A Paradise Called Zanzibar

BY MARYKE VISAGIE

Zanzibar is perfect for the traveller who wants to experience a taste of Africa in comfort. Hujambo is the cheery greeting that will get you all smiles. There are signposts everywhere, mostly handwritten, and the people are friendly, peaceful and quite willing to explain to you in broken English how you have just driven in the wrong direction for the past hour. Hakuna matata, brother. No problem.

As you leave the comfort of your air conditioned plane, the heat and humidity hit you like a ton of bricks and you soon learn that a sarong or kikoi is all you need to survive here. Besides, you will easily spend half your time in the gentle embracing waters of the Indian Ocean.

Even if history isn’t your cup of tea, a visit to Stone Town is a must. However, if exploring the most recent site of legal slave trade doesn’t leave you intrigued, you should still wander the shady alleys of the historic Old Town and witness the glories of days past. It’s an ironic mix of European and Arabic decor and decay, of sophistication and poverty. But where poverty in other parts of the world can leave you saddened, the atmosphere here is one of gemütlichkeit. In a half-European style, owners live in flats above their curio shop, greengrocer or even internet café.

Stone Town is crawling with “tour guides” who descend on you from every corner to show you the sights. We try our luck with a scrawny youth whose day job is a fruit seller. He takes us straight to the slave monument. This site commemorates Zanzibar’s dark past as a slave market, where Africans were sold to Arabs and Europeans. Where the slave whip once stood, today stands an Anglican church.

Among the Old Town’s claims to fame is the House of Wonders, built in the late 1800s for an Arab queen, and the first in East Africa with a lift and electrical lights. There is also a house built for the renowned African explorer Dr David Livingstone, though it isn’t clear if he ever lived here or not. Stone Town is also noted for being the birthplace of Freddie Mercury.

As twilight comes, a visit to the evening market is a must. Here seafood is aplenty, fried on a stick and piled high enough to  satisfy even the biggest appetite – if you don’t have that delicate a disposition. The colourful fruit market with its piles of gigantic tropical fruit, fish and even a hanging carcass or two is also worth a visit. Close your eyes to the flies and strange smells, everything looks great on photographs anyway.

After two days in Stone Town it is time for the island holiday we really dreamt about. We take the rocky road to the north, to a resort in Kendwa. We are not disappointed. We arrive at a beach boasting the kind of white sands you’d imagine only the Pitts and Bransons of the world get to experience. The beaches are combed every morning and the beachfront is dotted with little thatch-roofed restaurants selling everything from crayfish to Zanzibari burgers. At the resorts you’ll find a grass hut “beauty salon” where you can haggle a US$15 massage down to US$6.

Largely absent from the rest of the island, here on the beach you’ll meet the tall slim young Maasai men with their traditional red costume and numerous bangles, where they hang out with the muscular islanders who spend their days prowling the beaches. The locals call them beach boys. Early morning, when the dhows come back to shore from a night’s fishing, they tone their muscles with exercises on the beach and the rest of the day they parade them, shirtless. A catalogue of shiny torsos.

Apart from the beach boys, Zanzibar is really famous for its spice trade. If you’re into this kind of thing, this is a must see, because it’s a tour where you get to touch and smell.

No Zanzibari holiday is complete without a snorkelling trip on a dhow. The design of this boat hasn’t changed in hundreds of years and it’s amazing how such an aerodynamic boat can be kept together with rope. Even the pulleys are carved from a single block of wood. Book your trip at a kiosk on the beach; every third dhow owner calls himself a captain. Captain Ronaldo. Captain Cool. Captain Mohammed. Our choice falls on Safari Blue, since they serve lunch on one of the small islands strewn across the ocean.

The first stop is quite a surprise. We sail alongside the coral reefs and slip in between two pointed rocks to anchor down in a mirror-surfaced little bay, protected from all sides by the reefs. With an armour of sunscreen we swim away the morning. A few nautical miles further you have the chance to snorkel with dozens of brightly coloured fish that suck at your visor. There are sharks that roam these waters, but the tour guide isn’t worried and convinces us that Zanzibari sharks are hakuna matata sharks. No problem.

On the island pit stop, the guides hand out coconuts. Lunch is fresh seafood from a cauldron, an army sized pot of white rice with a spicy red sauce and salad. For dessert we’re joined at the table by Kwazi, our tour guide, with a huge knife and a basket of exotic fruit. Watermelons. Sweet grapefruit the size of cantaloupe. Jackfruit, a hairy pumpkin sized fruit with sticky flesh that reminds you of banana milkshake. Yellow granadillas. Red bananas. Sugar canes. We eat ourselves into a stupor.

The afternoon concludes with Zanzibar fudge, a gelatinous sweet with nuts and spices that recalls of Turkish Delight, and intense coffee served with Amarula. After visiting a fallen baobab the size of a hotel, we get back on the boat.

This is an island that is, for the most part, truly unspoilt. The beaches are natural for kilometres on end, with palm trees reaching the coast. There are signs of development everywhere, however, with foreigners buying vast stretches of beach to build resorts. The beachfront will inevitably look very different in the coming years. It is a joy to have seen it now, prior to the rush.

HANDY HINTS

• Take US dollars in small denominations, nothing larger than a $10 note. Tipping can become an expensive exercise if your wallet is full of big notes.
• Exchange your dollars for Tanzanian shillings as soon as possible; this will give you more buying power. You’ll probably get the best rates in Stone Town.
• Transport is a big part of your holiday cost. If you are brave enough to rent a Scrambler, make sure you have an international driving licence, or buy a temporary one for $10.
• A dala-dala is a good option for cheap transport. You could, for instance, pay $2 from Stone Town to Paje in the East, where a taxi will cost a whopping $20. The dala-dala service usually runs until 8am.
• Don’t drink tap water. Bottled water with the rather cute (or corny) name Drop of Zanzibar is for sale all over the island.
• Zanzibar is a Muslim society and, especially in Stone Town, it is a show of respect for women to cover their shoulders and knees.  The rules are far less strict at beach resorts. Topless tanning is not allowed.
• The coral reefs are under conservation and one must take care not to damage it with flippers or your hands.
• South African officials demand a Yellow Fever Certificate before they will let you back into the country, check with your local travel clinic. Get the jab at least ten days before departure.
• More info on www.zanzibar.net

For further reading on Zanzibar:
: Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar by Emilie Ruete
: The Wreck of the Zanzibar by Michael Morpurgo
: Stand On Zanzibar by John Brunner