Poa kichizi kama ndizi!

Last night I came back to Pemba after a wonderful week in Zanzibar! I have seen a lot of new places, met very nice and funny (to be with ;)) people and been invited to the home of a really sweet person!

I started the trip in Dar-es-Salaam last Wednesday. I was pleasantly surprised when I found an HRG office arriving at the airport! And when I told Reuben, who was very helpful and service minded, that I work for HRG in Stockholm he invited me into the office. Then he helped me book a hotel room in Dar and arranged with a taxi to take me there. That really made things a whole lot easier for me than I had expected!

It was pouring rain outside and the floor in the passenger seat where I was sitting got totally filled with water on the way to the hotel. I was lucky I was fast enough to save my backpack from getting filled up with that brown, filthy water coming from the road… The Riki Hill Hotel was very simple, but clean and definitely ok. And I even had my own balcony! Located 5 minutes walk from the city centre and $36 including breakfast made it perfect for me.

The first evening I took a short walk in the city centre. But the rain was still pouring and it was getting dark, so I returned to the hotel and had an early dinner at the “Riki Pub” across the street. Goat with potatoes in a bouillon with banana and vegetables. It was very good! I couldn’t buy wine by the glass, so it had to be a box – 1 litre… The good thing is that here you can take the leftover with you, so I brought it to my balcony and just left what was still in there when leaving the hotel the morning after.

Waking up at 6.30 I was a bit disappointed because it was still pouring outside, so I just turned and slept another hour and ½. And, luckily, by the time I was up, had breakfast and was getting ready for the day the rain had stopped almost completely. I took a taxi to the port and bought my ticket for the ferry in the afternoon. I also booked a hotel room the three first nights in Stone Town. And I think I made a good bargain; $20 instead of $35 per night!

The ferry was leaving at 4.00 pm so that left a good part of the day for me to see Dar-es-Salaam. I walked through the city from the port and did some – yeah you guessed it => SHOPPING!!! I had a wonderful time actually :) One thing that was striking was that I didn’t see another person with white skin… The whole afternoon/evening the first day AND morning I hadn’t seen anybody, until I came to the newer, more rich part of the city. All the tourists seemed to be there. And so were also all the street vendors and “nice” shops etc. But how boring isn’t that?!? I think it’s nice to see both sides, but that’s just it – nobody else was interested in the old side? And that’s of course the most interesting part of town too!!

Anyway, I had a very nice day strolling around, taking picture and talking to people. A couple of times guys came up to me and asked me to take pictures of them, they had a lot of fun posing and laughing when they then saw the pictures :) Then there were, of course, also those who wanted me to pay them for taking a picture where they just happened to be. But all together I found people in Dar very friendly and it was only in the new part of town I felt harassed by the street vendors. I eventually had a mzuri sana lunch in an Indian restaurant before going to the ferry.

It was a challenge to have to deal with a new currency again – I wanted to buy a note pad and almost walked out from a store because I thought $1 was too expensive… But you know, when they ask for one THOUSAND shilling it sounds like a lot!

After a quite bumpy, but ok ride to Zanzibar I was greeted in the port by the hotel owner’s son who took me to the Funguni Palace Hotel. I went to bed early after dinner at Africa House. The sunset was unfortunately already over when I got there, but I had a nice starry sky to enjoy instead.

Early the next morning I went to the Mozambique Consulate to get my new visa. A very nice receptionist helped me fill in the form and told me the charge was $60 for an express visa. That would give me my passport back on Monday. Not good for my plans, so I kindly asked if another $5 would do the trick and get me my visa the same day instead. And, surely enough, 2 hours later I got a phone call from her telling me my passport was ready to be picked up. Excellent!! By that time I had already bought massage oil (which I haven’t been able to find in Pemba), been to 3 different travel agencies to book a flight back to Dar and walked around a bit in Stone Town. All thanks to a very nice young man, who showed me around just because he wants tourists to feel welcome… No, of course not, but the $4 I gave him was well spent money. First of all I would have spent probably at least $25 more on the plane ticket without him. And he showed me parts of the city I wouldn’t have seen otherwise!

