Zanzibar...
This trip all got underway because of a 'piece' of Daily Candy that I found in my in-box back at
the very beginning of the year. This is what puts the 'zan' in Tanzania (and I mean this
literally). We officially went from what seemed like 'The Lion King' to 'Aladdin'.
It's safe to say that I've never seen another place like Zanzibar. Nor do I think one exists. This
is many things rolled into one. It's 80% Islamic. Once we left the airport, this became quite
apparent. Conservatively dressed people everywhere. Then we entered Stone Town. This is
where we were staying the first night. I felt like I was more in the Middle East here than when
I was in Dubai. By the beach, there were ONLY boys. Not one girl in the water. Our hotel even
advised us not to go out by ourselves after the sun went down. But it would be okay to go out
together. We went to Forodhani Gardens. This is an outdoor market-of-sorts that begins
when it gets dark out. They have every kind of fish under the sun. Crab, shrimp, kingfish,
tuna, shark, lobster, calamari, octopus, etc. Everything just looks so beautiful, too. And you
know it's fresh. What makes this place even more amazing is how cheap everything is! My
kingfish skewer was $1.50, the calamari was $1 and the octopus was $1.50. Everything was
sooooo good!!!
The next day we went on a spice tour before we headed off to the beachy area. The spice tour
rocked! He would pull either little buds or leaves off of a tree and crush them and have us
guess what they were. Did any of you ever know that if you took a little clove bud (before it's
dried) and bit into a piece of it, it would leave a numbing effect (just like Ambesol)??? We saw
all sorts of spices and fruits. Then we got a tasting of different kinds of teas and fruits. Passion
fruit is one of my new favorite fruits. Ohhhh, was it good! Then one of the guys climbed up a
coconut tree so that we could try some fresh coconut milk. He serenaded us with the Hakuna
Matata song from The Lion King for the entire time he went up and down the tree. While he
was getting the coconuts ready for us, the other guys were making purses for us out of the
palm fronds. After our spice tour was over, we went to see some old Persian baths and then
back to Stone Town. We only had a matter of an hour or so to actually shop. :( Well, probably
better for me. We just went through alley after alley managing to get ourselves really lost.
It was now time to go to the beach resort. For about 20 minutes, we had to drive on a road
that was probably similar to some of the worst roads in South America. This is the road that all
of the resorts are on. Once we got there, we tried to find our tour guide (who was originally
supposed to be at our hotel in Stone Town) but, alas, to no avail. So we just went down to the
beach. Wow, was the water clear! It was low tide so you could walk out forever with the water
never going higher than your knees. The problem was that we did walk out forever. But now it
was time to walk back. With sun in our eyes. The sea urchins that we avoided on the way out
were much harder to avoid going back to the beach. At least when we were walking out we
could tell about how many sea urchins we were going to have to avoid. And if it looked to be
too many, we just went a different route. But with the sun in our eyes, we couldn't see any of
this. I know this sounds really extreme but it was one of the more challenging parts of our
trip. And just to throw another thing into the mix, the breeze had really picked up at this point
so we had to figure out how to cross the sea urchin paths and not get knocked over by the
winds all at the same time. It wasn't easy and it took some time but finally we made it. Phew!
We then saw some horses on the beach. Hmmm, why not go horseback riding??? So, of
course, I ask for the calmer horse since I don't deem myself an equestrian. And, as the story
always goes, I got the horse that decided to march to the beat of his own drum. He decided to
do a 180 degree turn in the water and start going in the opposite direction. I don't know
Swahili so I couldn't communicate with the boys who were in charge of the horses. They were
also too busy talking to each other. Finally they saw what was happening and came over and
turned the horsey around.
The next day we were going to go scuba diving so we wanted to be able to allocate most of the
day for that. Well, this is the one very sad part of the trip...
It was around 8 a.m. on our second to last morning in Zanzibar. We were now heading off to
do some scuba diving. Well, since our tour guide never showed up when he was supposed to
meet with us, we never knew that diving had to be arranged at least one day prior. It only
leaves at 7:30am. No exceptions. And that time had already passed. Ummm...it's hard to
describe how upset we were. We were even going to take the evening flight out of Zanzibar to
be able to go the next day. But we couldn't do that either since you need 18 hours before you
fly. So after a bit of arm-twisting, I talked Alicia into salvaging our day by doing a tour out to
Prison Island and then going snorkeling there. She didn't want to because she didn't want to
go on the bumpy road but I told her I was going to do it. She then caved. It turned out to be
great. :) Well, probably not as good as diving but a close second. We went to the tortoise farm
on Prison Island and fed them. They are so ugly that they're cute! Now it was time to go
snorkeling. But I don't think I've mentioned yet how gorgeous the color of the water was. I
could have looked at it all day. The pictures I'm sending don't do it justice but you can get a
good idea. :) We took the little boat out to the middle of the water and jumped into the ocean.
The reefs were just awesome.
