Zanzibar

April 18, 2018 The Muse Drop 2 Comments

Zen Zanzibar
Hakuna Matata

“Hakuna Matata!

What a wonderful phrase

Hakuna Matata!

Ain't no passing craze

It means no worries

For the rest of your days

It's our problem-free philosophy

Hakuna Matata!”

Growing up, I never really thought much about Zanzibar. It had never been on my bucket list; mostly because I didn’t know much about it.

And yet, I found myself exiting the aircraft and making my way onto a land I would have never thought I’d visit.

Shortly after landing, we expected to see a large, fancy airport. On the contrary, the airport was the size of a large room (I’m not even kidding!). There was no turn-style mechanism for our suitcases, no fancy exchange rate counters, no fancy passport control counters.

Our suitcases were packed to one side and the counters were small. It was quite surprising, considering the fact that we had been expecting more.

Nonetheless, we were greeted by smiling people who offered us cold water the moment we stepped outside before we were lead to our shuttle.

Although the airport looked like it was ready to collapse and there wasn’t a single large building in sight, our mood hadn’t dampened. There was something about the place that had me intrigued (and this is coming from someone who is rather fussy).

Island

We drove through the island and I noticed that there were barely any traffic lights and the island was very simple. There were no large skyscrapers, no fancy houses and no luxurious cars. The deeper we got into the city, the more the realisation dawned on me; this was a poor island filled with a beauty I have never seen before. After all, the beauty was not only in the lush lands, but also hidden within the smiles on the faces of locals.

We continued maneuvering through the island and suddenly, we were met with hundreds of little girls and boys, all clad in the Islamic dress code. The little girls had long blue dresses and cute, yellow hijabs. It was such an amazing and cute sight! They decorated the streets, laughing and playing in unison, oblivious to any worries.

During our ride to our hotel, our tour guide gave us some background about the island. We learned that about 90% of the population on the island is Muslim. There were a lot of simple schools and even simpler mosques that we saw along the way.

Another couple that was traveling with us asked if the entire island looked this way (bear in mind that we hadn’t seen a single sight that we would’ve seen in a first world country). Turns out that the whole island is filled with lush vegetation, basic houses (sometimes mud houses with no windows or doors) and a lot of happy people.

When my eyes finally landed on the ocean and my feet sunk into the sand, I fell in love! The island is stunning. The sands are velvety soft and the ocean is a clear blue. It honestly is a paradise island. If you want to relax and get away from everything, this is the island for you!

We stayed in Nungwi, the Northern part of the island. Before we reached our hotel, which was the last stop, we stopped at numerous other hotels. All the hotels in Nungwi were situated within villages. The plush hotels were in contrast to the modest surroundings.

Hotel: MyBlue

Hotel rating: 3.5

Island rating: 4.1

Room

We were upgraded to a villa (probably because they thought we were on honeymoon after we handed them a copy of our marriage certificate as per the travel agents suggestion).

Our villa consisted of a lounge area that had a couch, tv and a few cupboards, and an ensuite. The room was simple and scarcely decorated. There was a tv in the room as well (but the clarity was terrible so it was pretty pointless). The bed had a mosquito net over it (which was important because we also had to take malaria tablets) and the bathroom was large and spacious.

Beach

The beach left me absolutely breathless! I have never felt such soft sands in my life. It literally felt as if I was walking on expensive, plush velvet.

The waves were gentle and the weather was wonderful. It honestly looked picture perfect. As we took a walk along the beach, we were approached by locals who wanted to sell us tours (they were much cheaper than the hotel), small souvenirs, coconuts, and sometimes weed (no kidding!)

Food

The food at the hotel was good. It wasn’t exquisite, but it wasn’t terrible either. They served alcohol at the hotel (although the bar was separate) and they also served pork. This was quite disappointing for us because we hadn’t expected it. However, we were assured that all the food (except the pork, obviously) was halaal as most of the staff and the chefs were Muslim and none of the food had cross contamination with the pork. In fact, every day a staff member would give us the menu and tell us what was halaal and what wasn’t.

One day, the manager had noticed that we were only eating seafood so he came up to us to tell us that all the meat, other than the pork, was halaal because they slaughter it the halaal way. Nonetheless, when I stay on islands, I prefer eating seafood.

Every night, they would grill the fish they caught that day. This is great if you’re a seafood lover and you enjoy fresh fish. Most of the time, they’d just grill the fish and we’d have to spice it up with the variety of spices we were presented with.

Tours

One should note that apart from the tours, there’s not much to do on the island. You won’t see restaurants or takeaways so you have to eat at the hotel.

