Vacation in Zanzibar

After seven grueling days climbing Kili, a beach vacation was in order. We spent a night at the country home of our Tanzanian friends who had guided us up the mountain, then set off for our island getaway via the eight hour, surprisingly comfortable Dar Express bus. Because the two hour ferry to Zanzibar only leaves in the morning and early afternoon, after our bus ride from Moshi we had to spend a night en route in the port city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city. Contrary to its Arabic meaning, “house of peace,” Dar’s streets are bustling, dirty and generally unsafe, with a few good restaurants but not much to write home about. However, it was my first time being in a predominantly Muslim city and as such, my first time waking up to the muezzin’s call to prayer, which resounded reverently across the city limits and beyond at 5:20AM and four times later that day.

When we stepped off the ferry and into Stone Town, the heart of Zanzibar’s main city, we were greeted with sophisticated architecture that blended the island’s years of Persian, Arabic and Indian influences along the main roads, connected by winding alleys filled with fruit and chapatti vendors, tourist boutiques, art shops, and Zanzibari children running to and fro in light green school uniforms, girls with their heads covered according to custom. The island’s rich history includes the arrival of Persian traders in the 8th century, followed by it coming into its own as a powerful city-state and trade center between the 12th and 15th centuries. The Zanzibar archipelago exported slaves, gold and ivory to the Middle East, India and Asia, and imported various spices, glass and textiles. In the early 16th century, Zanzibar fell under the rule of Portuguese colonists, who were soon challenged by the British and then Omani Arabs, each keen on claiming this island paradise and convenient trade center as their own. Through the 19th century, the Omani Sultanate retained control and the island continued to grow as a trade center, but Zanzibar eventually established full independence in 1963. One year later, the party’s ruling faction agreed to integrate itself into mainland Tanganyika (now Tanzania).

In many ways, Zanzibar Town feels more like an Arab society than an African one. Most local women follow the Islamic custom of dressing modestly and wearing a hijab in public, mosques and the Islamic crescent are prominent across the island, and the local cuisine and arrangement of neighborhood bazaars seems to derive from the Middle East. The first day we spent meandering the town’s labyrinth streets, we came across a beauty salon “for ladies only”, where we stopped to get manicures (you may recall that we had spend the previous week without showering…so our nails were looking pretty grim at that point). It was only after we said our goodbyes to the lovely Tanzanian women inside that we realized why the “ladies only” sign was necessary –women removed their headscarves inside the salon.

Like in Uganda, I reveled at the chance to try a variety of street food in Stone Town, as vendors selling falafel, meat and vegetable samosas, chapatti filled with lettuce, tomato and a dash of vinegar, chips, pistachio nut pastries and more peppered nearly every alleyway. But Kate, Suz and I knew we had struck gold when we stumbled upon Stone Town’s night market our first night of arrival. Set up in a large park on the shores of the Indian Ocean, the market is a place where Zanzibaris and tourists alike gather to sample the plethora of delicious food and beverages prepared before your eyes. Grills are lined with spears of barracuda, red snapper, king fish, shark, calamari, octopus, chicken, and beef, each seasoned to perfection; adjacent tables offer coconut flatbread and garlic nan baked in a tandoor earlier that evening, alongside grilled sweet bananas, doughnuts and Turkish pastries coated with powdered sugar; and pizza stations feature endless varieties of savory and sweet options (fresh vegetables, egg, tomato and cheese or banana, sugar and chocolate sauce are a few examples). Families and friends gather nightly on the grass in the open space and benches to sup on these delights, sip a Fanta or a mug of ginger or cardamom spice icyai (tea), and catch up on the day’s events. While Kate, Suz and I relished in trying so many fresh, hot and delicious Zanzibari treats, the best thing I consumed all night was a tall glass of sugar cane juice, extracted via a manually operated machine from stocks of cane surrounding each station. Living in Africa thus far, I have had the chance to try some phenomenal fresh juices, with mango, passion fruit and peach topping my list of local favorites, but in my opinion there is nothing more delicious than the sweet, slightly nutty, full bodied flavor of the juice of the sugar cane plant (so FYI I’m still working on the logistics of importing this amazing beverage to the States, where I’m sure it would become a fast hit).

Before taking off for Nungwi, one of Zanzibar’s best beaches, we went on a half-day spice tour around the island. Because of its existence as a cross-cultural trading hub for so many centuries, Zanzibar acquired a variety of exotic spices from the Near and Far East that have been cultivated and continue to grow in fields across the island. The spice tour took our group of 15 to multiple plantations, forests and even private gardens where we touched, smelled and tasted sprigs of vanilla, nutmeg, saffron, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, clove, lychee, cacao, lipstick fruit, curry leaves, lemongrass, green, white and black pepper. At each stop along the way, we learned of the spices’ different uses both historically and currently, in medicine, perfume, incense, cosmetics, as food colorings or additives and of course to enhance flavoring. Some of the spice plants along the tour had obvious purposes, like the cacao plant’s role in making coffee and chocolate, or ginger in flavoring tea and other beverages. But there was a lot that I didn’t know about these spices; for example, the red-orange dye of the lipstick fruit is what is used to color Indian tikka masala dishes, and the root of turmeric can be used as an antiseptic, to cure acne when mixed with water, or when mixed with milk, to soothe a sore throat. Smelling ginger can help alleviate seasickness, cinnamon root can be used in cold and sinus remedies, and green peppers beans taste extremely spicy. Best of all, some of the spices on the tour even brought back random childhood memories; the smell of lemongrass is exactly like the smell and taste of Trix, the cereal (plus the pink milk at the bottom of the bowl), and smelling nutmeg is like being part of a Sunday morning treat: opening a box of Dunkin Donuts.

To fulfill our mission of relaxing as the antidote to mountain climbing, Kate, Suzanne and I spent most of our time in Zanzibar at Nungwi Beach, located on the northern tip of the island. Home to white sands, green waters and miles upon miles of gorgeous, generally inexpensive and under populated beach front resorts, this place is a genuine island paradise. Even though we visited Zanzibar in its peak tourist season, we had no trouble reserving a hotel room upon arrival and even negotiating a great price. We stayed in a recently opened guest house only steps from the water, the three of us sharing a large, modernly decorated (Pier 1-esqe) room with two king size, four poster beds and a full bath, plus full breakfast daily, and an extremely friendly, accommodating staff….for $15/night per person. (We couldn’t believe at first, either). And not only did we have the convenience of being 2-5 minutes walking from swimming in the Indian Ocean, accessing great restaurants and bars along the white sand, and heading into Nungwi village to buy souvenirs and use the internet, but our guest house also had multiple hammocks and a swing on the premise. After settling into our new place and making friends with some of the other guests, we spent the next several days swimming, boating, scuba diving and even snorkeling with dolphins, exploring the many resorts along Nungwi and Kendwa beaches, eating fresh fish and chips, drinking vanilla milkshakes, passion fruit Fanta and tropical sangria, speaking Italian, Spanish and Swahili, reading, meeting baby sea turtles and a giant python, watching unbelievable sunsets, and when all was said and done, leaving the island with African braids and a tan. Vacation nziza! Zanzibar is waiting for you.





Reference for history of Zanzibar: Fitzpatrick, Mary. East Africa. Lonely Planet, 2006; 128-135