Zanzibar Monday 22nd September 2014
We flew from a small airstrip in the Masai Mara, in a single engined Cessna Caravan, interestingly for Elly and myself, taking off from the easterly runway, not turning after take off, heading due east, flying for 90 minutes due east, then descending and landing on the eastern runway in Nairobi. That wouldn’t happen very often anywhere.
We were then scheduled to fly from Nairobi to Zanzibar several hours later, so were taken to a well known restaurant, named The Carnivor, for lunch, to soak up the time.
This restaurant was, as it’s name suggests, primarily an eat as much meat as you like place. They had goat, crocodile, pork, beef, lamb, ostrich meatballs. All of which were tough and yuk. The place itself was pleasant enough and filled in the time.
Then to the international airport for our flight to Zanzibar. We flew on an ATR 42, which is a twin engined turbo prop aircraft operated by Precision Airlines. Basically pleasant enough, but I am suspicious of the word Precision.
Our reading lights didn’t work at any stage during the flight, and when all the little TV screens folded down from the overhead panels, the one above us was facing the wrong way. Somebody had installed that particular panel backwards! I pointed this out to one of the flight attendants when we arrived, and he just laughed!
We were collected by our man from Zanzibar, and driven into the old Stone Town, which is the original old section of town. The driver parked in a small parking area, saying we would have to walk a bit. He then picked up most of our bags and lead us through narrow alleys and around corners until we found ourselves in the foyer of our hotel, Emerson on Harumzi. Cars can’t go into Stone Town because the roads are too narrow, so it’s bikes and motor scooters only.
This is an old mansion, originally built for a wealthy gentleman, who was in charge of overseeing activity in the harbour, and you can see the harbour from the rooftop. It was eventually left in a state of disrepair, and was bought by a couple of Americans, Messrs Emerson and Greene, who turned it into the hotel. We were on the third floor, but each floor was as high as nearly two floors, there was no lift, and the steps of the stairway were extra high. The very helpful staff at reception insisted on carrying all our bags up these stairs for us.
Our hotel
We could barely manage to carry ourselves up the stairs, and were exhausted when we arrived at our top floor.
The rooms had wooden lattice to the outside balcony, a shower which was open to the sky, a bed with mosquito netting, and a balcony looking out over Stone Town to the harbour.
It was fairly late in the evening, and we asked if there was somewhere we could get a drink. The guy on the desk said that one of them would escort us to a good place on the waterfront, and gave us two mobile phones with speed dial to their mobile, on one, and to the reception desk land line on the other. This was in case we needed help at any time, and also to ring them when we were ready to come back, and they would walk us back to the hotel! Where could you find that kind of service anywhere else in the world?
The narrow streets were charming and full of character, and the waterfront bar was in a fabulous position, so we relaxed and marvelled at the place.
Tuesday 23rd September
At 05:00 we were jarred awake by the call to prayer from one of the forty or so mosques in the town ( 90% of people in Zanzibar are Muslim.)
This was followed by a noise similar to someone standing outside our window bashing saucepans together. What part of the call to prayer this was is unclear, but it certainly got our attention, and I did start praying, for it to stop.
We had booked a walking tour ( the only type available) for the morning, and we found that our knowledge of Zanzibar was sadly lacking.
During the walk we were shown some examples of the Zanzibar Door. This was a door which was used as a front door onto the street, very elaborate and expensive, generally in very expensive homes. These days they are more plentiful, but only because they tend to be cheaper reproductions. The original doors usually had some defining feature to identify what the owner did for a living, such as a border of chains, indicating the slave trade.
Zanzibar has been settled for 20,000 years, eventually becoming a strategically important trading port.
Vasco da Gama arrived in 1499, and four years later Zanzibar became part of the Portuguese empire for the next 200 years, when it came under the control of the Sultan of Oman, who expelled the Portuguese, and set up an economy based on spices, ivory, and the slave trade.
