Stone Town, Zanzibar

I was quite excited to head to Zanzibar for a couple of reasons. I was looking forward to spending a few nights in one place, I wanted to do a scuba dive trip and chill on the beach for a while and meet other tourists from other tours. We got a ferry from Dar Es Salaam to Stone Town on Zanzibar which took about two hours. Harmony stayed behind minding the truck but Crispen came with us to ensure that we had no issues. Crispen was not allowed to work as a tour guide on Zanzibar as there is a rule that international tour guides were not able to work on Zanzibar and they are trying to ensure sufficient work for local tour guides instead.

Once we checked into our hotel in Stone Town I decided to do a history tour of Stone Town. I learned that Stone Town was built by the Indian and Arabs and it was interesting to see the difference in building structures from both nationalities. Zanzibar was used as a island to hold African slaves before they were heading to Africa and it grows a lot of spices. We walked through the markets learning about different spices and fruit for sale. I learned that Freddy Mercury was born in Zanzibar and lived in Stone Town before emigrating to England.

On my way back to my hotel a local young man asked me to be his "friend" as his dream was to live in Canada. It was one of many strange proposals I got on this trip.Read more