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March 7

Arusha to Zanzibar

I was already awake when my wakeup call came at 5 AM. Two men escorted me to the bus, carrying my duffle bag. I was the first to report. I tipped the escorts 1000 shillings each, and they seemed satisfied. Loud Christian muzak played on the bus's stereo. The bus gradually took on passengers, and departed at 6 AM. We made several stops on the way out of Arusha. There was a beautiful view of Kilimanjaro as the sun rose bright orange ahead of the bus. A small cloud sat on top of Kibo like a hat. I took a few pictures, not knowing how they would come out from the moving bus in the low dawn light. We made a long stop in Moshi before continuing.

Kilimanjaro at Sunrise

The drive passed through mountainous country with many plantations and villages, many comprised of simple mud huts with thatched or tin roofs. We stopped for lunch at a roadside hotel at 11. I got chips with grilled meat wrapped in a newspaper for 800 shillings, plus a coke. Ordering was difficult until I saw someone with what I wanted and pointed, since I didn't know what it was called.

I had sat on the left side of the bus because I wanted a clear view of Kilimanjaro at sunrise, but this turned out to be the sunny side of the bus, and I began to regret my choice of seat as the afternoon grew very hot. I opened my window a crack, although all the other windows were closed tight. The boy next to me closed it once I fell asleep. People here like it to be hot.

As we approached the coast, the landscape turned to rolling hills with lots of palm trees. At last we arrived at Dar Es Salaam, a sprawling city with lots of traffic lights. We got into the bus station at about 3:00. I was worried that it might be too late to get a ferry to Zanzibar, but one of the taxi drivers who surrounded the bus upon our arrival said I could make the 4:30 departure. He drove me to the Sea Express ticket office, and I got a ticket for $30. I had to pay the $5 port tax at another window, and the driver carried my bag to a waiting room under the stairs at the port. I gave him a $2 tip for this, in addition to the 4000 shillings for the ride.

The ferry arrived just before 4:30. It was very stuffy on board, in the 90's. Fortunately, the ferry was a hydrofoil, and very fast. We made the crossing in just over an hour. There was also a small outdoor deck in back, which was hot but breezy. As I retrieved my duffle bag, a man took it and said he would carry it. I refused, but he picked it up anyway and carried it until he was stopped at the dock. There, I met one of the waiting cab drivers, and we carried the bag together to immigration and customs. Zanzibar has its own immigration procedures, and stamps your passport, even though it is part of Tanzania. My yellow fever certificate wasn't checked here. We carried my bag to customs so the officer could mark it with chalk (apparently his only job).

I told the taxi driver I wanted to go to the Pyramid Guest House in Stone Town, since it had been recommended by Eric on the safari. The driver drove me just a short distance, and then stopped and we carried the bag together through the narrow maze of alleys of Stone Town, where a vehicle would not fit. On the way to the hotel, he told me of various tours he could give me tomorrow. It would be cheaper to get on a tour with a group, but I would talk to him about it.

At the Pyramid Guest House, I was shown a self-contained single room on the top floor, at the top of an extremely steep staircase (easier to descend going backwards, as on a ladder). The guest house was very vertically oriented, with little horizontal extent. The room was quite nice, with a canopied bed, interesting carved furniture, a large, clean bathroom, and a ceiling fan. It looked like a good bargain at $10 a night, breakfast included.

The cab driver told me he would meet me tomorrow at 8:30 to discuss tour options, and I could pay him later - he knew where to find me. I was soaked with sweat from the 100^o F heat, and eager to take a shower. Of all the hotels so far, this one had the hottest water, which was really not what I wanted today. It was 7:30 and dark when I finished my shower.

I went downstairs and asked about restaurants, since the hotel doesn't serve dinner. The man at the desk suggested going to the waterfront, where I would find a number of popular restaurants, including Fisherman's, which he recommended. I was a little nervous about going out alone at night, since Stone Town is said to have some security problems, and I had no idea how to get around. I brought just enough cash for dinner, in case of a robbery, and attempted to retrace the path we had taken to get to the hotel. I wasn't completely successful, and ended up in some darker, narrower alleys than I would have preferred. At one point a woman passed, greeting me with "Jambo", then "Careful".

It didn't take too long to find the main road on the coast - there are many ways out of Stone Town. I saw a restaurant nearby called Sea View, and Indian restaurant which was listed favorably in my books, so I decided to try it. I was seated on the balcony overlooking the dark ocean. The lobster and prawns had just come in tonight at 7, so I ordered lobster curry.

I was told the restaurant also offers spice tours for $8 with a minimum of four persons. Since that was something I wanted to do, I said I was interested. They said to come back at 9 AM tomorrow. The meal turned out to be pretty good. I received two lobster tails in a tomato masala sauce with rice, spinach, salad, chapatis and four chutneys, followed by a fruit plate and coffee, plus a Safari beer, all for $11. I paid with a $20 bill to get some shillings in change. The currencies used here are a mix of US dollars and Tanzanian shillings, with US dollars actually required for certain things, such as paying hotel bills. (This could be inconvenient if you came unprepared, since there doesn't seem to be a way to get US dollars if you didn't bring them.)

After dinner, the manager expressed some concern about me walking back to the hotel alone through Stone Town, because "it used to be paradise here, but that is no longer true". At first, he gave me directions for going around the north edge of Stone Town and entering from Creek Road, past Narrow Street Inn. But I didn't know that route, and he decided to send a young Indian man with me as an escort. He told me there were a lot more Indians here before the revolution, and this accounts for the Indian-style carved doors on many of the buildings. We followed a new route back to the hotel, approaching it from the east for the first time, although the route started out the same from Mizingami Road. I took a cold shower to cool off, and fell asleep rather early.

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