Zanzibar

Monday March 16th 2009

Zanzibar is where Arabia melds with Africa. This small archipelago off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean is paradise for anyone interested in swimming, snorkeling, diving, eating, history, shopping, you name it. Amber and I, along with our friends from Seattle Sarah, Steve, and Todd landed in the hot, sweaty night after a long but easy plane ride from Entebbe to Nairobi to here. After riding on the cramped, dusty buses of Uganda the economy class seats on Kenyan Air felt like first class.
After checking in to our hotel in Stonetown, the capital of Zanzibar, we took a walk to a beachside plaza to check out the seafood market. Every night vendors setup tables, oil lamps, and barbecues in this park and cook up skewers of fresh seafood. Tuna, marlin, lobster, calamari, mussles, snails, clams, octopus, you can have a giant crab claw, plus Indian flatbreads, falafel, vegetables, fresh squeezed sugarcane juice, chocolate covered bananas, heavenly heaven for a seafood lover like me. And cheap too. A lobster skewer will run you about $2 US, even less if you’ve got bargaining skills. At each table the cook has his inventory on display, most of the way cooked but not quite done. They grab plate and place on it the skewers of your choice, then when you’re ready the throw it back on the grill to finish cooking. Some of the vendors have a chili sauce, called pili pili, to brush on if you like. I like. If I lived here I would eat here every night. We sat in the grass amongst the Zanzibar stray cats and looked out at the wooden boats in the harbor and up at the stars in the sky.
The next day we got up early and ate breakfast together, included in most accommodations around these parts, on the rooftop lounge of the hotel. As you look out over Stonetown you’ll see that many hotels have rooftop places to hang out. The streets of Stonetown are extremely narrow and extremely not straight so the breeze doesn’t get down into the depths of it. But up on the roof you can see the ocean and feel the breeze coming off it and the sun heating up the day. It gets frickin’ hot here, by the way. Mid 90’s with a humidity of oh my god. We only plan to spend one day here and this is it so we all wanted to get the most out of it. We booked ourselves on a spice tour for the first part of the day. Zanzibar has built a reputation for its spices. They say that in the old days of the explorers you could smell the cloves long before you could see the island. I felt that it would be interesting but I have to admit I thought it might be a little too touristy for my taste. I was wrong, it was one of the coolest things I’ve done. After a short drive out of town and into the hills we got out for a walk through a spice plantation. They didn’t grow only one spice on this plantation. They grew pretty much every spice you can think of. As we walked the guide would stop a tree or bush and pick the fruit, flower, or leaves, pass it around and ask us to guess which spice it is. We had cinnamon bark straight off the cinnamon tree. Bite down on a fresh clove fruit and your whole mouth will go numb. Ginger, when eaten right out of the ground, is really really hot! Fresh nutmeg will make you feel light headed. All these spices were interspersed with the tasting of fresh fruit. We had the best grapefruit, lychee, orange, and coconut right off the tree. It was sensory overload.
The rest of that day the group split up and Amber and I walked around town to look for souvenier's. Stonetown is a labyrinth of narrow streets full of shops, mosques, hotels, and even workshops. Streets only had to be wide enough to get a hand cart down back then so buildings were put very close together. Getting lost is part of the experience, as is dodging scooters and warding off salesmen. Mostly built when it became the capital of the Omani kingdom in the 1800’s, it was the heart of the Arab slave trade. Many of its citizens became very wealthy. The doors on the houses are notorious for their elaborate display of the wealth of their inhabitants. And now, after over a hundred years of salt air, the town has developed a thick patina of Asian smells, African carvings, Muslim chanting and Swahili ballyhoo. It’s an ancient metropolis at a tropical island pace. They even have a phrase to use much like “hang loose’ in Hawaii is used. It’s “hakuna matata” and it means “no worries”. Amber and I dove into a few deep curio shops, bought some postcards, and just explored for a few hours before meeting up with our friends at a bar called Mercury’s which is named after the famous Zanzibar born singer Freddy.
After breakfast the next day I had a scooter driving lesson planned. We wanted to go to the other side of the island, mostly beach, and we thought scooter would be the best way to go. Since I don’t have an international driving license I had to pay for a temporary permit (about $7 US). After 20 minutes of starting, shifting gears, coming to a complete stop and then starting again, the instructor felt comfortable enough to let us go and our friends followed in a rented car. As we zipped across the island we were wafted by the smells of ocean and spices. What a way to go! It took a little over an hour to get to our little bungalow on a length of powder white beach stretching all the way up the northeast side of the island. We spent the next few days lounging in the shade, swimming in the pool, snorkeling around the atoll nearby, drinking blue and green cocktails at happy hour, and eating in luxury.
