Stonetown

The major city on Zanzibar Is. is officially called Zanzibar Town, but the original 'old part of town' is known as Stonetown.

It is an interesting blend of cultures, with the major influences being African, Arabian, Indian particularly related to trading in spices and slaves, and to a lesser extent colonial aspiring Europeans.

Stonetown is a relatively small area, probably not much more than a square kilometer, but it is incredibly diverse. Some places are falling apart, and in fact some have been abandoned, but only the really bad ones. Many places have been maintained and restored, but for much of the area the people are too poor to try and repair, refurbish or even paint the buildings.

The narrow streets twist and turn constantly and there are very few straight lines. This is generally a sign of being built to withstand attack and invasion, as you can't get a charge going in the tight narrow streets, and counter attacks can be launched at every twist and side street. The doors also are mostly furnished with studs or spikes. It is said this is to prevent elephants from pushing them in, if there were ever elephants there, however the spikes would be an equal deterrent from people trying to shoulder the door open.

(photo credits - All photos in this post were taken by Annette Steward)

Looking at the size and ornate design of some of the spikes, it could be said that the owners may have been the sort of men who in more modern times resort to buying convertible sports cars in their 40's.

In addition to the brasswork, the doors and surrounding frames are very intricately carved, and some of the patterns tell a story of the resident family. I won't try and explain what the carvings mean as I will definitely get it wrong, the only detail I remember for certain is that beds carved with flowers are for girls, and for boys the decoration is a peacock.

I was informed that the area contained 3 christian churches, one of which is a large Anglican church built on the site of the former slave market in the years immediately after the trade was abolished. There are also 2 hindu temples, and 52 mosques, so not hard to guess the majority choice. Nor is it hard to miss the 4:30am call to prayer, as many of the mosques have loud speakers in the top of the minaret towers, through which really bad singing is broadcast at maximum amplitude and distortion, and focussed outwards. I'm sure it sounds much more pleasant inside the mosque, and only the infidels who aren't partaking in the prayer service get the maximum torture effect. Otherwise they must have a very strong masochist streak. Fortunately I am accustomed to such early calls to duty. And the simple fact I didn't have to get up and do 12 hours work was enough to be satisfied and roll over to go back to sleep.

The Anglican church built on site of former slave market. Memorial to slavery in foreground.

As a group we were in Stonetown for 3 nights before the wedding, and as we were 22 by this stage we were split between a couple of locations. It was generally best to explore in small groups, although I often chose to go roaming solo, even if just to explore while others were inside the shops. I had forgotten how much of an advantage it is in such places to be built like a yeti, as I tend not to get harassed too much by the stall owners. Also the fact that I never bought anything, and was therefore never carrying merchandise targeting me as a customer. On the second evening Kelly and Agnieszka had gone off to make a booking for the hen's night dinner, but returned a while later to request my presence. As they tried to navigate their way through the twists and turns of the streets they were frequently being crowded and / or followed by people with offers of help, but most likely not directly to the place they actually wanted to go. A pet yeti can be a handy thing to have.

The three days in Stonetown went by in a blur as there was much to do, in fact we had a pre-planned itinerary to keep the masses entertained. The first day we split up into two groups, scuba divers and those of the non-aquatic persuasion who still took to the water in small wooden dhows to go to a tortoise sanctuary on an island formerly used as a prison.

The day finished in typical African style with sundowners to accompany the ... er ... sun going down. It really is an event worth raising a glass, or can, or bottle to. A more important event to raise a glass for, we were also toasting the 5 yr (wedding) anniversary of Pat and Sheonagh (they've been together something like 13 years - please correct me if I am wrong ladies).

The second day was a morning stroll, or for some a 3 hour tour, stories of which is where I got my details about the carvings etc. The afternoon was again segregated, but this time the discrimination was by gender. The ladies went to a day spa for massages, henna painting etc, and then finished the evening at the most extravagant restaurant in town. A 5 course meal, each course was 3 dishes to sample from, so it was essentially a 15 dish banquet, and from all reports of excellent quality. I had a night in Stonetown again at the end of my stay in Zanzibar and was looking forward to enjoying the Emerson Spice experience for myself, however they were closed monday nights, so I never had the opportunity.

Meanwhile the guys had again returned to the ocean, we loaded up the esky with what at the time seemed to be plentiful stocks, and set off for a sand bar. When we got there it was crowded with italians so we went snorkelling first, and when we returned an hour later the ocean had all but claimed the spit of sand. However not yielding so easily the sandbar never quite disappeared below the high tide and we soon had our own private island, and it was growing larger by the minute. By the time we were returning to shore we discovered that the esky was empty ... or ... maybe that was why we were returning. After cleaning our selves up to look, but not necessarily behave, respectable, we were off for curry.

The following day was the wedding day (which I will cover in another post), and a number of people had already set off to the location to prepare. Meanwhile I was spending the morning with the groom, not with wedding stuff in mind, but locating the offices of that delightful group of people from Precision Air. I was again doing the pet yeti trick to make sure we weren't troubled as we negotiated some of the less affluent areas of town. Once we had arrived, we quickly confirmed that yes they had indeed cancelled everybody's flights, and it took almost an hour of negotiating to get them reinstated.

Finally we were back to our respective accommodations to pack and muster the rest of the troops. But not so fast, Rupert had taken the time to double check all the flight details, and in the re-instatement, everyone was now on the same flight. Unfortunately to return to Australia in time for another wedding that weekend, Agnieszka and Matt were leaving the day before everyone else, and so back to Precision Air we went. Maybe having something to occupy the mind is a good thing on the day of your wedding, but having to negotiate flights for 8 people when it is entirely unnecessary that this should be required, is probably not the best of choices.

We were finally off to the village of Bububu, or more accurately the Imani Beach Hotel for what was a long anticipated event ......