EPIC Africa Vacay pt.3 Zanzibar

ZANZIBAR
Our flight to Zanzibar arrived on time but then made 2 unexpected stops, so we got to Zanzibar about an hour later than expected. But we were really happy because there was a driver holding a sign with our name waiting for us! He had a nice, clean minivan, and he even took us on a detour to a Barclays ATM so that we would get some more cash. The drive to Konokono took about an hour and a half. The roads for most of the drive were paved and fairly well-maintained, but the last half hour getting to our resort was a dirt road that may have been even bumpier than the roads in the bush. (in reality this last part took about 10minutes…)
I was a bit nervous about our Zanzibar resort. I had found it online and asked our travel agent to book us there (she had never had any guests stay at Konokono). The pictures were really pretty and the reviews were good, but you never know… But my worries were completely unnecessary. The resort is gorgeous! There are beautiful flowers everywhere, and everything is clean and in great condition. We were greeted with cold towels and delicious fresh pineapple juice. Our bungalow is huge! We have a king bed and a twin, plus plenty of room for 3 chairs and a table, plus another bigger table where we can sit on the floor. There are also double sinks and a huge (indoor) shower. Outside, we have a big patio with big comfy chairs, and a “plunge pool” which is a small pool just big enough to sit in and have the water come up to your neck. We also have air conditioning and 2 ceiling fans, which is great because it’s pretty hot and humid here. But the best part of our bungalow is the view – we can see the Indian Ocean from our patio, and it’s glorious! It’s funny how much more relaxed Mommy and I are now that we’re back in “civilization.” Haha.
Today was the first day in awhile that we got to wake up without setting an alarm. Mommy woke up early and took a long walk (something she wasn’t able to do during our safari) around the resort and down to the beach. Misol and I rolled out of bed around 8 AM. After breakfast, Misol and I headed out to the beach. The water is amazing! There are a lot of leaves/seaweed at the top of the beach, but once you get past that area, the water is amazingly clear and beautiful. It’s straight out of a postcard.
Meanwhile, Mommy did laundry, which made her very happy. J It’s really funny to see how happy clean clothes make her. Haha.
The food is much better (and more plentiful) here than at the safari camp. Yesterday, we had lunch and dinner on the beach (dinner by lantern-light), and today, we had breakfast in our bungalow and lunch on the patio. We’re on an all-inclusive package, so for breakfast and lunch, we pretty much just order whatever we want from the menu. Dinner is a set 4-course meal. Last night was a Greek salad, cream of vegetable soup, fried calamari with rice, and caramel cheesecake, accompanied by a South African Sauvignon Blanc.
We had thought about going snorkeling or taking a tour of Stone Town (the main “city” on the island), but it’s pretty expensive, so it looks like our next few days will be filled with sleeping, eating, reading, swimming and sunbathing. (No complaints here.) There’s also a “spa,” and the massages are really cheap, so we’re going to make appointments for tomorrow. Needless to say, we are thoroughly enjoying our vacation!


Now that we’re in Zanzibar, we don’t really do that much, nothing worth writing about at least, so I’ll write about some random, hopefully funny things.
Both here in Zanzibar and in Selous, there are geckos (little tiny lizard like things) EVERYWHERE. Misol says they’re our friends (because they eat bugs), but Mommy and I don’t like them. Whenever I need to use the bathroom, I make Misol go in first to make sure they are no geckos on the floor. Usually, they hang out on the ceiling, which isn’t as bad – as long as I can’t see them, I can pretend that they’re not there.
Mommy’s favorite hobby in Zanzibar is doing laundry. Seriously, if we didn’t give her clothes to wash, I think she would be complaining of boredom. Haha.
Most of the time, the weather is gorgeous – a bit hot and humid but still sunny. But it also rains about once or twice a day. During our first day lunch, we got caught in a torrential downpour. Our table was set up under a small gazebo type structure (just 4 posts and a thatch roof to provide some shade), so we had to huddle under it to try to stay dry. And then last night, it started raining during dinner, so they had to move our table under the gazebo thing. Luckily, the rain was fairly light and didn’t last long.
