I spend a ridiculous amount of time alone these days. When I'm not working or when I'm travelling outside Tanga, I'm left with only my own thoughts for company and I'm constantly surprised at where they lead me. Over the past week in Zanzibar, all I have been able to do is think about how incredibly lucky I am to be here, to experience all of this, and to have learned so much already. Plus, Zanzibar was just plain awesome & you'd be daft to not love every second of time spent there.
I had been dreading the trip to Zanzibar because it meant taking a bus from Tanga to Dar es Salaam (where I was robbed on my first day, making me despise the place and all its craziness) and then finding my way through the crowds of scam artists and touts to the Zanzibar ferry where I knew for sure I would have to dodge tourist scams before finally boarding a boat to the exotic island. The bus was fine, the touts were as annoying as I expected, I did get scammed buying my ticket (just like every other tourist who doesn't bargain hard enough), but I did make it on to the ferry, where I met 3 sweedish girls headed for the same beach destination as me. They were headed for Nungwi, the beach area on the northern tip of the island, but seeing as the boat was about 2 hours later than it was supposed to be, we had missed our chance of getting there before nightfall. We agreed to share a taxi from the boat to a cheap guesthouse in Stone town, but ended up sharing a room and hanging out together for 3 days. Two of the girls were backpacking around the world on one of those cheap multi-stop airline tickets you only seem to find in Europe and Samira was back in Tanzania to visit her family. I had my lonely planet as a bit of a guide, but they didn't have any real plans for Zanzibar and we were discussing this as we signed the guestbook for our hotel, when a guy from Seattle - who had been in Zanzibar for some time - overheard us. One of the girls had said "What is there to do in Zanzibar" and Neil said that he was headed towards a cool restaurant, he Livingstone House, and would lead us that direction if we were interested. We accepted the offer and were given a fabulous introduction to the maze-like town of Zanzibar (Stone Town).
Our first stop was the Livingstone restaurant right by the port, where kids were swimming and playing and ladies bathing in the sea. We wandered through a few of the touristy shops and I checked out the dive shop before we wandered over to the Africa House hotel, apparently once a Sultan's residence, for sundowners and sunset. The Africa House was expensive but gorgeous and well worth the overpriced Kilimanjaro beer, just for the view. After a long day of travel we were all pretty hungry and I had been talking to Neil (from Seattle) about the famous Pike Place Market and the fish there, so he took us to his favorite local fish market in a cramped alley next to the old fort. The electricity was out all over the town that night so the alley was lit up only by candles and lanterns, giving it an ancient atmosphere amidst the crowds. We found a vedor and I picked out some kingfish, prawns and chapati that they cooked up right in front of me... so good. Stray alleycats harrased us as we ate but the food was soo good and the setting, priceless. I tried sugarcane juice, flavoured with ginger, before trying a "Zanzibar pizza" - a ridiculously sweet crepe-type-pancake with banana and chocolate syrup - that I shared with everyone. Thank god Neil was there because all of the tiny, unmarked alleyways were pitch black and we had no idea how to get back to our guesthouse through the clusters of buildings and winding alleyways. I had my little flashlight in my bag, which was a huge help, but it was pretty amazing to walk in a city that seemed out of a different century and be able to see the stars SO clearly.
The next morning we hopped on a tourist minivan and headed to Nungwi, the beach on the northernmost tip of the Island. We found the cheapest guesthouse possible and got a pretty good deal on a room that we all shared (the Sweedish 3 girls & I) for 2 nights, after some bargaining and exchange rate confusion. We spent the next couple days swimming, sunbathing, snorkelling and hanging out at a local bar right on the sand. The food was a bit overpriced, but it was a nice change to have pizza and mzungu food in nice restaurants for a while. I was a bit sad to be celebrating my birthday far away from my family back home but I ended up getting totally spoiled and having a fantastic day. I went out for a really nice dinner at a beautiful restaurant in Nungwi with the girls, complete with girly drinks and chocolate dessert and they even got me a present! I got 2 kangas I had been eyeing in one of the shops. The next morning, they sang Happy birthday to me in Sweedish before heading back to the mainland. I spent the day lying on the beach and swimming in the gloriously warm Indian ocean before another lovely dinner with my Norwegian friends (whom I met at Peponi almost a month ago). They sang me Happy birthday in Norwegian, complete with cake and a candle and everything. We spent the rest of the evening at a beach bar right on the sand and I met tons more people from all over the world while sipping pina coladas and hanging out on hammocks. I must say it was one of the best settings for my birthday that I've had yet, even though I was sorely mising all my friends and family back home!
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