WEATHER: Hot and 29C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing the beautiful blue waters and stunning white sands of Zanzibar
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Finding an internet café and the power going out
BUYS OF THE DAY: Dinner at the night market was so cheap
WORD OF THE DAY: Poa Kachessey Kaman Deezy - cool crazy like a banana
IRISH WORD OF THE DAY: Illion - island
CAMP SITE RANKING: We are in a hotel tonight, so no tents – yee ha – does this get an automatic 5 out of 5 stars?
What a treat to go to sleep last night to the sound of the waves. It doesn’t feel like we are in Africa anymore, it makes a nice change from animal searching and dust. We also get a treat this morning where we don’t have to pack up the tents; they are going to be cleaned while we are on Zanzibar – yee ha. Not that it is much of a big deal anymore anyways, we have pretty much got the whole ‘fit the tent in the bag’ thing down pat now, and it only takes about 8 minutes to pull the thing down. Look at me, sounding like a professional camper now! Who would have thought?
Wake up was at 7am, we are going to start getting used to these sleep in’s. We were leaving camp at 7.45am to hitch a lift with Ben to the ferry terminal to take us back to the city side of Dar es Salaam. The ferry left at 8am, with just a 10 minute ride, we walked off with the mass exodus with all the locals, bikes, cars, tuk tuks and all the goods they were carrying and then we got a mini bus transfer to take us the 10 minutes to take us to another ferry terminal for the ride to the island of Zanzibar.
Our ferry to Zanzibar left at 9.30am. Like any passenger ferry with people carrying luggage, it is a bit of a shit fight to get it all on the boat, but getting the bags on didn’t seem too bad, once you had shown your ticket to get onto the gangway, they would take your backpacks from you and were loading them all on the front of the boat. So it was one less thing to have to worry about when people were getting on. It was pretty busy and a lot of people were travelling, I guess with it being Sunday, there would be a lot of people on the move. We managed to find a spot on the floor on the very top deck, where we were able to share a beanbag with one of the locals and had a great view over the back, still under cover, but a nice breeze and were pretty comfy, so we were happy with our spot. George had managed to wangle the group into the VIP section on the second deck, it was air-conditioned, tinted windows and they also got a movie played which was Mr. Bean’s Holiday. We decided to have the wind in our hair, some sun on the skin and enjoy the 2 hour journey outside on deck. So with Christina, Emily, Dave, Manu and I, it was amazing to watch the crystal blue water, passing the local fishing boats and having a chat.
We got to Zanzibar at 11.50am. Now as mentioned, getting the bags on the boat was a great system, but getting them off was a little more chaotic, you had to keep your eyes on the bags and boxes that got passed off and when you saw it come off, you had to push through a throng of around 20 people to try and get to your bag to claim it. With the throng not willing to move and waiting for their bags, I don’t think they realize if they let people through, it would make the whole system lot more effective. Anyway after fighting our way through, we then left the boat to head for customs and immigration process. Even though Zanzibar is considered part of Tanzania, you have to do this process. It didn’t take too long as George did all the passports for us –this is the upside of being with a group I guess. My main worry was that you also needed your yellow fever card for Zanzibar. Wellbeing the boofhead that I am, I sent my home by accident from Morocco. So I contacted my travel doctor and got an email version, but haven’t had a chance to print it, so George had a cunning plan up his sleeve of showing 18 people for customs but only 17 people for the immigration. Does that make me an illegal immigrant? Ohhhhhhh living on the edge!! Well we all passed through with no problems, so once out we met our guide for the afternoon called Mike. George cannot guide here, we have to have a local guide, so enter Mike, and we changed George’s name to Big Mike, so that he wouldn’t get into trouble if he got caught showing us some sights.