We ended up going with the locals for the tours. We had to pay deposits before we went and at first, we were a bit skeptical that they would just take our money but the locals were honest.

We chose to do the spice tour, stone town tour and the Prison Island tour as one tour package and the Safari Blue tour as another package.

The spice tour was actually a lot of fun. I hadn’t thought that I would enjoy it but I loved it! They took us through dense gardens (which gave off wonderful scents) and explained where certain flavours and spices came from. They also gave us the raw material to smell and feel as we explored the wonderful forest of spice. It was informative and relaxing. There’s just something about breathing in the fresh air of a lush garden.

The stone town tour was so heartbreaking. (If you’re sensitive to horror stories relating to slavery, don’t read this part.)

We went through the lives of the slaves and left us emotional and somewhat disturbed. It’s always disgusting to realise that humans can be the worst of creation at times. We learned that the slaves used to be tied to trees and they would be beaten until they were left screaming in agony. Those that didn’t scream or barely screamed were auctioned for higher prices as they were seen as stronger slaves. The slaves were chained to each other and dumped into the tiniest underground storage room you can imagine. There were about six of us in that tiny room and it felt stuffy (there were two tiny slits instead of windows). Turns out that they would dump 50 to 70 people in those rooms! I cannot even imagine their heart wrenching lives... The ruthless stories of their masters left us completely perturbed.

If you get a chance, try to read up on slavery in Zanzibar. It’s a fascinating, yet heartbreaking story.

After the darkness of the slavery history, we went through the stone town. It was pretty interesting to view the intricate architecture and to learn the history behind it.

We were then taken to Prison Island with a wooden boat (almost all the boats on the island are rickety, old wooden boats). As the name suggests, Prison Island used to be an island for prisoners. However, now it is absolutely stunning! There are massive turtles there - the oldest turtle being over 110 years old!

Here, we bought a plain pizza because we were starving after such a long day.

The day ended in exhaustion since we had been left reeling from the slave tour experience.

The next day we spent relaxing, before the Safari Blue tour. Simply explained, Safari Blue is an island hopping tour. We went to a few little islands and a really pretty sand bank.

When we arrived at one of the islands, the tide was really low but when we left that island, the tide was high. It looked totally different from the island that we had arrived at. The huge rocks that had been dry as we came in were halfway submerged in water. It was so amazing!

We prayed all of our prayers on the islands and we had packed a bag for the day containing our phones, prayer mats, snacks, water and hygiene wipes. And I was very thankful for packing those hygiene wipes because it should be noted that bathrooms on the islands were a bit scarce. The one island only had one bathroom that was not clean and another island didn’t even have a bathroom.

We were also given lunch on the islands. The lunch consisted of plain white rice and seafood seasoned with salt and pepper. Honestly, I was not a fan of the menu so I munched on the junk food we had taken with us.

When we moved from one island to the next, we got to snorkel and it was wonderful. The water was so clear that we could see the fish from the boat! We saw a few dolphins as well but as you know, dolphins are speedsters.

Dinner on the beach

Our package included a romantic dinner in the beach. The dinner was a three course, seafood meal and it was phenomenal! I have never tasted a lemon butter sauce like that in my entire life! The food was heavenly and so delicious!

During another night, the hotel held another dinner on the beach for all the guests. After dinner, there was some traditional entertainment and a snake show. The entertainment began with the famous ‘Jumbo’ song that we had heard being chanted by the locals of the island on any given day. It’s a song in Swahili and the language is so sweet and catchy that it’s easy to pick up on a few of the words.

We were also always told ‘hakuna matata’ (which means no worries) by the wonderful locals.

Sunsets

We got to view impeccable sunsets every day from our location. Sunrises were on the other side of the island so we didn’t quite catch them. The sunsets were so stunning that we didn’t feel as if we missed out on the sunrises (and besides we were pretty lazy for super early morning walks).

Miscellaneous notes

For Friday prayers, I prayed in the room and my husband made friends with the staff who took him to a mosque (masjid) in the village.

Unfortunately for me, there were many cats in Zanzibar so I had to be on high alert in order to avoid an allergic reaction.

Medication is not easy to get hold of on the island so if you’re planning on going to Zanzibar, make sure to take all your medication with (even headache tablets).

One of the most beautiful things that you will pick up from the island is that although a lot of the people are poor, they are so content! You will always see them smiling and happy. They truly are the ‘hakuna matata’ nation! They seem to have no worries!

Zanzibar is a beautiful island that is so easy to fall in love with! You may arrive there with uncertainty speckling your thoughts but you will leave with drunken delight!