read more

The coach journey to Morogoro was uneventful and fairly comfortable. We were dropped of at the bus station a few kilometres out of town and soon found a taxi to take us to url=https://www.booking.com/hotel/tz/mama-pierina-restaurant-and-annex.en-gb.html?aid=311984&label=mama-pierina-restaurant-and-annex-EHc6xU543Vm%2AodaAYd%2AKvAS267243797164%3Apl%3Ata%3Ap1%3Ap2%3Aac%3Aap1t1%3Aneg%3Afi%3Atikwd-340642062868%3Alp1010225%3Ali%3Adec%3Adm&sid=3e56f1da2f1e9deaf95aad2a6d91d074&ucfs=1&srpvid=c5ea827d3fd50072&srepoch=1548441210&hpos=1&hapos=1&dest_id=-2569841&dest_type=city&sr_order=popularity&from=searchresults;highlight_room=#hotelTmplMama Pierina’swhere we had arranged to stay for a couple of nights. The accommodation is very basic but then the price reflects that, and the climate is so humid that only having cold water in the shower was more of a blessing than a curse. There isn’t ... read more

Getting to Zanzibar was easy! We flew with Precision Air from Arusha's tiny airport to Zanzibar's International but not-much-bigger airport. It was all a bit rustic but it was a pleasant enough experience. Before we knew it we were in a pre-arranged taxi and on our way to our hotel just outside of Zanzibar town. The Zanzibar Ocean View Hotelwas more or less deserted! It was a little more rustic than we had anticipated for the price but it was ok and the restaurant served a great breakfast. It wasn't all good though. On our first night there was a very loud wedding party but they finished at 10pm which wasn't so bad. Christmas Day was a different matter though and the Christmas party (that us paying guests were not part of) had music so loud ... read more