What a trip! For those of you that didn't know, Aaron and I took a vacation to Tanzania. We visited Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar. The following is the riveting short story summarizing that adventure. Pictures to be uploaded when I can.
It was a beautiful morning, another glorious Wednesday morning in Thunduti. However, this Wednesday was no ordinary day. This day marked the beginning of an incredible journey for two friends. Aaron and Nick, friends brought together through their villages proximity mixed with both being employed by the US Peace Corps.
Before the sun managed to rise, these two PCVs were finishing their last minute preparations to hit the road and embark on a journey across the Serengeti to the 'Haven of Peace' and then to the nearby archipelago.
This journey involved riding a mini-bus to Karonga, a taxi to Songwe, walking across the "Long Bridge" (which wasn't really that long), leaving the familiar land of Malawi, and entering the exciting, new land of Tanzania. After crossing that threshold, and another 2km walking, they boarded a dalla-dalla for Mbeya. In Mbeya, these two adventurers were nervous, because they had asperations to board a train, but the train was supposed to leave a couple hours earlier. Luckily, upon arriving at the train station, they discovered the train itself was running 6 hours late. More problems though, it was a 25 hour journey and no cabins with a bed were open. Once again, the fates smiled upon them, and this was no issue. This train was operated by people from the nation of Zambia, and Zambians speaks a very similar language to these Malawian residents, so some short conversing with the conductor, and they were able to upgrade to a first class cabin.
The train ride was quite incredible. Food was brought straight to the cabin, along with liquid refreshments. Both of our travelers slept quite well, and in the morning saw elephants, antelope, warthogs, and other Serengeti wildlife while passing through a couple of Tanzania's game preserves.
Upon arrival in Dar es Salaam, a large metropolitan on scale with a counterpart city in the developed world, they immediately sought accommodation. The next day, they walked around the downtown area of the city, visiting the National Museum, botanical gardens, a cathedral, and finally ended up at a bar called "Florida Pub."
Saturday was the day that they were to travel to Zanzibar. With fast ferry (2 hour ride) tickets in hand, they boarded a boat. Upon boarding this boat, they met another traveler, an Australian living in Uganda. These three spent the day walking around Stone Town, enjoying the famous food and spiced coffee, and then touring the grounds of the former slave market. For supper, they went to a daily fish eating faire in a Stone Town garden where fish, mollusks, and shellfish were consumed. (Interesting note, as far as fish went, blue marlin was in the cheapest category with barracuda, while tuna and snapper enjoy a more prestigious price.)
The next day, poor Alison had to return to the mainland, but Aaron and Nick went on a tour of the other parts of the island that included a spice farm (one of the major exports from Zanzibar), a cave where slaves were hid and smuggled out to the Middle East after the sale of slaves from this country had became illegal, and a visit to the beach. Upon returning to Stone Town, it was time to get cleaned up and enjoy sunset, a few adult beverages, and a wonderful seafood dinner from a local establishment.
On their last day on Zanzibar, it was time to adventure out to sea. A dhow (small boat) took them to Prison Island to see the tortoise population there, then just offshore the island to snorkel the coral reef there, populated by a large variety of beautifully colored fish (including Nick's favorite ornamental fish, the Moorish Idol). That evening, they once again enjoyed seafood and a sunset, but this time they had to set off on an overnight ferry ride back to mainland Tanganika. A boat ride that normally takes 3 hours was modified to an 8 hour ride to allow the passengers to enjoy a full night's sleep and arrive in the morning daylight.
That morning of their return to Tanganika (mainland Tanzania) marked the beginning of their return trip back to Malawi. The train was scheduled to depart Dar at 2;30pm, but upon arriving in the train station (reached via motorized rickshaw), they discovered that the train wasn't going to run until Friday. That day being Tuesday, this was an unacceptable delay, so after some researching, they caught a taxi with two fellow travelers, Italians that were on their way to Malawi for a month of work at a school and clinic there, and managed to book a nice bus (4 passengers wide). They found a place to stay, rested there, had a very good and quite reasonably priced meal, and went to bed, ready to catch their 5:30am bus.
The fates seemed to have another twist in store for them. The nice bus that was going to take them had not arrived (or never existed), so instead they were forced to board a not-so-luxerious bus (5 passengers wide). Oh, Africa! The good part is that they were on the correct side of the bus going through a national park to see giraffes, elephants, zebras, and antelope.
After arriving into Mbeya, these four weary travelers (our PCVs and the Italians), found a place to stay, a meal to eat, and most importantly, a cold beer.
The next morning, the new Italian friends left early in the morning, but our protagonists of this story slept in very late (9:00am), and set off a short time later. They boarded a dalla-dalla for the boarder and to reach their villages and homes, hoping to share the tale of their adventures.
The End
Pictures can be found at:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10103443563328301.1073741829.2036002&type=1&l=500528862d
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