The Old Dispensary, Zanzibar Town, 6 December 1999

The building we're in reminds me a little of Mexico. The walls are white adobe and the floor is patterned in square bricks. There is a bright sunny patio outside and rays of sunlight filter in from the rooftop above where I'm sitting. The building is high, probably higher than most of the other buildings in town. There are curio shops here, and Leslie and Anne are both buying dresses while Steve chats with our guide.

We met up this morning again with Sunshine Travel and Tours and our guide is taking us on a "Stone Town Tour" (all the historic sites in Stone Town).

Hostel Porch, Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar, 8 December 1999

I am looking out at the beach practically from the doorstep of our room as the hostel's employee's tidy up the porch and the building for another business day. The employees are Muslim women, and in traditional fashion they wear long shawls, shirts, and skirts covering their bodies but for their hands, feet, and face. As the walk by with their brooms they greet me with "Jambo!" Swahili for hello.

The morning is cloudy again and there are few people about even this later in the morning. Vacationers. The sea is clam and a few dhows are gliding by in the distance, presumably out to fish.

"Dhow" is a unique Swahili word that doesn't quite mean sailboat. The crafts are about 25 ft long and made entirely of wood, including the mast. The cloth sail is held into the boat by a rope-boom and towers surprisingly high on such a small craft. At sunset, the boats appear to be floating triangles bobbing along the water at a slow and steady speed.

Last night, the four of us took a boat ride in one of Nungwi's dhows. In the late afternoon we went snorkeling, and watched a wide variety of fish streaming around the Island's numerous coral reefs. We stayed in the water for a long time, while the three men in charge of the craft lounged in the sun. Eventually, the four of us climbed out of the water and we sailed north, passing Nungwi beach to a point where we could see an island off in the distance beneath the setting sun.

Outside Jambo Brothers Cafe, Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar, 8 December 1999

That night we had dinner (at this very same table) at the Jambo Brothers cafe on the beach. There were only a few other occupied tables anywhere on the beach, even during the high point of the tourism season. Most of the menu was seafood with one chicken curry entree, which Leslie (of course) ordered. "Curry" here is served in true Indian style with the hot level well above my tolerance. Part of the style of cooking on the Island is due to the heavy Persian influence on Zanzibar. Middle Eastern spice traders (some long time ago) settled the place and later it became one of the busiest trading ports in Africa. The Lonely Planet's description "The annals of Zanzibar read like a chapter out of the 1001 nights" couldn't be more appropriate.

After dinner the four of us went out to the bar amid the hostels. The place wasn't too busy, but Anne's "friend" was working there, a Swahili guy who had asked Les earlier if I was Anne's boyfriend. We ordered fish, Butt Clencher's and beer and talked till around 10:30 when Steve and I went back while Anne and Leslie stayed up.

It was around that time when we all began to realize just how badly sunburned we'd gotten that afternoonÖ snorkeling in the morning, frisbee at noon, sunbathing in the afternoon, snorkeling in the eveningÖ our backs resembled Anne's lobster at dinner.

We each woke up this morning with the feeling of having been bar-b-qued with the sand and sunscreen still clinging to our unpleasantly hot skin. Since this morning we've spent all our time in the shade. The Jambo Brothers cafe has artificial shade trees set up on the sand overlooking the beach where we're at. We booked our return to Stone Town this morning also. We'll be disappointed to leave a paradise like this butÖ we're on our way instead to climb Kilimanjaro so it's hard to complain.

The highlight of our trip thus far, however, has been the spice tour we took on Monday (2 days ago). Our guide from Sunshine Tours and Travel, an agency in Stone Town that was linked to us via Dolni, our guide in Dar es Salaam. Come to think of it... guiding deserves some mention at this point:

Tanzania gets more tourist traffic than Zimbabwe. From the moment we stepped off the plane in Dar, we were greeted by numerous taxi drivers offering to take us into the city and "show us around" including to the best Forex Bureaus, hostels, restaurants nd so forth. We did take the advice of one driver and found a Forex Bureau with a good rate, though in exchange he expected us to take his way overpriced cab into town. After haggling with some more drivers, we finally made our way into Dar to the YMCA where we booked our rooms for our first night in Tanzania. Not a half an-hour after being dropped off we were met by Dolni. Dolni's a very nice character, though the way he makes a living is at fist a little obscure.

