The beach we stayed at was called Jamiani, and the resort was called Zanzest. Zanzest was awesome. We got to know the owner, Chieron, fairly well while we were there, and it sounds like he just recently bought the place from the person who first built it. It currently only has room for 8 people, so the six of us had the place all to ourselves for most of the time. He is currently building to expand, but only up to around 40, because he wants to keep the small feel. The owner is originally from Australia, but has lived in Denmark for like 20 years. One of his friends, Ebu, also stays at Zanzest. Ebu was born in Zanzibar, but lived in Denmark for 30 years or something, and he's the one who gave Chieron the idea of buying land in Zanzibar.
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| The Banda we stayed in. |
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| The view from Zanzest |
Our first couple days in Zanzibar were pretty relaxed. Mostly just sitting around or playing frisbee out in the ocean. The ocean floor slopes down very slowly at Jambiani. Our first day there, we probably walked close to half a mile out, and it was only then that I was not able to touch. On Tuesday, we went snorkeling. We all originally assumed we would just be going out on a motor boat, but then they brought a traditional Zanzibar style sail boat to pick us up. This boat was awesome. We then snorkeled for probably about 2 hours. We weren't actually at a reef unfortunately (we found out we would have needed to go out at low tide and just walk around to do that), but we still got to see some pretty cool stuff. We saw one lion fish and I touched a star fish.
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| Walking on the beach |
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| Getting ready to go snorkeling |
That afternoon, we walked down the beach to a more populated area. We found one beach side restaurant with a volleyball net out front, and so we played with a few people for a bit. The invited us to come back the next day, so we did. For some reason, there was nobody else there to play with us the second day, but since we were six, we had enough to play anyway.
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| All the SALTers in Zanzibar (It was completely by chance that we all lined up by height. The probability that we would line up in increasing or decreasing order by height is 1/360, for decreasing specifically, it is 1/720) |
On Thursday, we all left to head back to Stone Town, because the guys from Zambia and Tanzania needed to catch the early ferry on Friday. As we were leaving Zanzest, Ben and I calculated we had both gone over 90 hours straight without a shirt on (we were a little proud). We had a good day just wandering around Stone Town. That night, we split up into two groups, but were going to meet back up to eat supper at a restaurant. My group consisted of 4 people and on our way to the restaurant, we ran into the guy who had showed us to our hotel at the Food Garden. He insisted that we get some food, and so we decided to get some appetizers, but then he ended up ripping us off. We then proceeded to meet up with the others at the restaurant and ordered something cheap. It turned out that Chieron, the owner of Zanzest, also needed to be in Stone Town that night, so we had arranged to meet up with him after supper. But, after having been ripped off, me and the others from my group decided to go to bed not long after we met up with Chieron. Thankfully Ben had not been part of our group, because after we got ripped off, I was considering that we go back to Dar es Salaam with the others on Friday even though we had one more day before we needed to leave for Nairobi. But, after we left, Ben talked to Chieron about what had happened, and he said he could let us stay in Ebu's room the next night for free, since Ebu was staying out in Zanzest and that he could also set us up with a good tour guide. So, Ben was able to convince me to stay, and like I said, I am very glad that he did, because our day turned out to be awesome. We met Chieron for breakfast, and he gave us the key to the room and hucked us up with the tour guide. Ben and I were really impressed, since were not staying at Zanzest anymore, so Chieron was not getting anymore business from us, and yet he went out of his way to help us out so much. Our tour guide was great. He showed us a lot of the city and explained a lot of the history of Zanzibar.
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| Ben, me, and our tour guide Hakim |
On Saturday, Ben and I took the ferry back to Dar es Salaam. Now, Dar es Salaam seems to be a very laid-back city, especially compared to Nairobi, which was nice. However, according to the tour guides we had seen and people we had talked to, Dar es Salaam is a notoriously boring city for tourists. So, we mostly just napped that afternoon after we had bought our tickets to Nairobi for the next day. The day ended well though. Ebu from Zanzest is like the music coordinator for Zanzibar or something, and he especially loves Jazz. While we were at Zanzest, he told us about a Jazz event that was going to be happening Saturday night, so Ben and I asked him for the location and that night we went to this Jazz event. I have always been a sort of half-hearted Jazz fan, but this concert made me realize I need to listen to more Jazz. From the conversations we had had with Ebu, it sounded like the concert would be characterized as African Jazz. In fact, at times it almost sounded like Reggae. The group was a quartet of a Drummer, Keyboard player, Saxophone player, and Bassist, and they played about an hour long set with a few vocalists for some songs. Then, they had a jam session, where people in the audience with instruments could come up and play. Ben ended up going up to play keyboard for a couple songs and did really well.
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| The Jazz event in Dar |
The next day, we got up early again to take the bus to Nairobi. Now, at the ticket office, the sign said that the bus to Nairobi would leave at 6am. We got to the loading point around 5:30am, and there were a few buses there, but the Nairobi bus had not arrived yet. Ben went off to the Bathroom while we waited, and a new bus arrived around 5:40. When Ben got back at around 5:50, I decided I should go to the bathroom too. But, I had a feeling the new bus was the one for Nairobi, so I suggested we move our bags over there before I went. I didn't think the bus would leave soon, since the two original buses had not left yet, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to camp out closer. As we started walking toward the bus, a worker asked which bus we needed. Just as I said Nairobi, the new Bus started pulling out. The worker immediately turned around and started running after the bus, and we followed behind. (Now, I would like to point out that it was not yet 6, which was when the office said the bus would leave, the bus had barely been there 10 minutes, and the original two buses had not moved yet.) They got the bus to stop before it left the parking lot and we quickly scrambled on. When we sat down, we checked our tickets, and they said the bus was leaving at 5:45 am. We looked at each other, and just asked, "What did we do wrong?" I guess the moral of the story is when traveling by bus in East Africa, constantly be talking with the workers, and check on each new bus that arrives.
That night, Ben and I had heard about a fast food hamburger chain that had a location near our guest house, so we decided we would get our supper there. Maybe I just haven't had a hamburger for a while, but these hamburgers were delicious. Also, the fries were just like they are in America (here, they are normally soft, instead of crispy) which was wonderful. The next day, Monday the 23rd, I traveled back to Migori.
As I am posting this blog post, I am preparing to go on a 3 day Safari to the Maasai Mara. Let's just say I'm having a great month, haha. My next post will probably about the Safari (hopefully with lots of pictures).
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