Zanzibar - Part 1

Our first six days in Tanzania were a bit like the creation of the earth - our house is a work in progress, and each day we accomplished something major. The first day it was acquiring food, and the implements for cooking and eating it. The second day was bedding, and cleaning materials, the third day a bank account etc. So on the seventh day, we felt the need for a bit of a rest, and without a car (at least one that we could drive) we decided to take off on the ferry for Zanzibar....

Here is a bit of the greenery by the ferry terminal in Dar. It doesn't really give the flavour of the place - the bustling, jostling people, the smells of diesel and fish, but we did get to enjoy it for quite a while waiting in line...

Entering Zanzibar harbour - the view out the very misty window. There were many fishing boats like this as well as dhows - the traditional Arab vessel. In the background is the "House of Wonders" - home of the National Museum of Zanzibar which we visited the last day. It's most interesting exhibit was about Princess Salme, the daughter of the Sultan in the 1800's who shocked everyone by getting pregnant and running off to Europe to marry a German businessman. She lived to write a book about her experiences and about growing up as an Arabian princess...

We stayed in a very nice, kind of colonial style hotel with traditional Zanzibari furniture.

So, we actually did have gin and tonics on a balcony overlooking the sea for our birthdays...just not in Tanga as we had hoped. This place was a very good substitute. We were actually lucky to find anywhere serving alcohol at all, as we neatly timed our arrival with the first day of Ramadan. As Zanzibar is 98% Muslim, most restaurants and bars were closed for the month, with the exception of a few who opened in the evenings. Luckily our hotel bar, being solidly British colonial, was open all the time, and even knew what a gin and tonic was!

Note the modestly dressed Molly - there were polite notices pasted all over town (in English) asking visitors to please dress modestly (cover shoulders) and refrain from eating and drinking in public places. Most of the backpackers and other tourists completely ignored this, and I even found myself forgetting and swigging the odd bit of water in the middle of the street.

Stonetown, the heart of Zanzibar Town, is famous for its carved doors. Many are of Indian origin, and this type, with the spikes,  is apparently to discourage elephants from breaking in.

While eating breakfast, we had the chance to watch the comings and goings in this Islamic school. It appeared that girls were on the top floor and boys underneath, although there was a lot of running back and forth!

The second day, we rented a car - an amazingly casual experience once we had been driven all over the city so that Lars could get a Zanzibari license for a month (it cost $10 and took about an hour). Once that was taken care of we drove out of town, and visited this National Forest preserve (Jozana Forest) where mahogany trees and mangrove swamps flourish and are protected. We had a guide, Shambani, who was amazingly knowledgeable about the medicinal uses of all sorts of plants...