Zanzibar Town

We were woken up soon after 7:30 am. with the butler banging on our glass balcony doors. We ignored him: it seemed quite unreasonable. But then I had an early swim as I was awake and was quite hungry by the time breakfast eventually appears at 9.15 to 9:30 am. This was very pleasant and David tried a local dish for breakfast.

He went to pay, leaving Chris to finish packing the suitcases. He came back and said we did not have to sit outside for the next two hours until our taxi came, and that we could have our old room back for those hours, which was great news. We moved ourselves there and enjoyed the balcony. Chris had a last swim . The other six guests were all German and were shouting teutonically at each other in the pool.

At 1 pm the taxi came to take us to Stone Town and this took about 90 minutes, with a lot of major road works along the way. Very flat countryside and not much agriculture in the open spaces.

We checked in to our new Hotel in the centre of Stone Town, and bumped into our new tour leader, Olaf, at the reception desk. He was from Latvia. We then had three hours plus to ourselves to unpack in the comparatively small room with a tiny balcony, before meeting up again with the group at 6 pm. So we went out for an hour's walk around the town. After this Chris tried the shore side swimming pools which had lovely views, but were not deep enough to swim in, so were just suitable to do exercises in. Therefore I had to move to the main pool,l which was not quite so scenic.

There were eleven people in all on our tour and although the company had said that they were mainly British, in fact there was only two other people from UK. There were two from Canada, Bob and Jacinta, one from the north of the US, Carol: a British and Singaporean couple, Derek and Bee Cee, a single lady called Sue she also from England: two men, Josh and Rob from USA and married to each other.And another Singaporean who lived in Qatar called Ching. Plus the two of us. Olaf gave his introduction right next to reception which seemed somewhat stupid place with insufficient seating for it to take place and then suggested a meal in a restaurant nearby. Eight of us in total went to this restaurant, right on the beach,. It was a lovely setting beside the water and the service was good and wee thoroughly enjoyed our meal there which was good value too. Chris spent time talking to Derek . Bee Cee and Olaf . While David was talking to Ching, Sue and Carol. An early night before an early breakfast in the morning.

Yes it is centrally located for visiting Stone Town. But it is a little run down. Yes it is on the beach. But you really would not want to swim in Zanzibar Harbour. From our room, you could (just) see the sea if you stood on tip toe. And the room was very small and dark - nothing like the ones the hotel shows on its web site

The reception staff were less than welcoming. The breakfast buffet was adequate but you could not have called it anything better than that. The two small pools overlooking the sea re too shallow to swim in. And the main pool (mainly surrounded by hotel rooms, can be noisy with screaming children. A notice asks for quiet, but is not enforced. If I returned to Zanzibar, I think I would try a different hotel


Our room as left corner on first floor	The view from our room was somewhat below "sea view"	The smaller pools were too shallow to swim in	The hotel is right on the beach. but not suitable for swimming

Breakfast on a table on the beach	and a drink in the hotel bar	A better drink at The Beach House Restaurant	where also had a group dinner the first night

We had the earliest breakfast which was quite restricted in choice but in a pleasant venue and the fruit and the Danish pastries were good. And also some scrambled egg freshly cooked. We were then ready for an 8:30 am trip to a Spice Garden that did not actually leave till at least 8.45 as Derek and the two men were absent. We feel that Olaf is not too good on prompt departures. We shall see in the future. It was a 35 minute drive in a minivan to the Spice Garden and here over two hours, we were shown at least seven or eight different plants. We had a garden guide in place of Amina, the lady who was our local guide. The Garden guy was easier to understand but told me that vanilla was difficult to produce a due to fertilisation problems: I was confused by this and in the end he said that it was pollination that he wanted whereas to me fertilisation was the same thing. He argued that would imply using fertiliser! I think the rest of the group thought he was being a bit pedantic. But it was a better tour of overall than the one we had had in a similar plantation in India. But they blotted of their copy book by carrying on about all the people who needed tips, whereas we knew we had paid Olaf to look after all the tips along the route. We saw pepper, turmeric, lemon grass, vanilla , cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and maybe some more. At the finish we were provided with samples of fresh fruit and some tea in tiny cups. I bought a tiny container of perfume.

