I hired an energetic guide to walk me around Stonetown. As according to the guidebooks, it is Marrakech, but there was a whole lot of nothing. I like history and local culture, gardens, animals, food and religious sites. The most exceptional aspect was that the Zanzibarians stack their veggies artistically, and there are some nice doors
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Like Marrakech but this stuff was all added for effect recently
Cool street art in the back alleys
No one likes or trusts politicians but most must have a civic mind to tolerate the abuse
Antique Over door lighting
Original mangrove wood roof from 1600's
Thick Original Walls made of crumbly lime and coral
Guess who is from Zanzibar? Would have Never guessed
Old British embassy. What a dump this city is.
House of wonders. Wonder why the floors are like 4m high?
Alley spiders suspended overhead everywhere
Muslim women get to choose modem, headscarf, or burqa. Nice freedom and respect here. Zanzibar surprisingly uses well water
Bit of industry, but this is mostly a fishing town
Mosques are always built 100m from churches to discourage customers from switching brands
Grim, grim slave warehouse, with an air of auschwitz. Asked my guide Harry locals' opinion of slave traders, and he said they are considered to have been important men!!
You never know when it will happen to you. Most slaves were naive men recruited by Arabs for work on the coast and brutalised
Work it like a slave, girlina!!
Harry took me to see his raging queen friend who, get this, runs the museum to the only Zanzibar princess. She reminds me of Karen Blixen, and I relate to them both as a community-oriented ex-pat.
My Serena hotel was outstanding, didn't want to leave my hammock on my seaside private terrace. Now don't you "backpackers" all jump on me as narrow minded, but I find it's usually best in a small third world city, just like in similar Kochin, India last year, which is also on the Indian Ocean, to just stay in your posh hotel and skip the poverty and chaos. It was true for Kochin and true for Stonetown, not that I could resist venturing out, though with a guide. So you see the crumbling Catholic Church and yet another vegetable or stinky fish market. Is that really local? How often do you go there in your town? Of course, it was not at all true for Mumbai or Sri Lanka or Berlin, Zurich and Prague last year or Nairobi or Cape Town on this trip, with too much to see. Or duh, Athens, st Pete or Moscow! Can you imagine. But I sure want to make time tonenjoy my posh hotels, too.
Watching the locals eating curry is great, but maybe not if you can't enjoy the Taj grounds like a maharaja because of it. The most fabulous hotel in town is almost always a reflection of the good life in that community, and I will bet the local elite all hang out by its pool or at the restaurants. Fabulous. We do it in Australia, too
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