In 1861 Zanzibar and Oman were divided into two separate principalities, meaning Zanzibar was governed by the Sultan of Zanzibar.
Gradually Zanzibar came under the control of the British, and this was formalised in 1890, driven by Britain’s determination to end the slave trade.
The death of one sultan and the replacement by another, who was not to Britain’s liking, lead to the Anglo-Zanzibar war, which lasted less than an hour! The shortest war in history. In 1963 Zanzibar gained independence for the UK as a constitutional monarchy under a Sultan, but in 1964 there was a revolution which installed a president of the Peoples Republic of Zanzibar.
That is a long and hopefully not too boring story. We had had a good look around Stone Town, including the old slave processing area, the whipping station, the underground holding cells, and the auctioning area. It is just incredible to think what human beings can do to each other.
The hotel has a rooftop restaurant which is open sided, and overlooks the entire Stone Town. It is set up in Arab fashion with cushions all around and fabric as a ceiling, gently waving in the pleasant breeze. We installed ourselves up there in the early afternoon, as they had wi-fi up there, would you believe, and did all our internet stuff and skype stuff. We decided to have lunch while we were there, it was just so different from anything we had encountered, and was a fabulous way to pass the afternoon after our busy past weeks.
This afternoon we had arranged a sunset cruise on a dhow, out of the harbour, and down along the coast, staying out until the sun had set.
This was great fun, with a lively crew, including a violinist and drummer playing local popular music, the MC feeding us food and wine and dancing to the music.
Fishing boats passing us broke into applause and cheering, joining in the dancing as they passed. It was a fun thing to do, and amazing to think of where we were and what we were doing.
After we left the boat, we walked back to the hotel and climbed to the roof, to indulge in the rooftop dinner, which was full, most people sitting on the floor cushions and eating from low tables set in front of the cushions. Music and singing was happening while we ate, and the food was a set menu with Arabic character. A great night.
North East Zanzibar Wednesday 24th September
We were scheduled to be transferred to a beach resort on the north east coast for a few days R&R, but Bev had the idea that 3 full days at the beach would be too much. ( How could that be?) With that in mind, because Elly, and Bev for that matter, cannot bear the thought of putting ones feet up and maybe reading a book, they had arranged a visit to a turtle hatchery in the morning before transferring to the beach.
Having visited one of these in Sri Lanka, and with the blog to work on, I left that to them and Andrew, while I put my feet up, not quite though, as I was perched on a straight backed chair in reception, which is where the only wi-fi was available at the time, and spent several hours achieving an aching back.
Do you see what sacrifices I have to make to get this blog published?
After the turtles, Elly and Bev had arranged to take an excursion with a local woman to be taught Zanzibar cooking! Andrew and I both let that one pass, and awaited their return before departing to the resort.
I will let Elly and Bev describe their two adventures.
Elly and Bev’s adventures.
Andrew, Elly and I headed off at the civilised time of 9am. A half hour ride in a small boat took us across from Old Stone Town to Prison Island (originally planned as a prison, but used instead as a quarantine station for people with yellow fever).
There we visited a tortoise conservation sanctuary. These large Adobra Tortoises are native only on the Seychelles Islands. However, a few were given as a gift to the Sultan of Zanzibar in the late 1800’s and the sanctuary has been set up to protect them from poachers. One tortoise we saw was 153 years old. These big giants were very friendly and happy to have us scratch their necks and feed them spinach. There was plenty of time for Elly’s photos as they do not move very quickly!
We then spent some time off the coast snorkelling to see the coral reef in the beautiful clear aqua coloured waters.
On our walking tour yesterday I had noticed a pamphlet about a Swahili cooking class and decided that would be fun. Elly agreed, but surprisingly, Alan and Andrew chose to rest instead of joining us for this afternoon activity!
I will let Elly’s photos show the experience, but briefly: We met our cooking teacher, Shara and her daughter Aisha at the local food market and did a quick shop for ingredients. Then a half hour ride on the local ‘bus’ which had 25 people crowded into the back of a ute sized truck plus another 5 hanging off the back.
