So it begins... - Who's idea was this anyway?

January 16, 2005

So it begins...

My shorts are still wet from the Indian Ocean and the taste of a Tusker Lager lingers in my mouth. We are in Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania in East Africa. Now seemed like a good time to start the tale of our travels. We started earlier this week flying into Johannesburg in the early morning. We hooked up with my sister Sally and spent the day shopping and exploring. That night we went to a fake indoor Italian town that surrounds a casino. This combined with Sally playing John Denver in the car added to some already fairly heavy jetlag. The next day we hit Soweto all day. It was fascinating. Museums on life under aparthied combined with visits to people's homes made it a very interesting day. Lunch at Wandies was more stodge than you could poke a shambok at but it was terrific. A highlight of the day was meeting a 103 year old lady who lived in a shed out the back of one of the concrete Soweto houses. When she was born the Boer War was still going on and there she sits in a dwelling fit for a Victa Lawnmaster 2000 smiling as people talk about the party they will throw for her if she survives until July! That night we went to the very swanky Ten Bompas hotel for Louise's birthday courtesy of Sally and to dinner at Soi in Melville courtesy of the Daw Park Saras. The next day was spent at the Apartheid Museum and then dinner with Sally's jouno mates.

The next morning we flew up to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. We haggled for a cab which drove us into the city and then negotiated our way around the touts trying to sell us fake ferry tickets to Zanzibar. After being directed to 3 "official" ticket counters we found the real one and hopped aboard the ferry. On board we were in business class which means that economy must be hanging on to a rope behind the ship! The lasting memory of the voyage is watching a Dhow in full sail slide past as Frodo and Sam try to get to Mordor on the movie playing on the onboard TV system. I will never look at Lord of the Rings in the same way again! On arrival in Zanzibar we got a cab and then a street guide (the streets are too narrow for cars) to our very swanky hotel. The Emerson and Green Hotel resembles a sultan's palace and the building itself is over 150 years old. We retired to dinner in the tower top open air restaurant where we met a lovely South African couple and did some very bad African dancing.

This morning we awoke and realised that in true Tyson and Louise fashion we had no where to stay tonight. We looked in the guide book found a place that didn't look too bad and got reception at Emerson and Green to book it for three nights and arrange a Bongo van for us to get there. We arrived after a one and a half hour drive to the most beautiful beachside resort we could have imagined. On informing the manager that we are on our honeymoon our room was upgraded and fresh flowers rushed to our door. We are right on the water with over 100 dhows at anchor meters from our room. We have been paddling and drinking ice cold Tuskers all afternoon and having a quite splendid time all for bugger all money. Tonight we intend to drink cocktails and Tuskers until one of the very attentive local chaps carries us back to our room. As honeymoons go it doesn't get a whole lot better. We are here for three more days and then back to Stonetown for two days before we fly out to Nairobi.

Stay tuned!

Posted by Louise Biggs on January 16, 2005 12:48 PM
Category: South Africa and Tanzania

Comments

It sounds heavenly guys, and adventurous and curious and intriguing. Thanks for keeping us posted. I'm looking forward to the next edition, so I can travel vicariously again!
Canberra is as always. Australia Day coming up soonish so looking forward to a less than full week of work. This going back to full days at the office shit is NOT for me.

Love Liv and Pat

Posted by: Olivia on January 16, 2005 11:02 PM

Great story cheese. Sounds like you guys are having a crappy time. Sorry to blackcat your little adventure, but the group held up ok at the Cooma Rodeo. The whole thing was coming together quite well on that evening, we were suntan lotioned up, the beer was cool, we were all smiles, the cowboys and cowgirls were putting on a good show, THEN SNEWY put that bundy rum and cola in our hands. The night was a bit of a blur after that, but apparently I had a nice Cor Don Bleu. Apart from that we're all back at work and life goes on. The Goodies are doing some stand up here in the nations capital in March so I guess that'll be more exciting than anything you're trip will have to offer as well. Well it's about 2.30pm here on my first day back. Think i'll knock off now. Seeya. Look forward to seeing your next installment.

Posted by: Tatts on January 17, 2005 03:48 AM

Hey kids! We went to another country too. It was called Cooma and it had horses and big bulls and it is illegal to not wear denim there.

Keep the updates coming - this is going to be a great diversion!

xxxx

Posted by: Katamarina on January 17, 2005 06:02 AM

Thanks for the comments guys. Yesterday's post was brought to you by the lovely Tyson. He forgot to mention that we have become quite fluent in Swahili. Everywhere we go we are greeted by calls of "Jambo", we have also learned thank you, cheers and goodnight. Yesterday at lunch our waiter actually said "akuna matata", seriously, it was very hard to keep a straight face.

This place is excellent.

Posted by: Louise on January 17, 2005 07:09 AM

I guess it sounds okay...doesn't sound as fun as Cooma though. Yeah right, I'm not convincing anyone am I.

Emxx

Posted by: Emma on January 17, 2005 10:17 PM

Guys, latest news from Oz. Latham has resigned, not just from the leadership but from politics all together. I'm sure it won't make the news over there but thought you might like to know.

Emx

Posted by: Emma on January 18, 2005 04:55 AM

Good work Sara's. Ya leave the country for just a wee little while and look what happen's....we lose our opposition leader.

The call in radio spots are inundated with people lashing out at other opposition party bigwigs who did nothing to support Mark while he was on leave and out of sorts. Most people feel that if it was anybody else in the workforce on sick leave, it could be seen as harassment. Others are saying, why couldn't the deputy look after things whlie Mark was still recovering. It looks like the party has now actually lost alot of support in the public arena because of the comments made from state party leaders and Ag's.

Also, alot of people are saying that the media is to blame and that this is a nice example of the media having been directly responsible for the downfall of a party leader.

It looks like Kim is the first cab of the rank or Rudd may also attempt to get the numbers.

Hope your trip is going smoothly. Have you experienced many bad poo's yet?

Posted by: Tatts on January 19, 2005 08:33 PM

'Akuna akuna akuna de wey', as they say in Cooma or, ‘greetings wanderlust world explorers’.

Sounds like an absolute blast in the Dark Continent, when do you hunt the great white rhino, I understand they are very tasty.

Have fun and don’t commit genocide, just because everyone else over there is doing it does not make it funny, OK!

Posted by: Chris on January 19, 2005 09:51 PM

Hey guys,

Thanks for the updates. Here we are lazing around in paradise and look what's happening at home. Chaos!

I left the posting address at the hotel today, so we'll post properly from Nairobi tomorrow.

Till then Hakuna Matata.

Posted by: Tyson and Louise on January 20, 2005 07:19 AM

Hey guys,

Thanks for the updates. Here we are lazing around in paradise and look what's happening at home. Chaos!

I left the posting address at the hotel today, so we'll post properly from Nairobi tomorrow.

Till then Hakuna Matata.

Posted by: Tyson and Louise on January 20, 2005 07:20 AM

Email this page