Then back to Stone Town and we went for a walk around the town with Amina, but the heavens really opened like a monsoon and we got thoroughly drenched even with an umbrella and our feet were also thoroughly drenched by huge puddles and streams everywhere in the uneven alleyways. We saw some impressive doors and the cathedral was also impressive. Eventually we gave up as we were really too drenched and made our way back to the hotel where we had a snack in the room and read until about 4:30 pm when we thought it was safe to go out after lots more torrential rain. David had got AI to produce a route to the slave market and this involved twisting and turning through the waterlogged alleyways but we eventually made it to the Slave Market only to find that they did not take cash, only credit cards. So we gave up and walked back to the hotel, but then decided to find somewhere for a cocktail and ended up in the same place as the previous night by the beach. It was a restaurant owned by Hyatt. Here we had two margaritas. At that point it absolutely poured again and we decided we would be better off having a really early meal there, rather than risk walking back in very uncertain weather merely in order to eat at 8 pm. We thoroughly enjoyed this meal and we got back to the hotel after 8 pm, and had a chat with Ching in the hotel reception, We then had a well needed shower before turning in for the night.


There were very few of the old doors left.	They must have been sold off for profit	But we could still find a few	..here and there. But mainly the old	.. have been replaced with modern copies

The spice plantation we visited just outside Stone Town was a tourist trap with guides openly touting for tips. Apart from the spices growing which were interesting, one of the locals climbs a palm tree and sings (briefly). The spices and perfumes on sale here are overpriced by local standards and you can buy them cheaper in Stone Town. My advice would be to skip this tour

We packed up after breakfast for a 10 am start for a trip across to prison Island which is offshore Stone Town. We had to vacate the room at this time. There was some problem finding where to embark on the boat due to low tide. We walked a little way but still had to paddle in the water in order to get onto the boat. Once at the boat, the only way aboard was by a very rusty ladder which had cylindrical steps which my bare feet could not support. I had a problem getting onto it as I had taken my sandals off and rolled my trousers up above the knee. Anyway we set off and it was quite a rolling and pitching ride of about 30 minutes to the Island. I was slightly worried about the stability of the boat. But we got there and then it was a big surprise as there was a tortoise sanctuary with up to 200 tortoises in. These had originated as a gift from the Sultan of Oman, just three of them and they had now grown to 200, but then decreased due to people smuggling baby tortoises is away from the island. We walked on past all the tortoises, past a grand building, now decayed that had been once a restaurant but was now a ruin. And on to to the museum which was in a restored fort.

The return trip was comparatively smooth and an absolute pleasure and we got back to the hotel landing on the beach by about 1 pm. We then sat on a sofa by the bar overlooking the sea and had two fruit drinks before moving to loungers beside the inward looking pool. I had a pleasant swim and afterwards we moved to loungers on the beach and observed all the local life there.

At 4 pm it was time to go to the airport for our 6:40 pm flight to Dar es Salaam: the original intention was to fly much earlier today and catch a flight connecting to the Comoros, but that flight had been altered ( flight altering is common in Africa) and we now had to spend a night in Dar and go back to the airport early the next morning to reach the Comoros. We were pleasantly surprised to find that our flight took off by 6 pm and only took 15 minutes to reach Dar. We were safely ensconced in a somewhat surreal hotel, a Golden Tulip hotel, by 7:15 pm. There seem to be very few guests in the hotel and oddly for a big hotel,, it had no lift. We went down to have a drink and some food outside on their seaside patio. The patio area was absolutely huge but although we got the drinks after 30 minutes or so, no food had arrived within the hour. We tried to cancel our food order but they persuaded us to wait another five minutes and it did in fact arrive. However the calamari I found really tough and stone cold . The prawns looked far too large a meal for me to tackle so I have abandoned David and went back to the room. Will wait for breakfast now!

