Tanzania

Earlier this year, Tanzania was something we read about on the internet, and in our then newly purchased Rough Guide book.
Now, two days after landing in Dubai from one of the most diverse countries in East Africa, we can say that all the interest, research and excitement we devoted to our biggest holiday so far were worth it.

JAMBO! 
Welcome!

We had a a taste of Dar Es Salaam on our first night. In one of the safest cities in East Africa (or so the locals claim), we did a bit of exploring and drinking and admired the under-developed, third-world and happy vibe of Tanzania's capital. That was cool. At one point I believe LBT screamed "I want to live in Tanzania!" as he chugged down his third Kilimanjaro beer.

The airport

Abdullah, our cabbie

The next day, we flew up north to Arusha to do a five-day safari. It was awesome. The breath-taking scenery and the sight of the animals roaming around freely in their natural habitat are something you don't get to experience every day. Many people never even experience it in their lifetime. So it was a gift, really, to witness wildlife at its wildest. I, a cowboy and a believer of immersion holidays, emptied my bladder just outside Serengeti National Park. That was the ultimate gesture of being one with nature and unspoken camaraderie with my rafiki, whose dung has beautifully decorated the the vast grasslands for years. Maybe even decades. Centuries. Who knows?!

Our tent in Serengeti

A rare cheetah sighting. And it wasn't eating Cheetos.

A big family of elephants that have just crossed the street

Thirsty wildebeests, minutes before a lion started chasing them

I don't remember what kind of deer these are, but aren't they a beautiful sight?

And let's not forget our Masai Mara stopover. We stayed there for a bit and palled around with our Masai brovas, took lots of pictures, and left $150 poorer, and a little happier in an ignorant tourist way.

LBT happy with his talking stick

Five days of  safari left us pooped (pun intended), and a nice evening in Arusha before heading to our next destination was what we needed to recharge. Arusha is a nice sweet place. The main road is lined with overly enthusiastic vendors that sell street food (gotta love my grilled corn) and used clothing. They sometimes get in the way of traffic. But the cars, as reckless as they may appear, don't seem to mind at all. Adding to the madness of Arusha's streets are a few Caucasian and Asian backpackers looking happily lost in the organized, dust-covered chaos that is Arusha.We had a few beers and retired to our lovely lodge to prepare for our next stop.

At Arusha City Park, enjoying a bottle of ice cold Tusker

POLE-POLE...
Slowly...

We said bye bye to Arusha and flew to the island of Zanzibar, a word that originally meant "sea of blacks", a term the Iranians gave the beautiful spice-rich island when they set foot on it. Our first stop: Nungwi, a beach in the northern part of the Zanzi peninsula. It can be a perfect honeymoon destination, or a backpacker's haven, depending on where you stay. We stayed at the very luxurious The Z Hotel. Fine white sand (Boracay's is finer and whiter, but let's not steal the spotlight from Zanzi), seafood and beer all day, lounging by the pool for five hours while buried in a book and letting the sun do its magic on our skin. Not to mention a TV attached to the bed's canopy. That was how we spent time for three straight days.

View from my lounge chair

We got a sea view room. Sweet.

Then we drove off to  Stone Town, the last leg of our great Tanzanian journey. We stayed in a lovely B and B, with a cafe that serves all-day breakfast on the ground floor. Since arrving in Tz, every place we stayed at served eggs and sausages for breakfast. Not this one.I had a nice sweet brekkie of banana crepes and cranberry green tea on the first morning, and spicy avocado on toast with grilled tomatoes and green tea on the second. Both were to die for. On both days, we let ourselves get lost in the alleyways of Stone Town. Souvenir shops, antique houses and lots of intricately designed doors lined every narrow street, with the occasional quaint coffee shop serving premium Rwandan, Ghanian and Tanzanian cuppas surprising us.

New friends!

A nice coffee shop in the middle of nowhere. Stone Town be da best plezz man.

He focused on the door. Thank you.

Mosquito nets are romantic.

One of Stone Town's many alleyways.

 We also went to a reggae concert, but left after one beer. There were nine people in the crowd, and the front act was a middle-aged white man. Very Ras Trent, by the Lonely Island.

"Are you there Ja? It's me, Ras Trent."

ASANTE SANA!
Thank you!
On our last morning, we found ourselves in Dar Es Salaam's airport, penniless (thanks to the $10-a-person airport fee that we didn't know about) and exhausted. But memories of our eleven-day adventure were still fresh, and we still breathed African air, the same air that made it possible for Tanzania's first president Julius Nyerere to utter his intention of uniting all indigenous tribes in Africa.

Our flight back was delayed by an hour, by which time we were getting a bit annoyed. Waiting in the airport - any airport - isn't something I would consider fun. There's only so much you can do. Hold hands, look at people, tell jokes, have a beer, have two cups of tea, have a nap in a very uncomfortable position, take a leak, drink more water so you can kill a few more minutes by taking another leak, and so on and so forth. When we finally boarded the plane, we relaxed. Relaxed as in relaxed. Relaxed. Relaxed. LBT relished the six-hour flight by watching movies and downing mini bottles of red wine. Emirates Airline really is the best in a lot of ways.

Julius Nyerere International Airport

30 Rock and grape. This is the life.

Okay, we're back here in Dubai, working our butts off just hours after landing. Back to reality, oops there goes gravity (a line from Eminem's Lose Yourself, I think). But we're still not over our African high. We're sorting out our souvenirs and washing clothes to kill all the ants and other alien insects we brought back with us. We have yet to frame the big Masai necklace we bought, and decide where to put LBT's tribal talking stick. It's a good way of buying time and denying that our holiday is indeed over.

Oh well. 'Til our next big adventure!