No longer will we be able to get lost in the labyrinth-like narrow alleys of Stone Town, sip Mojitos from gently rocking hammocks, take a dip in the warm Indian ocean or, 'wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle' on soft white sand beaches. * Sigh *
On the plus side, even though we're leaving a country whose traditional dish seems to be a chip omelette (lush), we've just arrived in Malawi which I've really been looking forward to following many discussions with Patrick from CURE hospital about his homeland.
I liked Zanzibar from the moment we arrived and were offered fake designer sunglasses. I bought two pairs to replace my (genuine but doomed) Oakleys - Ray Dans and Guci.
Zanzibar really did live up to its well deserved reputation and legendary allure.
The African, Arabic and Indian influences can be seen and smelled throughout Stone Town. With its cobbled streets, courtyards and squares, bazaars and mosques, cathedral and gardens, it felt like an exotic melting pot of cultures with a bustling rhythm to match. It was mesmerising (and quite exhausting!) to watch from the comfort of a rooftop balcony, glass of red in hand!
Zanzibar is an extremely conservative, Muslim society. Women wear full Islamic clothing that cover all of their bodies and a lot of the men (when not wearing football shirts - Arsenal seems to be the team of choice over here btw) wear what look like long nighties (Ok, I know that's not politically correct but I don't know what they're called or how else to describe them and neither does anyone I'm with at the moment).
To respect their traditions and beliefs, us girls covered up our knees and shoulders in the stifling heat so in a way, we were glad to leave and hit the beach in Kendwa at the north of the island.
Kendwa's trump card is its idyllic, coconut tree lined, white sand beach and turquoise sea and whose 'fun time' reputation is based on its legendary full moon parties... and we had a lot of fun there!
Our time on Zanzibar was more like a normal holiday than truck life - no chores, no 4.30am wake up calls to go game driving and no bloody camping. I'm truly over tents.
We managed to pack a lot into Zanzibar though - swimming with wild dolphins in the sea (won't be doing that again - almost drowned in the massive waves), swimming with turtles in a sea lagoon (nice idea on paper, not so much in practice. Especially when you don't know if you're standing on rock or some variety of endangered turtle), going to a spice farm (boring), getting lost without a map in the Stone Town maze (frustrating but we got to see some beautiful sights and - randomly - some really intricate wooden front doors) as well as sinking some local brews (fun) and dancing on a dance floor made of sand (lots and lots of fun).
The beach resort we stayed at was gorgeous. (It reminded me a lot of where we went horse riding in Brazil Trace, only without the driving rain!)
The sea was so clear you could see fish - including jelly fish, ych - swimming round and the shells and pieces of coral on the shoreline were much more exotic (and hygienic) than anything I've seen washed up at Porthcawl.
Our beach cottages were lovely too - 30 seconds walk to the bar, 40 seconds to the massage hut and less than a minute to the sea. In the time we were there, I managed to rack up an unquantifiable number of Tuskers, mojitos and GnTs, four massages (wonderful and cheap - £8 for an hour!), one leg wax (very unsatisfactory), 40 + new mozzie bites (that have turned into what looks like little volcanic eruptions on my skin), a few dips (mostly wearing bathers) in the sea and a considerable laundry bill (I can't be doing with hand washing any more - somehow my clothes end up dirtier than when they went in).
So here we are now in Malawi. After being here for about three hours, I think I'm going to like it. Although at the moment, that is solely based on the fact the local beer is called something that sounds like cwtchy cwtchy.
(We're in Zambia now. I wrote this blog in Malawi but the internet kept crashing wasn't so I couldn't publish it)
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