Beyt al Chai Stone Town

... and we were even joined by several green turtles - brilliant!

Strangely, we don't cough up the $1250 per person per night to stay on Mnemba but instead find accommodation in the cheap southern part of town but it is getting late by the time we return from diving and as there are no streetlights we find ourselves wandering around the dirt streets of Numgwi in the pitch dark in a fruitless search for food. We only find one local restaurant/shack selling chipsi (don ...

... and, in these conditions, no air co.

So, I got it pretty good actually. To be honest, more bearable in the dark :)

The flight back? The horrors of KLM long haul economy (truly) were made all better with me second Danish Pastry, Thomas, the hot surgeon who's shoulder my head ended up in as we sort of slept back to Amsterdam. Umm...and he knew Claes. Small world. Or perhaps just small Denmark. Landed at 5.30am, said goodbye to Thomas, picked up my ruck sack ...

... low strung lights, people calling out their food like wares. We were also entranced by the local boys who were wholeheartedly flinging themselves off the wall and into the water below. As we watched a dozen boys went off in a matter of minutes, getting a running start and then throwing themselves into the air so that when they hit the air it could be head first, back first or in any other strange contortion. They were having a blast, and ...

... from. Many of the plants we were not able to recognize at first, but as Jimmy (the Irish bloke on our tour) says "every day is a school day".
The guys at the spice plantation also let us try some of the spiced tea and some of the fresh fruits. One of the guys even climbed a super tall tree to get us a couple of fresh coconuts.

... with it a mood that was melancholic. It was nearly time to go. Tomorrow I would be tucked up in my very cold bed in Nairobi, in the heart of the chilly season. I was missing home, but… but then again; I didn’t want this to end. The colleagues I had come to Zanzibar with had left two days previously and my transformation was, The Sweet Easy. Problem was they were abandoning ship one by one. Every time I looked around, my circle of friends had ...

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 ...

... le*ving the mosques *fter pr*yer (there *re over FIFTEEN HUNDRED mosques on Z*nzib*r) - *ll *dding it it's ch*rm. The sound of pr*yer echoes throughout the w*lls *nd tow*rds the w*ter five times e*ch d*y. This took some time to *djust to, *s yes, this includes 4 AM *nd 8 AM - but I've embr*ced it now *nd enjoy w*king in the d*rk of the night to the sound of pr*yer outside my window. The hotel we *re st*ying in is *n old sult*ns p*l*ce converted into * hotel- for 10 bucks * night ...

... They even traded slaves through this island. It is a very unique mix of cultures here. There are influences from Asia, Europe, Middle East, and of course Africa. There are beautiful beaches. We are in Stone Town, which is like a colonial city built in the 1500s. It has very narrow streets with no names. I am making Sandi stay in ...

Finally a chance to sleep in. It has been a holiday of early mornings with the average being 5.15am. We sleep until 8am, have the hotel breakfast and do a spot of shopping before checking out at 10am. We wander around the streets of Stone Town and wander in and out of many local stores. I wanted to get off the tourist footpaths so we took a turn down an alley and headed away. We were completely lost in the ...

So sweeping back to our homeland Iringa after sea sick boat journey and an 8 hour bus drive i was happy to be back. Dropping our bags off at the memory stimulating baptist centre and greeting the many volunteers we were within moments back at shooters bar having a safari and reflecting on the past copuple of weeks. Training was not the most absorbing but I was happy to get a bit of rest and get my mind back onto village. The past couple of days Ive been writing a proposal for TACAids,Im ...