Stone Town, Zanzibar

We returned to Arusha for one more night after the safari and had a lovely dinner with our Kili partner, Ms. Farah. Good food and even better company! :) 

We flew to Zanzibar the next day and stayed in Stone Town for 2 nights. It is a very conservative place and I had to cover up whenever walking around town (no sleeveless shirts or shorts). It was really warm though so Mike decided to wear a sleeveless shirt; he was asked to change later in the day when we went to our hotel bar. We did see some female tourists in shorts, although this is apparently not appreciated. Zanzibar is 99% Muslim, a fact that is evident immediately when you see how the local people are dressed.

We enjoyed walking around the narrow streets, and Stone Town itself is a UNESCO World Heritage site (next on your list Bonnie!). It felt like we were in the middle east somewhere and not in Africa. Zanzibar only become part of Tanzania in 1964 (which was called Tanganyika before joining with Zanzibar).

We had some of the best food we ate during our entire trip there. There are so many different types of cuisine in Stone Town - we tried Ethiopian, Indian and Belgian. We found the local people quite friendly and many would shout out 'jambo',  which means 'hello'. We didn’t get harassed besides the usual sales pitch but we have heard stories of tourists being followed from their hotels. There is a group on the island that is not happy with the influx of tourists and there was an incident while we were there but we didn't even know about it until Farah sent us the news article!We were just leaving Stone Town and heading to Jambiani when this happened. No one was hurt and we felt safe the whole time we were on Zanzibar.

http://news.yahoo.com/bomb-blasts-zanzibar-cathedral-tourist-bar-154746917.html

Local market

Little shops everywhere

We toured the old Slave Market, an upsetting aspect of history. This is where the women and children were kept.

Men were housed in here.

On a lighter note, here's Mr. Sleeveless. 

I never have to search far for a toilet here! 

Yummy fruit smoothie and also some strong Ethiopian coffee

I accidentally ate one of those green chilies and then spent about 15 minutes feeling like my face was swelling up and I was dying. Phew! Mike enjoyed the few moments of silence while my tongue was numb.

Washing hands after meal

We had massages at this traditional spa. I had one by a deaf person and Mike had one by a blind person, which was a new and unique experience.

Okay, time to stream the Olympic Gold medal game! It kept buffering and cutting out to commercials, so when there 7 minutes left, we actual got a text from home that told us that Canada had won. Hahaha, we were a bit delayed!