December 2010

---

Wow, it has been a month already and I cannot believe how much I have seen and done on my travels.
I am going to follow on from my previous entry to catch you up to speed with where I am now.

So we started on our way back to Nairobi, Kenya to pick up more passengers and start the southbound tour. On the way, we went to the Masai Mara region and visited Masai villages, which was strange but interesting. Me and Kristina had a ball and joined in with the traditional singing and dancing there in the village. I had to make a sharp exit however when the chief Masai's son started making propositions to me!
So we arrived in Nairobi and stayed in a different part called Karen, which was much nicer and had a safer vibe than the first time we visited. There seems to be a bigger ex-pat community in Karen also.

On 29th November we left Nairobi with the new passengers heading south with us. This time there are 14 of us in total so more people to mingle with. We have a real mixture of people from all over the world and all different ages, which is great. On the same day, we crossed the border into Tanzania, which immediately had a different feel to the other African countries I had visited previously. The land is very lush and green and you can see the many mountains surrounding Tanzania in the distance as we are travelling through, including Kilamanjaro. For our night in Tanzania, we stayed in Arusha, quite a sleepy town, other than our camping stop (with bar) which is full of overland trucks and people en route to their destinations. As myself and Kristina were not planning to visit the Serengeti National Park, we decided to split from the truck and group and get some extra days in Zanzibar.
So on 30th Nov, we got on a coach and started the long journey down to Dar Es Salaam. It took about 10 hours in total to reach Dar, which included 2 stops totalling 20 mins for a short visit to the loo and grabbing lunch. Dar bus station was utter madness and we had to settle for a very expensive cab to quickly get us out of there. We took a short ferry to the place we were staying in Dar called Mikardi Beach and then the next morning took a 3 hr ferry to arrive in Zanzibar 1st Dec.

Stonetown where we spent our first night is amazing, it has a great night market full of local foods and the very special dish is a Zanzibar pizza. I have to try to recreate this one at home for sure! Also, the sugar cane juice is delicious!
So 2nd Dec was my 24th birthday, and we spent the day island hopping which was beautiful. We went to a sandbank in the middle of the sea, snorkled around Prison Island and saw so many brightly coloured starfish - amazing...
Since being in Zanzibar we have been to Paje also, which is over on the East coast and has the best beaches which are untouched and have crystal clear turquise sea and the sand is like golden dust under your feet. A real paradise.

Also visited the North of the island in Nungwi and Kendwa. Nungwi was a little disappointing as the beaches are not so nice, but Kendwa where we are currently is great and the place we are staying - Kendwa Rocks - has a great atmosphere and the beaches are also lovely. Apparently, at Kendwa Rocks they have a full moon party on the beach, very much like the one you'll find in Thailand, but as we are leaving Zanzibar tomorrow - sad we will miss it.
The next stop is Malawi, so will keep you posted with that, looking forward to Kandi Beach...
I would like to add that I am very happy with how the tan is coming along at the moment, my hairs on my arm have turned blonde - so must have success. Yay!!

---