It struck me only a few weeks before my ‘community exit period’ would commence (a time when volunteers about to close their service are required to stay in their village and provide closure to their community for their service); I was running out of time to vacation out of country and panic mode began to set in.
Up till then, I had only been on vacation out of the country once – Malawi, and I came to the realization that I was failing at an objective that drove me into the Peace Corps to begin with – my desire to travel.
I brought my thoughts up in conversation with my girlfriend and we began brainstorming destinations that appealed to us. Turns out she too was overdue for time away – all we needed now was a plan. We discussed time we could spare from our projects, countries that appealed to us and our spending budget.
Similarly, we both loved and missed the beach, we didn't want to be on a stressful schedule and craved some fresh seafood (anything other the nshima) - All signs that pointed to a small island off the coast of Tanzania that many volunteers and vacation goers have visited frequently and spoke highly of - The island of Zanzibar.
We - but mostly her, developed an itinerary that would have us out on the white beaches of Zanzibar for 3 full days with 3 days of travel there and 3 days back. All we could really afford and spare away from our congested schedules. The final decision was made when we found affordable plane tickets that would cut out an unappealing 40 hour train ride- one way.
Our flight into Dar Es Saalam (our first leg) was all too easy which reinforced our comfort at having made the decision to fly instead of travel by train. Dar Es Saalam was a big city – much bigger and with more character then Lusaka – the Zambian capital. Perhaps the Muslim influences and Arabic architecture was to credit. I thought the city had a feel like the tenderloin district in San Francisco with the way it was structured though a bit more chaotic, with less hookers and a more conservative feel.
We took a ferry from Dar Es Saalam to Zanzibar where my city admiration was outdone once more by the awe, beauty and mystery of Stone town. The city was a maze of stone alleyways, Arabian architecture, clustered 3 story buildings, art inspiring architecture and elaborates engraved doors.
We spent the first day wandering around and deliberately getting lost. It was one of my favorite days during the trip to be entangled in such a mesmerizing array of culture and structural wonder. We shopped and indulged in some of the treats that Zanzibar had to offer including: cane sugar juice, local curry, seafood, teas, and street food. We explored some of the town’s historical sites including: the Old Portuguese fort, the house of wonders and the house where Queen lead guitarist Freddie Mercury was born.
The following day we continued our journey to the east side of the island - beach bound. Along the way, we stopped off at one of the highly recommend spice tours that gives Zanzibar its reputation as ‘The spice island’. The spice tour was well worth the hour and a half stop. We learned lots of interesting facts about many of the various spices that we use all too often in our dishes. It was in a beautiful jungle in the middle of the island surrounded by palm trees and exotic plant life. We ate various exotic fruits, were sung to by a local boy at the top of a coconut tree, learned about vanilla, turmeric, coco, coffee, pepper corn, African apples, star fruit, cinnamon and many other well-known spices. It was a tour well worth the money we spent.
We commenced our journey by heading to the east side of the island to a small village town called Bwejuu. It was quite, serene and best of all - vacant. It was also somewhat poor though not as bad as Zambia standards as the tourism industry seemed to have supported much of the community’s basic needs. We stayed in a Bungalow owned and operated by a very nice local who was more than accommodating to all our needs.
We spent the next few days just simply relaxing out on the beach, eating good food, drinking cocktails and just being ourselves with nowhere to be, an ideal vacation by my standards. We snorkeled at a nearby reef and saw a vast array of fish and sea life – though not quite as impressive as Hawaii. The water was warm, clear and the weather was favorable.
The shore break was interesting as there were no waves or swimmable waters for a few Kilometers down the beach. However the sands were soft and we found plenty of things to do on the beach to explore and occupy our time like: Frisbee, playing with children, playing music, reading, and collecting shells.
When it was time to begin our journey back to Zambia, we dragged our feet and regretted that we hadn’t planned a longer trip. Leaving those beaches was one of the hardest things I’ve had to force myself to do in quite some time.
We spent one more day in stone town trying to absorb as much of what we enjoyed on our first pass through, collected all the necessary souvenirs and ate all the delicious foods that we know we’d miss.
It all ended too sudden – except for the ferry back to Dar Es Saalam which made us both a bit regretful of our overindulgence in seafood before boarding. The oncoming waves made the ships journey back unpleasant, and not even our first class tickets could save us from our nocuous stomachs.
When we got back to Zambia it was like awakening from a wonderful dream on Monday morning. The vacation just didn’t seem long enough even though it was over a week, proving its success and how enjoyable of a time we had.
If you ever have the opportunity to venture to Zanzibar I couldn’t recommend it strongly enough. The wonderful fusion of African, Arabian and beach culture give the island amazing ambience and atmosphere that must be seen to believe. It would be a wonderful place to spend a considerable amount of time and really take in the local culture, a thought that tempted me from time to time while I was there.
I wouldn’t think twice about going back given the opportunity and I wouldn’t rule out the idea anytime soon.
