Travel Tuesday :: Zanzibar

Guys, Zanzibar is beautiful. I had to open with that statement. Thanks for joining me today to take a trip down to the Island of Zanzibar. Last week, my son, Amarii, took you guys on a tour of Diani in Mombasa which I hope you enjoyed. I'm sorry he isn't hosting todays trip.

So, my friend Taye & I were in Dar es Salaam to do an exhibition of our project, "Why Africans are not United" and decided to do a short excursion to Zanzibar. The speed boat to Zanzibar is affordable at $35 for non-Tanzanians and the trip takes about 80 minutes on those ferries. So we got to Zanzibar and had to find a place to sleep asap. We found a nice b&b in Stone Town called Hiliki (will blog about that another time). Soon I was out on the streets looking for shots and taking in the Island. A friend I met on Instagram, Salum [@delaraystki] was quite handy and thankfully willing to meet up and show us around Stone Town. It is very easy to get lost in Stone Town even for a resident I think. The thin streets and endless corners have you disoriented in a very short time.

Here are a few shots from Inside Stone Town.

Taye

Salum

One thing we kept forgetting to do is eat. I really really wanted to eat Biriani and I kept missing it in the cafés because of getting there late. Biriani is so popular that by 3.00pm, it's finished so you have to eat whatever is left *sob sob*. But our legs were so beat that we just needed to stop and relax for a bit. We even stopped our tour prematurely because our legs were beat.

One thing I was looking forward to was eating at Forodhani (Public Park) because the whole vibe of the place is amazing. They recently did some renovations so the place is nice and has so many places to seat and enjoy the ocean and have a meal. There is so much food at Forodhani from the food vendors doing a wide variety from sea food to mishikaki of chicken & beef and a place with home made ice cream, the list is endless. You will find something to eat at Forodhani for sure. And the best part, free Wifi. Fast Wifi. Since I didn't have a sim card in Tz, I was at Forodhani a lot to chill and catch up with people back home and Instagram. Win Win.

Taye & Salum

I had Maalim Rajab's Zanzibar Pizza which is a delight. It's a remixed version of a crepe but with egg & mince beef as the base filling. Glorious. You can also have it with nutella or jam and what not.

One of the places that was a quick getaway for the view, Wifi and a cold drink was Tembo Hotel. It's by the beach next to Forodhani. We entered the first time to wait for Salum then it ended up being that thing we did once every day. Cool off from the sun with a cold drink while catching up with online activities and Instagram posts and enjoying the view.

Check out Tembo Hotel.

Then I met another Zanzibari Instagrammer, Nasrin [@nazyxo] who joined us to go sunset chasing and to hang out. They said there was a good pier to go check out and I had no option but give in to Pier pressure (see what I did there). Seriously though, on Instagram, check out the #Pierpressure hashtag for amazing shots. It was started by a friend. So back to chasing the sunset. Interesting story here. I was supposed to go back to Dar es Salaam on the 2nd day here and had been told that the ferry leaves at 4pm. I went to buy a ticket at 3.00pm and was told that the last ferry was leaving at 3.00pm. Yikes. Salum told me I could get a flight back to Dar at 9pm for $65 which I was ok with so I relaxed. When we got to the airport to buy a ticket for later, they said there were no flights that night. Yikes. Bear in mind that Salum is a pilot so he can't lead me astray here.

I called the guest house I had slept in to see if my room was free but they said it had already been taken. Yikes. The sun was setting now so we decided to go to the Pier and shoot and at least make the night worth it before going to find somewhere to sleep. I was very ok with that plan.

Nasrin

After shooting this Salum's family graciously hosted me in their home which I was so grateful for. So we had dinner at Forodhani and headed home.

Zanzibar is a magical place and extremely beautiful. I was there for only 2 days. Imagine that. I definitely have to go back and stay longer. Shoot & explore more. For now,  am just happy I got the chance to visit Zanzibar and I hope you get one too sometime.