Living the Good Life: Zanzibar

Hey Guys!

Next up on our Tanzanian itinerary was the island of Zanzibar, as we felt we needed to have a little R&R after our Kili climb. We were still in Moshi and needed to first get to Dar Es Salaam before hopping on a ferry to Zanzibar. We decided to take an overnight train, as I always like to squeeze in a train journey on our trips.

Views out the window of the train

After a frantic run for the ferry after arriving in Dar, we landed on Unjuga (the main island of the Zanzibar archipelago). It was time to relax and slow down to island pace. After a delicious lunch of spicy curried meat, we weaved our way through the narrow, twisting streets of Stone Town. It reminded me of Venice, in the way you could easily get lost in the patchwork, and that was all part of the fun.

Stone Town is also famous for it's doors, some of them are hundreds of years old. The metal spikes are an Indian tradition, and hearken back to a time when they needed to repel war elephants from breaking down the doors.They are now purely decorative.

We had a great roof-top patio from our hostel, and we spent each night enjoying the sunset and sipping ciders. At the stroke of sunset, the night air also fills with the sounds of the call to prayer from every mosque in ear shot. It reminds you that you are definitely not at home.

The next morning we visited the Anglican church and slave memorial. Stone Town, Zanzibar, was quite a trading port for all kinds of spices, ivory and slaves in it's day. The dark dungeon we are in here is an old holding area for slaves, before they were sold at market.

It is really sad to think about the amount of human suffering that went on in this city, as it was a major funneling point for captured slaves from Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya. They were sold and shipped out to the Middle East, India, and further afield. It was more common for slaves in the UK and Americas to have come from West Africa (in the Atlantic slave trade).

The exhibit beside the church did an excellent job of chronicling the slave trade in this area, as well as touching on some modern day statistics. Although very difficult to project an accurate number, it is thought that 30-50 million people are ensnared in some kind of slavery today.

The slave memorial, with original neck chains on the cement figures.

After that sobering experience, we visited the bustling Darajani market. I bought A LOT of spices here, and added over 1 kg to my backpack (.....actually Jared's backpack).

The Old Dispensary, built in1894, was originally constructed as a hospital for the poor.

Admiring the fusion of Indian and Arabic architecture, with Swahili flourishes

This is the view from Beit-Al-Sahel, the former residence of the Sultans of Zanzibar, built in 1828.

Zanzibar was captured by the Sultans of Oman from the Portuguese in 1698, who had laid claim to it in 1499. The Sultans of Zanzibar had declared independence from Oman in 1858, with the help of British protection. It officially became British Protectorate in 1890. Relations were pretty amicable until a Sultan that Britain liked was succeeded by one they didn't. In 1896, it resulted in the British bombarding the Palace and causing what would be known to posterity as 'the shortest war in history.' It was over in 45 minutes. The Brits put somebody they liked back on the throne, and it was business as usual. The Palace was rebuilt, and it remained in use by the sultanate until 1964, when Zanzibar gained independence and joined with Tanganyika (the mainland) to form Tanzania.

View of the promenade in front of the Palace.

Persian baths were another influence brought by the Arabic people, and there were quite a few of them scattered around the island.

By using a bit of your imagination, you could picture Stone Town's elites making their way into the bath houses from the street. There were hot and cold pools (I'm not really sure I could have tolerated the hot pools!)

There are a lot of cool cats on the island. This one had two different coloured eyes. They all seem to have the long face that Nmorange does, maybe he traces his ancestry back to the Swahili coast?

Comparing to pictures of Nmorange, looking for long lost cousins

We had great food that night in the Forodhani Gardens, which is a pop-up street food market after dark. We tried urojo and Zanzibar pizza.

After a few days in the city, we decided it was time to head to the beach for diving and time on the the sand. On our way out of Stone Town we toured Mahurubi Palace, which is where the 11th Sultan housed his 99 concubines. It is a ruin now, as it burnt down at the end of the 19th Century. It seemed a little fantastical when the tour guide said this place housed 99 women (and their children), but I just went with it.

It was right on the ocean, and we went down to a ship building yard where people were building and fixing boats as we walked through. The big wooden boat is the same style that the Sultan would have used to sail back to Oman to visit his homeland.

This is Mtoni palace, an official residence of the Sultan's family where his 'recognized' wives and children would have called home.

After touring these ruins, we went to a spice farm. I had a fantastic time seeing and tasting all of my favorite spices, fresh from the garden. Cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, lemongrass, vanilla, ginger, galangal, turmeric, curry, nutmeg and pepper were all there. There were also lots of fresh fruits like papaya, coconut, zanzibar apples, jack fruit, and a sour little cousin of the citrus family.

We also got these sweet crowns woven for us. We are SUCH tourists.

Our driver dropped us off at Matemwe beach, a really nice, quite place where we could hang out by the beach and also do some diving.

There was a huge difference between the low and high tide, which made for a really cool expanse of marooned fishing boats at the low tide. Locals would head out and try to find octopuses stranded in the low tide pools. You would see kids smashing them on the beach with clubs. I'm not really sure if this makes them more tender or tasty? But that's what was going on.