white sand beaches, blue indian ocean, great place

well...here i am in zanzibar. it belongs to tanzania but it has its own separate president and government. what an interesting place, no doubt.\r

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we took a ferry for 3 hours to zanzibar,which is comnprised of 2 main islands and 50 smaller ones in the indian ocean. we visited unguga, the main island.\r

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when we arrived, we dropped off our daypacks at the hotel. the marine hotel was nasty...so musty, yucky and not up to guerba standards and certainly not up to mine.\r

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anyways, we headed off to explore. stonetown, the main town in zanibar, is a combination of the winding, narrow streets of venice and the choas and mass of people like cairo. we were told we would get lost, even with a map, and they were right. it was so interesting to wander the narrow streets. zanzibar is 95% muslim so the ladies had to cover our knees and shoulders. it was so hot and humid and i pulled up my pants to capris so i wouldn't be quite so hot. we did indeed get lost but we didn't care. we visited the old slave market. wow, the conditions those slaves had to live in prior to be sold was unbelieveable. we also went to some old sultan palaces, some churches and the baths. the baths were built by the royalty and they were so interesting. we all think we paid 1,000 ($1) each to enter when it was really free. anyways, we have laughed about that and the m an who gave us a tour (and he seemed to know nothing about the place). the baths were used by both men and women but at different times. \r

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zanibar's highest point is 390 feet and it is the birthplace of the swahili language. the official language is swahili with english being the second most spoken language.\r

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stonetown is a unesco world heritage site. everywherer you looked, you saw arabian palaces, smelled the spices, saw orante cathedrals and other forts. \r

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we went to the city market. oh my gosh, talk about wanting to throw up. cow and goat heads sitting on the table and the meat just haning with lots of flies on it. add in all kinds of fish and octupus and suqid and one just wanted to gag. then, the many kinds of fruit (at least they didn't look and smell bad).\r

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zanzibar is mainly known for the spices. we visited several spice plantations and tried vanilla, black pepper, coconut, cardamon, cinnamon, etc. the funniest thing was th elittle man shimming up a coconut tree and singing the funniest song, 'jambo, jambo, jambo, hakuma mata, hee, hee, hee'. ilse taped it and all you cna hear on it is my raucous laughter. we also tried various types of tea and coffee. cloves is the number export for zanzibar. it has to meet government reguations before it can be exported. all other spices do not need approval. inte5resting. as part of our spice tour, we ate at a family's home. we sat indian style on bamboo mats outside the house. they fed us rice, fish heads, cucumbers/tomatoes and spinach. those fish heads looked nasty. i ate rice and cukes/tomatoes and oh yeah, a banana. it was a neat experience. those who eat the fish said it was quite good. whatever. their local saying is zanzibar.the spice of life. gives it a whole new meaning to me now.\r

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we all met at the africa house for dinner and watched the sunset. it was great food, good beer and a wonderful sunset. \r

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the hotel was horrible. the next day, we barely had a trickle of water to shower with and the breakfast was nasty. i ate cornflakes (stale), then i tried toast with jam. the jam was stale so i got a new piece of toast. the bread was stale. i drank a 1/2 cup of tea. terrible. within 30 minutes, i had my first bout of dirrhea. \r

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we spent 1.5 days in stonetown and then we took a 2 hour bus ride down a cowpath to the north coast. we stayed in bungalows on the beach. what a great place. the water was blue and green and oh so beautiful, teh white sand beaches that wenet on forever. we ate all of our meals under the bamboo huts on the beach. we spent hours walking up the beaches, lying on the beach reading and relaxing, swimming in the indian ocean, drinking kilimanjaro (kili) beer, etc. we had a ball. we fell in love with this place. think carribean. the locals all surive all of tourism and/or fisheries. we woke up early to see sunrise and watch the fishermen load up their dhows, boats, and head out to the ocean. everyone yelled, 'jambo' and was so freindly. it was a piece of paradise. our crowd sat and talked and had the best time. we wandered from restaurant to restaurant and had good food (mostly costing $6 a meal) and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. on the coast, they get 7 hours of sunlight a day. yes, we had to keep putting on the sunscreen but we all got more suntan and/or sunburn. also, the water temp in the ocean is 80 degrees. karen, you would have loved this place...warm all of the time. plus, we could wear shorts, swimsuit and not worry about baring our legs and shoulders to the muslims.\r

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by the way, we are all mzungus. that;s the swahili word for white person. \r

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in stonetown, no holding of hands, kissing or pda is acceptable. darn, i was planning on kissing somebody. hee. also, smoking or drinking in public is frowned upon.\r

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zanzibar is 95% muslim, 2% christianity and the reaminder are hinds are nonbelievers. in stonetown, there are 48 mosques. we heard chanting contstantly and saw everyone dressed in their muslim attire.. some of the women were completeled covdred except for their eyes.\r

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we also saw the david livingstone house, where he lived while preparing for his exploratiojn of interior africa. \r

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zanzibar was owened by oman for 130 years. then great britian took possesion of it. in 1961, it gained independce from great britain. in 1964, it merged with tanzania. tanzania was called tanganyika...thus the new name of tanzania. both are republics and hasve their own government and presidents yet they have their own rules. we had to take our passports and yellow fever certificates to get into zanzibar. \r

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needless to say, we all fell in love wiht zanzibar. what a neat place...even stonetown with all of its filth and rules....\r

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we're taking the ferry back to daar es saalam today and then we'll stay there tongiht in our tents. darn, after 3 days of living in a hotel and having a bed to sleep on, a toilet to flush and a nice shower (ok...so none of this applies to the hotel in stonetown), it'll be hard to go back to my tent.\r

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we have 2 long days of driving as we head to malawi, my 3rd country on this trip.\r

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adventure on friends and keep in touch,\r

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julie\r

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