Photo MH

MEMORABLOG: 1.12.1998

Over the centuries, Zanzibar’s cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper and many other spices brought the sultans of Oman across the Indian Ocean by dhow on the seasonal trade winds.

For 15 US$ dollars, a full-day Spice Tour was available. It was said that will introduce us to most of Zanzibar’s spices and fruits, and not only that, we’ll see a few historical sites – old slave market and cave, ruined sultan’s palace, baths and if you are lucky, a few historical sites too – such as the old slave market or a ruined sultan’s palace.

Our tour was by dala-dala (pick-up trucks converted into buses) and included good lunch of traditional Zanzibar food. On a way towards the “core” fields of Spice tours we went past the Livingstone house. This was used by Europeans whilst starting their expeditions to the mainland, including David Livingstone in 1866. Next stop was Mtoni Palace, built back in 1840 by Sultan Seydi. It was from here that the Sultan built and controlled his great African Empire and there were over a thousand people associated with his court here, including the royal family, Arab and Swahili merchants, scribes, concubines, servants and slaves. Well, today you can just vaguely imagine its former grandness. The palace was abandoned by 1885 and quickly fell into disrepair and during was damaged during the first world war.

The exotic spices and fruits are grown in the plantations towards the middle of island and there’s ample opportunity to dazzle the senses as you taste and smell them and guess what they are. We walked through the maze of trees and the smells were exceptional. Lemongrass, ginger, cardamom and cloves were just a few of the highlights. Other spices include nutmeg, vanilla, tamarind, menthol and plenty more… Oh, the island was once the world’s leading producer of cloves (3/4 of the total world supply) and the clove industry was the foundation of the golden age of Zanzibar. Suddenly a short rain came, and we had to hide… under giant leaves… I don’t even need to mention those unknown fruits that we tried on a way…

Next stop were “slave caves”. It is reputed to have been discovered in the early 19th century by a slave boy working on the estate of a wealthy Arab plantation owner. The boy found the entrance whilst searching for a goat which had fallen into the cavern. As a source of fresh water, the discovery was a blessing and from that day Hamed’s slaves regularly collected water from the pool for use on the estate. According to a guide book there is no evidence that the cavern was ever used to conceal slaves after prohibition. Well, stories differ and to us slave caves were presented as a gruesome place “to store” slaves.

However, just a kilometre away is another cave, that was used for “hiding” slaves… Following the abolition of slave trading in 1873, Arab merchants were resentful of what they saw as British interference. Black-market prices for slaves shot up and a thriving illicit trade developed, aided at sea by loop-holes in the treaties and the inability of the British to effectively patrol the whole of the Indian Ocean. On land the trade was more difficult to conceal. So, these slave Chambers were constructed by an important slave trader of the time, to hide slaves in transit from the mainland to the Zanzibar plantations and export further afield.

The day finished on a nearby beach. Nice, and no jelly fish this time All in all, it was a really nice day and tour

MEMORABLOG: 30.11.1998

Prison Island (Changuu) is the most popular island to visit from Stone Town as it is only a short boat ride (about 10 minutes) away from town. Actually, everybody seems to visit this island… The island was in the 19th century owned by an Arab who used it, as the sign says, for housing “recalcitrant slaves”. Basically, unruly slaves were to the island for discipline. Later it was owned by a British General who actually built a prison and it was used it as a quarantine station.

The island offers the largest tortoises we have ever seen, and visitors can take a walk around the island sightseeing the old prisons and various other historical artifacts. That is it… I must say i was a bit disappointed. OK, giant turtles were quite intriguing (they were brought to the island around 100 years ago!!!), but otherwise… So, after a short walk around the island we hit the beach. It was said, that this was one of the best beaches on this side of Zanzibar… well… it could be good, but there was one big problem… the temperature of the sea was just right, water blue, but… we were soon bitten by many jelly fishes… eh, every paradise has a problem…

MEMORABLOG: 29.11.1998

Let’s go to Zanzibar… All I ever knew before is, that is an island faaaaar away with sexy name… Oh, and beside that, Freddie Mercury (Queen) was born there…

So, the our boat was already waiting for us… At first, I was thinking to go with a dhow, but as this is supposedly illegal and as it takes too long (just a few weeks before i saw Michael Palin travelling from Dubai to Mumbai on a dhow), we kinda agreed on something a bit faster… actually, we bought tickets a fast boat, Flying Horse, for 30US$… (two ways). Actually, this was quite expensive, especially compared to what the locals pay… but ok, i will earn (someday in the future – hopefully) much more money than them… 2 and a half hour trip is quite uneventful. Ok, you can feel when we hit deeper waters, as the waves became bigger and bigger, but that was it… To keep us awake and not bored, a movie “Jungle Book” was on… but it didn’t do the trick

Funny, but when you arrive on Zanzibar, you have to do again border formalities… (at first we just walked through, and only after 5 minutes of walking, we were turned back). Actually, Tanzania is almost artifical form. Its an union of Tanganyika (mainland) and of Zanzibar (though don’t ask me whether Pemba or Mafia Island fall under Zanzibar or Tanganyka). But the border is straightforward, they just check whether you have a valid Tanzania visa and give you a stamp (and they check yellow fewer certificate). Unofficially i heard, that this border control is to restrict poor from the mainland massively going to the relatively reach island…

Remember our friend John from Arusha? Yep, he was there with us.. and he immediately offered us a hotel… Narrow street hotel. We checked it, it was great, almost luxurious after spending last 10 days in holes or tents… Two rooms and nice cold aircon device, though it was a bit on a pricy side – 20US$. Quickly i opened the Lonely planet and picked another recommended guesthouse… and guess what? Yes, it was cheaper with 15US$, but luxury devices, as fridge, TV made us splunge into the narrow street for extra 5 US$… (actually, it was not a bad decision to go with that John – he really bargained us a good price – a tout from the street quoted the price 30US$, while in the hotel said 25US$).