When we were in Selous, because of our limited cash situation, we couldn’t order any alcoholic beverages, so Misol and I are doing a good job of making up for it now. There’s a full bar right on the beach with all sorts of pretty tropical cocktails (complete with a pineapple spear and flower), and every night, we order a bottle of wine with dinner. The wine is from South Africa, so it’s yummy and cheap (under $30 for a bottle).
The mosquito situation hasn’t been quite as bad as we had expected, but we’re not sure if it’s because there aren’t that many mosquitoes out or if it’s because of the mosquito repellant we brought. Mommy brought this little device that emits one of two mosquito-repelling sounds – either a male mosquito or a dragonfly (which eats mosquitoes). Both sounds apparently drive other mosquitoes away. And I brought a device that emits insect repellant and then has a tiny fan to circulate the repellant. We’re not sure if either device really works, but we still wear them religiously anytime we go outside at night. Misol, on the other hand, doesn’t give a second thought to bugs. Yesterday, she was outside reading on the back porch right through dusk while wearing a sundress, and now she has tons of little bites on the backs of her thighs. We’re not sure if they’re ant bites or something like a bed bug, but they’re gross. (there were about 50 bites on each leg and it was disgusting and SUPER itchy! Ugh so annoying… pretty sure they were bedbug type things or sand fleas or something… you’ll see pictures soon)
There’s a little spa here that’s actually pretty cheap by US standards, so we all booked massages for tomorrow. But there’s only one masseuse, so we had to book them all back to back.
Misol didn’t do a very good job of putting sunscreen on my back yesterday, so I have a strip of sunburn right across the middle of my back. Good thing I brought aloe gel.
Ok, that’s it for today. Sorry there isn’t more to report, but seriously, all we do is eat, sleep, read, sit around, and eat some more. The hardest part of our day is deciding what to eat for lunch. Haha.
Today’s our last full day in Zanzibar. Mommy’s ready to leave, but Misol and I could use another week or two or ten here. I thought we might get bored with nothing to do, but it’s wonderful. So peaceful and relaxing.
Swimming at the beach here is an amazing experience. The water is ridiculously clear, and it’s a beautiful greenish-blue color. It’s also really salty (per Misol, it’s the 2nd saltiest body of water in the world, after the Dead Sea), so it’s really easy to float in the water. It’s a bit cold when you first go in, but within a few minutes, it feels as warm and comfortable as bath water.
The sand here is also amazing. Zanzibar is famous for its white sand beaches, and I can totally understand why. The sand is a fine, white powder, and other than a few hermit crabs, leaves and twigs, there’s nothing else in the sand. At night, when we go to dinner, the sand feels so amazingly cool on your feet. Mommy’s convinced that the sand glows – when the moon and stars are out, it really does look like the sand is giving off a florescent light.
As I mentioned in my last email, Mommy has been hyper-vigilant about mosquitoes and bugs, but when she came back from her walk this morning, she had a bunch of bites on her thighs. She thinks there was a bug – like an ant or a tick – in her pants, which she’s now too scared to wear. So sad – she almost made it through 3 weeks in Africa without a single bug bite, only to succumb a few days before her departure.
Every morning for breakfast, there’s a different type of fresh juice. Misol and my favorite so far has been the pineapple, and Mommy’s is the passion fruit. We also had watermelon yesterday and mango today. So good!
The agenda for today is Skyping with Daddy (sorry, Migum, but it’s too hard to coordinate the time difference with you), massages, lunch…We’ll probably take it easy on the sunbathing, given that Misol is about 50 shades darker than her normal skin color, and my back is a flaming shade of reddish-pink. (when I was heading back to monapo I had to text von ‘don’t be alarmed if you think you see another Mexican approaching the house… it’s just me’)
Yesterday passed by in blur. We each had our massages – the masseuse wasn’t that great, but the setting was pretty cool. The massage table was set up on an elevated, covered platform, so there was a nice breeze and you could hear all the jungle chatter around you. (miray thought the breeze was nice, but I was FREEEZING! I mean aren’t massages usually supposed to be set in warm places so your muscles RELAX? i’m pretty sure mine were getting tighter with every gust of wind that my skin!)
After our massages, I passed out, Mommy watched Korean dramas and Misol read. We got in a few games of Big Two and GoStop before dinner, and then we enjoyed our last dinner on the beach. Our favorite part of the meal was the roasted sweet potatoes.
