It’s hard to describe the beauty of Zanzibar. All I can say is that when I look back at the experience, I feel like we landed on another planet, a small paradise or maybe as best described by a fellow volunteer who lives there, it’s like being one the TV show LOST.
I went with the rest of the volunteers from the Amani centre. None of them were coming back to Morogoro and this was the last leg of their Tanzania journey. I promised them they would see me party as we were going to go out with a bang and I had been quite tame so far.
For our means of transportation, we choose to go by air so we could enjoy the view of the coral reef. We left on a small propeller plane and it was funny to see everyone’s reaction. Scared of birds getting caught in the propellers and us crashing. Unfortunately or fortunately I almost never feel scared in the air.
As we arrive, we are greeted by a friendly and small airport with a gardened lawn with the words “Smile ur in Zanzibar” spelled out.
We take a small bus into Stone Town, the main city in Zanzibar. Not only I am excited to be in probably most certainly in one the most historically charged places in Africa, I am also curious to experience the black out. There hasn’t been any electricity for a few weeks now, and the prospects of it coming back on while we are visiting are very slim.
We arrive shortly before the sunset at Jambo hostel. We find out they have a generator and quickly get ready so we can walk around town. As we start our walk, I feel like I am in Venice meets Havana meets Palermo. The streets are so narrow, windy and intricate. Some passages exude a gutter smell, some wider streets are adorned with street vendors who sell spices, hard-boiled eggs, oil. Everywhere there are carved Arabic wooden doors and I decide that they will be a running theme in the photo journal of my trip to Stone town. Everywhere we go we run into locals who look like they are a mix of African and Indian. Their facial features are beautiful. The women all wear hijabs and walk by fleetingly, avoiding our gaze. I start to realize how much this place is different from the mainland. The buildings are run down but you can tell city once was a booming financial and cultural centre in Africa and Asia. The days of the spice and slave trade are still embedded in the atmosphere. I have never been to a middle eastern country, have never traveled to Northern Africa, but this could be what it’s like.
On our first night we go to Mercury’s lounge. It’s named after Freddie Mercury who is from Stone Town. We enjoy the local live music and dancing. It’s not Tarab, I don’t know what it’s called but it’s amazing and makes you want to be able to move every part of your hips the way Tanzanians do. Some of the volunteers order a Nargile. I try to smoke it and breathe in as much as I can but nothing comes out to everyone’s amusement. Finally, after the 5th attempt, I manage. We then go to a local Reggae club. I didn’t know this but there is a big rasta movement in Zanzibar. It feels really good to the dance. The men get higher as the night progresses. One asks me for my hand, I show him my “wedding ring” but he says we can lie, which is quite an amusing and resourceful comeback. In any case, the answer is no.
On the second day, Lauren, one of the volunteers and myself, decide to get up early and wander around the streets. We start our walk along the water where the small wooden fishing boats are anchored and make our way towards the fish market. The market atmosphere is great. People stare at us wondering what we think is so interesting about this market. Do we want fresh fish to grill? Not really. We are more here to soak in the local culture. We start to walk back towards the inside of the town and find ourselves caught in windy streets, enjoying having to find our way and stumbling across different shops.
After having quenched our first for shopping and indulged like the tourists that we are we head out to the Anglican Church to visit the old slave market site. The history of Zanzibar is closely tied into to the slave trade as the bigger the spice trade got, the higher the demand for slaves was. The history lesson we get from our guide is very interesting and sad. We learn that in 2 small underground rooms, which we visit, an average of 75 men and women waited for days to be whipped at ground level and then sold. In these cellars, the tide would come in and the humidity and dirt would cause disease to spread. The cramped quarters also caused many to dye of suffocation. He tells us about that the longer a slave survived, the more his or her value increased. The beating and torture was the selection process.
As the day progresses, the heat increases and we decide top at a local restaurant for lunch. My grilled fish is great even though it arrives one hour and a half after arriving. That’s the way it is in Tanzania. Everything is cooked fresh and you usually have to wait 35 minutes for your food, unless it’s something very simple like chips or an omelet. You just get used to it after a while.
After lunch, we decide to visit Prison Island, which is a short 15 minute boat ride away. It also includes snorkeling. We board a small fishing boat with our snorkeling and head out. As we move away from the island, we get to enjoy the view of Stone town. It’s such a beautiful place; it reminds me of Venice, Palermo and Havana combined.
As we get much closer to Prison Island, we stop the boat and jump in the water to snorkel. The reef is beautiful and the water is crystal clear. We don’t get to see any amazing fish but we swim around for about 45 minutes.
Then we park the boat on the small beach at the tip of Prisoner Island. The island was used as a quarantine centre when there used to be the plague on the mainland and the British Empire wanted to stop the disease from spreading to the island. The island itself is not very special. It has now been reconverted into a very high-end resort and used as a sanctuary for turtles. We get to pet and observe the turtles. They are absolutely huge. Some of them are over 200 years old. They are actually quite friendly and if you feed them and lift the food up high, they will pull their entire body up. They look so impressive and prehistoric that can understand the old sayings that represent turtles as being wise.
Before sunset we head back to Stone town. The boat ride back is beautiful and we criss cross with other fishing boats as the light starts to set. We then rush to the Africa House to enjoy the sunset. Being that we are near the equator, the sun sets extremely fast but we manage to see it and it is one of the most beautiful sites of the trip.
That night, we head out to Forodhani gardens for dinner with our flashlights. It’s just a few streets away but the streets are so windy and unsafe since the power shortage, that a man from the hostel ends up taking us around for the night. Forodhani gardens hosts a night market where you can buy street food like the Zanzibari pizza, fish skewers, sugar cane juice, or tea masala. I try all of them and we sit around with the locals enjoying the food. My favorite dish is the Zanzibar pizza. You pick the ingredients and it is cooked in front of you. The stall owner spreads a roll of dough thin and then mixes ingredients of your choice, which are then wrapped in a thin layer of flat dough. The whole thing is cooked in a pan and comes out delicious.
I love street markets and have never experienced one like this specifically at night. This was definitely a highlight to a day which was close to perfect.
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