Stone Town

Stone Town is rich with culture. The first day we arrived we checked in to the Asmini Palace Hotel – which is one of the oldest hotels in the city. We had a drink at the rooftop restaurant and waited to meet with David, who my Dad connected me with through someone at his office in Canada. He came to the hotel with his mother and a friend and we went to a restaurant called the Africa House. This is the place where all tourists went to watch the sunset and have a couple of drinks. It was a spectacular view.

Then he took us for a walk to a small alley between the Sultan’s Palace and the Old Fort where every night vendors set up their stalls and sell food. This was the first time I had ever tried street food and it was delicious. Our first meal was called the Zanzibar Pizza – which consisted of a thin roti, ground beef, cream cheese, mayonnaise, salad, and an egg. It is then wrapped up and fried. It was really good and the cream cheese was a nice touch. We then had loads of mishkaki and ended our meal with a banana and chocolate crepe.

The next day after breakfast I went on a Spice Tour – which is what most people do when they come to Stone Town. Zanzibar is known for their spices. For $15 I spend the morning on a spice tour, had a fantastic lunch of pillaf, roti, and vegetable coconut curry, saw the Persian bath house, and ended the tour at a beautiful beach. Transportation included and well worth it. It was interesting to see what the spices look like before they are ground up, and how they are grown.

That night we went to Jamatkhana (mosque). The Khane there was made in 1907 and is probably the most beautiful khane I had ever seen. The prayer hall had really tall ceilings with intricately designed pillars. They had mirrors on the dark wood walls and carvings that had phrases in Arabic like ‘Bismillah’. We prayed there that night – it was us and above 5 other people.

We went back to eat street food that night – which was actually the night of Obama’s inauguration. They were watching it from a huge TV in the Old Fort and so we went to observe the celebrations. It was unreal to be sitting in the Old Fort in Stone Town watching the inauguration of the first Black President of the United States with a huge American flag that was put up for the celebrations.

The next day we rented a boat and set out to visit a couple sandbanks. I had seen and stood on a sandbank in Mombassa but these sandbanks were different. It was all sand, nothing else. The first one we went to had no other tourists so it felt like the island was ours! You can’t stay there too long cause there is no shade and the sun gets hot.

We had moved to the Tembo Hotel, which is one of three hotels in Stone Town that have a pool (an almost useless fact I thought I’d share).

In the afternoon we did a city tour - $10 and you get a guy for the whole day who knows absolutely everything about Stone Town. We walked through town, we saw the old slave maket, the fish market, etc., etc. We also learned about the famous Zanzibar doors, which is a symbol of status. Doors with chains engraved in them shows a house where slaves lived. Doors with lions and other such powerful animals shows a house where royalty lived. This was, of course, back in the day not now.

On the flight back to Nairobi I got a good view of Kilimanjaro.

Some funny/different things about this trip:

-There was this one road by the Old Fort that we often had to cross to get to the places we were going in Stone Town. They were constantly doing construction and everyone just walked right through it. I was stepping over areas where men were using heavy machinery!

-Our flight stopped in Mombasa and we had to go through immigration on the way back to Nairobi. It was weird enough getting out of the plane right on the tarmac, and it was even stranger when a lady escorted us through the entire airport, skipped security, and took us back on the tarmac to the plane, that was still running. We also had to grab our luggage, talk to a customs guy, then the same lady took our luggage from us and we just had to hope it got back on the plane. And our transit tickets consisted of two old tickets pasted together with scotch tape and it had ‘transit’ written on it in big black ink.

-Everyone wore an Obama shirt, and they would yell his name in the streets as well.

Zanzibar – A backpacker’s paradise

Remember all those times you’d look through the sun destination travel magazines and you’d daydream about those fabulous beaches you only hope one day you’ll step foot on? Well I’ve been there – except it was 100 times better. Zanzibar has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

I took an 8-day trip to Zanzibar a few days after climbing Kilimanjaro. It was quite a difference after having froze on the mountain – wearing every piece of clothing I own! On the island, there was not one moment when I didn’t feel hot. You just could not survive without air conditioning – and we (Sameer and I) were lucky enough to have that in most hotels.

