Monday October 6, 2003
This morning came early. We packed up quickly, settled our bar tab, and ate our last fresh fruit plate of watermelon, mango, orange and pineapple, and drank a large glass of passion fruit juice before being transferred into Stone Town.
We spent the day wandering through Stone Town without much agenda, getting lost in the tiny alleys before popping out along the waterfront.
The bazaars and markets and mosques were fun and interesting to see, as were the large carved doors that Stone Town is famous for: reinforced with brass to prevent being charged by elephants.
We visited the House of Wonders, the first building in Zanzibar to have electricity, and the Cathedral Church of Christ and the old slave market beneath it, which was pretty sobering to see.
For lunch, we stopped at Blue’s on the waterfront, and had a wonderful seafood meal.
In the afternoon, we returned to a few shops we had made a mental note to come back to. We picked up some souvenirs: a bao board, a carved ebony bowl and figurines, some postcards, and a silver bracelet for me. We retrieved our bags and went down to the ferry terminal around 3 pm to check in.
The ferry was full to bursting. Each passenger had massive amounts of baggage – people were weighed down with bags of groceries and television sets and stereos. I thought back to the 1996 Tanzania ferry sinking disaster, or rather, tried not to think about it. The trip took about 2 hours. We spent the whole time on the front deck, enjoying the views of Stone Town as we pulled away, and later enjoying the company of a school of dolphins jumping around the bow of the boat.
Arriving in Dar es Salaam, we fought our way out of the taxi crush. We walked down to the Lutheran Front Church to try to take a photo, but by then it was pretty much dark outside. We walked a short distance further, then sat down on a park bench, trying to decide what to do next while consulting our guidebook map.
We knew we wanted to find the Holiday Inn, since we had heard good things about its restaurant and wanted to have dinner there. But the hotel was not in the guidebook.
Soon, a well dressed young man stopped by, and asked if he could help us. We tried to say no at first, and when he insisted, we asked how much he was trying to sell his services for. He said the hotel was just a short walk away and that he would lead us there for nothing. As we walked, it turned completely dark outside, and he led us to an area with no street lights. Soon, a friend of his joined us. I was sure that he was a con artist leading us away to be mugged. And just when I thought we needed to get the heck out of there, we rounded a corner, and there was the Holiday Inn in front of us. I felt so sheepish. He was just a super nice guy doing us a huge favour. We shook his hand and thanked him before heading inside to a wonderful dinner at Baraza Bar and Grill: prawn and lobster ravioli in a saffron cream sauce for me, for all of $7, and a curry chicken for Chad at $6.
From the restaurant, we caught a taxi to the airport, and by midnight we were on our flight, heading home.
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