Last Day in Tanzania

We took the ferry from Zanzibar to Dar Es Salaam this morning, then we fly out to Mozambique tomorrow morning. I really enjoyed Stone Town and I think I could stay here one more day (despite the lack of bars and the fact that we get woken up by Islamic prayer calls at 5am). Everyone keeps reminding me that its better to leave a place before you want to then what we did in Kendwa (get bored out of our minds and ready to bolt).

So the ferry today was interesting. We took a "fast" ferry that was about 2 hours and the boat itself was decent and we had plenty of legroom, etc. And it did go pretty fast, but the seas were not flat and the boat had a fair amount of sway. It was something like that scene in Stand By Me where the room full of people start puking on after the other until everyone is puking. It started with a couple of women in birkas across the aisle from me. I put on my headphones and turned it up load so I couldn't hear. It gradually spread around the cabin and Wortman was even unlucky enough to get bit by it. Somehow I managed to avoid the smell, or else who knows what would have happened to me. I was def ready to get the hell off the Puke-O-Rama Ferry!

One funny Zanzibar story I was reminded of as we talked last night: the crazy Italians and their sunset photo shoots. Apparently Zanzibar is a HUGE Italian vacation spot. There are plenty of Europeans here in general (and very few Americans), but the beaches seem very geared towards Italians. Apparently some of the towns on the east coast are literally built for and run by and for them.

Anyway, like I said in my other post, Kendwa has the best sunsets of all the beaches and our silent relative solitude was broken up one day by (literally) 200 or so Italians who came to the beach at 4pm to camp out and watch the sunset. The whole men in speedos in public thing (even fat ones) has got to be the most offensive cultural difference I've seen - ha! These people proceeded to pose in various hilarious ways (although it in no way seemed funny to them) in front of the setting sun for 2 hours. It was one of the most ridiculous things I've seen and I pretty much sat there and laughed my ass off the entire time (granted some of these women were ridiculously hot, which excuses it somewhat, but fat-guy-speedo posing is WAY over the line).

Anyway, That's it from Tanzania. All in all is was a great month here, but the towns near Kili and the safari launch leave alot to be desired. The whole attitude towards tourists is pretty fucked up as well. They don't seem to realize how much they screw themselves over with the constant nagging and leeching. Maybe we'd actually buy something if they backed off for a split second. We did meet some good people though, so its tough to let the bad apples totally ruin the bunch.

One more thing - for anyone in SF who complains about lack of taxis. I have a good solution for you: come to Dar Es Salaam. They have some new condos going up and you can basically walk the entire city on the roofs of parked cabs. It feels like we are the only 4 potential customers for 5000 empty taxis. I guess it'll be easy to get a ride to the airport tomorrow.

Mozambique here we come.