A Vacation in Paradise

Zanzibar, historically rich, culturally diverse, salty and beautiful; paradise defined.

A few weeks ago (crazy how fast time flies), Cait B and I travelled to Zanzibar for a beach vacation. After a day spent fighting with immigrations in Kenya over our internship visa process, we boarded the plane (after helping a newlywed find his lost wedding ring in Nairobi airport. Heros? I’d say so. Good luck to that marriage 😉 ).

We arrived on Zanzibar soil sooner than anticipated as our flight (ultimately destined for Dar Es Salaam) had a short layover in Zanzibar. Wait, a layover in Zanzibar, but thats where we want to end up?! So…get off in Zanzibar during the layover instead of going to Dar, spending the night in Dar and then catching the ferry the next day, and gain a day on this island? hmmm, guess which one we chose. (little backstory, we talked to an attendant at Nairobi airport, explained our story and she said “well, why don’t you just get off the plane then”….OK).

We thought we were succesful too, made it all the way past the boarding pass check, yellow fever check (neither of which we had..oops. Smile and pretend you don’t understand?) and began filling out immigration forms. AND THEN, we were caught. who knew they count passengers left on the plane, and allegedly were 2 passengers short. ha! shit. So after a short discussion (maybe more of a heated altercation), and a threat of bringing the cops into it..we were back on the plane. Headed for Dar.
PRO TIP: don’t try to dip a plane at the wrong destination. You might get arrested, black listed, deported etc etc etc.

We landed in Dar, got to a hotel, booked a domestic flight from Dar- Zanzibar for the next morning and laughed about our escapades. What a day. If you don’t like some excitement, I don’t recommend traveling with the Caits.

We arrived in Zanzibar the next day after a delayed flight on quite possibly the smallest plane used for commercial transportation. There were benches for seats, like van style benches, and the “co-pilot” was a fellow passenger (sternly instructed not to touch anything before takeoff). We arrived at our hostel in Stone Town sweating, ready to hit the ocean and begin our vacation. Exploring Stone Town and being in a extremely touristy environment was interesting and mesmerizing. You could wear what you wanted, get lost without being terrified and blend in well with all the other mzungus. It was new not being a rare mzungu, but boy did you get mzungu deals.

Zanzibar has a rich historical background so for those who don’t know it, I will give a brief description(to the best of my knowledge), because it is quite a fascinating topic.
– Zanzibar was heavily involved in the slave trade, as a main market in East Africa. Slaves would often end up in Zanzibar, after a long brutal journey across Africa, before being sold and/or taken off to Americas etc. This is evident across the island, with historical museums and tours offered throughout the old slave market and houses.
– Zanzibar was also a main trading hub for spices, sugar and goods between Asia(India), Europe and the Americas, giving it an international spotlight and cultural diversity as people settled.
– The cultural diversity was also affected by the establishment of various different peoples throughout history. What started as a Portuguese and Christian settlement, turned with a Muslim/Arab Omani overthrow, which was soon also settled by the British and used as a port into mainland Africa. With this diversity and history, there remains some evidence of each story and background within Zanzibar.

Stone Town is a city with narrow streets, or alleys rather, known for this rich history, culture, spices, and magnificent doors.  The doors of Stone Town are aesthetic masterpieces in themselves, however it is the rich history built into each of these doors that brings the real intrigue and mesmerization. Each door was uniquely built and holds evidence of its Arab(Arabic inscriptions from Quran), Indian(brass studs, once used to protect from elephants) or Swahili (simple wooden carved doors) cultural roots, the profession(chains engraved for slave trader, waves for fisherman, vines for spice trade etc), the religion to which the homeowner belonged, flowers for the number of people in the household and the overall social structure of Stone Town. Each door tells a story, and its fascinating.

While in Stone Town you can spend days just wandering these alleys, studying the doors and the architecture within the streets. However, you can also spend days perusing the hundreds of vendors selling their tourist souvenirs, or find a rooftop to spend happy hour, we did it all.

While in Stone Town we also visited the night food market, where vendors lay out their catch of the day and different food items for you to pick from. You indicate what you would like and they prepare it, cook it, and serve it to you right there. Zanzibar and this market is famous for Zanzibari Pizza, which is made almost like a panzerotti, with whichever toppings stuffed inside dough, and fried in front of your eyes. It was delicious!

We also went scuba diving out of Stone Town, taking a large wooden boat out to our underwater safari. The reefs were beautiful, the water clear and the fish aplenty. Between the streets and water of Stone Town, we were loving vacation so far. But on we went via local dala dala (Tanzanian Matatu or mini-bus) across the island to the east coast and the beach paradise of Paje.

Paje was unreal; beautiful white sand beaches, turquoise water and relaxed beach vibes. Here we relaxed, swam, enjoyed local beers on the beach, chatted with the Masai men haggling tourists on the beach, and enjoyed the warm, sunshine, salt life.

However this wasn’t enough for some(Cait B) who wanted nothing more than to see dolphins, soo she rented a scooter for the day and somehow I ended up on the back of that thing. It took me a solid 5 kms at least before I caught my breath and realized it wasn’t a death wish riding this scooter with her. Off we went, bombing down the island, honking our dorky horn at passerby and waving at locals as they laughed. We made a quick stop at Jambiani beach where we found picturesque dhows resting on the sand. On we continued down the island and  ended up at the most southern point of the island and off we went into the ocean to find some dolphins. News flash, no dolphins were found and back we headed on the scooter to Paje.

The next day we took another dala dala north to Pingwe, riding in the front seat, getting hit on by the driver and declining his kind request for my phone number. We thought Paje was beautiful,  but Pingwe took our breath away. It is situated on the tip of Chwaka Bay where you can watch both the sunrise and sunset, and it is absolutely magnificent. I have never seen a beach or a view quite like that. The tide rolls out for kilometres, the sand is a stark white in contrast to the clear turquoise blue of the shallow waters and the darker blues of the deeps and sky. I could have floated there for days, but with that sun and reflection of the waters…I would have been burnt to a crisp.

We spent the rest of our vacation here, in Pingwe. Our hostel turned out to be a wonderful experience. It was run by a young Italian man who cooked us Italian meals of pasta, bruschetta and more pasta, entertaining us all the while with his life stories(his former job was a fashion/wedding dress consultant??). The hostel also had a foot-pool table where you played pool with your feet using soccer balls, and a swimming pool. Highly recommend Zeru Zeru hostel for anyone going to Zanzibar.
We also experienced lunch at the famous restaurant The Rock, a very unique restaurant literally built on a rock offshore. The downside was its tourist target and mzungu prices, but it was a wonderful place to watch the tide roll in and the locals move their boats accordingly.

From here we returned to Stone Town for a last night before leaving. We explored the alleys one last time, enjoyed lunch at a local style restaurant (Lukmans), relished a last Zanzibar sunset on the beach, watched the acrobatic boys put on a show and enjoyed some delicious Italian pizza on our hostel balcony.

Travelling back was sad, its always hard to leave a tropical island. Zanzibar was a beautiful dream, just reiterating my absolute love for warmth and the sea. I need to find myself an island home.
After our previous escapades we tried our best to hide or blend in at Zanzibar airport, not wishing to be imprisoned on recognition, and boarded our plane to dar without a hitch. From here we caught our flight to Nairobi, but not before stopping over in Zanzibar……almost contemplated abandoning plane again 😉

Back to work we go…

The Happier Traveler 🙂