Arusha to Zanzibar

I woke up this morning (Fri, Aug 4 - I’m a day late posting)  back at the Ilboru Safari lodge and went to the final breakfast with our whole tour group. It was bitter sweet. Check out time was 10am, but they nicely gave us another hut to leave our stuff and hang out in for the day. In the morning we sat by the pool and enjoyed each other’s company. 

Moses was our guide and was amazing. I was quite nervous travelling on my own, in a new country, however he was amazing. I always felt safe and he was honest about expectations. He told me when to barter and when it would be a fixed price. He always checked to make sure that everything was perfect with my food and my accommodation. He tried so hard to find me a rhino, and even says he saw one - far away, laying in the grass , but I couldn’t see it - lol! I think they are imaginary. 

I had a great driver, Richard, to the airport - and since I was a bit early he even took me to a gift shop for 20 mins on the way. Now gift shops are the one thing I didn’t get enough time with. Not because I wanted to buy lots, but because there are so many options in type of wood, quality, price, size etc. I could never decide! Before anyone gets excited I mostly bought souvenirs for myself. So many things were special that I wanted to bring home. And fortunately I was able to fit them on the domestic flight yesterday. I’m not at all concerned about flying home on KLM because I get 2 checked bags and two carry on. However the smaller planes (dash 8) have limits here and I could only have one checked bag (max 15kg) and one carry on. Fortunately I had my carry on back pack filled to the brim and all of my “packed for travel” wooden carvings fit into one grocery sized bag (old plastic kind) which they let me just carry on. Here is a picture of about 1/6 of 1/3 levels of this store. 

I didn’t take any photos but I wanted to buy most of the 2-3 foot carvings that were over $15000 US, but I knew I certainly couldn’t get those on the plane!!

This Shop was located next to the beautiful art gallery and I am happy to see a Jane Goodall exhibition coming soon!

The unbelievable experience at Cultural Heritage was the gift shop 😜

I got to the Arusha airport around 2:30 for my 4pm flight. Everything went smoothly, but very slowly. When I was going through security my bag of carvings set off a warning and I was a bit worried because everything is wrapped in paper and you can’t see what each thing is. Turns out it was the cheap pipe cleaner I was using to hold my broken plastic fan together - lol! I had forgotten that was in there - I’ll remember to put it in checked luggage for the flight back! 

The airport  is very cool. All outdoors, with a roof for the sun. The walls are lined with items for sale - since I was out of room I didn’t even look! And you sit right beside the runways!! You get to see each plane take off and land. There were two runways and you just walk out to your plane when it’s your turn. No announcements, just a girl walking around yelling out the name of the airline when it was time. I was very worried I would miss her, but I didn’t. 

I had the best seat (3A - first row behind business class - and a window!!) I finally got to see Mt Kilimanjaro!! It was spectacular! It was hard to see below the clouds because it was an overcast day, however it was cool to see it above the clouds! I took a few photos, but terrible quality between the zoom of my phone and the scratches on the plane window - I couldn’t get the focus to go past the window and focus on the mountain…but there are lots of great photos online if you want to look. 

So this is a band near the peak as the bottom and top are covered by clouds. But now I can say I saw it! 

I took some photos as we flew in to Zanzibar - beautiful! The airport is in the SW while my resort is in the NE of the island - so no aerial shots of that. 

We needed to take a bus from our plane to the arrivals area - this airport is bigger than the Arusha airport. Everything went smoothly here, I only had to show my arrival stamp in my passport since this was a domestic flight, but the guard really didn’t even look. I guess since we had all just left the mainland on this plane it was pretty obvious we had all already been in Tanzania. I got my bag and again found my driver immediately. 

He was amazing! His name is Safe, which I took as a good sign 😉. I got into his air conditioned ride where he handed me a cold water from the Emerald Spa and resort - gave me a cable to charge my phone and wifi hub to use while driving! Then asked if I liked music and I said of course I did so he played a nice upbeat African station.  I was in heaven - this was service! And I had chosen the cheapest transfer option!! He said I was welcome to take any photos but I always feel so awkward taking photos of people who are looking at me - it feels invasive. But it was so engaging to watch! Zanzibar is 50/50 Christian/Muslim and they are all accepting of each other. There were girls walking around in t shirts and shorts and girls with full covering with only a slit for their eyes. Fascinating to me as I have never driven through places like this in person. I’ve seen so many on TV and in documentaries and movies but to see such a cultural diversity in attire was pretty cool! We have lots of diversity in Calgary, but fairly similar dress for the most part. 

The drive was supposed to take about an hour…but we got stuck in standstill traffic for an hour and it was slow around that so it ended up taking 2 1/2 hours, in which time it got dark and I couldn’t see as much. It was a bit of a drag, but not really because I’m on vacation. I felt really bad for my driver as it was ”work” for him and took up his whole evening. At the start of the trip he kept saying “Zanzibar hakuna matata”, however once we got out of the traffic he said “that was too much” and then we didn’t speak for the last 45 mins. I was fine with that. 

I got to the Zanzibar Emerald Resort and Spa much later than I had planned, but that was fine. They have an app where you book all of your spa appointments, lessons and specialty dining reservations and I had made one for 9pm arrival day, thinking I would arrive around 7:30. Instead I arrived at 8:30 - still seems good, except their check in service is amazing!! Safe took me to the entrance and found someone to come take care of me. They put my luggage to the side and walked me to a sofa to sit down. They brought me mango juice and an iced facecloth. They took my passport to check me in and then came back to the sitting area with me to go through my room, some pointers, the app (they were very impressed that I had already booked everything.) Apparently the resort is pretty much at capacity so people who didn’t book ahead of time aren’t having much luck with the specialty restaurants. My over researching paid off once again!! A very friendly employee carried my bag and got me to my room by 8:51. He went through a few things with me, like how to use the jacuzzi in my complimentary room upgrade! He said that I have a view of the Indian Ocean from my balcony, however it was too dark to see it. 

I quickly changed into a dress and made it to my “Le Asiatique” reservation on time! 

Wow! It was amazing in there!! I wasn’t very hungry so I only got some sashimi and then tiger prawns with pineapple sauce. They were surprised that I didn’t order more and kept encouraging me to also get a hot appetizer and a side dish - but I knew I would just waste it - even though it all looked amazing! I did opt for the key lime pie with wasabi cookie for dessert. I tried a South African rose: Wilderness Bay. It was okay. I’m not a huge fan of white and rose wines at the best of times, but I wanted something cool, and lighter than a cocktail. But I didn’t just want pop or juice, so it was the right choice. I managed to drink two glasses 😉.  I’m not used to this all inclusive bit where I can just have as much as I want. It’s similar to a cruise, but even there drinks aren’t included unless you pay extra. 

And then these are random “awe” photos that I took on my way back to my room:

Nice bright hallways in the dark feel very safe!

The sink on this side is for brushing my teeth. 

The sink on this side is for washing my hands. 

Umm…complementary room upgrade to jacuzzi suite with ocean view? Okay!

fully stocked mini bar included. 

I don’t like any beer but I will try both of these because I like the names!

Private balcony

Balcony view before bed!