Aaaaahhh, Zanzibar Island

Ca fait rever!
see all photos »

Sophie: Notre dernière semaine au Kenya promettait d'être bien calme, vu qu'on avait prévu de la passer a Zanzibar, iîe magnifique au charme exceptionnel...

On a adoré Stonetown, petite ville principale de Zanzibar avec beaucoup de charme et de caractère.. Il semble que le temps s'y soit arrêté, et les petites rues étroites qui font penser à la Sicile, les mille mosquées (50 pour une si petite ville!) créent vraiment une ambiance très agréable... Le top, c'est quand même le marché aux multiples brochettes de poissons le soir, au bord de l'eau, un choix de dingue,  un  vrai regal! ! Après ça, on a décidé de partir sur les plages du Nord de l'ile..alors là, sable blanc, palmiers, eau transparente... j'avais jamais vu de plages aussi belles.... on a loué une petite cahutte en bord de mer... le paradis quoi... MAIS... le lendemain de notre arrivée, on a eu la stupide idée de se baigner tous les deux en même temps... (vous allez comprendre!) et oui, on nous a piqué notre sac, avec surtout notre appareil photo numérique... et toutes les photos d'un mois en Afrique!!!! Vraiment on était dégoutés ! Tout le reste on s'en foutait, mais les photos... tout ça s'est passé en 5 min (ça leur a pas pris longtemps!), Rod s'aperçoit qu'il n'y a plus de sac, il commence a courrir vers les buissons, aide des flics en civil qui n'étaient pas loin, moi je parle aux 2-3 touristes qu'il y avait sur la plage... puis j'entends hurler, les flics avaient trouvé 2 jeunes cachés dans les buissons (apparemment c'est un 3ème qui est parti avec notre sac). Si Rod n' avait pas arrêté les flics, les jeunes seraient peut -être morts à l'heure qu'il est ! Ils remettent ça sur la plage, à coups de batons, complètement fous, je me croyais dans un mauvais film... Bref, pendant ce temps, Rod est parti en courant dans le village d'à côté car c'est là qu'est parti le voleur,  moi je suis restée avec les flics et nos 2 amis menottés ainsi que la moitié du village... je les ai suppliés de rendre l'appareil (le reste ils pouvaient le garder), j'ai parlé à tout le monde... en vain... ils niaient tout... mais Rod étant parti depuis une heure, je pars aussi au village, il n'avait rien trouvé et en plus, il était tombé dans un trou de corail et s'était bien amoché le genou...

Coucher de soleil a Zanzibar
see all photos »

Ensuite nous voila partis au commissariat avec nos 2 amis (dont l'un qui rigolait, j'ai cru que Rod allait se battre pour la 1ère fois de sa vie!), et là, découverte du commissariat, rien pour soigner Rod, et le mot d'ordre était d"ATTENDRE... Rod allait de plus en plus mal, allongé sur le banc, à la limite de s'évanouir, le genou en sang... je demande de l'eau ou quelque chose à boire pour lui (il faisait super chaud et après toute cette course!)... j'ai ATTENDU  3 heures... oui, 3 h avant que quelqu'un nous apporte à boire... d'abord,j'ai demandé aux flics, qui m'ont demandé plusieurs fois de l'argent sachant très bien qu'on venait de se le faire voler, ensuite j'ai demandé aux gens du village qui malgré l'état de Rod n'ont pas bougé le petit doigt... au bout de 3h, Rod a dû aller boire de l'eau de la mer, et là, ça m'a vraiment gonflé donc je suis entrée dans leur 'tribunal' où ils étaient en train de juger, nos amis, j'ai redemandé à boire, toujours rien, donc je leur ai demandé s'ils etaient musulmans (98% de musulmans sur l'ile), ils m'ont dit que oui,je leur ai répondu qu'ils pouvaient tous arrêter de faire leur ramadan et de prier 5 fois par jour, parce que non seulement, c'était de très mauvais musulmans mais en plus de mauvaises personnes tout court et qu'ils devraient avoir honte, j'étais furax... là quelqu'un s'est enfin levé pour nous apporter de l'eau (Alleluia!)... Nos amis ont été relachés car pas de temoin (et puis j'avais pas trop envie qu'ils passent 5 ans en prison...).

