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Trip Start Apr 07, 2010 Previous
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  Stonetown, Zanzibar, Zanzibar Urban/West, Tanzania
Sunday, May 9, 2010

Bloody hell I'm melting, have had a coke, 2 lemonades, bottle of water (1 litre), coffee and a rather nice vegetable biriyani today and still not needed a wee- this isn't right is it? It is so hot and humid- but lovely hotel with air conditioning for 4 whole nights (well tonight we have air con so presume same same tomorrow...)
Anyway after 3 very long driving days through Tanzania,culminating in a 3 hour visit to dar es Salaam (armed guard at campsite) yesterday we caught the 7am ferry this morning (which meant getting up at 4am!!) to Zanzibar. We had a tour of stonetown this morning -the historic pretty bit; our guide glossed over the 60's bloodshed, when the africans slaughtered thousands of their former Arab masters shortly after independance; instead of 'killing the arabs we just marrry them now' he said several times...think it was a bit of a 'make love not war' soundbite, but the massacre must still be in living memory of many of the residents so not sure jokes should be made yet.
ANyway we visited the slave market which is now an anglican church, and saw the appalling conditions and an overview of how the 'transactions' were made; some people thought the building was actually built as a church with the slave market in the basement which was a bit alarming, although I suppose not too much of a stretch when you consider the devastation wrought by the missionaries et al across the continent, but a church/slave shop might have been pushing it too far.
We head north tomorrow for 3 nights on the beach with snorkelling opportunities. Zanzibar only had their electricity supply turned back on a couple of months ago following a powercut that lasted 6 months and am pleased to report that internet is very good here hence the photos I have managed to upload. Am getting badly lost in the old town- some of the group threatened to run away from me as a joke earlier when they finally realised how bad my sense of direction was, but I decided that I could out run at least one of them so should be ok.
Have started reading Tolsoy, think was inspired to pick it up after seeing all the soviet style blocks in Dar...
Right leg- 17 bites, left leg 12 bites- been off the marmite, need to start regular intake again as think yeast extract strategy was working nicely- only recently started getting bitten- mossies hate the black stuff. Also disaster after 4 years I have lost the electric t me to 'deaden' the skin around the insect bite so have been itching like crazy. think I lost it in Malawi, good news though - lost my sunglasses (again) and then found them. Also bought new batteries for head torch and is amazing difference (lost headtorch twice so far...)
Happy Birthday Gary!
Update-  Beach was fantastic- went snorkelling for the day to a coral reef- they all look the same tme, always fabulous-same magical colours and fish, someone said the reef was dead but it looked alive to me...got sunburnt on the way back when we ran out of petrol and had to use the sail, very long time it took in the bblistering heat. The resort was ok, the worst service ever in bars and restaurants, not sure if lazy, stupid or what but like they just don't care- best was when the server tried to give our 3 plates of food to the 2 people sat on next table who kept saying it was not what they ordered, whilst the 3 of us on our table repeated 17 times that it was our food orders unti the waiter finally deigned to turn around and asked if they were ours!but guess you go for the beach and not much else. They were building lots more rooms in our resort and locals were working day and night, with minimal health and safety equipment like adaquate lighting, considering they were operating some hefty equipment, women were carrying buckets of cement down to the site and men were running with empty and full wheelbarrows up and down stairs.
Managed to pick up gastro on Zanzibar and so started antibiotics on return to the mainland....why does it always happen to me- am so careful s'not fair!

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