Day 14:
This morning we had to get up really early because we had to catch ferries to Zanzibar! About 20 tuktuks showed up at 7.00am because another tour group was going too so it looked pretty cool. We all got in and took off swerving and speeding to get to the ferry on time.
We had it all organised where we had to go and meet if we got lost because with the first ferry there were sooo many people trying to get on because it was a ferry to downtown Dar es Salaam. We all made it on board and it was a short trip to Dar Es Salaam. When we got there we put our bags in this storage area and got to walk to the shops and get snacks for our 2 hour trip. The heat was unbearable… Especially because us ladies had to wear long pants and shoulder covering shirts as it is a Muslim city… We were so excited when the supermarket had awesome air conditioning!
Anyways after that we went back, got our things and hopped on the boat! We were in first class which was awesome because it was also air conditioned. There was a movie playing on the little screens at the front and it was possibly the worst/funniest movie ever involving pro boxers and mining and war and terrible acting. I ended up sleeping pretty much the whole time.. And then we arrived in Stone town! We got off the ferry and walked up to immigration and it almost immediately started pelting down with rain. We waited there for like 45 minutes while we got our passports stamped, met our Gap Zanzibar guide Silima (who will become the source of many jokes due to his mixed accents) and hoped the rain would stop, but it didnt… So we all started walking down the puddle filled streets to meet our bus! The hotel we ended up at was a little old and rundown looking, but so was the rest of Stone Town. Everything had a real arabic feel to it and it was a very muslim place.
The group all went to this awesome Indian place for lunch with a view of Stone town, and it was delicious! Then we explored the streets and met up with everone later at The Africa Hotel… It was this incredible building, quite English inspired with the most glamourous sunset bar and a rooftop restaurant and it felt like somewhere the Queen must have designed for herself to stay when she went came to Zanzibar… So nice. So we had some cocktails there and watched the sunset and then we all wandered to the night market by the water!
We ate a Zanzibar pizza which was very thin dough with your toppings, and then they crack an egg on top and swish it around and put it on the grill! Kinda like and omlette pizza thing but so yummy! There were so many stray cata around the market jst scrounging for food and bothering people, it was sad but really interesting to watch as well.
Then we had a couple ofdrinks at another ocean side bar and went to bed.
Day 15:
Today we woke up and went to the roof top of our hotel for breakky! A muslim african lady was serving us and we had scones and an omlette and banana :) after that we left for our Spice tour which was about an hour away. It was a spice farm and we got to walk around the whole plantation and Silima would get us to smell things, taste things and guess what spice it was. Some leaves were even used for lipstick, or cloves to make your tongue go numb! At the end we got to try all of the fresh fruit and it was absolutely the most delcious fruit i’ve had in my entire life. Everything was sooo juicey and fresh and he cut it right in front of us… The pineapple was like nothing i’ve ever tasted before… Delicious! We also tried jack fruit (in my photos) and some other African ones that I forget :)
After our fruit feast we watched a local boy climb a coconut tree that was about 30m high and he dropped down coconuts for us and we got to drink the milk from inside! I dont really like it though haha. THEN these little kids came out and brought us all hats weaved from grass as a souveneir. It was a really cool tour actually, at first I was worried it would be a dud haha.
After that we continued to Nungwe beach which I was so pumped for. It was a long bumpy road and when we finally got there And got our room i just collapsed on our king size bed. The rooms here were soo nice which was exciting for a change haha. We got ready for the beach and had lunch aand went for a swim in the crystal clear turquoise waters…and tanned and then had a lovely nap!
That night there was a sunset (booze) cruise organised for us too but only a handful of us went on it. We got to sail on a Dowa boat out in the gorgeous waters and jump off the roof into the water and drink rum (captain morgans) like pirates and watch the sunset. After being on the water we went back to the beach and had dinner cooked for us and sat around a bon fire. We had fish cooked on the fire and it was awesomee. We also met some local masai boys while we waited for dinner and we asked them about their clothing and jewellry and they let us try it on and get a picture (on facebook) so that was really cool.
Aaand then we passed out in the KING size bed. Plus I was starting to not feel well due to my parasite which lasted 12 days but I will not mention that in this blog anymore! Blergh.
