Zanzibar is an archipelago of islands off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. The biggest island is often labeled as “Zanzibar,” even though it’s called Unguja. It is usually known for its white sand beaches and awesome diving. However, we went on a rainy weekend at the start of Ramadan, so we were just set to explore Stone Town, the biggest city in the South of the island.
We had heard many stories about the horrors of the 90 minute ferry ride on rough seas, so we were pretty nervous. It wasn’t too bad on the way there, but that might have been because we got business class instead of economy (only $5 more and worth it, we used Azam ferries). I will say that we took the 7am ferry on a Saturday morning on purpose, because we heard that the ride would be less rough in the morning. So we arrived in Zanzibar around 9:30 to a bustling terminal, where we went through a strange, disorganized, immigration process, lackluster security, and popped out into a sea of taxi drivers yelling at us. Luckily, our guest house had arranged for someone to pick us up and he had a sign with our names on it.
We stayed at the Jambo Guest House (~$25 a night), which was absolutely lovely. There are shared bathrooms, but you can get a private room if you’d like and each room has these beautiful intricate bed frames, mosquito nets, and AC. Plus they serve a killer breakfast in the morning.
Our first task was finding something to eat (a challenge, because of Ramadan) and we ended up getting roped into a tour instead. We toured Christ Church, a cathedral built on a former slave trading post, and learned about the sad and rich history of the church from an awesome tour guide (~10,000 TSH or $5).
Outside were neatly trimmed gardens, and a tall, thin, tree with wide branches that represented the tree that they used to tie slaves to beat them before selling them (to see how strong the slaves were). Inside, our guide spoke about how the British built this church with the help of slaves, before starting a movement to free slaves.
He talked very highly of the British, as if they were the heroes in the story, which is never the case. Outside of the church, there was a building that used to be a hospital. Underneath this building were the former slave quarters, of which two remain for historical purposes. That was really sad to go down in, because they were well-preserved but not “dressed up” at all, how some museums do. It was just a small cement cellar type thing with low ceilings, maybe a room half the size of mine at home, used to fit 50-70 slaves at once. This was if they survived the journey to Zanzibar, they were put in these quarters with no food, water, or bathroom for two days (with like 50 other people), and if they survived that, then they went to the tree to be physically beaten, and if they survived all of that, then they were sold. Just a reminder of how cruel people were for so long.
After that, there was a whole exhibit with pictures and stories to supplement the tour. I think the coolest part was at the end where they had a panel on modern day slavery. It still exists today and I think that there are more slaves today than there were in the time of African slavery. If you’re curious about it, google it (or research that label on the clothing you’re wearing right now).
Side note: One of the cool things about Zanzibar is that it is truly a mixing pot of influences. Sadly, this is because it was a major slave trade hub back in the day. Because of that, the island and the architecture has influences from the Arabs, Portuguese, Germans, British, Indians, Chinese, as well as Tanzania, obviously.
After that we aimlessly walked around, lost in the winding streets of Stone Town. I consider myself pretty good at reading maps and directing people, and I got us lost within like 10 minutes of trying to navigate Stone Town. Eventually we found a nice little tucked away restaurant where we had some of the best Tanzanian food we’ve had so far and met a (hungry) kitty friend.
Side note: there were cats everywhere and it was awesome, but I couldn’t pet any of them because I’m actually pretty scared of rabies here.
After lunch we just walked around, but lots of people were hassling us to the point where we couldn’t walk without some random man following us telling us we were lost and we needed him. We decided to try and go to the market. We saw a really sad chicken scene, with men stuffing chickens into this basket on top of a bike and then wheeling it through the market to have them killed. I actually considered being vegetarian for a second. I think I’m headed that direction here.
After the market, we went back into town and saw some Persian baths. It was only 2000 TSH (less than $1) and it was pretty cool.
You can definitely imagine how the baths would have looked in their peak days. Next, we made our way to the sultan’s palace and the Palace Museum, which was really just an old mansion, but still pretty cool.
We had dinner at a restaurant called Maru Maru, super touristy and mediocre food, but whatever. I regret not going to the gardens for night time BBQ, but it was late and we were tired so we just headed home.
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