Trip 2: Stone Town

18 September 2011

Spent the day walking around Stone Town with my tropical full body sweat. Because, someone (AKA me), is slightly special needs and decided that wearing a lightweight wool sweater would be a good idea. Yep, not the brightest crayon in the box.

We began our day with breakfast on the rooftop of the hotel. Enjoying the views of a nice tropical day. Water was the perfect turquoise color you always see in pictures. Dhow boats sailing along the shore. Big puffy white clouds. Cool, ocean breeze. And we were glued to our computers trying to check email and reintegrate with "normal" life (school, Fantasy football, email, etc).

After breakfast, went back to our room to take showers since the hot water heater wasn't working earlier. Then, headed out on the town. Walked all over Stone Town and managed to avoid buying a cd of local music to include Jambo Jambo, which is apparently a song we have been hearing ALL over the place. These guys DO NOT understand "No. Thank you" even when you say it in their language. "Hapana. Asante."

We did however find a few Tingatinga paintings at the Old Fort Market. Tingatinga is a style of paintings that originated in Dar es Salaam. It has become so popular, there is even a cartoon in the States in Tingatinga style. Pretty cool.

I heart this sign. LONG time.

The famous carved doors in Stone Town are beautiful. And EVERYWHERE. And in every condition. Some look brand new, some look like they will fall down if you lightly touch them. We were able to get a few pictures of the doors.

Sample of door carvings. Pretty amazing.

We went to Beit al-Ajaib (House of Wonders). It is actually a museum of the area with a fantastic 3rd floor balcony overlooking the water. The breeze felt wonderful after soaking in my own sweat for the past couple of hours. I was starting to smell a little eau du Africa.

Liam wanted to ride the canons.

Info on Beit-el-Ajaib

Our hotel is the one in the middle between the church and the mosque.

While enjoying the breeze, we decided to head to Mercury's for lunch. For those un-Queen fans, Freddy was born on Zanzibar and spent his childhood years here. Well, until his parents shipped him off to boarding school in India. So, the very flamboyant lead singer of Queen, grew up in a Muslim culture. That one still baffles me a tiny bit. The restaurant is located in one of his childhood homes. The food was a little pricey (we have become SO CHEAP), but rather delicious. The drink menu had me in stitches to the point where I had to take a picture or two. My favorite - read the description for a Monica Lewinsky.

Mercury's Zanzibar

A lil' bit of info.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to take a nap. After our afternoon siesta, we headed to the Stone Town market where I SCORED three GIGANTIC bags of saffron for almost nothing. Spice island = my friend. Liam is still questioning what you use saffron for. Anyone have any great saffron recipes? I haven't cooked with it in a while since it's so expensive back home.

Walked over to the Serena Hotel to see if we wanted to eat dinner there, but decided to just have a couple of drinks and walk over to another hotel for dinner. 

After wandering a little bit around Stone Town, we found the Al Johari hotel. Fusion, the restaurant on the top of Al Johari hotel, was a fantastic place for dinner. Beautiful sunset. Delicious food. We licked our plates.