Beautiful spice island, paradise

The Flying Horse is a modern catamaran and goes like a dream. The sea is beautiful and we see dolphins diving in the water near the wake. The reception in Zanzibar is again full of touts and ugly scenes of “tourist possession”. One guy called James introduces himself to us and then gets all upset when we choose someone else’s taxi to get into. I tell him he doesn’t own the rights to us and make a scene. I really dislike this possessive touting since we know where we want to go and don’t want to turn up to a hotel with a tout in tow being forced to pay them commission just because they tagged along.
We end up at the Garden Lodge hotel where a very nice clean, new, white room is ours for a pricey but treat-worthy $30 per night. We collapse into a cold shower after the searing heat outside. Zanzibar is a labyrinth but relatively safe so it is cool just to wander. We end up in a bustling market and the bus station which, while not desperately aesthetic is interesting to see. We both get a little stressed by each other’s street behaviour and time out over a quiet beer at sunset. Very nice but I’m in a peculiarly quiet mood.
Later we ‘endure’ an abortive meal at Pichy’s, a supposedly good pizza restaurant. The beer is off and the pizza oven takes an hour and a half to warm up. Not good. A power cut in the night means regular cold showers need to be taken because the ceiling fan doesn’t work. All in all a disappointing day.
In the morning the sun is hot and five days of relative luxury lay ahead of us in the mysterious ‘spice’ island of Zanzibar. We’ve booked a ‘spice’ tour for tomorrow and are hoping to do some snorkelling and stuff over the next few days. We take a leisurely wander around the maze of streets in “Stone Town” – the ancient centre of Zanzibar. There’s not much hassle, just lots of shopkeepers begging for attention and lots of things to buy: textiles, spices, carvings, paintings. The streets are full of Muslim women shrouded in black and buying lace and sequins from a multitude of such shops and men riding around on mopeds or bicycles. The buildings are in a generally disgraceful state – some have been renovated but most are poorly maintained, damp and dirty. Still, they give the place an atmosphere all of its own and have a certain faded charm. This place is perfect for the filming of a Lynx or Turkish Delight advert.
We visit a local “Sea View” restaurant which serves great Indian lassies and also organise a lot of trips around the island. We enquire about snorkelling in a couple of days time. Later we have a relaxing afternoon sleeping and reading in the hotel. In the evening wearing clothes neatly laundered we stroll back into town for an ‘interesting’ meal at the Namaste restaurant. The night is hot and full of mosquitoes.

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