Zanzibar and Stone Town

On Saturday morning, Donga the cab driver took us to the airport again. This time it was the large airport that we'd flown into from Dulles/London. 

After a little confusion on the correct terminal we checked in and waited for our flight. It was only about 30 minutes late, which we discovered, is the norm for anything in Africa. As Kevin put it "TIA (This is Africa)." Our flight had a stop over in Mombasa and then we were on our way again. When we landed in Zanzibar, the first thing we saw after clearing immigration was the ladies at 3 currency exchange places waving Zanzibar shillings at us and shouting from behind their counters. We chose the best rate and were on our way with our new Monopoly money. We'd just gotten used to the Kenyan shilling exchange rate (78) and now we had to learn a new one: 1300. Try dividing everything by 1300 in your head- not fun. 

We negotiated our cab fare to Kendwa Rocks hotel, which was about 1 hour away. We weren't sure a few times if the car would make it, since it made a horrendous noise every time the driver shifted gears and he didn't help it by flying over a speed bump. The roads in Zanzibar are much better than the ones in the Mara. The only time it was a bit dicey was the last few yards to our hotel. That road was extremely rocky and again, we didn't think the little car would make it. 

After we finally got checked in (there was a little mix up with our reservation b/c they'd put the room in Kevin's name) we were shown to our beach bungalow. All the rooms have names and ours was Mafia- haha!! It turns out that it's also the name of an island off the coast of Zanzibar. We took a walk down to the beach and put our feet in the Indian Ocean for the first time. So cool! It was warm and turquoise, like what you see in the Caribbean. We really didn't do anything the rest of the day except eat and drink. As it turns out, there was a full moon party at our hotel that night. The full moon was actually earlier that week, but they postponed the party to take advantage of the holiday weekend. 

Because there was a party, the dinner was a buffet, which was awesome. Dessert was the best- some kind of bananas with mini doughnuts in a cream sauce. After dinner there was a DJ and an acrobatic show. The acrobats were cool. Lots of fire and ridiculous stunts. However, since we'd been up since 6 a.m. that day, we weren't feeling an all nighter. We went back to our bungalow which was on the beach, so the noise from the party was super loud. We're not sure what time the party ended. Probably around 4 a.m. 

Sunday morning (Easter morning) we woke up and had breakfast. We missed being with our families on Easter, but the view of the Indian Ocean made it a little easier. We really did nothing Sunday: ate, read, ate again, went for a walk, swam and ate again. There's not a whole lot to do on the beach but relax, so it was nice. 

Monday morning we asked the hotel to call a taxi for us at 9:30 a.m. to take us to our hotel in Stone Town, about 1 hour away. Shockingly, the taxi was on time. This guy drove a large van which was much better equipped to handle the little access road to/from our hotel. And this guy drove really fast, so we reached our next hotel, Tembo House, in no time. 

The hotel is right on the water so the views are great. With our hand drawn map from Mackey, we headed out to explore Stone Town. Our first stop was the House of Wonders, built in the 1880s as a palace. The doors inside were amazing. We went to the top and took pictures of the city. It was super hot that day, so being anywhere there was a nice breeze was fine by me. Sadly, the Forodhani Gardens were closed for repairs. We'd read a lot about them in the guide book and had looked foward to visiting them, but oh well. From what we could see from the upper balcony of the House of Wonders, they looked beautiful. 

We spent the rest of the day wandering in and out of the shops, bargaining for souvenirs, visiting the spice/fish market and visiting Freddy Mercury's bar. This is how I got my blisters, but it was worth it. The market was amazing. So many sights, sounds and smells. I didn't enjoy the fish part of it as much as Mark did. In addition to fish, some were selling octupus and squid, both of the fresh and dried variety. I had no idea you could eat dried octopus. I loved all the spices. You could also choose your live chicken there and have it killed for you right there. Mark took some really great pictures of the city, the markets and the people that day. 

The sunset that night was obscured by clouds but the colors were still pretty. That's also when we learned that the hotel doesn't serve alcohol. The city is heavily Muslim, so that's fairly common to find. We just didn't know our hotel followed those rules, too. Not to fear, Livingstone's bar was next door so we headed there for a pre-dinner drink. 

Dinner was at Monsoon, a Mackey recommeded place. The dining room didn't have tables and chairs. Instead it had low tables and cushions to sit on while you ate. You also had to take off your shoes at the door. See the pic, above. We had a great dinner: hummus, veggie curry for me, king prawns for Mark (both with 5 different sides), 1 bottle of wine, 2 teas and 1 dessert all for $45! 

Tuesday morning was the start of a loooong day. We had to eat, check out, and finish souvenir shopping all before 11:30 a.m. to catch our 1:30 p.m. flight back to Nairobi. We got it all done and made our way to the airport. It was super hot again Tuesday so we were dying even that early in the morning while shopping. The airport didn't have A/C except in the duty free shop, so we made a few trips in and out of there. 

Our flight landed about about 4:30 p.m. in Nairobi and Kevin was there to meet us. Our flight back to Dulles via London was at 11:45 p.m., so we had some time to kill. He took us to a brewery that an Indian guy had opened in an industrial park that wasn't far from the airport. It's a large, open space and decorated like a lounge. Very pretty. We stayed there for a little bit and then headed to a choma choma (goat) place that Mackey had never tried but has always wanted to. It was really good. It was served a little different than at the place we went to the first night in Nairobi, but it was great. After we stuffed ourselves, Mackey drove us to the airport. It took us a while to get through security, but we made it just in time. 

We had an awesome trip to Africa. We couldn't have done it without Mackey and all his help, suggestions and guidance. Thanks, Kevin, for everything! 

We'll do our photos this weekend and post the link to them here.