© Richard Randall

ZANZIBAR

Our travels in Tanzania began with a flight from Mombasa Kenya to Zanzibar. We landed on the runway at the airport eager to get inside and retrieve our luggage. The airport was a very basic building, all of the luggage was thrown through a cut~out hatch, in a makeshift thin ply wood wall, onto some barely standing benches, and then there was a free for all, with everyone pushing and shoving to grab hold of their bags. Once Richard had grabbed our bags we went out to figure out where we would stay. As usual we didn't have anywhere particular in mind. As has been quite usual during our travels, we were soon set upon by several touts hoping for our business. I had bought my mum a rather hefty walking stick in Mombasa, which came in very useful at this point as we used it to fend off the eager mob! We spent all of our time in Zanzibar Town, which is the main settlement on the western side of the island, and a popular stop for many travellers. The most popular section is the Old Stone Town, surrounded by the sea on three sides. For the first night we stayed at a nice looking hotel near to the docks, I think it was the Malindi Guest House. The beds were comfortable, and the room was en-suite, and there were even mosquito nets over the beds, excellent. It wasn't until night had fallen, and we were trying to sleep that we realized the nets were full of holes, oh well I guess mosquitoes have to eat too! We did try to repair the larger holes using the sticky labels that the airline had placed on our luggage handles. It was all we had, and it worked ... sort of, but there were just too many holes! By the time the morning came neither of us had enjoyed much sleep, and lack of sleep, added to the awful stench of the fish stalls that were right outside the hotel, meant we decided we would not be staying there for another night. After breakfast we headed off to change some money into local currency, and as the island is full of touts, it was not long before we were approached again, and offered everything we could want and more. One of these touts was actually not as irritating as they usually are, so we let him take us to a hotel belonging to a friend of his. We never normally do this, it must have been the sleep deprivation! Anyway, he led us into the Stone Town to a place called The Narrow Street Hotel, in Narrow Street! We were shown some rooms, and after a bit of haggling we now had a new home for the next few nights. Our room was really lovely, it was a slightly odd shape, very long and narrow, like the name of the hotel, but it was furnished beautifully. There were three or four beautiful beds, all made using intricately carved wood, with canopies overhead and fancy mosquito nets, without holes! Not only did the beds look good, they were very comfortable too. Our bathroom was nice and clean, and even had hot water! We liked this hotel a lot, and the setting in amongst the alleyways populated by friendly local people, helped to make our stay in Zanzibar extra nice. We knew that walking around these small lanes at night could be unsafe, but we never felt concerned and often strolled back to our hotel after dinner late at night without incidence. We only spent about five days in Zanzibar, relaxing and enjoying the laid back atmosphere. There was plenty to do, such as going on a Spice tour and diving, which is supposed to be excellent, but we were happy doing nothing! We did spend a few hours doing the tourist thing, we visited the Beit el Ajaib ~ House of Wonders, it used to be a palace for the sultan. It was built in 1883 by Sultan Barghash (1870-1888), it is a tall building with several floors surrounded by spacious verandas. We had a pleasant look round, taking photo's before heading off to find a cool drink. There are other places of interest, such as Beit al Sahel ~ The Palace Museum, which was the Sultan's residence until 1964 when the dynasty was overthrown. After the revolution it was closed to the public until it reopened as a museum devoted to the era of the Zanzibar sultanate. There are several floors of exhibits, and outside is the Makusurani graveyard where some of the sultans are buried. As well as the museum there is the Old Fort, which was built on the site of a Portuguese chapel around 1700 by Omani Arabs as a defence against the Portuguese. Inside is an open air theatre which hosts performances of local dance and music. There is also a tourist information centre, and art gallery, some craft shops, and the Neem Tree Cafe. Other places of interest are the Anglican Cathedral and Old Slave Market, St Joseph's Cathedral, and many Mosques, the Hamamni Persian Baths and Livingstone House, which was built around 1860, and used by many European missionaries and explorers before they commenced their journey to the mainland. David Livingstone, the Missionary Explorer, stayed there before he set off on his last expedition. Now it is home to the Zanzibar Tourist Corporation. As I said though, we were just there to relax, eat drink and be merry! We certainly enjoyed lots of good meals in Zanzibar. One of the most popular places was Blues, it is part of the South African chain, and I think it was mainly so busy because of the location. I think the food was pretty mediocre, and definitely over priced! The outside seating area stretched right out into the sea, we never ate there, but we did sit out on the deck looking out to sea enjoying the great views. We did eat at Pichy's Pizza, the staff were really friendly, the restaurant was on the waterfront and served good pizza! We also ate at Radha Food House a couple of times, they were doing a good deal on thalis at the time, for a set price you could eat as many meals as you liked. We didn't eat that much, in fact usually just the one serving, but for people with big appetites it would have been an even better deal! The food was delicious, vegetarian, and lovely and spicy, and the restaurant was very popular. Another place we ate was the Sea View Indian Restaurant, up on the first floor of a building overlooking the sea. We sat outside on a veranda, and ate our food whilst enjoying the beautiful view. Our favourite restaurant is the one I can not remember the name of! It was owned and run by an Italian family, the location was perfect, with lovely views of the sea, but it was quite secluded. The food was obviously fantastic, as is typical of the Italians, there was a good choice of fish dishes and delicious pasta dishes. It was a lot more expensive than the other restaurants I have mentioned but the surroundings were worth it, there was a large outside eating area full of tables complete with fresh linen table cloths and napkins, and the service was excellent. For cheap eats, the stalls that set up along the sea front at night were the best place to go. There were so many of them, serving up everything you could want, from meat and fish on tiny wooden skewers, to delicious vegetarian snacks, all of which were freshly cooked to order on upturned oil drums. It sounds as though all we did was eat and drink, and I think that's probably about right! After being so lazy for a few days we decided to move on to Tanga. We wanted to get the ferry, so we bought our tickets, but on the day of departure we were told that the ferry was only going to Pemba. Great! So we had to wait until the next day and get the ferry that was actually going to Tanga. Obviously after waiting for ages for the ferry we had been told was going to Tanga to arrive, and then for the passengers to disembark, and for the queue of people waiting to begin boarding, only to be told that it was not the ferry for Tanga, made us less than happy! We started to walk back out of the dockyard into town to find somewhere to stay again for the night. This time we were set upon by a large group of touts, all shouting very loudly, this did not help to lift our spirits! Once again the walking stick that I had bought for my mum came in very useful, we were so thankful that we hadn't posted it to her, we must have known we would need it! We know and appreciate that the touts are just trying to earn a living, but it all got out of hand. We don't mind them chatting, and trying to persuade us to go here and there. But, we told them we knew where we were going, and we didn't need their help. Unfortunately, a couple of them grabbed me by my arms, and wouldn't let go. I wasn't concerned, just fed up, and hot. As soon as Richard saw that I was having trouble shaking them off, all hell broke loose. We were both shouting at the top of our voices at them to **** ***, go away! As we got out of the dockyard we headed straight to the first hotel we saw, all the while Richard was shoving them away, and we were lashing out with the walking stick. The owner of the hotel obviously heard all of the noise, and he came rushing out to us. There was lots of shouting between the touts and the hotel owner before it all calmed down. We booked in for one night, and later we sat with the owner for a drink. There was a knock at the door, the touts had come back ... no not for revenge ... they wanted to apologize. We don't usually behave as we had, we are lovers not fighters! So we all sat down and enjoyed a drink together. We were not happy that we had to stay an extra night, but before we knew it the morning had come, and we once again headed back to the dockyard. This time everything went well, we set off for Tanga.

Caribbean

Sundries

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