Paradise, Day 3

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  Jambiani Beach, Zanzibar Archipelago, Tanzania
Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Jan 11

Get up, have breakfast, dress in something modest as heading into very Muslim Stone Town this morning. It's all very confusing, my guide doesn't speak very clear English, he keeps turning around because someone phoned him, then Kathryn decides she'll come along, as it's a free ride for her. We finally get there, after greasing a lot of palms (cops stop taxis on the reg, basically looking for a bribe, or so says my driver). Get there, I pay some dude in an alley, then we drive away without him, to another alley, where I meet Omar, my actual guide.

He wastes no time, and I spend most of my time jogging lightly to keep up. We see many mosques, a beautiful Hindu temple, the slave memorial (which, how do people treat each other like this? When you hear sentences like, all children under five were slaughtered, usually while there parents were chained nearby, it makes you feel physically sick, even when it happened hundreds of years ago) and then a few more places, before he deposits me at the zanzibar coffee house as I'd requested. It came highly recommended by Laura. The coffee is ok, but it's the women who work there and the building itself that make it so special. So warm and friendly. After an hour or so, I go stand outside to wait for Omar. While I'm out there, a little girl in a black hijab walks by and when I say hi she offers me one of the peanuts she was eating. I take it, but don't eat it. I still have it though. Then a fat little boy walks by, sucking on what looks like a bag of yogurt, then two boys go by, daring each other to speak to me. One finally does. I reward him with a dazzling, if sweaty, smile. Then a man drives by on a scooter with his helmet on backwards, for reasons known only to himself. Then a man comes over, all friendly like, Hakuna Matata, all that bullshit. When he asks what's up i simply say I'm waiting for my guide. He just turns and walks away. I'll have to remember that for future run-ins, especially when I don't have a guide. At this point, the women in the coffee house tell me to come back in to wait. Am very grateful.

Omar shows and I chase after him again, taking snaps as quickly as possible. I tell him I need sunscreen, so he shows me to a grocery store. They don't have any, but do find some after sun lotion. And chocolate. We race back to where the driver is supposed to meet me, he's not there yet, but a local restaurant let's me sit and wait with them. And I do mean the whole restaurant, who seem fascinated with me (slow day). Then driver shows, we head back here. Put on after sun lotion, smells exactly like after shave lotion, so there's that. Go to Coral for an hour or so, upload some pics of my day, check my bank account (which was interminable with the Internet connection here), then come back for air conditioned nap before dinner. Am now sat in bar typing this up. Dinner was very disappointing tonight, for the first time ever. I could actually drink my chocolate mousse, so not really a mousse. I'm waiting for the evening power outage, but it's late tonight so might just head to my room and read by headlamp if necessary. Spent so much money today, think will spend next two days like I did my first. Walking and reading.

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