Fameuse porte de Zanzibar
see all photos »

On était coincé chez les flics car pas de voiture disponible, aucun transport public ou privé ne voulait nous prendre car pas d'argent (même quand les flics leur demandaient!)... on a dû se debrouiller, Rod boitant,  arrêter des voitures, puis un bus à un autre commissariat, les flics leur ont dit de nous prendre, mais les "cons" du bus, connaissant l'histoire, ont quand même voulu nous faire payer, c'est un jeune fauché qui a payé pour nous, j'étais furax... enfin, on s'est quand même debrouillés pour revenir sur Stonetown ce soir là, en faisant le trajet dans un genre de camion de l'armée où l'on était les seuls blancs et moi la seule femme...

Plage de Kendwa Rocks
see all photos »

Voilà une de nos mésaventures (la première  très pénible), mais ne vous inquiétez pas, le moral est toujours resté bon, c'est les risques du voyage ! C'est un choix de ne pas voyager en hôtel 5 étoiles sans aucun doute  ce que l'on vit au quotidien est bien authentique, et c'est tellement plus intéressant d'apprendre au quotidien la culture d'un pays par ses habitants, même si ça m'a dégouté de voir la relation à l'argent (beaucoup due à la montée rapide du tourisme et de la pauvreté)... Voila, on est quand même partis de l'Afrique avec tout plein de merveilleuses images en tête... Ca vaut le coup sans aucun doute!!!

Stonetown
see all photos »

Rod: Je pense que Soph a bien résumé nos adventures, mais je ne vous cache pas que j'étais vraiment content de partir d'Afrique de l'Est car très, très deçu de l'attitude des gens envers nous mais aussi entre eux.  Le mot respect ne semble pas exister dans leur vocabulaire, c'est domage (du moins on ne l'a pas trop vu)...  Vivement l'Asie!!

Soph: Zanzibar is a really lovely island and we loved Stonetown where time seems to have stopped, all the old narrow streets make you think of Sicily and 98% of the population is Muslim ( there are nearly 50 mosques for such a tiny town!) which give Stonetown a lot of charm, character and strong sense of identity... I loved to be woken up by the call for prayer (although a bit early , 5am!)... it was ramadan (Eid) so in was a bit mad in the evening (music and dancing in the middle of the night!), the only problem was to find food during the day (but we could buy veg and fruits at the market)...

Stonetown, Zanzibar
see all photos »

So I was saying, everything was very peaceful... UNTIL we decided to go to the North of the Island where the beaches are absolutely amasing! white sand, palm trees, blue-green water...We found a nice litlke hut to rent and decided to spend just two days there (as we are not beach people but it was worth it for the scenery.)

BUT on the second day, we got robbed on the beach while swimming, silly idea to go swimming at the same time, it took them less than 5 min to steal our bag with rudi's new watch, sun glasses (mine were corrective sun glasses), other stuffs, but MAINLY: our digital camera with ALL the pictures of Africa (one month), the Kili, the safari, etc... Rudi started running in the bushes to try to find the robbers (helped by the police who was just nearby actually by chance not in uniform, as it happens all the time because very touristy)... I heard big shouts in the bushes as the police had found two young guys hiding in the bushes, and if Rudi hadnt stopped the police from hitting them, they would be dead by now... they brought the guys on the beach, battered them again with wooden sticks in front of everyone, and I had to ask them to stop, it was awful... unfortunately, the third guy escaped with our bag (two English tourists saw the 3 guys) so we have lost our camera and more importantly all our pictures and we were absolutely gutted because we had fab pictures..

