Thursday 28 February 2008

Ahhh... Zanzibar

Not a bad beach really...
A nice place for a nap..

Our terrace at our guest house. Not the WORST view we've ever had.

JB's blue bucket! So infamous there's a facebook group coming soon!


Classic Zanizbar. Dhow. Sunset. Beach. Nice.

Char gets ready for Nemo spotting! Check out the colour of that water!

One of Stone Towns thousands of amazingly carved doors!
Jay Says: After our thought provoking but draining experience in Rwanda and our beautiful but tiring hikes through the Usumbaras (as well as six months of very hard work at the orphanage) we deserved some good R&R time!

So after arriving in Dar we caught the ferry across the choppy waters for 9 days in Zanzibar. Arriving in Stone Town is like stepping into another world. Stone Town is an exotic, rambling and beautiful town full of narrow winding streets, grand architecture, amazingly carved wooden doors and a mix of African, Arabian and Indian culture - all set on the shores of a turquoise Indian Ocean.

Getting lost amongst the maize of winding streets of prayer rooms, carts of coconuts and mangos and smells of spices in obligatory and whilst tourism has hit many parts in quite a big way it still keeps in charm
Tourism has also skyrocketd prices - but we still found a nice little guest house tucked away near a local restaurant selling freshly caught muscles and claims in coconut sauce, or spicy beef curry for 1500 TSH (or 60p) - whilst the posh restaurants nearby were selling the same dishes for 10,000TSH.

After a couple of days in Stone Town we headed up to the North coast for some beach action. We stayed for six days at Kendwa's long idyllic beach of pure white sand and even purer warm turquoise sea. Ahh..pure bliss.

After a couple of nights at 'Kendwa Rocks (named after the coral rocks not its bar!) we walked along the beach to a local guesthouse we had spotted and got ourselves a room with a sea view right on the sand! We shared our guesthouse with some really nice folks - a few brits, three Israelis and a Canadian. That night saw Kendwa Rocks host its renound full moon party. Whilst the party itself turned out to be not that great (consisting only of a crappy DJ and not much else) our guest house out on the best pre full moon party-party. Home made cocktails from local gin and sugar cane spirit - all served in our fellow Canadian's somewhat infamous blue bucket!

The beach was beautiful and the sun was scorching - we had a great time relaxing by the water, enjoying our budget breaking suppers at candle lit beach restaurants or reading books lying in palm shaded hammocks!

We finished the week with a superb snorkeling trip out to a nearby reef. And after Charlotte had recovered from her sea sickness we were treated to some amazing under water scenery and marine life - including, excitably, many a character from Finding Nemo (although Crush was no where to be seen)!

All in all a beautiful place and a well deserved rest! And now we head back to our second home of Uganda for the final month of travel!

Until next time..

J & C xx

1 comment:

Scribbler said...

It looks incredable guys. I hope that you are havin a great month. Looking forward to seeing you soon! Love Helenxxxxx