Paradise - in a surprising way

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  Jambiani, Zanzibar Archipelago, Tanzania
Thursday, June 30, 2011

We got picked-up at our hotel in Stone Town by the owner of our hotel in Jambiani, The White Sands Bungalows' hotel. There was Eddy smiling waiting for us at the arranged time. The drive took around 45min to 1hr. We drove through some little towns, some markets on the road, looking at the overloaded trucks used as public transport. We chose White Sands Bungalow, which is run by an Arabic Muslim, over a German Bungalow, this because of the great experience in hospitality we had in Dubai and Oman. When we arrived to the place we entered like a little town, passed an Islamic school, a one room supermarket, some local houses, and behind, just before the beach, there we were at the hotel! We got offered a room with two beds with no direct view on the beach… Eddy saw our faces and immediately offered us the room with sea view and a double bed, we were happy with that one. The bathroom was basic, but working, and the view is just amazing! We checked-in with Hassan, who is in charge of the customers, and a bit of administration, he asked us to pay the 7 days in advance, which we didn’t like, so we offered to pay after 3 days and then after 4 days, he agreed with that. We arrived at around 3.30pm and had a walk on the beach, the tide was high at some parts of the beach; we saw some other hotels and were very happy with our choice, basic, but with the very best view and directly at the beach. We came here to relax and the landscape is just amazing! We had our dinner as we would stay the 7 days full board. Internet was not installed yet, so we installed it together with Eddy, and it worked excellent, except of the daily electricity short cuts that take one hour two or three times a day.

Every morning it was just impressive to see the sunrise from the bed through our window. Just paradise! At around 8am the water goes back and the beach increases by at least 1000mt. We went for a walk and saw local women in their nice dresses in the sea collecting sea weed to transport it to Japan. The sound of the wind, the landscape, the white powder sand, everything is so unique here! In front of the beach there is a small forest where red colobus monkeys have their breakfast around 10-11am. We were lucky enough to be there at the peak breakfast time.

We asked for the spicy tour and Eddy offered to come with us, he had a family reunion on Saturday and on Sunday we went to the spicy tour with him and with his brother who stayed for a short holiday in the bungalows. It is amazing to see how fruitful the soil here is, you can actually leave any seed in the soil and it grows! There are mangos, oranges, bananas, coco-nuts, passion fruit, durian, pepper, vanilla, and so much more growing wild, without being actually used for commercial purposes, people here live by the day, as they do not need to care about food tomorrow; well, food is waiting hanging from the tree, or in the sea.  We had a great time! Eddy treated us as family, helped us bargaining and buying stuff, he actually even bought it for us, gave us to try every fruit we would see on the road, and took us to the tastiest restaurant in Stone Town. It was such a great day! We could not explain ourselves how we had deserved so much kindness!

The next days we enjoyed the sunrise, the sea, the fresh water, walking on the sand, discovering shell fish, octopuses, sea weed, chatting to people, playing with children, looking at them as they hypnotized me together with the landscape. Then Eddy asked us if we would like to go for a day trip to the north of the island, together with his brother, we were happy to join, and it turned again into a fabulous day. Eddy took us to the north point of the island, where there was an aquarium of sea turtles, we could feed them and play with them, I even got suddenly a python around my neck. We did shopping along the road, the car driver took us to say hello to his family, and we saw rice fields, doors and furniture carving workshops, people selling fish, fruits, shell fish, children going back from Islamic school; we also visited Nyungwe, the most developed part of the island, with all-inclusive hotels, we expected a town in our western terms, but there are the hotels at the beach front, a big school, and a couple of houses, not really a town. We went again to Stone Town to that great local restaurant and then came back to our bungalow very tired, after enjoying such a good day!

Zanzibar is a paradise of a different kind, its people are kind of used to tourism, but do not really know yet how to make the best out of it, they do not have a lot of resources other than natural, just as a computer and a printer at home, they rely on the daily work for the daily bread. The beach is so unique, as from 8am to 2pm it extends for 1 km, and during this time of the day you can see all the women collecting sea weed, fisher men fishing, and children playing, as if they were figures in a painting. This was the perfect place to relax, and the perfect closing to our Africa experience.

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Monkeys having breakfast at the beach

Feeding the turtles

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