Our cooking venue was an open sided hut at a spice farm. Shara spread a mat on the ground, collected her camp stove, pots, utensils and spices from the storage hut and we proceeded to make 4 tasty dishes, including one called ‘Swahili Indian Irish potatoes’! I have the recipes for anyone who is interested. The cooking was fun but it was also interesting to hear a bit about Shara’s life.
A return local bus ride and we were ready to join Alan and Andrew and head to the beach resort.
Thursday 25th September
The resort is was very nice, quite small, not the usual over the top monstrosity, nice enough rooms, and with the dining area overlooking the beach, and plenty of shade for me.
Most of this day we spent relaxing, and we had a lovely skype conversation with friends back in Melbourne celebrating Jewish New Year.
Later that afternoon we drove a little way north to a beach where the local fishing boats come in and sell their catch. On the beach young boys were beating the squid on the sand with clubs to supposedly soften the flesh. We were surrounded by kids wanting to have their photos taken wearing Andrew’ sunglasses. Later we drove to watch sunset at Gerry’s Bar at Nungwi on the northern tip of the island.
Friday 26th September
Again, not being able to spend two days relaxing, Elly had booked a snorkelling excursion for us, and Bev and Andrew had booked a different trip.
Our trip started with a 7:00 pick up, and a 40 min drive to the sister hotel, where there was a dive school. We headed out to an island named Mnember Atoll, and snorkelled in an area there for about an hour. It was lovely, but a bit choppy and a current which made progress slow sometimes. Beautiful coral and fish but sadly no underwater camera.
We moved around to the other side of the atoll where it was much more sheltered and quite shallow, with lots more fish and colourful coral. A good morning, then back to do blog stuff and feet up.
Andrew & Bev’s day:
We had a late start at 9am, with an hour drive to the Jozani Conservation Forest to see the Red Colobus monkeys. These animals are endemic to Zanzibar and they were just gorgeous to watch jumping through the trees. A guided walk through the forest, including a mangrove area with ‘Long Legged Mangrove trees’ was also really interesting.
We then went for lunch at ‘The Rock’ restaurant – see photo – beautiful views and nice food.
Our last activity for the day was visiting a local craft workshop – a small hut with a big rickety loom where I had a try at weaving the local cloth (not very successfully!) and learning how to plait reeds to make a belt (more successfully!).
Saturday 27th September
When we first arrived, inbound, at Zanzibar airport on the bus from the aircraft to the terminal, we noticed a small covered area adjacent to the tarmac, with chairs set up under the canvas roof. I assumed that there was to be some sort of ceremony held there for some dignitaries. But when we were leaving Zanzibar we discovered that this was the gate lounge where we had to sit whilst waiting for boarding! The Cessna Caravan only takes about 16 passengers, and the gate lounge was a perfect fit for a full load of passengers.
As we boarded the Cessna, one of the ground staff mentioned that one person would have to sit in the co-pilot seat. Suddenly I had Elly’s monster camera equipment bag thrust at me, and she was gone! I know my place, so I sat in steerage whilst Elly distracted the pilot for the 30 min flight to Dar e Salaam. From there it was a flight in a proper aeroplane through to Johannesburg. This was just a necessary overnight, so we stayed at an hotel close to the airport.
It was in a gated hotel area, with adjoining retail and food centre, along with a casino. As we walked through the mall looking for somewhere to have dinner, I was reminded of Disneyland, or even the movie “The Truman Show” I think it was called, with Jim Carey, as the guy living his life totally unaware that his world was artificially created. I guess it must have been the evening sky overhead, with the clouds painted on the blue background that did it. We nevertheless found a restaurant which turned out to be the place with the loudest Happy Birthday procedure to be inflicted on some hapless individuals whose “friends” had obviously blown the whistle to the staff.