For everyone, who is too lazy to read the whole post, here is a video made by our great friend Erasmus:
On Thursday, Ramadan end, so we could all enjoyed the national holiday. That means, we got two days off work and could already start our Zanzibar adventure on Thursday! So, Ole, Jonas and me took the ferry to Zanzibar and then a Dalla Dalla to the east coast. Since we will spend the days from Saturday in Zanzibar town, we wanted to see something else. And that was the best decision. Arriving there, we found paradise. It was just incredible: pure white sand, fascinating nature (Mangrove forest e.g.) and the most relaxed people ever. We spent two nights in a nice small hostel called “Sagando”. Life was just very easy and wonderful there.
On our exploring walks we got to know the most funny rasta man called Salvador. He invited us to his restaurant, sold us some jewelry and Kanga (traditional African towels for clothing or decoration). He made pretty good business with us. But we were happy to spend that money since every little piece will remind us on these beautiful days. While we were talking about god and the world he said the best sentence: “I don’t believe in Muslims, I believe in rasta men.” Made my day 😉 We even went on a snorkeling tour with some of his friends. That was amazing! First time snorkeling in the open sea for me. I saw loads of different fishes, coral riffs and the highlight: an octopus. Actually the octopus have been killed during we watched him since these guys were fishers of course and wanted to sell them. Anyway, that was an experience. Alone the sailing with this traditional Zanzibar boat was real fun.
After two days at the east coast we joined all the 10 (!!) people in Stone Town. This city is so fascinating and especially so different when you come from Dar es Salaam. You can see the Arabic, Indian and Persian influence in the buildings, the food and people. Since 95% of the inhabitants are Muslims, the “Eid” celebration was huge. At the harbor, there was a countless amount of food stations, all providing different specialties from Zanzibar. That’s fun, just be ready for watching your belongings in the crowd, being approached all the time (especially when you’re a “Mzungu”) and bargaining at highest level. Most interesting things were: this Cabati Kebab (don’t ask me about the real name, I always forget it), fresh sugar cane juice and small pizzas, sweet and spicy. Also watching people was kind of interesting: the girls were dressed up as princesses and even wear make-up like adults, boys were playing with small firecrackers or plastic guns (I saw even a male grown-up dancing with his plastic gun) and the parents were showing-off a lot.
Eid celebration
Expect of magic Stone Town, we also went to Prison Island. That’s a small island like 20 minutes away from Zanzibar. Beside an old prison, which was never in use, you could meet and greet giant tortoise! And what do they like most? Massage… who not 🙂
Out last night we spent in an amazing club with a swimming pool, pool tables, outdoor bars and dance floor… and the best thing: with more than 20 people started to dance our IAESTE dance, oh yeah 🙂