Zanzibar's Stone Town

So, I've slept a relatively peaceful night in the Dubai airport lounge while Kolz blogged and caught you all up on Dubai. We've still got to cover Zanzibar, which was probably one of the places I have liked the most of anywhere I've traveled. We packed a lot into three days, and stayed in Stone Town with the exception of an interesting journey out to an island just off the coast and a visit to a spice farm.


Zanzibar is a really interesting mix of Arabian, Indian, and Swahili African influences, and Stone Town, the old city center, is a UNESCO world heritage site. Which means it's pretty full of tourists, has good infrastructure - and to me, the tag is completely justified. It's full of amazing winding streets, tiny little alleys, high balconies with carved wood, and the famous doors, with carvings that indicate the religion and social status of the owner of the house. We started off with a wonderful walking tour and got to explore the market (which for foodies like us was really awesome - so many different fruits that don't exist at home!) and managed to orient ourselves alright. It is much like a Middle Eastern city, according to Kolz, but it was my first time seeing anything like it.

Weird little bits of the colonial era here and there, too - all of the elite clubs from a hundred years ago are now absolutely gorgeous hotels with rooftop bars overlooking the Indian Ocean. You can watch the dhows (wooden sailboats) going by, drink a gin & tonic if you can find a place that serves alcohol (because Zanzibar is largely Muslim), and soak in the sunset. Highlights of our walking tour included the House of Wonders, passageways for women from the royal household to go from palace to mosque without being seen by men, and the Freddie Mercury birthplace (though we later heard - from a couple who seemed to have chosen to Zanzibar for their honeymoon because of Queen - that his birthplace was actually another house in Stone Town). But that added an interesting element of pop culture to things.

Zanzibar was also safer and friendlier than Dar, and just easy...hard to leave, really. We've got more to say just about the food, and also about our day trips, but right now we have to catch our Flight 45 to Frankfurt!