Tour des Epices
see all photos »

Anyway, that was only the beginning of the day (what a day!) Rudi went on his own to the nearby village, running everywhere and asking people (they had seen a guy running) for about an hour while I was with the police on the beach, the two hand cuffed guys and half of the village... I can tell you, I was in a MOOD... I was talking to the two guys, telling them that they could keep everything but not the camara, that it was very important to us, etc.. I told the whole village and started looking for Rudi as he wasnt coming back... When I found him, he had had no luck and had fallen in a kind of hole of coral so he badly hurt his knee and had blood everywhere, but he was so angry he didnt really care about it...

The police took us to the police station in an army truck with our two friends and every time THEY (the robbers) were laughing (knowing that you never get anywhere with the police in Tanzania) I was screaming at them (I even thought Rudi was going to have the first fight of his life!)... The police station was a different world, nothing to help for Rudi's knee (his state was geting worse), I asked for water for THREE hours (it was boiling hot and after all this business we were de-hydrated),and Rudi was basically lying on a bench, still blood on his leg, not able to walk, and on the verge of fainting... three hours I asked for anything to drink and they kept asking for money, and without money the answer was NO..(although  they knew very well the money was in the stolen bag) we had nothing with us as they also robbed our clothes... I even went to ask the people in the village, same treatment... NOTHING... rudi's state was so bad, he had to limp to the sea to drink some water from the sea (NICE!) and I kind of went mad, went into the "tribunal" where they were making the decision for whether our friends were guilty or not, asked for some water, waited for 10 min, nobody moved a finger, so I asked them if they were muslims (I knew they were), and I told them that they could all stop doing Ramadan (eid) and praying all day, because they were certainly not good muslims and not even good human beeings, that I was shocked by they attitude, that  I had never seen that In my life, and that if I were them I couldnt face looking at myself in a mirror being such an unhelpfull person and that they understood nothing of the Coran... A man got up and went for some water, they didnt say a word and to be honest they'd better not... After 5 hours of WAIT (it was the police Leitmotiv), they let the 2 guys go home (as there was no real witness) and to be honest I didnt want them to go to jail for 5 years... the problem was, we were stuck at the police station, they had no car to take us back to our hotel...

Because we had no money, every transport or private car refused to take us back (so friendly!) even when the police asked the people... and as the police wasnt doing much anyway, limping Rudi and I stopped cars on the road, managed to get to another police station, where they didnt have a car either, the police asked a bus to take us (which it did) explaining the whole situation... but guess what!!! They DID ask us to pay knowing we had nothing and a young guy (who was poor I am sure) had to pay for Rudi and I... I went mad, insulted the guy again who knew exactly where I was coming from, but couldnt care less as what matters is MONEY (what kind of world do we live in?)... Then, the Rasta guy who paid for us, walked with me to the hotel (20 min walk from main road where Rudi was waiting as he couldnt walk), he even carried the rucksac for me and then Rudi and I managed to get back to Stonetown at night, in another army van type in which we were the only white people and I was the only woman with maybe 30 men (quite an experience!)

Don't worry, these kind of expereinces have more chances to happen when you travel as a backpacker and do not stay in a 5 star hotel surrounded by tourists but for one bad thing which happens, plenty of great things make up for it! And there is nothing more rewarding than discovering, on a weekly basis, the culture and the people of a foreign country. It's all worth it, no doubt!!

Despite all that, although we were gutted for the pictures, I found the whole experience 'beneficial', certainly character building and life teaching... It only makes me stronger to fight against racial discrimination when back to Europe and confirms my beliefs about what MONEY can do to people... Tourism has risen so quickly in the last ten years in Zanzibar that it is all going totally pear shapped (although helping the economy), loss of moral values, greeddyness for money, lack of honesty... the older people of zanzibar know all that and they talk about it but the young generations are too young to realise what 's going on...

Rod:  I think Soph has said it all.  I can't deny that i was really, really happy to leave East Africa, as i have been really disappointed in the people, regarding their hatitude towards us, but also between themselves.  It looks like the word respect does not exist in their vocabulary, it is a pity...  Can't wait to be in Asia!!