As you know by now, Mark is a cousin that I've never met, but feel close to as family has provided me with photos of him and tells me about his life experiences. I hope one day to meet up with him. I think he's going to be a man that helps the world. In his trip to Africa, you begin to see how he's making a difference as he enjoys meeting the people in Africa and learning about the country. He's one heck of a story teller, for sure! Stay tuned for more updates..
Hey everybody!
So when I wrote my last update, we were in dire straights, having had no idea what to do. Still stuck in Nairobi, we took another look at our calendars and tried to arrange some way to make a trip. We had been planning to make a trip to Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We ended up dropping the Mombasa part of the trip (which is ok, because we've managed a way to go at the end of the month), and planned to go to TZ ( read as: T-Zed).
We boarded a bus last Friday morning at 6:30 am, and began our journey. We were traveling via a reputable bus company called Dar Express. They are known for making quick trips and always being on time. As the bus pulled out of Nairobi, we realized that in order to keep to schedule, our driver would be driving like a madman for the duration of a trip. He swerved his large coach in and out of traffic at high speeds and narrowly avoided hitting farm animals as we passed through the Kenyan countryside. Within a blink of an eye, a few hours had passed and we were at the Kenyan border. Everyone unloaded and we all had our passports stamped and crossed into Tanzania.
At this point, I was beginning to feel a bit nervous. We still hadn't lined up a hotel in Dar es Salaam, and virtually everyone in Tanzania speaks about as much English as we speak Swahili. Putting any apprehensions aside, we dove head first into the adventure, as we bought our visas and re-boarded the bus. The next stop was Arusha, the home of African justice. This burgeoning city is where the UN designated to have its war-crime tribunal for the Rwandan genocide. Despite this fact, Arusha looked very dull. Supposedly its a cool place though, and I regret that we didn't arrange a day or two to stay there. As the trip rolled on into the afternoon, we picked up a stewardess who would serve us soda and water and would be on board for the remainder of the trip. We made a quick stop for lunch at a decent little buffet-style restaurant. In the late afternoon, the stewardess put on a crappy horror film called "Wrong Turn," which had even crappier subtitles, a source of some amusement. At sundown, we were just arriving in Dar es Salaam.
By this time, we had been contacted by Wambui to let us know that her friend would meet us at the bus station and take us to a hotel where he had booked us a room. After a short wait at the terminal, during which we were constantly being harassed for a taxi, he showed up and took us to the Grand Hotel. The name was a bit of a misnomer -- rather than being grand, it was actually quaint. It was a small hotel, with an on-site restaurant, from which we would order several meals on our trip. It was set in a normal neighborhood, reminiscent of our neighborhood back home, which was several minutes driving time from the 'city center'. It was also a bargain, at only 30,000 Tanzania shillings ($28) a night for a double. Tired from the trip and unwilling to adventure at night, we spent the evening in our hotel.
The following day, we ventured to city center, which is actually the coastal part of the city. We found a bookstore which had TZ travel guides for sale and invested in one. We used the included map to find our way around the area. We had been told that Dar es Salaam was very similar to Mombasa, which wasn't entirely true. Although it is a coastal town, its not really a beach resort town, as we came to learn. We did spend some time on the beach, however, collecting shells that had washed ashore.
In the evening, we walked around the neighborhood surrounding our hotel and bought lessos aka pagnes, which is brightly patterned cloth sold in pairs that feature Swahili phrases. The following day, on the way to the market, Marica and I encountered 3 men who snatched her camera bag off her shoulder and ran. We spent the rest of the morning in the police station filing a report. That afternoon, having decided Dar es Salaam was boring and didn't have too much to offer, we bought tickets to take the ferry to Zanzibar's Stone Town, a small town on the west side of the island.
The following morning, we checked out of our hotel and took a ferry to Zanzibar. After arriving, we went looking for a hotel. In an attempt to lose a broker that was trying to get us to follow him across town to a shady hotel, we ducked into a very nice old-fashioned hotel, which incidentally was recommended in our guidebook. We looked through the guidebook for things to do and decided a trip to the island's Jozani forest and a walk to Stone Town's market area were a must. We wish we had more time on the island, but we were scheduled to return to Dar the following afternoon. With more time, we could have taken a spice tour, which is one of the most highly recommended activities. We talked to the nice woman at the hotel's front desk who recommended a couple restaurants and a tour agency. We had lunch, booked a tour for the following morning to Jozani, and walked to the market, buying a few goods as we went along. That evening we had a very delicious seafood dinner at a restaurant near the hotel.
The next morning, we went on our tour of the forest, which was about a 40-minute drive from Stone Town, in the center of Zanzibar. The tour took us to 3 different areas. The first was a nature walk, where our guide pointed out some of the features of the forest, and described trees and wildlife. The forest floor has coral all over it, since Zanzibar was at one time completely underwater. This area of the forest also has fresh water just under the surface, so there were a number of fresh water crabs. Several lizards and and insects were pointed out to us. Overhead there was a family black monkeys fighting in the treetops. We also spotted an animal that is very rare to see (according to our guide) for its propensity to hide. This creature, called an elephant shrew, was about the size and shape of a rat, only it had a snout like an ant-eater. We continued onward to the next part of the forest, crossing the highway to a natural grove of almond trees. This area is inhabited by 1,000's of Red Colobus monkeys, who unlike the black monkeys, are not afraid to come near humans. At times the creatures played and ran within inches of us, as we stood in a small clearing. After observing and photographing the monkeys, we went to a third area, the mangrove forest. There is a salt water river running through this swamp, and the government has built a boardwalk that loops into part of the forest. This area has millions of small salt-water crabs that burrow into the swampy muck, in the shade of the mangrove trees.
We returned back to Stone Town, had lunch and went back to the market to buy spices, before we boarded the ferry back to Dar. I was a little sad to be leaving Zanzibar. Although it was very touristy, there was plenty to do and it felt nice to be a tourist again. We bought our bus tickets back to Nairobi from a company called Classic Coach, since we had been told Dar Express had already sold out. I realize now that this was a mistake. In the morning, we reported at the specified time of 6:30 am. The bus was scheduled to leave at 7:30, but didn't leave until 9:30. By the time we pulled out of the lot, we had already essentially been on the bus for 3 hours...It was going to be a long trip.
This time, on the way back, we decided to look for Mount Kilimanjaro, since we had completely neglected to spot it on the trip to Dar. As the sun had begun setting, we saw its snow-capped peak sticking out of the clouds in the distance. Marica was even able to get a picture through the windshield using my camera. We reached the Kenya border well after dark and finally pulled into Nairobi around 1 am, where we took a cab back home. The 16 hours spent on the bus had been exhausting and we were happy to be back.
Well, that's about it for now. We literally only have a month left here (we leave 4 weeks from tomorrow). Besides the trip to Mombasa, we're still going to attempt to head out west to Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, although the assassination of a Member of Parliament is leading to continued violence in Western Kenya. We're also going to attempt to get some more humanitarian work done. Until next time...Kwaheri! Mark |
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