Zanzibar, Tanzania
We’ll get the goat curry and the attempted mugging later. But let’s start with our pleasant morning.
The bumpy dirt road from our beach resort in Nungwi on the northern end of Zanzibar Island took us all the way to Stone Town early this morning. Our driver was absolutely delightful with a great laugh and lots of interesting facts.
We got stopped by police on a road block of sorts. As we approached, our driver called the police “hungry lions looking for a meal.” Our driver said the police were supposed to inspect the whole car and check his insurance etc. . .he said all the officer said in Swahili was, “Everything ok?” to which our driver replied “yes. Everything is good.” He laughed and said, “Like I would tell him if it wasn’t.” 😂
He ranted about police corruption for the next few miles. He kept waving and flashing lights at other drivers and I asked if he knew them all. He said no but that they were sharing signals so they could keep up with where the police were. He said, “drivers are like fish, you‘re only going tocatch one of us.” Then he laughed again.
He told us about the difference in governement (public) vs. religious (private) schools. He said hospitals are like schools, “if you want to live you better go private.” He gave us a long view of the history of Zanzibar and talked about some of the current problems - like lack of sufficient representation in government and issues with zanzibar’s ability to export goods to the rest of mainland Tanzania.
Once we arrived in Stone Town we hit the ground running. With only a day here to enjoy, we wanted to waste no time.
Stone Town is a pretty small city and seemed easy to navigat, so we opted to explore the sights on foot. Several people stopped us shortly after leaving our hotel to ask us to let them guide us through the city. We declined the offers figuring google maps would give us all the help we needed.
One guy even suggested we hire him so people would stop harassing us to hire them. He made a good point but we politely declined. He asked us where we thought we were going to which our travel companion replied “that way.” His response was “You‘re going nowhere, my dear.”
And that was foreshadowing for what was to come.
We, in fact, were led by google maps no where. Well, really, we were led to the middle of a busy, crowded highway with broken sidewalks that were inoperable either due to decay or because cars were parked on them. Traffic was really heavy, dust and debris were blowing in our faces, there were tons of people around staring at us. And we were still having to walk down the side of a legit highway completely unsure of where it would end and where exactly we were going because google maps had totally failed us.
At some point we wound up at what was either some sort of intersection or maybe a small plaza. It was unclear due to all the chias. There were tons of people and carts and mopeds and buses. It was crazy with cars and people going in all direction. A man approached me and started talking.
I just kept walking behind our two friends and tried to ignore him. He waited until there was a bus directly next me so I couldn’t go anywhere and started pulling on my backpack. Josh was behind me and put himself in between the man and me and pushed him back. It all happened so fast I wasn’t even quite sure what was going on. We rushed away but there really wasn’t even a safe palce to catch our breath until another 10-15 minutes down the road when we finally got back on the side streets.
All of this happened in pursuit of the Stone Town Slave Market - a historic site where one of the world’s last open slave trade markets existed. Open until 1873, an Anglican Catherdral now sits where the market once was. Still remaining underneath a hotel, however, is the horrendous slave chamber where slaves were left to wait before being brought up the market.
Many people died in the chambers - which were super tiny with a very low roof and only three small retangular holes cut in the stone as poor excuses for windows. There was hardly any ventilation and it was crowded with just the four of us inside. To imagine hundreds of people crammed inside was unthinkable. It was a really chilling experience to say the least.
After that we had a pleasant stroll and - thankfully- uneventful stroll back to our hotel through the side streets of Stone Town. Our hotel is right on the beach with a beautiful infinity pool overlooking the Indian Ocean. Which is where we spent the rest of the afternoon until dinner.
Ryan had found a teahouse and though the booking process proved to be rather complicated, she saw it through and it turned out to be one of the most fun things we’ve doneso far.
Up four flights is extremely steep wooden stairs was a beautiful rooftop restaurant with open air floor seating on thick Persian rugs, low tables and half-walls lined with cushions and pillows. We left our shoes at the entryway and spent the next 3.5 hours dining in the most cozy way possible.
Our severs told us about the tradition of “Sora” - a wedding meal to celebrate love and happiness. We had a live band and a delicious menu - including a goat curry that tasted close to a stewed beef and was really delicious. We watched the sun set over Stone Town and on our last night in the beautiful Island paradise of Zanzibar.
Tomorrow we we are off to Nairobi, Kenya and then it is T-minus 2 days until our safari!
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