Karibu Zanzibar

For my last full weekend in Africa, Aparna and I went to Zanzibar, Tanzania for a long weekend. We went to Kisumu last Thursday, flew to Nairobi in the evening, went out to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner and stayed overnight, and then caught an early flight to Zanzibar on Friday.

Friday we spent the day in Stone Town, the old part of Zanzibar City. We took a city tour with a man named Farid, who I read about on a travel blog online and was recommended by the blog author and a hotel in Stone Town. He was a character -- he spoke rapidly, knew a lot about the history of the city but rarely gave us information in a chronological order, and scurried us around the town without an obvious plan. He waxed poetically about the traditional dress and kitenge fabrics (worn as a sarong or head wrap) of the Portugese-Oman-Indian-African influenced people of Zanzibar (which included pointing at women in burqas and calling them 'ninjas') and showed us what felt like every single ornate door in the whole town. After 2 hours with Farid, we were hot and thirsty. He left us on the rooftop of the Emerson Hotel at a restaurant called the Tea House where we sat on pillows at low tables, drank beer and water, and had a great view of the Indian Ocean and the entirety of Stone Town. 

We wandered around town on our own after our hydration break, had lunch at Lukmaan restaurant, toured the Anglican Cathedral which is located at the site of the former slave market, and took in the sights and pungent smells of the Darajani Market. Then we caught a cab to the northernmost town on the island, Nungwi, where we stayed for the remainder of the weekend. It was a relaxing weekend -- we walked the white sand beach, watched locals wade in the shallow turquoise water to fish in the mornings and take out their dhows in the afternoons, swam in the pool, laid out in the sun, read novels, did yoga on the beach, frequented an ex-pat bar for afternoon drinks and chips (Beach Baby Lodge), and ate dinner while watching the sunset on the beach at Baraka Beach Restaurant two nights in a row (they had great pizza). 

Here is a selection of pictures from our Zanzibar holiday: 

View from the Tea House rooftop

Old Slave Market/Anglican Cathedral

Basement rooms where slaves were kept prior to being sold at market (this room would have housed 25-50 people at a time)

Memorial to Dr. David Livingstone 

Smiles Beach Hotel

Nungwi Beach

Dhows anchored in the water

Sunset Nungwi Beach

More Nungwi Beach

View of Mt. Kilimanjaro from the plane