Back from Zanzibar

Best experience in Stonetown: Taarib music at the Cultural Music Club. It was sort of like going to the Elks club - there were a bunch of old guys wearing those Muslim hats, playing dominoes...upstairs in a big public looking bldg....sat and waited for a while till the appointed time and all these musicians appeared...they were really good!!! I mean good! Apparently they have performed all over the world; the music is a combination of African/Arab; included singing and dancing - and audience participation of course...and I gathered these performances are just like a practice - free to the public. It was great - Marsh, Mark, Glen - this reminded me a bit of Faado in Portugal.....started out sounding a bit dark, but really got lively

later...
This has to be one of the most weird and exotic places I've seen....and in some cases pretty dilapidated...and a bit sad.... I shouldn't start out on a negative note ...but I think that just because a country is poor it doesn't have to be trashy and unkempt...for instance a museum in Stonetown (old part of Zanzibartown) had some pretty interesting stuff housed in an enormous old Arab Palace called the House of Wonders - well the House of Wonders has seen better days. So many people are out of work in this country - if the government spent less on their own material advancement and put some people to work on the infrastructure and just general tidying up, this would be a small step in t he right direction....

You see so many people just hanging out on the street; I suppose at home they are just hanging out in front of the tv - but since everyone doesn't have tv - and it's warm out side......

So - on the positive side - I spent a night and day at Kendwa onthe Northeast coast at a place called SUnset Bungalows - inexpensive - huge, right on the beach - amazingly beautiful beach..couldn't stop taking picutres - everything looks like a post card. got up early and walked the beach then swam for quite a while and had breakfast (incl wiith rm) on the beach; Wiseman (yup that's his name) came over and gave me his spiel about snorkeling so I went out with him and the boat "captain"....got a bit queasy after a while from the rolling wave action ,but it was pretty nice....

Back on the beach I got a massage and pedicure from Rosie ...all for about 20 bucks.....

Sitting at the beach restaurant having some food in the evening and listening to some arabic sounding music ....it was like "I guess we're not in Kansas anymore Toto" (ok Maine , but you get the point; things are just so different here)....it did remind me a bit though of the first time we went to Mex...before the Maya Riviera got so crowded; this place was sooo mellow and quiet - and the people so friendly - just like the rest of TZ!

So - next day in stonetown I did the obligatory spice tour - whihc was pretty interesting for a nerd like me - but really not all that exciting - what can you expect..it's horticulture....
anyway - someone is getting spioces fo r Christmas...
Next lunch at a stonetown rest - really good spiced rice and kuku (chicken) chickens are everywhere in this country btw, I think t here are more chickens than people...

Tour of Stonetown, finished off with a beer on the balcony of the Africa House Hotel.Old style African Hotel as you would imagine it....ocean view, veeerrry hot on the balcony Mitch you would like the nice hotels in this town, but probably not the Jambo Guest House where I stayed for cheap; nice view about 3 feet across the very narrow street of the neighbors...but anyway - it was clean, safe, incl breakfast - and there were some other Americans there...

Met a few intersting people along the way - Hamis, Haji...very few women around it seems and since Zanz is primarily Muslim, they are all swaddled in the Muslim garb.....