Life's Rough in Zanzibar

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  Stone Town, Tanzania
Wednesday, November 21, 2007

I've covered a lot of ground since the last time I updated the blog.  From Livingstone I traveled to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.  In Lusaka I was lucky enough to met some people who were traveling to Dar Salaam, Tanzania.  In our group we have an Irish guy (Brian), an American couple from San Francisco (Heather and Luke), an English girl (Emma)and a Scottish girl (Tarancey) who are traveling together.

We rode the train for 2 days to Dar Salaam first class.  My first time first class this trip.  It was pretty nice but the bathrooms weren't first class.  But I suppose that it can't be helped.  We were able to see lots of beautiful scenery traveling this way.  Every time the train stopped at a station women and children from the surrounding village came next to the cars to sell food.  The had chicken, fritters, corn, avocados, mangoes, tomatoes, potatoes, all sorts of things

Beach Bungalow

.  I spent hours just watching.  It was all very nice but I was glad to get off the train when we got to Dar Salaam.

We spent two days in Dar Salaam.  Not much to do there but it was nice to walk around and see the city.  We went out to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant and a Lebanese restaurant while we were there so that was the highlight for me, after weeks of pb&j and cornflakes. 

After two days in Dar Salaam we wanted to catch a ferry to Zanzibar.  We went down to the ticket office and purchased a ticket for a ferry that takes 2 and a half to 3 hours.  We were told to meet the guy who sold us the ticket ("Eddy") at the ticket office an hour before our boat left.  So on the day of departure he walks us ten minutes down the waterfront to our boat.  We get on board and watch people arriving and the loading of cargo for about 30 minutes.  Then as the boat is preparing to leave Brian starts taking to the captain of the ship.  Mostly small talk at first but then finds out that this ferry will take 6 hours to reach Zanzibar!  We then rush on to the deck of the boat and have to throw our bags on to the dock so we can climb off of the boat because they have already taken away the gangplank!  We then run back to the ticket office and give our friend "Eddy" and his boss a talking to

Dhow boat

.  Emma and Heather are both yelling at "Eddy" and his boss telling them that they want their money back plus the tip we gave "Eddy" for helping us to the boat.  Luke is walking around taking pictures of everyones' faces just in case we need to go to the cops.  Brian runs off and tries to find us alternative transport.  Tarancy and I just look at one another. 

We then just want to get the heck out of there so we decide to buy fast ferry tickets (hour and a half to Zanzibar).  "Eddy"'s boss is supposed to pay for half of the ticket (a refund) but even then he tries to short-change us again!  The women behind the counter for the fast ferry start yelling at him!  Then we all rush to get on the fast ferry.  It was an eventful couple of hours.  It was easily 90 degrees and humid.  I was probably carrying at least 50-60 lbs of luggage.  Not fun.  It did inspire me however to get rid of all the stuff I've been meaning to get rid of!

I have been in Stone Town for the last 4 days or so.  Stone Town is a really interesting area.  I don't want to bore you with history but it is an area (mostly residential with some shops) with very narrow, winding streets.  It is very easy to get lost if you don't know were you are going.  The streets are more like paths because they can't accommodate a car (only scooter, bike or foot traffic)

Persian Bath 1

.  All of the buildings are very old and have a very distinct style (Arabian crossed with shabby-chic?). 

I have spent my time here walking around (trying not to get lost).  We went on a Spice Tour and visited a Slave Cave.  The Slave Cave is a cave where slaves from mainland Africa were kept hidden before export to Arabia during the time when slavery was illegal.  Another day we went to Prison Island to swim and snorkel.  Prison Island is were they kept people with small pox quarantined once upon a time and also were people opposed to the revolution were sent in the 60's.

We go down to the waterfront to see the sunset almost every night.  After the sun goes down we eat street food and talk to people.  It is a good mix of mostly locals and some tourists.  It is a really amazing environment with all of the people (both Dar Salaam and Zanzibar has native Africans, and quite a few Arabic and Indian people.  It seems like everyone gets along pretty well.), the smells, the stars, and the good food.

The locals here are very friendly.  Always say "hello" and willing to help you with your Swahili.  There are the "beach boys" however who try to sell you a taxi ride or a CD.  Then if you say you don't need that they try to sell you a bus ride, boat ride, or tour.  You can easily spend 3 minutes trying to say "no thank you" to them.  In the span of 20 minutes we racked up 3 "beach boys" encounters.  It is exhausting sometimes.

Now you may be thinking Zanzibar sounds pretty great

Persian Bath 2

.  Please Heather show me some pictures.  I would love to show you some pictures but my camera is currently out of commission.  During our Slave Cave experience we had the opportunity to walk deeper into the cave.  Only the 2 Heathers were up for this adventure.  It was pitch black and we only had one flashlight carried by our guide (named Ali Babba).  We were walking on treacherous, sharp limestone that was covered with mud, water, and bat crap with sandals.  We stumbled around in the dark getting crapped on by bats for 30 minutes.  During one especially tricky part we had to climb along the cave wall with a pool of water behind us.  I of course being a klutz lost my footing fell into the waist deep water with my camera and the taxi driver's phone in my pocket (it had a flashlight on it that worked for 5 minutes of our spelunking excursion).  I managed ruin his phone, my camera, and some how loose my $7 Walmart watch in the process (This still baffles me that the only "water-resistant" thing on me which might have survived the plunge got lost).  Luckily the water was fresh, crystal clear water and not stagnant nasty water with dead things floating in it.  We then emerged from a hole in the ground which was probably 3 ft in diameter and 10 ft deep.  All I can say is that I can't imagine what it would be like trapped down there for days with hundreds of other people. 

So now I'm off to the beach in the southeast corner of Zanzibar for 5 days at least.  I'll try to get some of the pictures from the other people I'm traveling with so you can see some of Zanzibar.  I will also attempt to get the pictures off my memory card but I can't promise much.  I'm not sure were I'll head to next...

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Slave Cave (aka the last picture my camera took)	Stone Town Street	View from Bungalow	View from Stone Town hotel
Zanzibar mosque and church veiw	Zanzibar View

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