Tanzania - Part II

Jambo

Second instalment of the blog from Tanzania. Just leaving Zanzibar now and heading back to the mainland on the wonderful Precision Air. We have a 3 hour stopover at the Dar es Salaam airport (because the flights do a big Zanzibar-Dar-kill loop) and it may be one of the worst airports I've ever been in. There is one store, which is closed. And no one who works at the airport knows or cares why. 

Zanzibar, however, was absolutely awesome. The beaches and beautiful and quiet and the water was so clear and turquoise. I think it’s a lot like Mexico must have been 30 years ago before all the tourists came. Only I think the beaches were nicer than in Mexico. I would definitely recommend a visit if any of you are in Africa. There isn’t heaps to do, but there are some day trips and excursions one can do (snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, some boat trips to nearby islands, etc). Seems like there are a few museums in stone town as well which might be ok. 

I arrived on Monday from Kilimanjaro and met my friend in a town called Paje on the east coast of the island. I'm travelling the rest of the trip with a friend from high school who has been living in Germany for the past two years. He arrived a few days before me, so he was already pretty settled into island life (aka doing nothing) when I arrived.

Zanzibar is an interesting place. Very very undeveloped. Other than the main roads it’s all dirt roads. So when you arrive at a beach area you “off-road” for 5-10 minutes through very poor (and I mean very poor) living conditions until you reach the hotels on the water. You then go in through gated entrances and it’s another world. In each place, all the restaurants and hotels are accessible along the beach. So once you are through the gates you go to the beach front and can walk along and find places to eat and drink and so on. 

The first place we stayed was a hostel in Paje, which was an excellent find (by me of course)! It looked like nothing on the outside but the guy who ran it was super laid back and there were lots of people to hang out with and things to do (BBQ lobster night, evening trip to a beach bar to watch the sunset, etc). It was also owned by the same person who owned the hotel next door, so we had access to the beach front pool as well which was nice. The beach there was beautiful and since its on the ocean side of the island the tide comes in and out like crazy. In the mornings, it would be about 1km out and it was pretty peaceful to walk all the way out in shallow water. Paje was less hotel-ey and Resort-ey than other areas. It even had an awesome little coffee shop on the beach (which we ate at in the mornings) which has jumped on the avocado on toast trend. Even in a remote corner in Africa millennials are getting ripped off buying avo on toast. But it was pretty good! 

Things are cheap here but not crazy cheap. Because it’s all tourist prices, it’s all cheaper than home but not what the locals pay. One night in Paje we went to a local spot for Chips Mayai (hot fries with egg cracked on top so it cooks, with mango sauce) and it was $2.50 for both of us. And we probably got the tourist price. That meal was excellent by the way. That place should be bottling that mango sauce. 

We stayed at Matemwe next, which was further up the east coast. The beach wasn’t as nice there and it was all hotels. But the place we stayed was quite nice and had an awesome pool. We ate most of our meals there as the food was excellent (although we possibly got sick here - more of that later). They had a daily happy hour from 4-6 where everyone in the hotel came and socialised. And they had homemade bar snacks (home made potato chips!) and really good margaritas (for $4!). It's a pretty lazy life on Zanzibar. 

As alluded to above, we both woke up sick on Friday but we had a snorkelling and diving trip booked. I was ok (and was the worst of the two of us at the time) so we decided to go ahead and go.  Guess that was a mistake though as the trip was a bit of a disappointment and I think it made Andrew sicker. We were supposed to see dolphins but there weren’t any (other than the few we saw from afar) so it was just coral and fish, but nothing too exciting. 

After that we got a taxi up to kendwa, which is on the north west coast. The beach there was the nicest yet and the area was the most built up. Kendwa, and the neighbouring area are two of the more popular tourist spots on the island, so there were more restaurants and shops and stuff around. Not as remote as Matemwe. 

The place we stayed there was ok. A nice, medium priced resort with a beautiful beach front and restaurant on the beach to watch the sunset from. The rooms were a bit poor though. Lots of little problems, which was annoying when we were sick. Didn’t get to explore as much as we planned because we lost a day, but it was nice to relax on the beach there. 

Annoyingly we had to move rooms on the first night because so many things were broken. So they put us in a smaller, less comfortable room than booked (which I complained about and got us a free dinner). The weirdest part of the new room was that the bathroom was split into two parts - toilet and shower. But the toilet room was away from the shower room and the door was a glass window on the top half. It was mirrored (sort of) but in the dark with the light on, you could see right in. Not ideal when you have two sick people travelling together. 

I started feeling a bit better that night, but Andrew got really sick. Stomach bug/heat stroke/man flu. Definite low point of the trip thus far. Thankfully it seemed to be a 24 hour thing and we were both back to normal-ish the next day. 

We spent the last night in Stone Town, which is the only real town on the island. It's close to the airport so we decided it was easiest to stay one night there. Also decided to splurge and stay in a really nice hotel (Park Hyatt Zanzibar). It used to be a palace and is right on the water.  It was pretty lush -  for example, the bathroom had a TV above the foot of the tub.

Although we were both pretty content to sit by the pool, we did venture out into town in the afternoon. I thought it was pretty disappointing. I knew it was and old town and would be run down, but it was pretty decrepit. Which is a shame because all the buildings are beautiful old whitewash buildings with interesting architecture. The streets are all narrow, and it's the kind of place which would be nice to get lost in, if half the roads weren't dirt and the shop fronts weren't all touts trying to push souvenirs with the words Hukuna Matata on them. "Yes! Welcome! Come in, just looking! Where you from?" I have to admit, I got a bit frustrated with the harassment at one point when I stumbled over a paving stone while trying to avoid one of them and had a bit of a rant to poor Andrew. 

I have learnt a bit of Swahili while here. One cool thing is that a lot of the words in the lion king really are Swahili. Hukuna Matata really does mean 'no worries'. Simba means lion and rufeaki means friend. Jambo is hello, mumbo is "how are you" (to which the only appropriate answer is "poa" which means "cool"), karibu is welcome, and asante is thank you. So as you can see, I'm pretty much fluent. 

We spent the rest of our final day on Zanzibar by the pool, drinking cocktails and wine. I was expecting serious sticker shock at the Hyatt, but surprisingly the food and drinks were pretty reasonable. It was more expensive than at other places, but cheaper or similar to a standard drink or meal at home. 

One nice thing about zanzibar is that the quality and price of the alcohol has been pretty good. The wine mostly comes from south Africa, so you can get some pretty decent glasses for $3-4. Likewise, the cocktails have been nice and most places have happy hour for $3-4. They even have cider from South Africa which I get in Sydney sometimes which I quite like. Those who know me, know that a good selection of wine is a pretty crucial.

That's all I can think of for now. Not much to write about when you aren't doing much but lying in the sun. We start a safari tomorrow. 5 nights in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater. Should be pretty cool - really looking forward to it. 

Sio