Zanzibar - Monday 21 October

Today we did a tour of Stone Town, the main town in Zanzibar. It was one of the trips I had arranged before we left and was a 3 hour private walking tour with a guide. The tour was very interesting, and because the tour was private we could ask lots of questions. Our guide was good but he did like to tell me when to take photographs - sometimes it was helpful so that I could get a good shot, but other times I just humoured him thinking 'I will delete this one later'.

Stone Town is quite dilapidated as they don't have the money to do up the buildings, although the whole town is now a UNESCO site so they do give money for some of the public buildings such as the 'House of Wonders' building which was once a palace to one of the Sultan rulers in late 1800's. The town is famous for its ornate wooden doors, some which are in good condition but many that aren't!

 

The front door at the 'House of Wonders'

The old Fort

Typical alley in Stone Town

Towards the end of the tour, we went to the slave market. During the reign of the Omani Arabs in the early 19th century Zanzibar was the main slave trading point of East Africa. Chambers were built to store the slaves - they had low ceilings and small windows and we were shown a couple of them which were very clausticphobic when there was just 3 of us in there, but they would cram about 50 slaves in to each of the chambers which must have been unbearable, especially in the heat.

Peter in one of the slave chambers

Monument to remember the treatment of slaves

At the end of the tour we went to the local food market which was quite an experience! He first took us to the fish market, and then the meat market which both really stunk and there was lots of flies - as we walked through I said to Peter it was enough to put anyone off meat and fish!

Street scene outside the market

Inside the smelly fish market!

We we back at our hotel in time for a late lunch, and the relaxed in the afternoon. In the evening it was Swahili night at the restaurant where we tried all different types of Swahili food which was very nice. They then had some live African music with dancers which were very good.

 

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