Exploring Stone Town

Landed safely and got picked up by our Tent with a View guys in an air conditioned van. Wow that was different. We made plans to do the spice tour on Monday on our way  up to the beach. They dropped us off at Dhow Palace in the middle of the old city not far from the ocean. Very old hotel that used to be some bigwigs house until the late 1900's. Free wifi - yippee. They schlepped our baggage up 3 flights of very steep stairs - no elevators in this town. Room was ok but between the great climb (you don't wantto forget anything) and not getting a wifi signal up there, it was time to change rooms. Nothing new for us. Marched downstairs and got a room on the ground floor in back. Although a bit smaller, there is more places for our bags and wifi (when working) is an excellent signal.

Rested a bit and uploaded all the pictures we weren't able to during safari.  Took a shower and we were off to explore the nightlife of Stone Town. There are tour shops everywhere. Talked to a kid hanging out on the street from one of these and asked where to go for dinner.  "Oh you go straight down take a right and go to Fodonhani Park lots of good cheap food." Thanked him very much and proceeded to find this restaurant. The restaurant turns out to be the park itself. It was filled with food vendors. Some get prettty aggressive in their selling techniques. We tried the shredded chicken they call schwarma in a gyro. It was out of this world. Probably go back for another one for lunch. Did I mention, this show goes on day and night. We tried the lobster and kingfish kabob with naan bread. OK but not as  good as the chicken. We also tried the sugar cane juice. I would have expected this to be wicked sweet but it was wonderful. They split the can and stuff it with limes and ginger and then ring it through a press to get the juice. Tastes great. Now we are praying that we don't get sick - you never know about street food. I took some great shots of all this action but unfortunately, the camera card was in the computer and not the camera. It recorded internally in the camera but my tech guy brought the wrong usb cable - so I will try and get more shots tomorrow night but no promises.

Today we will explore the city with our trusty guide book and map - no guides. Also on the hunt for this la-di-dah restaurant at the rooftop of some hotel that overlooks the city.Supposed to be quite the place. Not sure if we will go or not.

Woke up to the sounds of the morning prayers streaming through the speakers throughout the city. Right now it is gettinng time for breakfast. later...

Breakfast was so-so. Got our stuff together and ventured out into the crowded, narrow, hot streets of Stone Town. Lots of huskters that we had to keep shooing off. Passed through some shopping stalls and bought a few things. Needless to say, Obama is a big hit here and he is on many a shirt. Ran into a South African film crew that was shooting the Souther African version of Master Chef. They will be selling their wares down at the food market tonight. We trapsed all over town looking for the famous rooftop restaurant. We did find the large market and the old slave market at Saint Monica's church. Stopped in for a bit of Sunday Mass. We headed back down to the ocean and it was definitely time for lunch. We were hoping that our chicken guy was going to be there, but no luck. Spotted umbrellas all the way down the beach and headed straight for them. It is not easy to get a beer in this town. Although there are other religions, Muslim seems to be predominant. Got to the restaurant, grabbed a table by the ocean, put my foot up, and was able to order a nice tall, cold Safari beer. Turns out the place is called Mercury's, named after Freddie Mercury of Queen. Who knew he grew up in Zanzibar and played in the park where we ate dinner last night. Ordered some African pizza, which was fine once we douced it with chili sauce. I also could not resist leaving without buying a "We will rock you" t-shirt. After lunch we were back on the rooftop hunt. By this point, we had been up and down a couple of rooftop restaurants and did not get excited about any of them. Asked about the 100th person where this place was and he was kind enough to take us there. Probably passed it 100 times during the day. 236 Humuniv was originally Emerson & Green until they split up. Green got the building and renamed the restaurant. The rooftop has an amazing view. We have booked a traditional dinner (on the floor - hope I can get up) with traditional music, for tonight. They are saying the prayers now - the loudspeaker needs some work - very squeaky! Anyway, we will head over to 236 (now that we know where it is) at around 6 for sunset.

Quite honestly, I don't think Stone Town is for everybody. I would think it would be something like the Casbah. It is very close, dirty, uneven streets, and HOT. But the people are very friendly and helpful and always willing to talk to you. Things look very exotic and with a middle eastern texture. Two nights is plenty of time to experience the sights and sounds of Stone Town.

Right now I am sitting pool side, getting ready to upload all of this. You will have to wait for the review of tonight's dinner. I plan on not being in any shape to be typing tonight!!

Next time...To the Beach