Jambo! Mambo vipi rafikis?? (translation: hey! what's up friends?? we're basically fluent in Swahili at this point, and commonly get mistaken for locals). Since we last blogged, we've spent a GLORIOUS week in the sun in Zanzibar! We flew from Arusha to Stonetown (the main town on Zanzibar island), and spent the night. The next morning we hopped on a bus and headed for Nungwi - a beach town at the most northern tip of the island. We heard this was the perfect mix of beach and "nightlife", so we were pumped! We stayed at a little beach bungalow at the end of the main strip (translation: little beach bungalow = cheapest and sketchiest place on the island). Nevertheless, we had PRIME beach location, and luckily all the other lovely hotels on the strip let us eat at their restaurants.
We were mildly concerned when our first two days in Nungwi were punctuated with torrential rains for the majority of the afternoon. We managed to get some sun between the hours of 4 and 6pm, but decided that this simply would not cut it for the "beach" part of our vaycay. Luckily this trend stopped by day three, and we enjoyed 5 days of clear, uninterrupted sun. We may have been over zealous sun seekers at this point (likely still feeling the cold from summit day), as after our first big day of sun we were all looking a tad toasty (quote Nicole, post shower: "I am a tomato.").
Most of our days went a little something like this. Wake up to the sounds of birds/bungalow staff/random noises through our non-existant windows circa 6am. Toss and turn until 9am, breakfast and beach prep until 10. Hit the beach HARD until 2pm, with a diet coke break somewhere in the middle. Walk our crispy selves to lunch (avocado & mango salads, fruit medleys and smoothies were among our faves), and return to the beach to swim and watch the sun set. Back to the room and get ready for dinner (translation: which of your two shirts will you wear with capris tonight?), eat (more deets to come), search for nightlife (fail to find nightlife), return to room, cuddle up with chocolate snacks and a season of Lipstick Jungle. Bed by 10pm - 11 if we're feeling crazy, and ready to repeat cycle. Not a bad week in our books!!
There were however a few standout places, people and things that made this week unforgettable. In no particular order:
1. The water! Only pictures can really describe this, but the ocean was INCREDIBLE - the beach was white sand, and the water was a million shades of blue. It was easily the most beautiful beach that any of us had ever seen.
2. The beach vendors! Selling everything from henna tattoos, massages, manicures, pedicures, sunglasses, Masai beads, banana leaves, salad tongs, name plates that say 'Simba', wooden boats with wooden people in them (rare), CDs (of themselves singing local Tanzanian songs) and scarves. These people were pushy and relentless until about day 4 when they realized that those 3 Canadian girls were NOT buying a thing from them. They did provide us with much amusement though, through their unique marketing tactics. For example, many would recite any common Swahili words that tourists might know (ie. Jambo mambo vipi poa pole pole asante sana karibu sana hakuna matata rafiki - translation: hello how are you cool slowly slowly thank you very much you're very welcome no problem friends). They often tried to make friends with us by guessing our nationalities. At the beginning of the week we got American a lot; we knew the tans were kicking into high gear when we started to get Brazilian, Spanish, Italian and Isreali. Yahoo!
3. LANGI LANGI and the rasta chef. Luckily we stumbled upon the restaurant at Langi Langi hotel early in the week, and we promptly stopped going to any other restaurants for dinner. The tables were on a deck that sat over the water at high tide, the menu was vast, cheap and delicious (who knew they could make great tomato sauce in Africa?!), and a free appetizer of soup was included with every meal. Jackpot! Could this get any better? Yes, turns out it could! On an innocent afternoon stroll down the strip, we popped our heads into Langi Langi to scope out the dessert selection for the night (note: chocolate is HARD to come by in Zanzibar). Spotted - a chocolate loaf. Score! As we drooled and started talking about how we couldn't wait to come back for dinner and have some, a rastafarian angel appeared. Lonely Planet told us this was likely the famous rasta chef - so we asked him. "Are you the chef here?" His response: "I am everything". We started chatting with him, and he simply looked at us and said 'you always eat here! have complementary cake!'. We looked at each other. Could this be true?! Are we really getting free chocolate cake from the most delicious place on the strip?! Yes, we were. AND he was instructing his staff to give us two pieces each, topped with the ice cream flavour of our choice, drizzled with chocolate sauce. DROOL. Best afternoon EVER! And the free food just kept on coming. When Nicole felt sick, the rasta chef appeared bearing gifts of mint tea and suggesting some crazy Russian shot (which thankfully he never actually brought). On our last night, he brought us marble loaf with ice cream and chocolate sauce (perhaps he could tell how much we enjoyed the last one) as a parting gift. His generosity, friendliness and overall Zen-ness made nights at Langi Langi a definite trip highlight.
We're now back in Stonetown for the next few days, and will be updating the blog soon with the adventures we're having here before we head to ZAMBIA on Monday! Stay tuned rafikis!
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