How to eat your way around Zanzibar in 3 days

Yes we made it! It was fab! Its was tiring and thirsty work!
It was a long trip to get there, and thankfully the first step of the taxi
up to get the ferry across to Dar, Rich and his truck, was cheap and
efficient! Then the hop across on the packed ferry to Dar and the quick
march west to the Zanzibar ferry dock, about 20 mins quick stepping. That's
when the fun started. You kind of get route marched into an office to buy
your tickets, and negotiate the price. Thankfully we knew it was $35 per
person and when we were initially asked for $40 we just scoffed and said
nope! They then tried it on with demanding an additional $10 each for port
charges, err we said no way, and they gave up. The ferry was due to leave at
09h30, we thought the next one was as 10h00. The clock was already showing
09h25 so they told us to hurry and get through customs etc and board the
ferry. After a quick bag search, presumably for illegal stashes of clean
folded clothes, we went to sit down with the many people already waiting in
the 'departure lounge'. We thought it strange that we were being told to
hurry but no one else was looking the slightest bit rushed. It was then that
we realised that this bunch were waiting for the slow ferry and not our fast
boat that was about to depart. So we chose to make a move, and one kind
local confirmed our thoughts, so we made fast tracks out to the awaiting
ferry and were ushered on board. Well 30 mins later, at 10h00, we were on
our way! The crossing was bumpy but not too bad, and there was a choice of
reading, sleeping, or watching the in-flight movie (Casino Royale with very
bad English subtitles). So after some greasy and expensive crisps that they
were selling, I chose sleep and Sue chose reading and sleep. Stone Town
arrived quite quickly, about 2hrs real time, or 2-3 mins for me asleep!
Ah, immigration. Yep, being stubborn and not wanting to really be a part of
the mainland they have to process you through immigration to get your feet
on dry land, not that you are processed out from Dar, that's Africa! We knew
this and made sure we got off the boat quick sharp to be first in the long
slow queue to fill out forms, have passports stamped, and our photos taken.
Customs didn't seem interested in us on that side, I guess we no longer had
any stashes of clean folded clothes thanks to the previous search on the
mainland.
The guide books warn you of the Papasi (ticks) that hover outside the port
waiting to latch on to you and not let go. We looked purposeful in our
actions and with a few polite 'no thanks' and 'very kind of you to ask' we
escaped and made haste to our chosen hotel, Garden Lodge. It was a nice
place, old and tired, but comfy beds with mosquito nets, and a private
bathroom. Not cheap though at $40 for a double room per night, but nothing
on Zanzibar is cheap, it is really only a holiday destination these days and
not much more, so they charge what they like. By this time it was gone 13h00
so we thought, food. The Archipelago restaurant had been recommended to us
by the Tanzanian lady we met at Selous, so with no other thought we wandered
that way and enjoyed some very tasty and reasonably priced dishes for lunch,
not to mention the coffee and cake for dessert, cappuccinos to accompany
passion fruit tart and a slice of orange and almond cake. The only snag,
they don't serve alcohol, so our next job was to hunt down a bar and see how
many limbs they would charge us for the privilege. At our Dar base, Sunrise
Beach Resort, we were paying Tsh1500 for a 500ml local beer. On Zanzibar the
prices ranged from Tsh4000 at the very expensive hotels, to Tsh3000 at the
beach bar/restaurants. Hmmm, but when in Rome. Suitably recharged we had our
first of several meanders around the back streets of the town. As you would
expect it is mainly quite scruffy, and there are tourist shops every metre
or two flogging every imaginable African artefact and painting you could
think of. Oh, and they almost but not quite drag you into it to inspect the
range of 'delights' on offer. So our 'no thanks' and 'thank you for asking'
talents were put to good use again! In fact the only time we ventured into
one of the shops was a day or two later to buy Rich a birthday present from
a local artist who was actually busy at work, and not selling genuine Masai
paintings!!
