Zanzibar, Tanzania (Day 1) — 2024
We anchored off shore in Zanzibar early in the morning of April 8. Zanzibar is a fascinating place to visit, but today was gray and rainy or drizzly. That wasn’t so when we visited here for two days in 2022. Then we took a tour to see the Red Colobus Monkeys in Jozani National Forest on the first day and explored Stone Town on the second day:
https://baderjournal.com/2023/03/08/zanzibar-tanzania-day-1-2022/
https://baderjournal.com/2023/03/13/zanzibar-tanzania-day-2-2022/
But before we begin today’s visit, we had another great sunset the night before our arrival.
Hoping for the rain to stop we waited until after breakfast to tender ashore. The rain diminished some but didn’t stop so we went ahead to the tender. The tender was almost empty, thanks to other passengers sensibly avoiding the rain. We came ashore at the tender dock, not far from a beach with boats pulled up from the water.
On a rainy day like this we didn’t want to spend too much time wandering around town; after all we could still hope for better conditions tomorrow. One place we did want to visit, though, was Memories Of Zanzibar, a large store across the street from the Freddy Mercury museum where we had good luck on our previous visit finding some gifts and mementoes. It wasn’t too long a walk and the streets were not at all crowded. We passed some people offering private tours, but we weren’t interested in that today. We sympathized though, because on a day like this they probably don’t get much, if any business. Among other things, we walked by the Shangani Post Office. Built in 1906 it served as Zanzibar’s main post office until 1964; not sure what it houses today, perhaps still a neighborhood post office. A HAL tour group was gathered outside.
Memories Of Zanzibar is packed with jewelry, clothing, books, and African arts and crafts, in all price ranges. We picked up a few things that didn’t break the budget (and were small enough to take home in our ship cabin). Even if you don’t buy anything, this is a fun place to visit.
We headed back to the tender dock, passing the lovely Forodhani Gardens along the water front, with a row of old cannon facing any threat that might come by sea. At night this park is often occupied by food vendors. Walking up the boardwalk to the tender dock we boarded a tender and returned to the ship.
But wait, that’s not all! We had booked a HAL excursion for some sightseeing and dinner near the water. This was very expensive for a four hour excursion; you may recall in a previous episode I mentioned that most of the excursions were about twice what they cost on the 2022 Grand Africa and this one was no exception at a cost of more than $400. We never would have done it except we had a free excursion coming because we were in a veranda stateroom. We had chosen one in the Mediterranean, but when that part of the trip was cancelled they posted a new list of excursions for the free tour amenity and we picked this one. So along with Bill & Robert we tendered ashore again around 4:00 and boarded the inevitable bus at the port. Our first stop was the ruins of the Mtoni Palace, built in 1828. It was the residence of the Sultan’s wives and many children and was quite elaborate and beautiful, according to contemporary accounts. Today it is roofless, but still has rooms, staircases and arches, to explore. We didn’t get to see any of this, however. For some reason those leading the tour decided it was unsafe and wouldn’t allow anyone to leave the bus. So we just pulled up near one wall, looked at it for a few minutes, then turned around and drove off. Quite disappointing, especially after a substantial bus ride out of town to get here.
We returned to town, driving past a large apartment building with laundry drying on the balconies, then stopped for a visit at the Darjani Market, the city’s central market. Built in 1904, this is mainly a food market but also includes vendors of cloth, clothing, souvenirs and even electronics. We walked through the market, seeing many varieties of fresh seafood and colorful produce.
We drove next to the Peace Museum, which opened on Armistice Day in 1925 as a memorial to those who lost their lives in the war. It was closed when we were there, so we were only able to view it from the outside. We have mentioned that it was a drizzly day and a number of the many motorcycles on the street with us were outfitted with improvised cloth roofs.
We were originally supposed to have dinner under the stars at the Serena hotel, but for reasons that were not disclosed to us this was moved to an inside room at the Park Hyatt (perhaps because of the possibility of more rain). It was a nice upscale hotel with African decor where we had a good buffet dinner.
A local band played African music during part of the meal. There was a singer for a few songs, but we didn’t get a usable picture of her.
But the best thing here was the view from the hotel’s waterfront veranda. We saw a working beach nearby and the Zuiderdam out in the blue water. And at its height the sunset looked like something from a science fiction movie.
BADER JOURNAL 
