Ocean Paradise Resort Zanzibar

... I ate fresh fruit and Cody had a great big plate of fresh seafood! We walked through the winding narrow streets of stonetown to get back to our guesthouse.<br><br>Zanzibar is a beautiful island full of mystery and beauty. When most of the world was still living in the dark ages Zanzibar was trading with Arabs, and Asians, even the portuguese! People have been living in Zanzibar for 20,000 years!!! Freddy Mercury was born in Zanzibar ...

... accent and it's even funnier) who always have to be first in the dinner queue, first off the bus, first to finish the hikes - you know the type; a hopeless english gent called Dan who so far has lost his camera, got $400 out of the cash machine instead of $40 and lost his clothes, book and towel to the incoming tide; Fiona, my tent buddy, an 18 year old surfer who says "like" a lot; Kym and Katie, the know-it-alls of our ...

... fingers on the bar, and Said pored them two exotic looking cocktails. I wondered if that was why they were bright pink.<br><br>&#8220;We get ahll kindsa people here. Mainly Engulish nowadays. Young people, ya know, like in their twennies. Coz it&#8217;s like cheap if you&#8217;re like, a budget traveler. We get Australians, Swedens, Germans, and Americans too. No, man! Haha! No we don&#8217;t get Kenyans here, nat really.&#8221;<br><br>He was a pretty good ...

... four hours on the boat we returned to the hotel. We showered and got dressed up to have drinks and watch the sunset. The first place we went to was called the African House and had once served as a gentlemen's club. It was very cool to stand on the porch and watch the sunset over dhows setting off for next fishing. Along the ocean front we noticed the night market and set out to take a look. It's tables and tables of fish the fishermen just caught. You ...

... the tide is out, the water in the bay is just inches deep so that the water and sand are warmed by the sun and when the tide comes in over the reef, the water soaks up this heat. When the tide is out, the local women and children harvest seaweed and browse for whatever shells and little bits of seafood they can find in the shallow waters. The women are dressed in their colorful traditional dresses and wraps, wading through the water solo or in small ...

... in, but as of right now, down loading pics and all that is not possible in Zanzibar. We will try to put pics up in Egypt, but even that is doubtful as we are only going to be on land for short periods of time. So please feel free to use your imaginations and clear your March calendar for our slideshow series. Of note, we really love getting your comments, and emails. Please keep them coming as we love to read them and get snippets of home. Much love, Aidess and Ern

When we were calling hotels in Stone Town from Dar (with very little success), the guy in the Internet cafe asked us why we wanted to go to Stone Town anyway. Why didn't we just go to the beach? A lot of travellers spend a night in Stone Town before hightailing it out to the coast. I think this is a mistake: Stone Town is one of my favorite cities of the entire trip so far. If you're the kind of person that likes to lose themselves in alleyways and just ...

... any boutiques or retail stores that sell clothing. Negotiations were straight forward. I knew the local price for a T-shirt was 2000 TSH. SO I told the guy I would give him 1000 TSH above the local price. He hesitated at first but then gave in. I don't mind paying a bit more than the locals. I can afford it. Besides, the vendors expect the muzungus to pay a bit more and wouldn't sell it to you at the local prices. At night time, I went to the popular food market. There you can find ...

... which took more than four weeks to completely recover. During the boat trip we also visited a sactuary for giant tortoises from the Seychelles, who were surprisingly agile despite their giant size. These are the world's largest land tortoises. Dirk almost got run ...