Well, this more or less sums it all up. I can't believe the trip is already over. :( But all good
things must come to an end. We did so much, saw so much (ate so much, etc.)... Really, it
seemed like the Middle East, Polynesia and Africa all rolled into one.
the very beginning of the year. This is what puts the 'zan' in Tanzania (and I mean this
literally). We officially went from what seemed like 'The Lion King' to 'Aladdin'.
It's safe to say that I've never seen another place like Zanzibar. Nor do I think one exists. This
is many things rolled into one. It's 80% Islamic. Once we left the airport, this became quite
apparent. Conservatively dressed people everywhere. Then we entered Stone Town. This is
where we were staying the first night. I felt like I was more in the Middle East here than when
I was in Dubai. By the beach, there were ONLY boys. Not one girl in the water. Our hotel even
advised us not to go out by ourselves after the sun went down. But it would be okay to go out
together. We went to Forodhani Gardens. This is an outdoor market-of-sorts that begins
when it gets dark out. They have every kind of fish under the sun. Crab, shrimp, kingfish,
tuna, shark, lobster, calamari, octopus, etc. Everything just looks so beautiful, too. And you
know it's fresh. What makes this place even more amazing is how cheap everything is! My
kingfish skewer was $1.50, the calamari was $1 and the octopus was $1.50. Everything was
sooooo good!!!
The next day we went on a spice tour before we headed off to the beachy area. The spice tour
rocked! He would pull either little buds or leaves off of a tree and crush them and have us
guess what they were. Did any of you ever know that if you took a little clove bud (before it's
dried) and bit into a piece of it, it would leave a numbing effect (just like Ambesol)??? We saw
all sorts of spices and fruits. Then we got a tasting of different kinds of teas and fruits. Passion
fruit is one of my new favorite fruits. Ohhhh, was it good! Then one of the guys climbed up a
coconut tree so that we could try some fresh coconut milk. He serenaded us with the Hakuna
Matata song from The Lion King for the entire time he went up and down the tree. While he
was getting the coconuts ready for us, the other guys were making purses for us out of the
palm fronds. After our spice tour was over, we went to see some old Persian baths and then
back to Stone Town. We only had a matter of an hour or so to actually shop. :( Well, probably
better for me. We just went through alley after alley managing to get ourselves really lost.
It was now time to go to the beach resort. For about 20 minutes, we had to drive on a road
that was probably similar to some of the worst roads in South America. This is the road that all
of the resorts are on. Once we got there, we tried to find our tour guide (who was originally
supposed to be at our hotel in Stone Town) but, alas, to no avail. So we just went down to the
beach. Wow, was the water clear! It was low tide so you could walk out forever with the water
never going higher than your knees. The problem was that we did walk out forever. But now it
was time to walk back. With sun in our eyes. The sea urchins that we avoided on the way out
were much harder to avoid going back to the beach. At least when we were walking out we
could tell about how many sea urchins we were going to have to avoid. And if it looked to be
too many, we just went a different route. But with the sun in our eyes, we couldn't see any of
this. I know this sounds really extreme but it was one of the more challenging parts of our
trip. And just to throw another thing into the mix, the breeze had really picked up at this point
so we had to figure out how to cross the sea urchin paths and not get knocked over by the
winds all at the same time. It wasn't easy and it took some time but finally we made it. Phew!
We then saw some horses on the beach. Hmmm, why not go horseback riding??? So, of
course, I ask for the calmer horse since I don't deem myself an equestrian. And, as the story
always goes, I got the horse that decided to march to the beat of his own drum. He decided to
do a 180 degree turn in the water and start going in the opposite direction. I don't know
Swahili so I couldn't communicate with the boys who were in charge of the horses. They were
also too busy talking to each other. Finally they saw what was happening and came over and
turned the horsey around.
The next day we were going to go scuba diving so we wanted to be able to allocate most of the
day for that. Well, this is the one very sad part of the trip...
It was around 8 a.m. on our second to last morning in Zanzibar. We were now heading off to
do some scuba diving. Well, since our tour guide never showed up when he was supposed to
meet with us, we never knew that diving had to be arranged at least one day prior. It only
leaves at 7:30am. No exceptions. And that time had already passed. Ummm...it's hard to
describe how upset we were. We were even going to take the evening flight out of Zanzibar to
be able to go the next day. But we couldn't do that either since you need 18 hours before you
fly. So after a bit of arm-twisting, I talked Alicia into salvaging our day by doing a tour out to
Prison Island and then going snorkeling there. She didn't want to because she didn't want to
go on the bumpy road but I told her I was going to do it. She then caved. It turned out to be
great. :) Well, probably not as good as diving but a close second. We went to the tortoise farm
on Prison Island and fed them. They are so ugly that they're cute! Now it was time to go
snorkeling. But I don't think I've mentioned yet how gorgeous the color of the water was. I
could have looked at it all day. The pictures I'm sending don't do it justice but you can get a
good idea. :) We took the little boat out to the middle of the water and jumped into the ocean.
The reefs were just awesome.
Well, this more or less sums it all up. I can't believe the trip is already over. :( But all good
things must come to an end. We did so much, saw so much (ate so much, etc.)... Really, it
seemed like the Middle East, Polynesia and Africa all rolled into one.
