ZANZIBAR, TANZANIA
20 November 2006- Monday
Awoke at 5:30am feeling completely refreshed- but limited breakfast to English muffin and tea. During the night they had slipped my tour ticket under the door and told me the tour of Zanzibar was postponed til 1:30 so I had the morning to knock around. Signed up at the Net cafe, because from the look of the intinerary I don't think I'll have time to look one up in the ports. Ran into Ron and Ann where we kidded about the OSU-Michigan game. They're from Michigan. It's strange how a small a ship as this is you can go days without seeing some people. Worked on updating the blog. Lunch was at he pasta bar, then down to the tender at 1:30 to go see the highlights of Zanzibar. Wound up in an airconditioned minivan with Eddie Murphy as a guide. He was perfect with his African accent- so we saw the market, the slave market, the Anglican cathedral, first- and I'm tolerating the heat well- we're like 4 degrees south of the equator. Then back on the bus for a trip to the "house of wonders" because it was the first modern builing in Zanzibar- i.e. it had running water, electricity and an elevator. It's now the National museum and only 3 of us and the guide did the 80 stair climb to the second floor where I found some stuff on Dr Livingstone. The old fort was next to the building but nobody wanted to go in because he said there was nothing to see and it is now an open air theater. Nobody got off the bus for a walk through stone town and the guide called in and said he bringing back his exhausted clients. They did agree to go to new town to see the Livingstone House but most just wanted to ride around in the a/c. I had completely forgotten we were in a different country (Tanzania) and forgot to get postcards and stamps. Anyway, Zanzibar seems cleaner and more affluent than Mombasa but what they have in common is that the rich houses belong to the Indians.
The nice part of having the computer along is that I can see my pictures blown up- so spent a good bit of time doing that until time to get ready for dinner. Shower dress and show up at 6:15 only to find that my assigned table has all the seats full. The maitre de looks like he's going nuts because the first couple of day people keep chnaging their times and tables- he seats me a group of 5- a couple from NZ, an American Lutheran minister and his wife and another guy that I know nothing about because he never stopped talking to the minister's wife. After the full 5 courses I realized that my stomach has shrunk and I felt bloated. They had a male Broadway singer for the after dinner show so I decided to go back to the cabin and watch an episode of "Lost."
Awoke at 5:30am feeling completely refreshed- but limited breakfast to English muffin and tea. During the night they had slipped my tour ticket under the door and told me the tour of Zanzibar was postponed til 1:30 so I had the morning to knock around. Signed up at the Net cafe, because from the look of the intinerary I don't think I'll have time to look one up in the ports. Ran into Ron and Ann where we kidded about the OSU-Michigan game. They're from Michigan. It's strange how a small a ship as this is you can go days without seeing some people. Worked on updating the blog. Lunch was at he pasta bar, then down to the tender at 1:30 to go see the highlights of Zanzibar. Wound up in an airconditioned minivan with Eddie Murphy as a guide. He was perfect with his African accent- so we saw the market, the slave market, the Anglican cathedral, first- and I'm tolerating the heat well- we're like 4 degrees south of the equator. Then back on the bus for a trip to the "house of wonders" because it was the first modern builing in Zanzibar- i.e. it had running water, electricity and an elevator. It's now the National museum and only 3 of us and the guide did the 80 stair climb to the second floor where I found some stuff on Dr Livingstone. The old fort was next to the building but nobody wanted to go in because he said there was nothing to see and it is now an open air theater. Nobody got off the bus for a walk through stone town and the guide called in and said he bringing back his exhausted clients. They did agree to go to new town to see the Livingstone House but most just wanted to ride around in the a/c. I had completely forgotten we were in a different country (Tanzania) and forgot to get postcards and stamps. Anyway, Zanzibar seems cleaner and more affluent than Mombasa but what they have in common is that the rich houses belong to the Indians.
The nice part of having the computer along is that I can see my pictures blown up- so spent a good bit of time doing that until time to get ready for dinner. Shower dress and show up at 6:15 only to find that my assigned table has all the seats full. The maitre de looks like he's going nuts because the first couple of day people keep chnaging their times and tables- he seats me a group of 5- a couple from NZ, an American Lutheran minister and his wife and another guy that I know nothing about because he never stopped talking to the minister's wife. After the full 5 courses I realized that my stomach has shrunk and I felt bloated. They had a male Broadway singer for the after dinner show so I decided to go back to the cabin and watch an episode of "Lost."
Labels: Nairobi to Rio 2006
posted by DT at 11:15 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home