We’ve spent over a week in Zanzibar- the beach getaway place for tourists. It is still subject to the same lack of modernization that the mainland is, however, being on a lovely island with the Indian Ocean lapping on the sand, it is easier to forgive and forget. Most Zanzibar residents seem to live in poverty with frequent power outages (not quite daily) and hot temperatures. As our Mumbai, Indian hotel owner said, “they seem to be okay with sitting in the dark frequently”.
But they have easy access to fish and an island full of tourists to try to land, hook, line and sinker! We were warned of the “beach boys” and fake Masaiis who roam the beaches trying to hustle you with excursions, etc. And they find you as soon as you leave the confines of the hotel. Apart from that – which we’ve gotten good at deflecting (and if we really want to avoid them, we start speaking in some other language that they probably don’t know – Mike uses Russian and I use French or Spanish) – Zanzibar has been a nice place to end our Tanzanian stay.
I have been pleasantly surprised by the clean Zanzibar shoreline in the places we’ve seen. On the mainland in Dar es Saalam, there was a lot of trash on the shoreline near the city and in the shallow waves. But one doesn’t have to look very far from the shoreline even in Zanzibar, to see gobs and gobs of trash (taka taka) littering the ground.
We first stayed in Stone Town – the main city of Zanzibar in an AirBnB. Apart from the water pump failing in the unit and broken WiFi for almost 2 days (island-wide), it was simple and very centrally located. Stone Town is really interesting – a maze of streets but mostly alleys. It was fun to use Google Maps and try to stay on course down these very windy small alleyways – especially in the dark. There are really interesting doors to see, an old fort, the Freddie Mercury museum and a slave museum. We did some walking around to see the real life in the city. Lots of market stalls, which just don’t hold any allure to me. I can’t add anything to what I am carrying, I don’t have a home and I can’t buy gifts and cart them with me. We were staying near a big market (souka) where tourists go to buy spices and see the fish, meat and veggie market. It was very smelly (fish smell overpowered the other things) walking around the market stalls.
One day we booked an all-day tour which took us dolphin chasing along with hordes of other boats (which was frankly a bit dangerous but we trusted in the process and jumped in multiple times to try to swim with the dolphins). I was lucky and had a dolphin jump out of the water near me and marveled at the beautiful arc that I have tried to emulate since I learned how to swim! Mostly they stayed near the bottom away from the mayhem of the boats surrounding them and crazy people jumping into the water without warning. I fortunately only suffered one smushed fingernail from another boat. After traumatizing the dolphins, we snorkeled a little in a shallow area. The guides attracted what fish there were, with some fish food. Then onto the Salaam turtle cave (more like a cenote) where turtles can swim in from the ocean through a tunnel and find lots of people standing in shallow water with food they love to eat. It’s a win-win. We got to pet and feed and get bumped by hungry turtles and they got pampered with food and could escape whenever they wanted to. Then we went to a spiritual cave – think witch doctors and juju. There was very clear water in the cave. We did a little swim – don’t think we got any good juju from the experience. Maybe our chakras improved. The last stop was to a relatively high-end restaurant run by non-Tanzanians called The Rock. During high tide you have to take a boat to get to it. The food was good, but pricey. Enjoyed the experience. All-in-all a very good day. Our driver Ally and our guide Hajoub were both talkative and provided us lots of information about Zanzibar and Tanzania behind-the-scenes.
An interesting insight is that Zanzibar capitalizes on tourists – a captive audience on the island. When you arrive in Zanzibar, you need to show proof of “local” insurance or buy the mandatory insurance on the spot. It covers lost luggage, medical emergencies, etc. This costs $44 per person. Then you have to pay a USD $5 a night per person tax for staying in a hotel in Zanzibar. And the Tanzanian drivers who ferry tourists all over the island have to pay TZS 5,000 (about USD $2) per tourist in their car/van during police stops along the road (only have to pay once each day if their receipt system is working…). I asked if that is why more roads in Zanzibar are paved and got this answer: “No, it’s for the officials’ families”…”
After the “city-life”, we went to a swanky hotel on the East side of Zanzibar for a couple of nights and the last 3 nights we are staying in a mid-range hotel on the northern tip of the island. Mostly we’ve been relaxing, playing cards, swimming and we rented a jet ski for the first time ever. Fun speed adrenaline! We also ran in the hot weather (me once and Mike twice) and did a gym workout at the swanky hotel.
I leave Tanzania quoting these sayings I saw while traveling around:
- “All children are gifted. Their packages open up at different times.”
- “Education is the key to everlasting peace”
- “Knowledge without practice is like wax without honey”
Now we’re ready to move on – the next country is Kenya! Kenya will be a two parter because we have a safari lodge stay in November for 3 nights and then we are going to climb Mt. Kenya in January, since the weather is better for the mountain later. Between those two scheduled events, our plan is to be part in Kenya and part in Ethiopia.