Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Zanzibar (doors, chests, AC & spice)




Well we were all looking forward to our short holiday in Zanzibar. Well its a lovely place but they all want dollars US and lots of them. From the time we booked the ferry to the accomodation and shops, $$$$$ (che ching). Well its a good thing Floss (aka Fiona) had brought bucket loads of US dollars with her.

We found a nice Guest House (Florida!) with a room with three beds, bathroom, TV (news and football) and AC/fan (the only thing that made us relent in regards to the staggering price). Boy we all really enjoyed the chill provided by the poor AC which ran non stop during our stay.

We explored a little of Zanzibar, soon (15mins in fact) getting tired of looking in wood carving shops (all clones). It did seem at the time that all in fact we ended up doing was eating lunch and dinner again and again (yummy). Not quite true however. We also popped into one or two Zanzibar chest shops, walked past the Old Fort, admired lots of Zanzibar doors, wandered aimlessly through the maze that is Stone Town and bought a bag (plaited from Palm fronds) and a back scratcher ;o). Us girls had a pampering (facial, pedicure and henna) and spent quality time in a shop selling lovely silver jewlery (these two stops curtesy of Dad's little pressie). The boys were slightly bored at this point, with Jonathon falling asleep whilst waiting the soon to be beautiful maidens (not).

We managed to get out of Stone Town on our last day and had a Spice Tour. Firstly at a Spice Shamba, via Sultan's baths, to lunch at a very expensive resort (eeeek) followed by a dip in their pool (v nice) and a snooze on a bed on the beach under one of those straw thatched umbrella things (those you see in expensive brochures - v nice too). If only they werent so much money...

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