It’s Saturday now and time for our friends to head home. Amber and I have a couple more days to explore. After coffee on the beach watching the sunrise we ate breakfast and took one last dip in the pool before parting ways, until next time. We hopped on the scooter, me in the drivers seat backpack on my front, Amber on the back with a backpack on her back. We scooted straight down the middle of the island to Unguja Ukuu (South Zanzibar). We were stopped twice by the police to check our license but, contrary to much warning about it, never were pressured to pay a bribe. The police are not paid very well and so many have resorted to using their authority to extort innocent passersby. This is the reputation they have built anyway and while they didn’t come across to me as being friendly, I never felt like I was in a situation I didn’t want to be in. I have no problem proving to the authorities that I’m following their rules. I may need their help sometime.
2 hours later we found ourselves at Menai Bay Beach Resort, among huge baobab trees, in another piece of tropical wonderland overlooking the Menai Bay Nature Preserve. It’s pretty quiet on this side of the island. Upon signing the guest book we learned that we’re their first visitors in a month. Luckily we had called ahead and they were ready and willing to take us in. After settling in and washing off the road, scootering in paradise is dirty work you know, we walked down the beach to the only other business establishment in the area, a little mom and pop Thai restaurant. Run by an older couple, she’s from Thailand he’s from Italy, this little restaurant has it all figured out. Great spot, great food, great service. “We’ll be back for dinner, thanks”.
We got back on the scooter and went about 10km down the road to the Jozani National Park for a guided nature walk. For only $4 US + tip for the guide you can stroll through some of the strangest forest you’ve ever seen. The first part of our three part walk was through thick mahogany and palm trees. With the water table just 2 ½ feet below ground the trees don’t have much to grab on to and so, after reaching about 100 feet tall, they simply fall over. Some trees have adopted a strategy of grabbing on to other trees for support. These are called strangler trees and they end up killing the other tree and they both fall over together. Add to this a bizarre little native, the freshwater crab. What? We’re at least 5km from the ocean and there’s not a lake in sight. But with the water table so close these crabs have no problem getting the water they need by burrowing down to it.
Next we crossed the road into an almond grove that is home to a large colony of red colobus monkeys. These cute little guys have gotten quite used to people staring at them so they’ll get very close to you as they snack on fresh almond leaves. Watching them jump from limb to limb and swing from tree to tree will make you wish you were a monkey too. And they get so close you want to reach out a grab one for a hug if it weren’t for the many diseases you can get from simply touching a monkey. My folks always told me not to touch the monkeys. Sorry.
Next part of the walk was on a boardwalk through a mangrove forest. A mangrove forest is basically a swamp where trees are growing, in this particular forest, in brackish water. Brackish water is half salt, half fresh water. This mangrove happens to be a tidal flat so, although it was low tide when we walked through, at high tide the boardwalk is often underwater.

(Author’s note: I’m struggling here to describe every strange detail when a few photos would save a lot of explaining. I’m uploading this entry on a friends high quality connection instead of my usual slow one. Hopefully this means I’ll get a few photos up.)

Just two days left here and feeling like we’ve grabbed a huge bite out of the place. We woke up feeling great and looking forward to the beaches of the southeast coast. It’s not surprising then, in hindsight, that something unexpected should happen. Well, we knew it could happen but were wishing it wouldn’t. About 4km before we reached the nearest petrol station we ran out of gas. It was 10 a.m. and the sun was just getting cooking. It was time to get off and push. I have to say, if I’m going to run out of gas at a place of my choosing it would be on Zanzibar at anytime of day. Everyone we passed wanted to know what the problem was and if they could help. Unfortunately there’s only one solution to no gas. We soaked ourselves in sweat doing it but we did get gas and dried ourselves off doing 40km per hour to the next beach. Just part of the adventure.

So that was Zanzibar. Back at the compound in Mbarara today the first lady, Janet Museveni is visiting to give us a speech. I think I saw her convoy go by a little while ago and now the place is crawling with soldiers. Maybe I’ll go try to look over the fence and get a peek. Talk at you later!