Day 8 - Zanzibar, We will Rock you!

We will, we will ROCK you!!

Yes for all those music buff's out there we have landed in Zanzibar, the home of Farrokh Bulsara, better known as Freddie Mercury. Born in Zanzibar in 1946 and lived here until he was 8 years old before boarding school in India. He returned to the family home for a short while before the family migrated to England. So like any good tourist attraction you cash in on the fact he returned here sometime later in his life and stayed in this room. So now its famous right?

Zanzibar, one of my favorite words. Sounds interesting, exotic and mysterious. So far it's a shock to our senses. Safety is questionable and the heat is unbearable. This said, we soldiered on to discover Stone Town as i'ts better developed than Arusha with footpaths and bitumen roads and the centre of Stone Town has hotels galore.

Stating the bleeding obvious, we stand out in the crowd and this makes for an easy target to be body snatched in the streets - the hawkers are relentless. I read that a simple 'No thank you" with a smile was a good enough message , but Geez they just don't let up! Map in hand we work our way through the city and visit the historical places which unfortunately are in total disrepair. The Arabic influence is strong with undercurrent of European features. Actually , Cuba was the same. They have these amazing buildings , but no money to maintain them in good condition. Anyway, with the occasional drink stop we managed our own tour.

Double Tree Hotel our home for 3 days

Everyone, knows we love our food, but its been a little disappointing. Curries feature as the main local dish and always listed as "Taste of Tanzania" in all the menus. Makes us laugh each time. Very tasty, but always similar. Its surprising how much Western food is replicated to meet the market here. Safe I suppose?

So today we added another beer to the list we have tried here in Tanzania. Tusker a lager but still not as nice as the Serengeti for me and Andrew has taken to the Kilimanjaro larger. Safari, Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, Ndovo and Tusker all Tanzanian beers.