Veraclub Zanzibar Village Kiwengwa

... very small and in need of much repair. We guess that's why they charge a $30 US departure tax for international flights. There seems to be some problem with checking us in, and the delay takes about 45 minutes. Finally, the destination tags are placed on our bags and they are whisked away to the baggage area. It's been over 2 hours since we left the hotel but we are now in the waiting lounge. Next stop, Johannesburg. Here we come.

... cocaine, you name it. You like the way her eyes sparkle? Would you also like yours to sparkle like that? Ha! Ha ha ha!”

The next day, we went to eat at Forodhani Gardens. I wondered if we had imagined the witch-hunt of two days before. As we sat on a log eating, a man in his early to mid twenties donning a Muslim skullcap wheeled a bicycle in. As he passed us, a younger man, maybe in his late teens reached out and fondled his butt. Not a ...

... stalls but they were not hassling much so was a pleasant place to stay. We slept well after watching a DVD on the rooms TV which had no reception but someone had left a horror collection DVD in the machine so we enjoyed some free movies.

Tuesday 11th August. Our snorkelling trip was a full day trip so we set off in the old boat around 10am and sailed up to the more popular Nungwi beach area and picked up snorkelling gear. It is a busier area so we were glad to be ...

... dinner- make sure it is one I will have missed on my travels as well.
Oliver and Dan are hoping to get the 48hour train on Friday as well, so we all leave for Lusaka together, but I get there considerably faster, albeit via Johannesberg. They did offer to fly to Lusaka with me (please note Helen, they are not bad boys) but as this involved me buying 3 tickets at $500 instead of ...

... well. Then it was up reeeeeally early the next morning for a very long drive to Dar Es Salaam, where we stayed really briefly right on a really nice beach. We should have a bit more time there after Zanzibar. As you've probably noticed, this second half of the tour (from Livingstone) has been a ton of driving. Luckily, our longest days are behind us now, and we'll be slowing down the pace a little bit for the rest of the tour (aside from one more long day). We took the ferry over to ...

... narrow streets brings something new - be it a school full of children chanting verses from the Quran, a beautiful old mansion with overhanging verandas, a coffee vendor with his long spouted pot fastened over coals, clacking cups to attract customers, or a group of women in bui-bui sharing a joke and some local gossip" The guide book description does not paint the entire picture. We found Stone Town sadly depressing. There is old persian architecture but ...

... doors you can find in Stone Town and I photographed a number of them. People were friendly but not overly aggressive about it, which apparently is not the case in Senegal where Mary lived for some time back in the mid 1990's. When potentially making a purchase, the art of negotiating a "best price" came into play just like in the UAE. I was quite firm and walked away from a couple of buys because I felt they were blatantly overcharging me and ...

... airport to our hotel at the northern end of the island. Our hotel was beautiful and located at a desolate beach. The next day was very busy with Rambo Grammy leading the tour across Zanzibar. We started a a spice farm where a local named "Cool ...

... The houses are all made of stone (obviously!) and are very old. Also, there are plenty of mosques around where you can hear people praying during most parts of the day. Lots of character in this town. It is easy to like. What UI don't like are the touts. Because this is a popular destination point for tourists, the touts are in full force here. They don't leave you alone - always trying to sell you stuff. You really need to be patient with them and it takes a while to shake them off ...

... sort started up in which a lot of shaking and
yelling/singing insued which made for interesting dinner entertainment.


It was a really wonderful birthday. Zanzibar is gorgeous,
though we havent looked around the whole thing yet. Much of Zanzibars
exports used to be spices, and there are a lot of spice farms on the
island, one of which we visited today. We got to see how and where
cardamom, tumeric, pepper, cloves, vanilla, chili pepper, cinnamon ...