The island is around 800 m long and 230 m wide at its broadest point. It was used as a prison for slaves in the 1860s and also functioned as a coral rag mine. The British First Minister of Zanzibar, Lloyd Mathews, purchased the island in 1893 and constructed a prison complex there. No prisoners were ever housed on the island and instead it became a quarantine station for yellow fever cases. The station was only occupied for around half of the year and the rest of the time it was a popular holiday destination. More recently, the island has become a government-owned tourist resort and houses a collection of endangered Aldabra giant tortoises which were originally a gift from the British governor of the Seychelles.

The British authorities were concerned by the risk of disease epidemics affecting Stone Town, then East Africa's main port. To combat this threat the island was turned into a quarantine island serving all of the British territories in East Africa. The old prison was converted into the facility's hospital and in 1923 the island was officially renamed Quarantine Island. Quarantine cases would be taken from the ships and monitored on the island for between one and two weeks before being allowed to progress with their journey. The main disease that was monitored was Yellow Fever.

In 1919 the British governor of Seychelles sent a gift of four Aldabra giant tortoises from the island of Aldabra. These tortoises bred quickly and by 1955 they numbered around 200 animals. However people began to steal the tortoises for sale abroad as pets or for food and their numbers dropped rapidly. By 1988 there were around 100 tortoises, fifty in 1990 and just seven by 1996. A further 80 hatchlings were taken to the island in 1996 to increase the numbers but 40 of them vanished. The Zanzibar government, with assistance from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (Now known as World Animal Protection) built a large compound for the protection of the animals and by 2000 numbers had recovered to 17 adults, 50 juveniles and 90 hatchlings. The species is now considered vulnerable and has been placed on the IUCN Red List by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. More tortoises, mainly juveniles, continue to be brought to the island from other locations for conservation. There is a dedicated foundation on the island which looks after the tortoises' welfare.


A long excursion to Prison Island.	30 minutes boat ride		A walk across the sand bar on the island

It was never actually used as a prison	The British just thought about using it and never did	An interesting sign in a muslim country	The island has seen better days in the past

The main draw today is Aldabra Tortoises conservation	There are around 100 giant tortoises/ All descended from 4	..animals sent as a gift from the British Seychelles Governor	The Boys were quite taken by them

And there was a museum in the old fort	Well restored buildings, but little in the museum		The piers were rapidly decaying

The hotel was specially built, from the ground up, by Golden Tulip in about 2000. In many ways the design is over the top, and would have worked when it was brand new. Now 25 years later, and with lack of maintenance, it looks tired behind the original glitz. But having said that it is an authentic memorial to its founding 25 years ago The service was truly dreadful. We ordered snacks and cocktails in the outside area. an hour later nothing had arrived. After chasing it up, the food did arrive 90 minutes after ordering, but was stone cold and inedible The swimming pool had a great position, but again was not maintained Breakfast was average


The hotel was superficially top of the market ...	..But was now showing its age,	..and lack of maintenance. There was no lift	The pool had a great position.

But again was poorly maintained	Breakfast room was a bit soulless		Every road junction in Dar had a Police armoured car

An early morning start with breakfast at 6:30 am which was in pleasant surroundings but only of fair quality. We had time to wander out to look at the marvelous swimming pool before setting off at 7:10 am for the airport. It was a long queue to check in and it was quite surprising how much luggage all the local people from Comoros had with them. We were held up by one man who seemed to have the kitchen sink with him and even then the hand luggage he took onto the aircraft was quite astounding. We then heard an announcement in the airport that the 10:15 am depart Moroni was delayed by 90 minutes but within seconds we were boarding the plane and we took off not more than 30 minutes late and landed at Moroni just before noon. A pleasant surprise was that we were actually served a sandwich lunch aboard during our 75 minute flight.


But the maze of narrow streets still here	And the Cathedral	with its elaborate front door	and the dhows in the harbour