For dinner that night we hit the street food. We ate Zanzibar pizzas and
beef kebabs with naan bread. The pizza is a local speciality, honest! It is
a kind of pancake filled with tomato, onion, minced beef, cheese, mayo,
chilli all mixed together with an egg. They seal them up in a square parcel
and cook them on a hot plate over a charcoal fire. Bloody delicious!! Sue
had a single (Tsh1000) and I made short work of a double (Tsh2000). You just
park off on the benches scattered around and munch away with the many locals
and tourists also dining out. With a small gap to still fill we chose some
beef kebabs and naan bread to finish the meal. If you so desired there were
all sorts of other kebabs on offer from various fish and shellfish (all
looked a bit dodgy) and even banana and chocolate pizzas. Instead we rolled
back to the hotel and collapsed into bed.
The next morning we 'enjoyed' the hotel's roof top restaurant and the
continental style breakfast of juice, fruit, and bread roll with omelette.
The tea and coffee was average, and the milk was horrible. Then we made it
downstairs and departed on our outing to visit the spice farms. It was a
fascinating trip and we discovered how many of the spices are grown like
cloves, cardamom, vanilla, pepper, to mention just a few. After the spice
farms we were dished up a basic but tasty lunch of rice with a spicy sauce,
cooked spinach, and chapattis. There was a brief detour on the way back via
some old slave caves that were used to hide illegally used slaves after the
abolishment of slavery, and then a short rest on a beach nearby.
Back in Stone Town, we made ready for the next event. Well dinner of course,
what else! After wandering some more of the streets, and getting lost now
and again, we had to decide on a plan of action. We chose to try out the
Radha Food House, an Indian restaurant. From the outside it looked
condemned! But we both ate very well and very cheaply, and it was delicious
too. The main plus side, beer at Tsh2000, the cheapest in town! Still with
time to kill before we collapsed into bed again we filled any remaining gaps
in our stomachs with more of the Archipelago's delights, sticky date pudding
with caramel sauce and a frangipani tart both washed down with more
cappuccinos!
Saturday was our main wandering the streets day and a long day it was. I
think we must have walked the town flat. We managed to pass some buildings
several times, not by design, just lack of a sense of direction and a good
map! The market was very busy, especially the fish market, oh and a trifle
smelly too. We had bought some great snacks for lunch first thing from a
bakery just a few steps from the hotel. Some small potato balls flavoured
with chilli or lemon, and a couple of meat pies. We sat on the beach to have
our picnic at lunchtime, well it was nearly 11h00, and watched the many
moored dhows and other boats bob in the lapping waves. The camera battery
decided to flash empty so we strolled back to the hotel to charge it up
before heading off for another stroll and some very poor 'Italian' ice
cream. We also managed to find an Internet cafe that had a 'quick'
connection and thus were able to upload some pictures to the blog. By this
time our early lunch had been walked off, so we hit the Radha Food house
again mid afternoon and snacked on some samosas and dal balls and some more
cheapish beer.
We wandered a bit more to complete our tour of the sights of the town and
returned to the hotel to prepare for our final night in the town. Sundowners
at the Livingston bar, not sure he actually ever went there, and then no
other serious option apart from dinner back at the Archipelago. Pilli Pilli
Perch Wholefish and chips for me and BBQ Cobia and chips for Sue, did I
mention they did great coffee and cakes?
We had booked our return ferry Saturday morning so there was not much to do
Sunday before our 13h00 departure except some final wandering, buying of
food for the ferry trip, and hunting down a place to have one final coffee.
Everywhere seemed closed or slow to open being Sunday morning. Archipelago
was not an option, bugger, and the Buni Cafe was uninspiring. So our only
option was the Mercury Restaurant and bar not far from the ferry port, named
after one Freddy Mercury who was born on the island, just in case you didn't
know. He must be turning in his grave, the place was a dive, and the
'coffee' was horrible! With some time still to kill we went and sat at the
ferry terminal and passed the final 1h30 reading. The trip back was a tad
bumpier than the outward journey, and you know things are not going to be
good when they hand out sick bags just minutes after leaving dock. We had
popped some motion sickness tabs earlier and despite the vomiting sounds
from behind us for 2 hours we made it through with no problems. Then a quick
romp to the Dar / South Beach ferry, a trip aboard the reasonably priced
Rich's taxi, and we were safely home with Mufasa.