Zanzibarians I

We took the ferry to Zanzibar on Friday. We stayed at a resort north of town (these seem like two pretty straight-forward statements but I already have notes I would like to interject (I feel like I'm interrupting my formal story-telling self after telling him to tell the story but he's not telling it quite right so here is the other me). re. north of town. I think! we're at the equator. At high noon or anywhere withing three hours of that time, I have no idea what direction is where. Here you hear people (expats) cliche-ingly say that you won't take things for granted when you get back home (even though you will). But that's one thing I will take home with me. An appreciation of which way south is. re. resort. We wouldn't normally stay at a resort as we would like to be a little more immersed in the culture. But friends were staying there and we made do. I mean it's wrong on some level but the pool overlooking the ocean and the drinks charged to your room and fleeing the heat of the town just helps you deal with the wrongness.)

We headed into Stone Town which is an impressive collection of maze-like alleyways. As much as eastern seaboard towns in North America are tiny and winding because they were built before cars needed to go from A to B to the suburbs, these were built before that. J, the man of the house, told us he specced out a drainage system for Stone Town that included quotes for pulling in the pipes and equipement on lawn tractors. The man who did the job used donkeys because he knew better.

It was great walking around. Bikes, scooters, and motorcycles travel through the alleyways, ringing constantly for pedestrians to get out of the way. Tiny little shops (some catering to tourists and some for the townsfolk) faced each other, two arm-lengths away across the alley. Well, it was kinda great because at first we still had our bags (just weekend bags but it was hot and I'm 41 and crabby). We stopped at the Zanzibar Coffee House which was on josey's must-see list (we are both coffee fans and josey had been here in the winter). We had two carafes of spiced coffee (later enjoyed by our Indian friend who said they were the same spices she used in her tea). I am under the impression that these are the "spice islands". The coffees were good. Strange not having a bitter after-taste. You really don't realize you need it or even that it was there until it's gone (side note: N, our hostess in Dar, was born in Zanzibar and, yet, when we flew over she asked us to bring her some Tim Horton's - WTF?!).

At the coffee shop, we chatted with a Hungarian and a German. The German hasn't had a vacation in 8 years but was inspired by his friend who ten years ago motorcycled from Germany to South Africa. His friend encouraged him to fly to Dar, "just take a couple of t-shirts and go!". We kept running in to these two guys until Sunday afternoon (when we actually drove past the Hungarian when we were back in Dar).

After going and checking in we went to Africa House ("most popular haunt of backpackers and expats for serious drinking" - uggh - but it did have a great view west for the sunset) to meet our friends. We missed the sunset but continued undaunted. Josey and I then snuck off to the Monsoon restaurant. The food was delicious. I'm trying to think of what I had but can't -- again I had a wonderful coffee. Very finely ground -- I need to research what that is about. Then we walked around the night market which is a bunch of food vendors at the park in front of the palace. They were serving all kinds of seafood, satays, and Zanzibarian pizza (egg, potatoes, onions, etc in a crepe and fried). We made it an early night as our friends stayed out -- for some reason the drinking with expats has the feel of frosh week and we tend to flee (lest you think we're some sort of moral minority, we fled to the hotel bar where we could hear each other talk and we could sit. I like to sit.)