The first day we landed at the Zanzibar city airport and took a taxi to the Pongwe Beach Resort on the Pongwe beach on the east of the island. The rooms were huts located right on the beach. It was a bit pricey but worth every cent. Here there was no need for air conditioning because of the wind. At night you could hear the sound of the waves – which guaranteed a good night’s rest. This was the first of 4 beaches I would discover in Zanzibar and already I felt like I had found the perfect beach!

Pongwe was very very quiet and there wasn’t much to do so you wouldn’t last more than a couple of days. The second night we stayed at a hotel next door – Queen Sheba Hotel – as it was half the price and had much better food. I think I had coconut prawn curry at least 3 times in two days. Coconut curry is a specialty of Zanzibar –and they do make it just right.

On the third day we made it up to the north of the island to a resort called Kendwa Rocks. It was a backpacker’s hostel and our room was again a hut just about 100 meters from the beach. Here there were a lot more tourists. Kendwa has the best beach on the entire island. I have never seen anything like it. You would think most beaches are the same but this one just doesn’t compare to anything. The sand is white and soft – it feels like air when you hold it in your hand. The water has the most rich turquoise colour and it is so clear as there was hardly any seaweed. It truly was a backpacker’s paradise.

For $35 a night I lazed around on the best beach, ate great food, met some interesting people, had a room where I could watch the sun set, and it had airconditioning – you can’t beat that!

One of the two days that we stayed there we decided to try snorkelling – which was not a good idea. At this time of the year there is a lot of wind so the waves are enormous. I jumped off the boat and within 20 minutes I gave up and headed back to the boat –which had drifted pretty far away. It felt like it took me ages to swim back and I was so out of breath I thought I was going to drown. I didn’t leave the boat again till we got to shore. Not exactly fun.

Another day we took a boat up to Nungwi beach, which we had heard was also really nice and not too far. Nungwi is at the north tip of the island. It turned out to be pretty spectacular. We took a walk around the local village and up to the lighthouse where we took a tour of the sea turtle conservation pond. These are where the sea turtles who have been injured because of fisherman get sent to get better. I was able to hold a small one and also feed some in the pond that were gigantic!

By the time we got back to the beach it was lunchtime, and so we treated ourselves to lunch at this fancy hotel. On this part of the island it’s hard to get anywhere on your own, and our boat wasn’t coming back till 4, so we had a few hours to kill. We paid $8 to use the hotel’s pool, which was on the beach as well. Well worth it.

On the 5th day we travelled to the southeast to a beach called Paje. My Dad had connected me with a gentlemen in Zanzibar who then connected me with someone who worked at a diving school at Paje beach so we were to stay with them. Turns out this guy’s partner went to high school with Sameer – what a small world.

The beach wasn’t as fabulous as Kendwa, and I think by then we were a bit exhausted from – well – doing nothing really. Paradise can get boring too after a while. So we headed to Stone Town the next day.

Kilimanjaro - Day 5 – January 7th

Today we hiked from Horombo to the gates. It was much faster going down but after four days of exhausting ourselves it was very difficult. The problem is, your muscles are so tired that one slip could turn in to a disaster. I slipped a couple of times and luckily a guide was behind me to help me up. We stopped for lunch but other than that we all went at our own pace, without stopping, to get to the gates. On the way down I heard someone say ‘I just want to get off this damn mountain!’.

I also saw a woman with one leg and crutches climbing up! I have a very good feeling that she made it to the top. The thing is, this climb is more about having will power than it is about being physically fit. You can’t give up mentally or your body will quit on you. That, and drinking enough water.

At the gates we got together with all the porters and guides, we also met the chef who cooked all our meals. We had a chance then to give them tips and take some pictures. I still can’t believe how hard these people work. Stanley, who originally thought I was 13, and is a grandfather, has been to the peak over 200 times. I hope to make it once in my lifetime!

I took the best shower of my life back at the Moshi Inn and then we headed to one of Masi’s friend’s houses where we ate a delicious dinner and passed out.