One of my favorite places in the world

I only spent 4 days in Zanzibar but can easily say that it's one of my favorite places in the world. It has such a rich and fascinating history, beautiful old Arab architecture and gorgeous beaches.

Upon my arrival at the airport I met Quinn and Annie from Minneapolis and we all headed to the Tembo Hotel, which is a really colorful place right on the water in Stone Town. It was one of the few places on this trip that offered me a press or travel agent discount (10% for either, but no double discounts) which brought the price down to $72 for a single. That's a little steep on a backpacker's budget, but the place was so cool that it was unquestionably worth it. They also take credit cards, which was really handy since I've been running out of cash since losing my ATM card in Nairobi.

The hotel faces west over the Indian Ocean, so there are magnificent views at Sunset. The rooms and the hotel itself are all done up in old-world Zanzibari furnishings reminiscent of Zanzibar's heyday in the 19th century when it was ruled by the Sultan of Oman. Although not the most luxurious hotel I've ever stayed in, it is unquestionably the coolest.

That night we went out to the night market to get some cheap barbecued street food. We bumped into Frank von Frankfurt, a German guy who I met at my hotel in Dar. Frank spent six months working internships in the US in LA, Miami and Minneapolis, and believe it or not Minneapolis was his favorite place. This made Quinn and Annie very excited (although they're not originally from Minneapolis and sound like they're ready to leave).

The food at the market was great - we had cheap grilled crab claws, lobster tails and jumbo prawns for as little as 50 cents to $2. It also made all of us except Frank extremely sick, but luckily the Minnesotans were both in the medical field and had lots of Cipro and other medications. I stayed away from that food for the rest of the trip, but they just kept going back!

After one day of walking around Stone Town, the heart of old Zanzibar, we headed up north to the beaches in Nungwi. The only potential drawback to the beaces is that they have a reputation for being 'too touristy' but since Zanzibar's little problems back in January the tourist industry is down 70%. So there was a good infrastructure for tourists (bungalows, restaurants, bars, etc.) without the crowds, and everywhere was offering at least a 10-20% discount.

Zanzibar's street touts are as aggressive as in Nairobi, Arusha or anywhere else, but they're much friendlier and laid back. But wherever you guy, someone tries to sell you a spice tour, taxi ride, dive trip, etc. When we got to Nungwi the minibus we were on stopped in the center of the 'town' so that we could check out the different bungalows. Frank and I decided to splurge on the new Langi Langi Bungalows, the only ones on the beach with A/C. It meant spending $30 each per night instead of $10-15, but that kind of money would've definitely been worth it in Dar which is so hot and humid. Nungwi had a nice sea breeze and we probably could've gotten by without the A/C, but we both agreed that it was still worth it.

When we went back to get our bags the bus was gone, but I wasn't too nervous since we assumed that they were just dropping other people off. A nice guy sitting by the beach and one of the only guys who didn't try to sell us a dive trip or similar as soon as we got off the bus put us at ease by telling us that the bus would be back in 10 minutes. He introduced himself as 'William, like Will Smith' and sure enough the bus returned 10 minutes later.

We went down to the beach and a few hours later Will Smith came up to us and asked us if we were interested in going snorkelling or water-skiing. We were definitely into going snorkelling and even though 5 other guys had offered us the same trip, we had to go with the guy who helped us out earlier, especially since he seemingly did so just to be nice and didn't try to pounce on us as soon as we arrived. Once he gave us his business card with his email address (willsmithbana75@hotmail.com) we knew that he was our guy!

The snorkelling trip involved a 2 hour dhow ride out to Mnemba Island, which has a large coral reef. The waters at low tide are so shallow that you could by a mile off shore and still stand. We were joined on the dhow by a cool Japanese couple who were travelling around Africa and had recently been in Yemen (not a good place of Americans they warned me - no shit). There was also a family from Brno, Czech Republic. Both the mother and 16 year-old daughter were gorgeous, and Frank and I probably spent more time underwater looking at them than at the fish! There weren't many fish anyway, mostly just coral and attractive blonde Czech woman in bikinis. The father/husband didn't seem to mind at all.

When we got on the dhow they had a large tank of gas, and then a few reserve 'tanks' in the form of empty water bottles and plastic bags. Yes, plastic bags - and not Ziplocs either. After we left the reef to sail home we used the motor for about 20 minutes and then the captain raised the sail. We figured that it would take at least 4 hours to get back, but the ride was relaxing and this guy seemed to know exactly what he was doing (unfortunately the same couldn't be said for his 2-man crew). We sailed for about an hour, and then he turned the motor back on. We pulled back into Nungwi riding on fumes - this guy did know exactly what he was doing after all!

Luckily on our second night in Nungwi there was a live band at the Fat Fish bar, which meant that we didn't have to hear the same two tapes over and over again (one Shaggy album and one mix tape with Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, DMX, etc.) for hours on rotation. The bar was cool and at high tide you could dive off the pier into the water. Drinking a few beers and diving into the sunset is a great way to spend the end of the day in paradise.

We headed back to Stone Town and the Tembo after a couple of days, and this time the A/C came in very handy as I don't think that it got below 80 on my last night there. Annie and Quinn are involved with a volunteer project near Moshi and headed back there, and Frank had a couple of days to kill before heading back to Mombassa for his flight to Frankfurt.

Zanzibar is a place to which I will undoubtedly return (hopefully soon), and maybe next time I'll have the chance to do some real diving. I highly recommend it to anyone travelling through East Africa, and give yourself at least a week or two (or even longer) if you go there.