Monday, December 29, 2008

Vibrating bed (Dec. 20/08 - Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania)

So we came back from wandering around Stone Town tonight, eager to get a good sleep since we have to be up at 5am tomorrow to catch the ferry back to Dar Es Salaam. We walked into the hotel and started hearing loud Arabic music blaring on the other side of the building. We get up to our room and look out the window to see a full blown wedding underway in the courtyard below, not 20 feet from our window. Our non-closable window, I might add! The walls and our bed vibrated with the synthesizer and erratic vocals that went along with it. It's going to be a long night.

Waking up with no schedule in a big comfy bed with waves crashing outside was decadent this morning. We had omlettes on the patio and bobbed around in the waves until noon came around. We had a lunch date with Steve, and then said our final goodbyes to him when our shuttle came to take us back to Stone Town. Already, we're getting a taste of the odd goodbyes that others told us to expect while traveling. You meet people and become fast friends, share memories from a certain place, and then go your seperate ways knowing you'll probably never see them again.

Back in Stone Town, we wandered the shops for a few more hours and picked up some goodies for family at home, hopeful that we can send off a package soon since we've acquired quite a collection of stuff! One highlight we hadn't explored yet was the nightly fish market, which comes to life at sunset each night after the fishermen return to shore. One block of the narrow street beside the town's old castle-like fort becomes crammed with vendors selling skewers of fresh seafood, slices of fresh pineapple and breadfruit, samosas, naan "pizzas", freshly squeezed sugar cane juice, coconuts that are cut to order for their juice inside... the variety was quite impressive! We crossed our fingers that our stomachs wouldn't object, and tried some mussels, tuna, scallops, and kingfish grilled on the spot. It was delicious! You could buy whole lobsters, crab claws, squid, barracuda, reef shark, marlin, prawns, whole fish - basically anything the fishing nets brought up. Some of the tables were a cooperative effort of 6 or 7 fishermen, which probably helped produce such a wide variety.




We ate our fill in the busy, smoky market and then went back to the rooftop patio at the Africa House Hotel for a drink, some stargazing, and even some live entertainment as Nadia borrowed the guitar from the serenading guy to belt out an impressive version of The Cranberries' "Zombie". The two of them even did a couple duets, to loud applause from us (of course) and the rest of the bar! It was an awesome end to our stay on Zanzibar, which has been totally memorable and will likely be a highlight of our trip. Now if only the dude belting out off-key Indian music would can it so we could sleep...

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