Thursday March 23, 2006
We ended up sleeping in rather late, till about 9:00, we were supposed to check out at 10:00, so we took our morning showers and packed our bags for the next leg of our trip. We were able to leave our baggage in a room at the hotel after paying $32 for the one night at the hotel. We realized that we had the only air conditioned room in the place, so even without the light it was the best unit. We started walking towards the coast where we had dinner last night at Farodana Park. We headed to a fort, which was free to enter and quite impressive. It even had a stage for performances and the entire place was built in stone.
Then we went to the Palace Museum which I’m assuming was full of artifacts and historical stuffs. We also went to the House of Wonders, which is called the House of Wonders because it has an elevator, which James and I have both encountered before, but it was the first elevator on the island. Then we went through the market again and James bought a painting he liked, and I bought a few more things from a lady named Mama Rose. She told us she was from Nairobi, and that she used to be in the hotel business which is how she ended up in Zanzibar, but she decided to start working for herself and she bought this shop. She said now she can make her yearly salary in one or two good days! We were talking about the weather with her, and saying how hot and humid it is here, and she was agreeing, but then said she was only sweating like this because of the malaria, which she said “but, we are used to it.” I think she meant both, the heat and the malaria.
From the market we went to the Fort and caught a taxi to St. Monica’s where there was supposed to be another taxi waiting to take us to the East Coast of the island for our last nights stay. The taxi was there when we arrived at 1:00 and we were on our way! The drive was about an hour, and the island is very tropical, the landscape is covered in shrubbery and palm trees. I saw my first baobab tree on the drive, and we passed through a national forest and saw a Colobus Monkey, (which apparently only live here and in Brazil) perched in a tree right by the road.
We arrived at the hotel at 2:00 and were lead to our room, but the man did not have our reservations, and James thought something was a little off. But, we unpacked, covered our feet and looked out the windows at the gorgeous beach. Then James noticed the sign on the hotel next door “Katete” and said we were supposed to be staying there. So we packed everything back up and hopped over the dividing wall without telling anyone. We found an employee there who had been expecting us, and he is also the one James had arrange the taxi. Too bad the guy had them drop us off at the wrong hotel. The wrong hotel is called Paje Beach, but that’s also the name of the actual beach both hotels are located at., so you can kinda see what happened.
This new hotel was much nicer, I had a queen sized bed with mosquito netting, even though there haven’t been many mosquitoes the whole trip. There is a fan, lights and a private bath too. After dropping off our stuff in the room, we went back to the Paje Beach hotels restaurant since we had already ordered lunch there. We had grilled calamari with chips (fries) and onion and tomatoes, it was quite delicious.
Then we went to the beach and chilled for a bit, I did some Sudoku puzzles while James slept and I worked on my tan a bit. The beach here is rather strange. When we first went down to it, I wanted to go in for a quick refreshing dip, but the water was really really warm! Beyond that, you would have to wade 300-400 yards just to be more than waist deep. So, bottom line, it wasn’t that refreshing of a dip. We also had an ice cream bar while chilling at the beach, which was quite a treat.
We came back to the room at around 5:00 or 6:00, took showers and went exploring along the beach. We wandered about one hour in one direction, there are lots of vacant lots on the beach, which is unusual. We had been looking for a restaurant, but didn’t find any, so just had a nice cold soda at a bar and turned back. We ended up eating at Arabian Nights, which is two hotels north of ours. I had fried calamari with chips, very tasty! James had coconut encrusted fish. Then we went back to our hotel for another ice cream. We sat on the beach and ate it, staring at the amazing African stars, which are always awe inspiring. We came up to the room @ about 10:00 or so and talked a bit more before going to sleep.
Then we went to the Palace Museum which I’m assuming was full of artifacts and historical stuffs. We also went to the House of Wonders, which is called the House of Wonders because it has an elevator, which James and I have both encountered before, but it was the first elevator on the island. Then we went through the market again and James bought a painting he liked, and I bought a few more things from a lady named Mama Rose. She told us she was from Nairobi, and that she used to be in the hotel business which is how she ended up in Zanzibar, but she decided to start working for herself and she bought this shop. She said now she can make her yearly salary in one or two good days! We were talking about the weather with her, and saying how hot and humid it is here, and she was agreeing, but then said she was only sweating like this because of the malaria, which she said “but, we are used to it.” I think she meant both, the heat and the malaria.
From the market we went to the Fort and caught a taxi to St. Monica’s where there was supposed to be another taxi waiting to take us to the East Coast of the island for our last nights stay. The taxi was there when we arrived at 1:00 and we were on our way! The drive was about an hour, and the island is very tropical, the landscape is covered in shrubbery and palm trees. I saw my first baobab tree on the drive, and we passed through a national forest and saw a Colobus Monkey, (which apparently only live here and in Brazil) perched in a tree right by the road.
We arrived at the hotel at 2:00 and were lead to our room, but the man did not have our reservations, and James thought something was a little off. But, we unpacked, covered our feet and looked out the windows at the gorgeous beach. Then James noticed the sign on the hotel next door “Katete” and said we were supposed to be staying there. So we packed everything back up and hopped over the dividing wall without telling anyone. We found an employee there who had been expecting us, and he is also the one James had arrange the taxi. Too bad the guy had them drop us off at the wrong hotel. The wrong hotel is called Paje Beach, but that’s also the name of the actual beach both hotels are located at., so you can kinda see what happened.
This new hotel was much nicer, I had a queen sized bed with mosquito netting, even though there haven’t been many mosquitoes the whole trip. There is a fan, lights and a private bath too. After dropping off our stuff in the room, we went back to the Paje Beach hotels restaurant since we had already ordered lunch there. We had grilled calamari with chips (fries) and onion and tomatoes, it was quite delicious.
Then we went to the beach and chilled for a bit, I did some Sudoku puzzles while James slept and I worked on my tan a bit. The beach here is rather strange. When we first went down to it, I wanted to go in for a quick refreshing dip, but the water was really really warm! Beyond that, you would have to wade 300-400 yards just to be more than waist deep. So, bottom line, it wasn’t that refreshing of a dip. We also had an ice cream bar while chilling at the beach, which was quite a treat.
We came back to the room at around 5:00 or 6:00, took showers and went exploring along the beach. We wandered about one hour in one direction, there are lots of vacant lots on the beach, which is unusual. We had been looking for a restaurant, but didn’t find any, so just had a nice cold soda at a bar and turned back. We ended up eating at Arabian Nights, which is two hotels north of ours. I had fried calamari with chips, very tasty! James had coconut encrusted fish. Then we went back to our hotel for another ice cream. We sat on the beach and ate it, staring at the amazing African stars, which are always awe inspiring. We came up to the room @ about 10:00 or so and talked a bit more before going to sleep.
posted by Nick & Jessie @ 10:18 PM
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