TANZANIA II: OFF TO THE COAST

After several days of spotting wildlife (see part1: https://www.carry-on-tour.com/tanzania-part1/), we were longing for some new activities. We said our goodbyes to my brother who flew back to Switzerland and got us on a plane to Zanzibar. To our surprise, even in the airplane, the cabin crew was not wearing any masks, but otherwise, the flight was quick and uneventful. The airport in Zanzibar was pure chaos as our plane landed at the same time as two Russian machines. We eventually found our luggage in a half-opened door after the ground staff pointed us to the wrong belt.

ISLAND LIFE IN ZANZIBAR

We decided to stay in a cheap hotel in Stone Town for the first week. While the temperature hovered around 35 degrees the moisture made every move a sweaty affair. New years eve we spent in a nice tapas bar but refrained from going partying due to the lack of social distancing.

Why bother buying paint, when you can buy drapes?

Enjoying a coffee in the tower of the Zanzibar Coffee House

In the first couple of days of the new year, I finally got to do the PADI Open Water Diver Certificate after getting the required medical paperwork. Carole joined me on the dive boat for a snorkelling trip. The corals and fish east of Stone Town were absolutely fantastic. We also attended a lovely Taraab concert, where one can not only see the Arab influence on Zanzibar but also hear it. On another day we explored the local spice farms.

On the dive boat. The wooden construction was really shaky but it managed the waves just fine.

During the spice tour the guide showed us a natural lipstick.

And up he goes to grab a coconut while singing a catchy tune.

The spice tour was definitly a touristy affair. But we enjoyed it nonetheless.

Our last stop before heading to the northwestern town of Matemwe was the slave market which was a sobering experience. The way of life and the disregard for the slaves seems unthinkable and yet slavery continues to exist in the modern-day. The museum itself was very well done having large panels that gave both a good overview and in-depth knowledge using witness accounts.

Cathedral in Stone Town with the mosque in the background. Nowadays Zanzibar is a clearly muslim island.

To cross over to Matemwe we were picked up by the hotel owner’s sister who was on a shopping spree in Stone Town. From the hotel, we went straight to the beach and were stunned: a white sandy beach as far as you could see with turquoise, calm water. Just beautiful! We actually had a bit of a mix-up with the reservation dates (booked for the wrong month) so we had to change the hotel in Matemwe and stayed in the even more luxurious Tamani Village for three nights. This hotel was a bit more expensive, but all profits go to the funding of a local school. I did the third and fourth dive of my PADI certificate but the rest of the time we just relaxed, walked along the beach to one of the restaurants or chilled at the hotel pool.

The white beach looked like straight out of a marketing brochure.

We were keen to take the slower but cheaper Dalla Dalla from Matemwe to Paje which is on the south-east coast of Zanzibar. In the end, a taxi driver persuaded us with a good price that probably saved us three hours. Paje is a paradise for kitesurfers and attracts a lot more and younger tourists than Matemwe. We had planned for three nights but stayed for seven nights, being busy with kiting and enjoying the lodge vibe of our accommodation. Every night, a different hotel in Paje hosted a party but we skipped these for obvious reasons (Corona…) until it was our hotel’s turn. We expected a small gathering and some music played from a Spotify playlist. Well, we were wrong. Seems that all the other tourists didn’t care about the virus. It was a proper party with a live band, DJ, crowded dance floor, fire show, and so on. We did our best to enjoy the music and danced with some distance from the crowd.

Time to kite. Quick recap and off we go.

There were a ton of kiters. Luckily the place I rented was at the south end of the beach where it was less crowded and rentals were much cheaper.

A male red colobus monkey settled on the lodge ground. Unfortunatley it didn’t take long until people started taking selfies and giving him snacks. He was super cute, but at the same time it was depressing how quickkly he got used to people. A disaster waiting to happen…

The fish for the party. There was also a huge sword fish.

Back in Stone Town, we went for another diving trip, this time to Bawe Island and the Great Northern Wreck. After three weeks in Zanzibar, it was time to say goodbye to the laidback island vibe and get back into the hustle and bustle of the mainland. Getting a ferry to Dar es Salaam was fairly easy, we booked them online and had to pick the tickets up on the morning of the ride.

MEETING FELLOW TRAVELLERS

We chose the most economic accommodation that had an AC (very important with temperatures never going below 25°C) and ended up in a very non-touristy part of the city. In fact, it was the only hotel in that area but it was still safe because everyone knew that tourists belonged to this hotel and a lot of residents benefitted from them. This hotel seemed to attract long-term travellers so we had lovely discussions with people from all over the world.

The village museum was created to represent the different tribes of Tanzania. While the museum needs a bit of a refresh it was interesting to learn about the different ways of life (incl. how many wives they marry :-)) and the different types of houses.

Our local chapati and chicken shop near the hostel.

THE MOST RIDICULOUS PROCESS TO GET COVID TESTED, EVER

Then it was time to get the COVID-19 PCR test to travel onwards to Kenya. We wanted to take the test in Dar es Salaam and then take the bus towards the border with a stop in Tanga. There is the Public Health National Laboratory that offers to test travellers and is actually licenced to do it. Kenya requires a test from a certified lab, we suspect that they had some issues with faked results. So first we signed up online and chose a date and time – although the time does not matter at all. Because once you are at the lab you have to sign up on a list (we arrived early and landed on the fifth page) and wait until your page number is called. That took one and a half hours. Then you pay at a counter and proceed to the next tent where you get a number. With that number, you wait again before proceeding to someone at a computer searching for your online application. One might expect that someone had done that in the one and a half hour waiting time but nevermind. And then you get to do the test, hooray! We asked several employees there and everyone confirmed that we will receive the results via email.

So we got on the eight-hour-bus to Tanga and waited for our test results. In the meantime, a couple we met earlier still waited for their results almost 72 hours after testing and they went back to the lab for enquiries. It turns out that you have to come back personally to ask them to push a button so the results will be sent via email. We were texting back and forth with that couple during their waiting time (yes, you have to wait another hour for that part of the process), already calculating if the bus ride to Dar es Salaam and back is still manageable. Luckily, they were allowed to ask for our test results as well. They just saved us 16 hours of gruesome bus riding and for that, we are ever grateful to them!

Tanga used to be an important economic center and still is a big city. But it all feels a little empty and there’s little to see.

CONCLUSION

In the end, we´ve had mixed feelings in Tanzania. On one hand, we were glad that the country made it easy for us to travel, on the other hand, not acknowledging their own COVID-19 cases made us feel uneasy at times. Zanzibar is an absolute tropical paradise, but after a couple of weeks, we longed for a change of scenery. The people were mostly very friendly and welcoming (not always helping the distancing).