Zanzibar (and the trip from Arusha) (Post #62)
Hi everyone,
Michele here….I am typing this from the Dubai, United Arab Emirates airport in the Middle East. We are now on our way to Egypt. In the last blog I said I would write something about our last little adventure (no, not the Kilimanjaro trek). This adventure involved trying to find a guest house we had booked in Dar Es Salaam, one of the largest cities (several million people) in Tanzania. You see, on November 11, we boarded a bus that took us from Arusha to Dar Es Salaam – that part went o.k. However, when we got to “Dar” (as it is called) we got a taxi driver who seemed totally confused by the name of the guest house and the area of the city it was in. We saw him showing the piece of paper with the directions (written in English) to the other taxi drivers and talking in Swahili to several of them. Once we got in the car, he told us he didn’t speak English. This worried us slightly but what could go wrong?
We had directions and the address. We drove and drove out of the city and into some of the scariest areas Mike and I had ever seen. It was dark by the time we left the city and got out to the suburbs, and there was little electricity around this part of Tanzania. What lit the sides of the roads were bon fires that mobs of people were gathered around. The streets were total chaos, and people were walking up to the car everytime the taxi driver stopped. Mike and I felt very uncomfortable especially because we couldn’t communicate with the taxi driver and we didn’t know what was going on. We kept driving down these streets that were full of pot holes and had shacks for houses and shops. There was garbage piled everywhere, kids running around all over the place half dressed in dirty clothes, fires, mobs of people yelling and crowding around the car. Sheez! I thought both of us were going to have an ulcer. Each time our taxi driver drove down a different street, more people appeared out of no where and we were apparently still no closer to finding our place. Honestly, we don’t know if we were ever close.
Finally, I told him “Holiday Inn! Holiday Inn! Downtown! We will pay more money!” I had seen a sign for the Holiday Inn and thought it couldn’t be that expensive. He drove us back into downtown Dar and we found the Holiday Inn. It looked like the Four Seasons Hotel. It was booked but they referred us to a hotel in the same category. Hmmm….how much could this be? $90? Yea, well, the hotel we ended up in costs $175/night but we didn’t care. We were so thankful to be somewhere safe after driving around for 1.5 hours through the scariest streets.
The next day we headed to Zanzibar on the ferry and did practically nothing for 5 days. Here are some pictures from our time chilling out on Zanzibar island.
Us:
A picture I took of our beach when I was standing in the water:
Some cows walking down the beach….this is Africa, you know… we’ve seen stranger things!
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Tags: Category #17: Tanzania
Michele Harmon
Dar is actually a very great, safe city, with lots of fun places.
WOW! These stories and pictures are amazing. 🙂 I’m so envious of this incredible adventure you two are undertaking. The trip of a lifetime. I hope I’ll be able to print all of this out at some point to read it over and over again!. You both look wonderful! I still can’t get used to Mike with short hair. Michele. I don’t work at Hogan anymore. It appears your hair is getting really long! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving wherever you are!
Hi Guys,
I certainly don’t check into this as often as I should, but I’ve got to hand it to the two of you. This is certainly the adventure of a lifetime. Keep having fun and keep the postings coming.
Happy Trails,
Jaret