Okay blog time.
I’ve been back from Tanzania for less than a week and it is taking quite a bit of effort to get back into work-mode. I guess that is inevitable to happen when you go to a beautiful place for a holiday for a week and then come back into a situation where you are making your own schedule. But so in order to avoid doing work, let me tell you about how nice of a holiday it was…
My roommate Laura came with me down to Tanzania. We left Friday morning to Nairobi where we would catch a 15 hour bus to the capital city, Dar Es Salaam. We spent the afternoon in Nairobi, running around a bit, getting some small things for the bus ride, and then went to this really good Ethiopian place for dinner. (for all of you who have never tried Ethiopian food, you need to try it. It looks a bit strange and you eat with your hands… so I’m sure you can see why I like it… besides the fast that the food is awesome). So we had to catch our bus at 7am which made for a early morning. The busses are just like a roughed up greyhound bus back home. The roads leaving Kenya were pretty bad, potholes everywhere, which made sleeping, reading and pretty much everything a bit difficult. Lukily it was only about 3 hours of the trip till we got to the border. Really simple border process of walking thru and clearing Kenya, then buying a 50$ visa for Tanzania… was about a one hour process to get the whole buss through which was painless. The rest of the ride was long, but the roads in Tanzania were wonderful and so well maintained they rivaled Canadian highways. Also the landscape was beautiful. It went from dry savannah in the Serengeti (where I saw a few dust cyclones) merging into more watered down areas with green vegetation, then hitting mountains and lush green crops towards the coast and central area. We passed by Mt. Kilmanjaro from a distance, drove thru 2 of their northern cities, Arusha and Moshi, and then made our way down towards the central costal area. The ride was great until we were about an hour away from the city, when this guy at the back of the bus shat his pants abd stripped down naked…needless to say, all of us on the bus weren’t sure if he was ill or just crazy. So by that point, we were impatient to get there already and arriving at 10 pm was a bit of a drag as the city didn’t have too much of a night life in the area where we were. We stayed in a really cheap YWCA hostel, and splurged on dinner at the Movenpick Royal Palm Hotel’s Kibo Bar. In part because it was the only place open, and in part because we wanted a little civility after sitting in a bus for an hour smelling like crap (literally). So in the morning, we had been planning on staying in Dar for the day, but it was Sunday, and like most places in East Africa, with our experience, they all shut down and you are lucky if anything opens up by 2pm. So we checked out, wandered down towards the harbor, wandered around for a while then just descided to hop on the ferry for Zanzibar. We were a bit disappointed to find that the ferry was very organized with enclosed assigned seating areas and A/C and TVs, so instead we asked one of the crew if we could sit outside, so they let the two of us sit on the front deck of the boat in front of the cabin. It was awesome because we got the best view leaving Dar, of the boats in the surrounding harbor, even saw a few dolphins in the water. Only thing that we didn’t think about was the sunburns that we got because we were nicely in the breeze the whole time and weren’t always covered up… o well part of the experience.
So we arrived in Zanzibar Town on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in like 30 degree weather J there were so many Papasi (street touts) who hassle you for everything from money to tours to just wanting to be your “friend” … especially when you first arrive and are wandering around with your backpack and clearly a newly arrived tourist…. But we managed to wander around to find a cute little hotel in the middle of Stone Town (which is the historic little area in Zanzibar Town) which was actually quite a challenge as the streets are impossible to maneuver for the first little while as they are a series of little walkways that were build in no organized fashion over 100 years ago. The place is filled with such a lush history as the Sultan of the Oman empire relocated there in the mid 1800’s and so there are an enormous amount of buildings, details and quirks that remain from this period, the Islamic history and it’s presence as the major port for the “spice island”. Anyways, we stayed at Jambo Guest House, which reminded me so much of staying at a little hotel in Athens with a central location and shared bathrooms J The first few days were spent there just getting lost in the market streets, seeing what was unfolding anywhere you walked, enjoying the great food, drinks on the beach with our feet in the sand, picturesque sunsets, blazing hot sunny days and quite a large amount of European tourists. Some of the highlights were visiting the Palace Museum (which was a bit like Casa Loma but more run down), amazing gelato with a great view at Amore Mio, Killer sunsets from anywhere and Forodhani Gardens, where a grassy little park comes alive with street vendors selling tourist souvenirs, painting and jewelry, and local foods like banana pancakes (yum) Zanzibar omplettes (double yum) skewers of any king of meat and fish imaginable as well as lobster, octopus, crab, etc, and local drinks like sugar cane juice. Have to admit it was my favorite place to eat because of the atmostphere as well it was super cheap J A couple days in, Jessica and Dorthy, friends from Nyeri, came to meet us and we went snorkeling one day (really fun, regardless of a bit of sunburn) as well as chilled out at the hotel pool they stayed at (there is not really any ocean to swim in right in stone town so you have to go at least an hour out. We also went on a Spice Tour which was cool. Zanzibar is the world’s largest clove exporter and they produce tons of other things, like cinnamon, lemongrass, ginger, cardamom, vanilla, nutmeg, cocoa… so you get to go on the plantation tour and see where they grow which was really interesting… then they cook you a meal with lots of spices which was really yummy. I had henna done at lunch as well and then you get to go to a beautiful beach (Mangwapani) which is virtually deserted of people, to swim for an hour. Then on the way back, you stop at a slave cave on the cost where hundreds of slaves were kept by the sultan after slavery was made illegal… it was pretty eerie… Such a cool little tour though.
So after all that, we headed up to Kendwa, at the northern coast or the island, about an hour and a half north of Stone Town. There, we stayed at a little resort place along the ocean and basked in the sun for 2 and a half days. This was where the do nothing sit in the sun holiday part happened.. it reminded me of being in the dominion and was such a good relax time J One of the days we were there, they had a party at one of the hotels next door that had acrobats and some cultural dances which was interesting.. the rest of the time we just basked in the sun, walked along the beach, ate good food went to the bar at night and chilled out. Unfortunately, we had to leave on Sunday afternoon, and flew out of Zanzibar town on Monday morning… Arriving in Nairobi was a bit depressing as there was no beach and was definitely cooler… MY matatu ride back up to nyeri was stalled when we got a flat tire, and I felt like the heavens were just telling me not to go back to work…. Maybe it was just my imagination…. Either way, here I am back in Nyeri for another 2 and a half months trudging along. I’m thinking of going up to Uganda at the end of this month and then to the coast over Christmas… at least over Christmas ill be able to work on my tan again. Otherwise t was a great trip, a wonderful holiday and I would recommend Zanzibar to anyone.. though go when you have a bit more $ as it is quite touristy and costs a bit more to do most things…. But it was wonderful none the less.
