Zanzibar Island....Paradise??!
Trip Start
Jul 31, 2005
1
33
209
Trip End
Sep 05, 2007
Zanzibar island...Stonetown and Kendwa,
Tanzania
Saturday, October 22, 2005
We took the fast ferry 2 hours across the waters from Dar Es Salaam where we had stayed the night previous, to be whooshed across the sea to an island which is still Tanzania and still very much Africa, but with a bizarre feeling, Imagine if you can Africa combined with the Middle East...Muezzin sounding loudly at prayer time, mosques and churches, spices, and deserted white sandy beaches with turquoise seas lapping the shore and absolutly superb sunsets.....this is Zanzibar...and WE LOVE IT!!
We stayed for one night in the islands capital...Stonetown..sometimes also known as Zanzibar town, was an beautiful place, but only a very small part of what the island has to offer, so if you visit Zanzibar DO NOT just visit Stonetown, but make sure that you certainly explore it before moving out to other parts of the island.
Stonetown was a fascinating town, with fantastic shopping for local African crafts, and stunning architecture, a lot like what you see in the middle east - so much detail in each and every building...from the doors to the windows, we enjoyed a sundowner on the rooftop terrace of the Africa Hotel, looking out across the Indian Ocean watching the Dhows sail past, it was superb, definatly a must do when in Stonetown, and the next day visited the very tragic and sad site of where the slave market was, the beautiful Anglican Cathedral and House of Wonders museum, we also saw the Old Fort, before driving out into the middle of the island and seeing the spice plantations.
The spice plantations were interesting, but there are so many of them that to be honest they did get a bit boring! Even so, it was fab to see pepper being grown on the trees and tasting it, seeing cocoa before its turned into choccie! Vanilla, lemon grass and cloves.
We then sat on the roadside on small wooden benches with some of the locals trying all different types of fruit...custard apple and starfruit...some were disgusting, some were beautiful...then we carried on to a place where this absolutly crazy guy...known locally as the butterfly (!!?) lives, he decided to climb a tree, which was sooo high up and knock down coconuts whist singing a song in Swahili at the top of his voice! When he climbed back down he cut the coconuts open and we tryed the fresh coconut milk and ate the actual coconut.
We ate a typical meal of rice which they flavour with all different types of spices, and potatoes in coconut milk, before continuing north for a further hour to the town which we are staying in at the moment...Kendwa.
Kendwa is located a few kms from the bigger town of nungwi, its basically thatched huts set in compounds and a stunning beach!
Last night we are a meal in a local restaurant, which was delicious, and strolled along the beach watching the sunset.....which was stunning.
The wide white sands are lined with small huts where the locals sell their crafts, and typical tat for the tourists...its beautiful...
So, to us it seems like paradise...great food and amazing scenery, turquoise sea and white sands, but we are very aware that just a few kms away there are the local people who live here all of the time, in mud huts with no water, electric or proper food, who walk around in their usual rag clothes...so its important to remember this when visiting somewhere like this, especially resorts along the coast which are clearly here for the tourist...one persons paradise is another persons hell...
Anyway....on a brighter note...we love it...shame that we have to leave on Monday back to the mainland, where we shall stay another couple of nights in Tanzania before entering Malawi.
Love hugs kisses
Ali and Matt
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Ali on the beach at Kendwa - Zanzibar