I had lunch at the Zanzibar Coffee House, very good samosas, and continued just walking around in Stone Town during the afternoon. In the evening I decided to go to Mercury Restaurant to see the sunset and have dinner – that turned out to be a very good decision because I met Magda and Tarek there! Two very nice people who just had got to know each other since they both live and work in Stone Town. Magda as an English teacher and Tarek with TV. We had a great night that ended quite late at Livingstone restaurant on the beach.

On Saturday I got a text message from the very nice receptionist at the consulate inviting me to her home! After some misunderstandings and messages back & forth I finally got there and realized she had cooked lunch for me!! She and her husband, Kidawa and Ameir, were wonderful and I also met one of her friends and her sister in law with her 2 children. A young boy was also there for a little while, to see the Swede I guess… They speak very little English so the conversation was a bit limited, but she showed me her wedding pictures and we had a very nice time! Lunch was delicious! Cassava and fish. Must have that again, I loved it! Before I left they gave me a present; a beautiful kanga! What a kind and wonderful couple they were, I hope I will meet them again!

Sunday morning I took a bus to Kendwa. I was lucky enough to meet Laila & Marshall on the bus and we ended up staying at the same hotel. I was really on my way to Nungwi, but we talked to some people who all recommended us staying in Kendwa. They are a really nice couple from NYC who have been working in Madagascar and Zambia the last couple of years and are now on a well deserved vacation. They had a lot of interesting stories about life as a volunteer!

The beach was unbelievable!! So beautiful!! I walked a little bit on the beach and in the small village just before lunch and then I treated myself with a full body massage. In the afternoon it started to rain again so I took a nap before shower and dinner.

The sunset was amazing!

Laila, Marshall and I decide to have dinner at the local restaurant just up the road and that was a great decision. I had calamari with rice and beans and it was delicious! AND I paid $4 for the meal including a coke.

Monday morning I took a taxi (for my last money) to get to Nungwi because I needed to get some cash… And guess what – the cash machine wasn’t open… But I did get to see Nungwi, which is a much bigger village than Kendwa. Next time in Zanzibar I will make sure I have enough time to see much more, I would say you need at least 2 weeks! Anyway, coming back to the hotel the three of us went to the same local restaurant for lunch. We had asked for lobster the night before and there it was – excellent grilled lobster, 2 each, with rice, beans and vegetables. For a ridiculous price of $8 per person!!! When I came back to Stone Town I saw lobster on a menu for $35! Which also is quite inexpensive compared to Sweden.

After lunch we went diving and snorkeling. Since I haven’t finished my certification yet I couldn’t scuba dive, but the snorkeling was also very good. I saw a lot of beautiful corals and fish; Lion fish, Parrott fish and 2 Stingrays!

In the evening I met Mike and Josh, two very nice guys from New Zeeland and Australia, who were travelling with the Africa Travel Company. They were a group of 30 or so people travelling together from the whole world more or less. The concept is to hop on when and where you want and hop off at the same principle. They taught me some expressions from NZ and Australia because half of the time I couldn’t understand what they were saying… :) We had a great time and Laila & Marshall joined us for dinner. As did Karl from Norway. Also a really great guy! Travelling the world by himself for some months before going back to university. Have fun Karl!!! :)

And Tuesday morning I went back to Stone Town. I took a city tour in the afternoon and then a nap before meeting Magda again. She is really wonderful and we had a great evening at Livingstone’s again!! She told me her original plan had been to go to Pemba in Mozambique! But for different reasons she ended up in Zanzibar. We’ll see, maybe she will come here eventually anyway… That would be a lot of fun!

Darling C picked me up at the airport after a whole day of traveling with only 1 hour and 45 minutes actually up in the sky… And it actually felt like coming home! We went to the camp for a pizza and then I was in bed quite early.

Pictures are coming soooooon!!

By the way – “Poa kichizi kama ndizi!” means “cool like a banana” in Swahili…and “mzuri sana” means” very good!”