A quick cheeky dawn swim then it was time for breakfast. I didn’t sleep very well last night. The humid heat was pretty full on and a too-short mosquito net meant the wife and I got a few insect bites. So I was a bit grouchy as our overly chilled out Tanzania guest house 'concierge' plopped a greasy egg on my plate as my ‘included breakfast’. The mango was nice though...We had one last dip of our toes then we met our driver at 930am and shot off back to Stone Town. Wish I had more time at the beach...and Stone Town...and everywhere in Zanzibar, sigh.
The Wife and I got dropped at the ‘House of Wonders’ built in 1883, former Sultan’s Palace, now cultural museum.
(House of Wonders/Musuem)
I enjoyed chilling in the museum. Zanzibar’s had a pretty interesting history. Under Portuguese control for 200 years, then from 1698 under control of Omani Arabs until in fits and starts the British got greater and greater control (especially with the economic impact on the Sultanate of the abolition of slavery).
(Portugese cannons liberated by Arabs now in front of the House of Wonders)
For some reason I enjoy reading about historic trade routes. So I enjoyed reading about the trade carried out by dhows on the ‘Monsoon Route’ between India, Africa and Arabia with Zanzibar as a vital hub. The ‘Sons of Sinbad’ and others plying their trade up and down the East African Coast. A nice tie in to the Dias Museum-about Portuguese traders/explorers- we visited in Mossel Bay on the east coast of South Africa in 2008.
(mke is learning)
The museum had an interesting section noting the positive and negative impacts on Stone Town’s unique identity by tourists. Gulp. Wasn’t me...
(A tourist tries to steal ivory from the Museum)
(view of the water front from a balcony in the House of Wonders)
After the Museum, I followed mke as she wandered about the twisting streets of Stonetown trying to find a Woman’s Rights Project/Shop a Danish friend from the language school we went to in April ’10 ran. (I would LOVE to volunteer in Zanzibar. I would be on that opportunity like a fat kid on cake, just saying).
Just as I was starting to whinge about our getting lost in the humid heat of Stone Town, we found the place and Mke bought a fetching dress. We wandered off to buy tourist knickknacks in random stores then we found a cafe another friend from Arusha had recommended. Loved the Cafe’s sticky date cake with caramel sauce. Loved a nice chat with a waitress in Swahili. Such nice decor in Stone Town...none of the Coca Cola themed plastic furniture we are used to at ‘cafes’ in Moshi.
We went and sat at the waterfront with ice creams and tried to stay in the shade. We saw one googly eyed crazy looking guy watching us, but that could just be my Moshi paranoia. Marks down Stone Town for all the sewage we saw being pumped directly into the water tut tut.
(juxtaposition)
(playing pirate on the water front.)
The horror, the horror
Sigh, it was time to leave. I really needed more time. Both in Stone Town and snorkeling at beaches. Devastated there were no whale sharks cruising outside my guesthouse window...anyway. Our driver chum (who was getting a lot of business from us over the last few days!) picked us up at 330pm to take us to the Airport for our 500pm flight. Only as we checked in they told unapologetically that our flight was delayed due to ‘technical problems’ until 715pm. Arrgh.
I really did not want to have to drive back from Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) in pitch black to Moshi. To say nothing of being worried we would be locked out of our home...our security guards are somewhat lax with opening/shutting gates past certain hours. Plus we would have to do a stupid jump off the plane and jump back on in Dar Es Salaam on the way home. We went through X-Ray screening and all the weird shapes in my backpack ie metal souvenir planes, Amazon Kindle, Zanzibar wooden chest etc meant Security demanded I empty my bag out.
Aviation Security ‘What is this?’ (fingering our possum and giraffe puppet mascots)
Franatee ‘It’s for our watoto’ (children)
Aviation Security ‘And this?’ (fingering my Nintendo DS)
Manatee ‘Um..It’s also for our watoto’
Aviation Security ‘Where are these watoto?!’
Franatee ‘Er..ah..nyumbani (home)?’
BUSTED.
After that pointlessness, in an increasingly foul/antsy mood, I sat drinking lots of fake imitation Mountain Dew next to a group of four obese Americans, drumming my fingers. Still not unconvinced it was not just a scam to get people to spend more money on duty free rubbish (which I did...).
Our plane finally arrived at 730pm and we piled on. We touched down in Dar Es Salaam after a 15 minute flight (ridiculous) then had to disembark, get new boarding passes, go through security and get back on the plane.
It was a travesty. A Tanzanian stewardess trying to coordinate the plane change over had printed out some of the boarding passes and started calling out Russian names (those damn Russians AGAIN!!!) and screaming at us to get new boarding passes and then move as fast as we could to the Gate. Stressful. We got to a screening point after a sprint and I got more and more frustrated waiting for the uber slow African-speed screening process. Finally we were through and on the plane.
We got into KIA at 945pmish, jumped in a taxi and raced pell-mell in the dark for home, praying that the drunk driver swaying in the land cruiser ahead of us would not cause us any problems. We got home at 11pmish and thank Mungu our gate was unlocked. Cue much relief and sinking into bed, tuckered out.
So that was the cheeky weekend that was. Fun times, just wished it had been longer. If you ever get a chance to go to Zanzibar DO IT!
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