Today, we woke up, ate breakfast and packed. Our flight was originally supposed to leave at 7 PM, but we changed to a 2 PM flight so that we wouldn’t get into DAR quite so late. The flight from Zanzibar to DAR is literally a hop across the ocean – it took about 15 mins from take off to landing.
When we got to the hotel, which had become a Hyatt Regency as of August 1st, it took forever to check in, and then they tried to put us in a really small regular room, even though we had paid for an upgraded executive suite. We then found out that the President of Somalia is here, so they’ve closed off the entire 7th floor, which is where we were supposed to stay. When I refused to take the first room (I have no idea how they were planning to squeeze a 3rd bed in there), they said they had to talk to their manager, and after much waiting (luckily, they had snacks and drinks in the executive floor lounge), they finally gave us our new room – they upgraded us to a diplomatic suite (aptly named the Selous Suite)! Now we have a giant living/dining room, and a separate bedroom.
Mommy, in doing some final repacking, discovered that she can’t find her US cell phone. As you might imagine, she’s not happy.
There are 2 restaurants in the Kilimanjaro. The last time we were here, we ate at the Palm because the Oriental was too expensive. But tonight, because it’s her last night here, Mommy said that she (and Daddy) would treat Misol to one last meal. So we went to the Oriental, but it wasn’t open when we first went up. So instead, we went to the 8th floor bar, where we had some pre-dinner cocktails (a mocktail for Mommy). As bar snacks, they served popcorn, cashews and these peanuts cooked in a spicy onion sauce. Quite good.
We then headed over to the Oriental Restaurant, where we had the best meal of our entire trip. The menu is ridiculously extensive because they serve Chinese (including dim sum), Japanese (including sushi), Thai and Indonesian food. We started with a spicy tuna roll as an appetizer, and after the first bite, we were pretty certain that we were in for a good meal. (I was already close to tears of joy at my first bite of sushi in 2 years!) The tuna was super fresh, the rice was nicely vinegared, and the roll was really spicy, but in a good way. But the best part of the meal – hands down – was the prawn dish. It was 4 GIANT fried king prawns in a hot chili sauce. The prawns were so fresh and perfectly cooked, and the sauce was amazing –better than a lot of gampoong shrimp I’ve had. We also ordered this curry dish, which was basically slices of really tender beef in a spicy coconut sauce. Misol loved it because it was pretty much just a big bowl of meat with no veggies to get in the way. Anyways, by the end of the meal, Misol was so happy that I think she was actually close to tears. Haha. And Mommy was happy because it turned out that all of the menu prices were inclusive of tax and tip, so the meal turned out to be way cheaper than we had expected. So basically, it was win-win for all. Daddy, Misol says a great big, “THANK YOU” to you for the awesome meal. (I also took a bath this night in scalding hot water, lotsa bubbles and bathsalts that made the water green! It was heavenly!! The tub was almost too big cuz I kept slipping and plunging into the water! But clearly I’m not complaining cuz it was the most glorious bathing experience I’ve had in 2 years! Also I wore the white fluffy bathrobe afterwards too!)
Mommy has a really early flight tomorrow, so her airport transfer is coming at 5:30 AM tomorrow. Misol and I have an afternoon flight, so we might go back for another helping of the prawns for lunch tomorrow.
Mommy got off this morning without too much trouble (her car was about 20 mins. late – hope it wasn’t a problem). Misol and I slept some more and then finally woke up to eat breakfast. After breakfast, we both enjoyed the wonderfully clean and pretty Kilimanjaro shower (Misol had also taken a bath the night before), and then we read until lunch time.
When we went down for lunch, we were a little early, so we took a quick peek at the hotel casino. Misol was overjoyed to see all the familiar slot machines, but I wouldn’t give her any money to play. Haha. (so so incredibly cruel… I mean hearing all the dingdingdingings in the back and flashy lights! How could I not be drawn to that?!?!)
For lunch, we had a spicy snapper roll, the prawns in hot chili sauce and rice. It was a perfect lunch.
Then it was off to the airport. We didn’t want to risk being late with the unpredictable traffic, so we left really early. It was probably a good thing because the line for the LAM check-in was really long and so slow. But we finally made it through, and luckily, they had our reservation and everything (I can probably stop doubting at this point of our trip, but a part of me is always a bit nervous about stuff I booked online).