Places with cool names... Zanzibar (Pt 1 of 3)

Where do we start... zanzibar... zanzibar... zanzibar...

zanzibah.. ha.. (sung to the tune of van halen's Panama) is a small island off the coast of Tanzania surrounded by warm tropical waters and bleached white sands. Whilst it has it's fare share of million dollar fancy resorts (like anywhere with a stretch of decent coast these days), it also has a myriad of small out of the way places that are full of the most laid back, easy going locals you could find...

George and I were hoping for a relaxed easter, and came armed with a stack of books to lie on the beach a read... Flying from Lagos, you have to detour through Nairobi, and although the town had been besieged by riots and a little ethnic cleansing in recent days, we hoped to catch up with journalista extraordinario Katharine for a few days... Turned out she had to hold down the Associated Press fort in Lagos for the exact week we would be in East africa (so we borrowed her key and were allowed to stay at her place anyway...

Zanzibar is a mix of local islanders, mainland swahili and arab and indian traders. This can been seen in the faces of the people, the architecture and the local cuisine. Despite it's bloody past (the locals rose up over the arab, indian and asian oppressors in the late '60s, killing thousands...)

The capital - stone town - is an eclectic mix of old run-down buildings and narrow streets which allows for interesting views (breakfast at the Kiponda above...)

No one seems to be getting around to fixing up the old places and there's plenty of derelict structures in the surprisingly tiny town. Some are just being held in place like this (above)



Buildings are dark and cool inside, housing many families in small spaces, but the entrances to these dives are still some of the most elaborate I've ever seen, with huge carved mahogany doors (i guess that's the Arab influence)



some of the buildings are so close together you can barely get through - it's really easy to get lost, and you often lose sight of the sun (very cooling, but kinda scary when you're lost)


One of the things Zanzibar has been famous for since the earliest traders came through the area (after Vasco de Gama no doubt...) is Spices. And they sure do grow a lot of them.

One of the things that's a "must see" is a spice tour. Being the organised folk that we are, we hadn't set up anything, but this town is so easy going, at 9:00pm on Sunday night we mentioned that we'd like to do one and the next morning we were on a bus for $10 for the day (inc lunch and a trip to the beach...)
here's our very knowledgeable guide with some vanilla pods...

... nutmeg and mace...

...tumeric...

On our little jaunt around the farms of the tiny island (it's only a few kms long) we got to see the locals doing their thing.

As the island is barely able to produce enough food for it's inhabitants, they're reliant on the mainland for everything - which makes consumables like cars and fuel way too expensive for the locals

even the soccer balls are make do



whether swimming or fishing, unlike Nigeria, most people spend a lot of time in the water here...

One interesting by-product of the Arab (Muslim) influence are the bright shawls that locals wear - often adorned with phrases in Swahili. This also means that women sit side saddle on motorbike taxis rather than hiking up their dresses like in Mainland Africa (I guess the traffic so light here you don't need to hold on with both legs like in Lagos!!