Zanzibar

After finishing Kilimanjaro, we flew straight to Zanzibar, a beautiful island off the coast of Tanzania. Zanzibar was established as a protectorate of the UK (not a colony) in 1890, meaning they continued to be under the sovereignty of the Sultan of Zanzibar. In 1963, the UK terminated the Protectorate, but they couldn’t grant Zanzibar independence, since the UK never had sovereignty. In 1964, Zanzibar merged with mainland Tanganyika, and together they were renamed to Tanzania, a blend of the two.

Zanzibar remains a semi-autonomous region within Tanzania, but it seems like some people would prefer complete independence. Arnaud struck up an innocent conversation with our cab driver, and he quickly got an earful about how Zanzibar is completely different from Tanganyika and doesn’t yield many benefits from being a part of Tanzania. Anytime Arnaud would refer to the mainland as Tanzania, the driver would correct him and tell him it’s Tanganyika. It reminded us of some of the sentiments in Taiwan as well as the recent struggles in Catalonia and Spain.

For us, Zanzibar was supposed to be all about rest and relaxation, but there were still more adventures to come. We arrived at Jambiani Beach hotel, a little beach hotel on the western coast of Zanzibar. It was a lot more rundown than the pictures but, whatever, we’re on a beach!! The next few days were a bit of a blur. During the first night, Arnaud got really sick, likely from the food — he had the chills, fever, and food coming out of him any way that it could. I was in laundry hell — our clothes were completely dirty from Kilimanjaro, and I had to wash them by hand. But it was so humid that they wouldn’t dry and started having a mildew smell. And while the ocean was beautiful, the tides on the western side of Zanzibar are insane — At low tide, the ocean was more than 1KM from the beach, so you really have to take advantage of the high tides. But they are super rough.

And the staff at Jambiani Beach Hotel reminded us of the movie Get Out. They had weird facial expressions, didn’t know whether to smile or not, and were just generally creepy. We needed to GET OUT!

On the bright side, Arnaud now had a new svelte beach body and after a course of antibiotics, felt like a new man. He found us an amazing new hotel, Kisiwa on the beach. Upon stepping into that hotel, we had huge smiles on our faces — this hotel was exactly what we needed. We spent the next two days relaxing, taking walks on the beach and watched the many kitesurfers, swimming, and playing cards of course. The staff was kind, helpful, and far from creepy.

After Kisiwa, May and Sachin had to leave us to go back home — we were sad to see them go after our adventures and many laughs together. Arnaud and I spent one more day exploring Stone town. Stone town is the old part of Zanzibar city and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000. Most of its architecture dates back to the 19th century and has a mix of African, Arab, Indian, and European elements.

Stone town is a maze of narrow alleys, too small for cars, so people walk or use motorbikes. Our taxi dropped us off at the entrance of one of those mazes — naively, we thought we could use Google maps to navigate to our hotel, but we were going in circles so we had to ask people. We spent the day in Stone Town exploring, stopping at coffee shops (highly recommend Zanzibar Coffee House), and playing cards.

With its narrow alleys, Stone town reminded us of parts of Europe, except for the trash. There was trash everywhere on the streets, sprinkled with scrawny kitty cats ruffling through it. Little kids run through the alleys, and we ran into a small group of boys taunting a monkey on a leash. Poor guy.

At night, we went to the Swahili House rooftop for some amazing views of Stone Town. Zanzibar is 99% Muslim, and we heard the Islamic prayers throughout the evening.

Overall, a great mini vacation in Zanzibar. Next stop: Addis Ababa in Ethiopia!