Malindi Guest House Stone Town

... and it is so nice to be near water again. I recommend a visit to anyone interested. There is a whole lot of history here, from the east indian slave trade to the sultans rule to the colonial rule. It is a very cool place. And the dhows are so cool. We are thinking about sailing one back to the mainland next week.
Well, we head to Tamarind on monday to write papers and enjoy the beach. I have to admit I am very excited to lay on the beach in my swimsuit. Women are not allowed to ...

... young, hot-blooded Zanzibari on the island gyrated to thumping disco music. Farida, my guide tonight, was clearly popular – she knew everybody and we had to stop every two or three steps to say hello. She pointed out characters to me: “You see her? The tall, fat lady wearing that backless gown with the slit? You will never see her wearing anything other than a buibui outside the Bawani. And you see those two pretty girls? They are lesbians” ...

The two and a half hour crossing to Zanzibar promised much – we passed dhows gliding along and even a tiny and remote sand island so shallow that it must have been under water at high tide. We were heading to Stone Town, the main settlement on the main island in the Zanzibar archipelago.

Stone Town itself was immensely pretty. Narrow alleyways (generally with a couple of people on a scooter whizzing down them ...

... with his family. They invited us to join them on a trip they’d planned to another patch of forest (we were the only other guests). The drive took two hours on windy dirt roads and allowed us to see much of the mountain range; it’s a really beautiful area. We also stopped at a farm owned by Benedictine Monks on the way who produce their own wine, not great but certainly palatable!

After Lushoto we took our last long bus journey ...

... way home, so Tanzanians gouge the tourists on the way in and on the way out. Can't say I blame them! I'd arranged for a driver from the Dhow Palace Hotel in Stone Town to meet us at the airport and he was there with a sign stating my name. It was quite hot and humid upon arrival but with a bit of a pleasant ocean breeze to offset the heat. The bumpy ride to our hotel didn't take long and the hotel itself was quite charming with antique wooden ...

... level (that's over a mile deep for those who are not mathematically inclined). The rift valley is also spotted with Volcanoes which also tend to cluster around fault lines, the most famous being Kilimanjaro as it's one of the tallest freestanding (non-range) mountains in the world at 5896m. The Ngorongoro Crater is a former volcano that was at one time taller than Kilimanjaro but fell in on itself leaving a 20 km wide caldera. It's ...

I woke up very early this morning and walked around Stone Town so I could take some good pictures and videos without the crowd of people. I was able to get some good shots. I then went on something called "The Spice Tour". You and several other tourists are basically driven to all these local farms that grow various spices. I wasn't excited about the tour but EVERYONE said I had to do it. Well I guess EVERYONE got pretty high from the spices when they went on ...

... a taste of local Zanzibar, starting with the original Zanzibar pizza (layer of dough filled with mince, radishes, onions, a few sauces and topped off with a raw egg all fried up creating a superb errr.... Pizza), moving to a mix of falafels samoosa;s and chipata's (pretty standard), being washed down by a glass of sugar cane and ginger juice (superb stuff especially when freshly squeezed in front of you) and finished off with a Sweet Zanzibar ...