And we really liked the atmosphere of Stone town, so we decided to stay here for a few days… Yep, Foradhani Gardens was our open-air restaurant with cooked seafood right in centre of Stone town on the waterfront. Though gardens are not much during the day, but in early evening they just sprawl with activity…

A few next days will be busy…

MEMORABLOG: 28.11.1998

Last night it was raining, so Arusha transformed into Finland – a land of thousand lakes (well, all the potholes were full of water). It was an early start, as this time we decided not to make again a mistake of starting late – so, departure was around 6:30

This time we got an extra baggage… a guy, presumably one of the owners of the safari agency that we went with, is also going with us to Zanzibar… some “business” to do… lets call him John (or was he David??). Thats OK, as he arranged us a bus tickets, and they were of quite lower price than the other way around… OK, bus was… well… different from our first Coach. First of all, there were much more sits in the bus (5 seats in a row), and secondly… there was no TV, despite the name Video Coach…

Funny, but i guess the sits in the front row are reserved for mzungus. So, we got another mzunga for companion for the next 8-9 hours… And that was OK, as she was quite interesting, a stewardes from Switzerland travelling around Africa – alone… This time i felt much better, as people were not so much staring at us. I guess, after almost 10 days in Tanzania we also got a bit “adjusted”…

Trip itself was uneventful. No puncture, nothing really special… Of course, this wouldn’t be Africa unless… There was a woman sitting infront of us (dare I say, “big momma”). Apparently going on some kind of business or just visiting family in Dar. And she had a HUGE bag… Full of roasted fish… and she was constatly eating them, and at the end we smelt like rotten fish

But that was not annoying, just funny… Annoying was entertainment. On a way to Arusha we were watching either film, either music videos… This time we got music… Volume was turned to the max, and loudspeakers were really under pressure… Problem was, that there was ONLY one cassette, and that it was playing whole 9 hours… So, ladies and gentlemen… let me present… BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS…

Damn… i stopped listening reagge after that bus ride… Interesting was, that people will still singing the song… even when the cassette played for the 10th time…

We arrived to Dar just before darkness… Again Jumbo Inn, and a short walk around Dar… but not too much… we decided to go directly to Zanzibar, and maybe do some serious exploring in the last days of our trip…

MEMORABLOG: 27.11.1998

We came late night back to Arusha… so, we have some for planning our future trip. Let’s climb Kilimanjaro… Cool, lets do it… And it hit us… well, guys… basically, you cannot afford it… it costs 500US$+ for just a few days, and you already spent almost half of your budget in the first week… damn… what a disappointment, no Kilimanjaro… Mount Meru is cheaper and lower, but the weather isn’t favorable, and we are a bit not interested to stay in Arusha for a few more days…

What about trip to the west, towards central Tanzania and Lake Victoria… not a bad idea, but we were put of by reports of extremely bad roads and 24 hours trip on a bus… We were even thinking about going to Usumbara mountains, but at the end we reached no decision… So, it was a time for another Kilimanjaro beer and a strange, but tasty pizza in the restaurant just across the road…

At least we had a chance of a tour around Arusha… we weren’t staying in the best part, its kinda doggy, there near the stadium. But we liked it. And the guesthouse was quite lively, lots of foreigners, though encounters with them were brief. Honestly said, Arusha isn’t the place to go sightseeing for a week. Streets are in terrible disrepair and some potholes are bigger than cars… and after rainy day, Arusha transfers from dusty to muddy… At least they had a nice market, where we got loads of fresh fruit and some souvenirs…

Then, we decided to do some trekking around Arusha, towards Mount Meru… We desperately wanted to see Tammy falls (as recommended to us by a friend from airport), but locals weren’t too anxious to take us there… they were mentioning military, ransom, danger, … so, still don’t know what is so special by these falls and why it was dangerous to go there… So, we agreed a day trekking with a local guy, to some native villages, waterfalls…

I was surprised. Just a few minutes from the guesthouse, we were in completely different environment… small houses, african cows and smiling children and fabulous landscape… What a contrast to Arusha, now i could imagine how people can stay in Arusha for more days… We started venturing into the forest, and so close to the town you could already observe columbus monkey in the trees… Great landscape, passing different villages, house and people doing the ordinary business (i guess they weren’t used on seeing mzungu there, as that day trip wasn’t on itinerary of big agencies…). After a few hours we came approached some men, who were, deep in the forest, cooking their own “fire water” – i guess that was a bit on a illegal side. Funny guys, i guess that was for their entertainment and of course profit. Well, drink really tasted like fire… and probably it burned away my liver… they were drinking it pure in large quantities, but i would prefer mixing it with a lot of water or juice… Adi was more daring tasting it, and he almost regretted it

After a few hours we arrived to a small village… interesting stuff… apparently our young guide will marry a girl from this village… but unfortunately he doesn’t have enough money, yet, to buy a few cows to get her… From there we hitch a ride on a pickup… well, the pickup was so full, that it eventually broke up… sooooo… we had to push it… hehehe… fortunately after a couple hundred meters the road went downhill, so we all jumped on… just… I didn’t even think whether the brakes work???!!! Apparently brakes worked…