Beach, Sun and Much Needed R&R

After a short, but delayed (again) morning flight from Addis, we only had one night back in Nairobi to re-pack and be ready to be "shipped" out to Zanzibar, Tanzania. I must say when we landed in Nairobi again, it felt very different than the first time we landed here. Compared to Ethiopia, this capital now seemed so modern and metropolitan.

Shortly after achieving independence from Britain in the early 1960s, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation of Tanzania in 1964. Zanibar is an archipelago made up of Zanzibar, Pemba Islands, and several islets and 6° south of the equator. We landed in Zanzibar mid afternoon and took an one hour taxi ride to the resort. As we drove through the street, I was trying to take in the sights and sounds as much as can. The lines of palm trees reminded me of any beach town. Children sat in front of their mud brick houses and waved at cars going by.

The next day we hung out on the white sandy beach, swam in the crisp blue Indian ocean and worked on evening out our spotty farmer's tan. As much as I love trekking through mountain and learning new culture, but sometimes doing nothing is oh-so blissful. We also arranged a snorkling day trip to Mnewba Island area reef. Unfortunately, it was very windy and water was a bit rough, we had to cut our trip short. On the way back, we spotted several dolphins leaping around. I have never seem dolphins in the wild and this more than made up for having to deal with the rough sea.

Zanzibar's other must see is the magic of historic Stone Town. It is said to be the only functioning ancient town in East Africa. Needless to say, I didn't mind cutting my lazy days a little short to check out this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first place we wanted to check out was the Anglican Cathedral. The church's altar stood on the location of the whipping post from the former slave market. Next to the Cathedral was a hostel and orphanage and the cellars below had been slave chambers. The dark and creepy space that one can barely stand up in use to hold up to 75 people at one time. It was unimaginable to fathom once upon a time, human beings were kept and sold like animals.

Stone Town made up of winding alleys, bustling bazaars, mosques and fancy brass-studded wooden doors. We spend the rest of the day just wandering (or getting lost) through the fascinating labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways.

As a big fan of street food, I had to check out the Forodhani Gardens night market. It was hard to decide between skewers of tuna, calamari or even baby shark (really?) or fried plantain, samosa and wash everything down with a glass of sugar cane juice. I finally decided on a Zanzibar pizza, a greasy pancake stuffed with carrots, pepper, onion, minced meat, topped with spices and other unknown ingredients. It was really good and filling.