10 Days in Zanzibar: Hello Zanzibar!

our pretty little room at the Hotel Slipway

Day 1, Wednesday

We spent our first night in a cute hotel in Dar Es Salaam, which is on the Tanzanian mainland. We're scheduled to catch a ferry to Zanzibar at about 9. I woke up early - too excited to sleep which is surprising considering how little I've had in the last several days. I could hear the call to prayer well before daylight. I played with my photo editor until the sun came up, showered and packed for Zanzibar!

Deciding what to wear while here is going to be interesting. Since this is a predominantly Muslim country, we've been advised to dress "conservatively," which means covering my arms and legs. We're told this doesn't necessarily apply at the beach but I intend to play that by ear. Outfit choice for today: full length yellow cotton dress with black flip-flops, a long-sleeved sheer white button down (unbuttoned but tied at the waist), and gold hoop earrings. I decided to leave my wedding ring in the US, so while I'm here I'm wearing a silver ring my godmother Kathryn gave me years ago.

Breakfast:
Fish cakes (delicious!), vegetable samosas, small banana (looked green but was perfectly ripe), potato salad w/ turkey (I think) bacon, 1 slice of salami, watermelon juice, strawberry yogurt, coffee w/ (warm!) milk, some kind of yummy fried dough with mango jam (which tasted like marmalade to me). I had seconds on the fish cakes.

 

We grabbed a cab to the ferry. Nate made a ferry reservation ahead of time, which apparently was a smart move because no less than three different people asked if he had tickets already. I'm not sure why it's a concern (do tickets sell out? Do they close the ticket office randomly?). We had no trouble picking up our tickets, though we did get a little harassment from men trying to carry our bags for tips. We watched an American family get confused by them, give them their bags, and then immediately try to take them back.

The ferry is a couple of hours. A young boy wearing a Park City, UT, tshirt was sitting behind us. He asked Nate how much longer to the island and was surprised by Nate's answer. Apparently he thought it was a 30-minute ride! He turned out to be from Charlotte and was here alone on a trip he gave himself to celebrate having completed his MBA at NYU. He would be in Zanzibar for 1 night and was then heading to climb Kilimanjaro.

Nate had reserved first class tickets - $40 each - which granted us access to an air conditioned mid-level cabin and the covered open air roof deck. Overhead televisions were showing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was already about 30 minutes into the film when we boarded 30 minutes prior to shove off, which I thought was odd. We went to the cabin first but quickly decided to go upstairs instead. I'm glad we did. The breeze was lovely and there was plenty of shade, and of course the view was much better. We sat at first but then spent most of the ride standing at the back of the boat enjoying shade and the breeze.


cool shoes on the ferry

There was a great variety of cultures on the ferry. A few other Americans, three Europeans (all German, I think), lots of Arabs wearing various forms of traditional and contemporary clothing, certainly mostly locals in all manner of clothing from basic trousers and button downs to tunics and the caps often worn by Muslim men - kind of like a pill cap but deeper. Must find out the proper term...

A family sitting near us - parents and two teenage girls, American I think - must have just come from safari or somewhere similar b/c their arms and legs were all covered with giant red whelps that I can only assume were bites of some sort.

Watching the porters unload luggage from the ferry was comical. It's a cross between a fire brigade and a deli counter at lunchtime: some porters trying simply to unload in an orderly fashion while others were responding to the requests of individual passengers.

 

ferry porters

We were stopped before the exit gate and asked to fill out some paperwork. The customs agent was jovial, teasing us a little and asking us to tell Barack Obama about him when we returned to the US. While we were being processed, several men approached us to offer taxi service.

We needed to get cash before heading across the island to Dongwe, and we found ourselves navigating the sea of touts at the port and along our entire 10-minute quest for the bank. Of course our luggage and backpacks made us particularly strong targets since most of them were offering to serve as either porters or taxi drivers. I am hoping they will not bother us as much when we're without carriage. We found only an ATM and decided it would have to suffice. We also decided to skip trying to find an outlet converter (having discovered last night that none of the ones we brought will work here) in hopes that we can borrow one at the hotel. We found a tourism office and asked about dala dala rides to Dongwe or to the nearest town. They convinced us to hire a driver instead. At first I was disappointed bc I was looking forward to the adventure of figuring out the dala dala system, but the ride turned out to be fascinating. Along the way we saw monkeys, roosters, cows, and a few close calls with oncoming traffic and bicyclers. I noticed that they don't lay on their horns like I've experienced in other trafficky cities. Just an occasional friendly tap when passing, sometimes not even that.

Nate was very impressed to spy a spear fisherman carrying his long spear over his shoulder while driving a moped.