Our HOTEL, yes HOTEL, we get to sleep in a bed to night, was only an 8 minute walk from the wharf. Our room has an en suite, air-con and a fan. Ahhh total luxury! We were given 30 minutes to freshen up and then were going for a walk in search of some lunch. Zanzibar is renowned for losing its power, and as to queue it went off the second we made it to our room. We have been told to always carry a torch with us as it can go out any minute any time. As it is Ramadan, there are only 2 restaurants open for lunch, the other restaurants only open after 5pm for dinner only during this time. Stone Town reminds me of Havana in Cuba. They have some once beautiful buildings, that have been run down and now look a little dodgy, which is a shame as you can picture what they used to look like in their heyday. So we walked through to one of the restaurants that were still open during Ramadan. The food was amazing, and for African standards was expensive, but in saying that it still only cost us 8AUD, which is still a bonus for such a nice place.
Half the group signed up for a walking tour of Stone Town after lunch. I couldn’t be bothered to be honest, it was 3pm, it was hot, and so I decided to chill for the afternoon, take a walk around myself, jump on to some internet if I found a place and then go back to the hotel to freshen up before meeting for a few drinks with the tour people. Em, Christina and I found a few souvenir shops that we were able to take our time in, found an internet café that we had literally spent 3 minutes on and again the power went out. They weren’t joking about the cut age. We waited 10 minutes in case it came back, which it didn’t, so we headed back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. The beaches in Stone Town are amazing, the sand is white and fine and the water is a beautiful blue colour, if this is a sign of what is to come tomorrow at our resort, then I think we are going to have an awesome couple of days. Back to the hotel and the power was back on, but only for 10 minutes and then it went out again for the remaining hour we had there before we left. I think it would drive me mad if it kept going out all the time. How do they keep businesses running, that need power all the time. Frustration. We were going to the local markets for dinner tonight, and we saw them setting up as we walked through. So we met Rashid the Fisherman on our way through with the promise that we would come and see his stall on our way back. The thing with these promises is that they do actually remember you, but I guess being white oh and good looking, we are easy to remember right!
We walked to the hotel called Africa House. I’m not sure if it is the poshiest hotel on the island, but it was certainly nice, and an old building that has been renovated. It looked beautiful. We met everybody else here for a drink before heading to the waterfront and the local markets where we were to have dinner. The markets were set up in around 3 rows, in a massive square, all selling different sorts of food. Once you had done one row, the food was pretty much repeated again, so it came down to the sellers and if they charmed you enough. So needless to say that Rashid remembered us, so I bought a prawn skewer from him, which all the food was precooked, they just re-heated it, wacked on some lemon and salt and away you went on a paper plate. I have to say it was delicious and I really enjoyed it, but with a niggle in the back of the head hoping that it would agree with me at the end of the night. The stalls had a lot of seafood, lobsters, fish, crabs, king fish etc….. all pre-cooked and pre made ready to go. It was dark at this stage, so they all had their gas lanterns all hooked up and the light from each stall gave it a little ambience. We stopped for a sugar cane, ginger and lemon drink, that you watched them squeezed the sugar cane fresh to fill your glass. It was delicious! My last stop was a pizza, which they use this term loosely. It was more a pancake that they cooked fresh on a hot plate, and I got a chicken one and it was awesome! The guys got a banana and chocolate one and Lisa got a vegetarian one. It was at this point Pam was with us and she just said, some-one has stolen my camera! Holy Schmokes! It was a fancy SLR camera and all. She just remembered a man in a stripy shirt sitting next to her and that was all. So we all cut a lap of the market to see if we could see anyone the bugger, but he was long gone… Luckily she had backed up her photos that morning, so she only lost that day, but to lose a massive camera is a real bugger…. George spoke to some of the stall sellers to keep their eyes open while we are in Zanzibar, but there really wasn’t a lot more we could do.
Half the group went back to the hotel and the rest of us went to a pretty cool bar on the beach, literally, on the beach, and had a few beers before heading back ourselves. It was great to have the sand in our toes, as we listened to the sound of the sea, with a cold beer in my hand. Ahhh this is the life and I think I am loving Zanzibar already.
No comments:
Post a Comment