Basically, tourism in Tanzania is arranged by these spontaneous and often un-asked-for guides. As we anticipated, "services" like those provided by taxi drivers in addition to driving the cab, Dolni's leading us to the docks, some unnamed fellow's offer to show us the cheapest outfit, and later, Sunshine Tours' offer/insistence that we use their services to navigate Zanzibar. All of these "guides" naturally expect a tip, and one that is often quoted in US dollars, not Tanzanian schillings.

Dolni's arrangement for us the morning we left Dar es Salaam for Zanzibar was to meet his friend Hamani. Hamani would show us around town and find us a place to stay for the night, all free of charge. Naturally, we met Hanami when we stepped of the Flying Horse ferry in Zanzibar Town (he was hard to miss holding a large sign that read "Sunshine Tours / Eric BielkeX4"). Hamani walked us through the Immigration hassle room (Zanzibar still jealously guards its independence from the mainland so you have to show your passport at the dock). Afterwards we drove around in Hamani's taxi, to see hostels in the area. We were talked to on the boat bu marketers of the Annex of Garden Hotel and were impressed with the $7/room/night price they quoted us but when we asked Hamani to drive us to the place, we ended up seeing three of his alternative hostel choices first (hmm...). But the guiding service didn't stop there. Hamani showed us around Stone Town for awhile and eventually ate dinner with us at the Fisherman's Restaurant nearby the Garage Club (a place one must check out if ever in search of Zanzibarian nightlife). We left Hamani after he showed us back to the hostel with the promise of meeting his tour company the following day.

The tours we had the following day (Monday) were spectacular however. Stone Town was nice and although we spent more time shopping than listening to our tour guide we all agreed that it was worthwhile. Driving north we came to a private beach on the Western shore, Fuji, where we swam, ate lunch, sampled Kilimanjaro (the flagship beer of Tanzania), and sat around thinking "Gee, isn't this great??" After lunch, Juma, our guide for this part of the trip, took us up to a citrus plantation where spices and pretty much every fruit you can think of (and some you can't) are grown. Children from the plantation came out during the tour to entertain us with tree climbing and weaving and tons of laughter.

We stayed at Nungwi beach until late afternoon on December 8th, taking a minibus back across the pot-holed road from the North Coast to Stone Town. We're driving as most of the villages on the way are returning to work. Several smile and wave at our cab as we roll by. We reach Stone Town in the early evening, enough time to do some quick curio shopping, send off an email or two, and even drop by the post office before the close of business. The same park that we spent a good deal of time in on our Stone Town tour is still bustling with people and we are tempted to buy even more dyed skirts for friends back at home (we already have seventeen between the four of us). We pass by a yummy looking pizza pub and stop in to order a "smokies," a "neopolitana," and a "bolognaise." The food is excellent and we lounge at the restaurant awhile drinking Kilimanjaro and Safari Lagers before our evening ferry sets out for Dar.

We've booked ourselves on the Flying Horse again, this time on an overnight trip between the island and the mainland. Unknowingly, we wind up with first class tickets and as soon as we board the ticket counter asks us to head left into a spacious, air-conditioned TV/movie lit room where mattresses have been laid on the floor for us to sleep on (we thought we booked ourselves in third).

As we spread out our sleeping bags and sprawl on the floor we're met by a mid-20s American who looks and talks like he's been on the road in Africa for a long time. He has. Starting out in Taiwan, Matt tells the story of his hitchhike across numerous countries over the past three years earning a living by teaching English with his girlfriend. We hear some of the stories they have to tell about their travels and after expressing a few "Holy this-and-that's " he tells us that he's booked a flight home in two weeks and that his parents are pretty excited. Hmm... wonder why that would be...?

And with Kilimanjaro less than two days off, we're pretty excited too...

-- Eric Bielke