After the same breakfast for one last time at Sunset Bungalows, we met Alex out front of the concierge. We had to negotiate at the concierge one more time because Alex tried to stick us with a shared cab which we were obviously not fans with. We threatened to call another taxi for the original fare which we’d be happy to pay if we had owe had our own space and he buckled.
The cab ride was crazy. Again, the speedometer didn’t work. We flew through the little towns at break neck speeds past all the kids on the side of the road and all the bikers and cows and goats. We seriously thought we were going to hit something. At points, there are one lane bridges that we’d play chicken with other cars coming at us. That was fun, but alas, we finally made it to The Dhow Palace Hotel at around 10:00am. We were able to get a Tanzanian rate because we used Brian and Natalia’s Dar address. The hotel was a converted house. A very, very large converted house. Our room was actually available so we were able to check in early. It was huge. It had a 20 foot balcony, bathtub, fridge and plenty of space.
Wandering around the surrounding Stonetown area was fun. Very narrow alley ways branched off of the small amount of main roads in the Shangni area. The alley ways were littered with incredible Zanzibarian doors hiding behind a plethora of tourist shops all selling the same knick knacks. A lot of shops were closed in observation of the Muslim Holiday Ead. that didn’t stop us from finding some cool schwag including some authentic Zanzibarian sandals.
Today was hot, but if you are a girl, it’s rude to have uncovered shoulders, so T had to wear a jacket and was sweating all day. She wouldn’t even take it off at lunch, which took seemingly forever to find. We ate these delicious fajitas at Monsoon, a restaurant down by the beach. The cokes we ordered, came out immediately, but it took what felt like an hour for our food. There was a hungry kitty at lunch that we kept feeding. Then T mentioned ice cream and got my stomach all hot and bothered so we went on a two hour search and rescue mission which fell flat.
Sitting at the pool, I enjoyed all the free wifi I could get. Updated the journal, checked email, and dipped my toes. We also saw our Italian friends again. What are the chances? We facebooked and then they went off on their way. T and I explored the rest of the hotel and found a beautiful rooftop with a view over the roofs of the rest of the town. A perfect place to watch sunset. There were several tables that you could eat at up there, so we ordered what else, pizza and cokes. We hung out up there and relaxed for a while. There is this cool room with floor pillows that we just sat in and watched a Breaking Bad on then we called it a night.
Tomorrow is our last day on the island. We will probably stay in town and finish up the shopping we weren’t able to do today. Then we take the “vomit” boat back to Dar Es Salaam early in the afternoon.