 

School was just letting out for the day (we learned that they quit at lunchtime) so there were lots and lots of children walking home. The girls wear a uniform that consists of an ankle length dress and a headpiece, each in contrasting colors. Most of the ones we saw were royal blue with a pale yellow-beige headpiece, though not all. All were dark on the bottom and light on top. The headpiece is long enough to cover the arms to about the elbows and resembles a nun's habit.

Adult women wear scarves, usually printed, wrapped around their heads and crossed at the shoulder. Below that they were a printed dress, often in the same material as the scarf, or a black dress with sleeves and a slit up the front revealing a colorful printed skirt beneath.

Men wear mostly jeans or trousers, sometimes Capri length but rarely shorts, and tshirts, polo shirts, or button downs. Occasionally a man can be seen wearing a full-length tunic or a tunic and skirt combination.

Traffic and streetside activity began to thin as we crept further north along the peninsula. I began to recognize town names from the guide book: Paje, Bweejuu. We soon arrived at Dongwe Ocean View. As we turned off the paved road onto a sandy driveway to the resort (side note: thus far the infrastructure has been in very good shape), our driver joked "The road is rough, so now you will have a massage."

A Masai tribesman in traditional clothing opened a large gate for us and our driver pulled into the courtyard. A young receptionist with a shy friendly smile greeted us, shaking our hands and introducing himself as Muhammed. He took our bags as we paid the driver (who worked very hard to try to prearrange picking us up again in 4 days - we'll see). Then Muhammed escorted us to a kind of veranda with sofas and hanging basket chairs where we were asked to fill out some paperwork. When we finished Muhammed briefly explained the hotel mean schedule, which includes tea at 4:30 daily, and told us about some other hotel services and features ranging from bike rentals to boat outings to "plastic shoes" available for sale ($5) if we wanted to walk in the ocean - sea urchins are plentiful. After orientation, Muhammed and a porter took us to our room.

Dongwe Ocean View is a perfectly lovely little cluster of buildings focused on a central beachside swimming pool and a thatch-roofed bar & lounge. The buildings are built with concrete block finished with stucco and painted white. There are two 4-story buildings that house guest rooms of various sizes, each with a balcony facing the ocean. Our room is on the third floor of the northernmost of the two. It has a king sized canopy bed with mosquito netting and a huge wicker bench at the foot. When we arrived the bed and side tables were adorned with bougainvillea and a hand towel fashioned into the shape of a swan. The floors are tiled and the walls are painted white stucco. The bathroom is simple and sparse except for a band of flesh-colored decorative tile about chest high. There is a dual flush toilet and a complicated shower head with multiple dials and settings.

Multiple sections of steps lead from the blue glass-tiled swimming pool to the beach. Local fisherman keep a variety of boats moored in the water in front of the resort, and there is a large pier just to the north.

 

We changed into our bathing suits and I swapped the long yellow dress for a short one, keeping the white button down in case I feel like I need to cover up further.

Lunch:
My first Kilimanjaro beer (reminded me of Saporo), Octopus salad which consisted of boiled chunks of octopus meat over green pepper, red onion, a very little bit of lettuce, tomato, and carrot with vinegar and a significant amount of oil.

After lunch at the resort, Nate and I went for a walk along the beach. We headed north toward the pier. The sand is light yellow-beige and is incredibly fine. Brown seaweed lies in swaths and we're told the locals collect it, though for what purpose I'm not sure.

 

seaweed on the beach

We collected shells as we walked, as well as a dead urchin and a bone about the size of a femur. I'm hoping it was a cow bone! Back at the resort we had tea and biscuits before heading to the room to get ready for supper.

Muhammed made arrangements for a taxi to pick us up at 6 and take us to supper. We told him we wanted to eat at 8, but he suggested 6 which was a good thing since the sun sets by 6:30 here. Who knew?! Our reservation was at The Rock, which is a restaurant perched atop an outcropping in the water. We had to walk through ankle deep water to get there and waist deep to get back home. I thought it was strange that Muhammed suggested we wear bathing suits to dinner. Good thing I listened! The dining room does not have electrical lights, so we watched the sunset and ate by candlelight. We were the only patrons in the restaurant.

Supper:
The largest pieces of calimari I've ever seen, cut into three fist-sized pieces, scored and grilled with a mustard sauce, side salad and french fries; white wine (not dry but not sweet)

Our taxi returned to pick us up after supper and it was all I could do to stay awake for the ride home. To get to the restaurant you have to pass through a tiny village that is populated mostly by fisherman. Their construction techniques are quite different from anything else I have seen here, employing a kind of gabion wall assembly combined with some kind of mortar. I wasn't able to get a photo - must try to research it.