Day 57 - 62
Zanzibar.
In the past few days I’ve managed to do a lot absolutely crazy things. Tuesday will be my fourth day here, and a lot has happened in that time. The food here is really good, I love the weather, and in general the people are very helpful and friendly. There is a side that I can’t stand, and that’s the locals that harass every tourist to either buy what they’re selling, take them around town, or just really anything. For the most part they have stopped trying to talk to me, A because I probably look pretty mean, or B, they have seen me for the past few days, so they know I know their routine.
I have managed to meet some pretty good people. A few tourists, a bunch of locals, and one local tour guide. At the moment I am paying 30,000 Tanzania shillings a night at this one hotel. The hotel is ok, except for no hot water…but I think unless your paying a lot at a hotel, that is quite rare here. The tour guide I met, who even invited me for some lunch at his house, and told me he has an apartment he will lent me rent for 20,000 shillings a month! There was one thing I liked about the first hotel, ESPN!!!! I’ll talk to him today, and see if I go through with it.
So yesterday and the day before were absolutely crazy. I met this guy on the street that told me he will rent me a 250CC dirt bike for a day. I agreed and told him…dude… I don’t know how to ride a bike. He told me “no problem” as most of the people in Kenya or Zanzibar tell me, and I learned how to ride one from a guy that spoke about 10% English. He took me on some soccer field and I learned in about 20 minutes. That night, I got really paranoid and thought I got scammed. First off, he said I needed a permit, and I told him I don’t want to spend extra money on that. Second, I realized he was just a guy on the street!! I woke up yesterday, and got ready for my trip with the bike… and he was there! At first I told him I wanted to change it for a vesper because I was a little nervous with the bike. It’s pretty scary when you don’t know the language, geography, or how to ride a motorcycle. Alas, he told me he didn’t have a vesper… so I jumped on the bike and road off into the sunset! The best idea I have had this entire trip. I road about 70? kilometers to the North Coast beach and it was absolutely beautiful riding along side the Indian Ocean. Once I got to North Coast however, it started DOWNPOURING…. I pulled over to a very small local restaurant and had some food there and waited for the rain to pass. I really had no idea where I was going, so I pulled into another local bar and spoke with some of the locals there. One guy was so excited to speak with me. A lot of these people LOVE to speak English, so they can practice their English. I have realized it will help them when they want to be real tour guides. He took me to the beach and where all the tourists are. I opted not to sit on the beach because of the copious amounts of clouds, but I did however manage to get my hair braided! I look like a cartoon character, but It’s pretty awesome.
Yes, during the time of my motorcycle escapade I wore a helmet, but followed no traffic rules or speed limits… because frankly there aren’t many at all. The cops tried to pull me over twice… but the problem with their system is, they are on foot trying to pull me over, so I flew right past them, There was one turn that was pretty scary, I was going about 30 or 40 km and the road turned into a powder dirt road, and my front wheel was wobbling a bit. I got very nervous, but I thought immediately to wiping out on a longboard, and managed to not crash. Besides that near death experience, I did really well on the bike.
Oh… the food. They have TONS of seafood here, Kingfish, Coral Shark, Octopus, Squid, you name they have it on a stick. They call it mishikaki, we Americans call Shish-Kebabs. Or I guess Americans don’t actually call it that…
I am scheduled to be here till NEXT Tuesday… but I messed up, it’s way too long, and unless I was with someone on vacation I would do it, but I will try to change my flight to Mombasa a bit earlier so A, I don’t run out of money, and B, I have more time in August, to maybe hang around Nairobi. There are still some people I need to meet and talk with, and set some music stuff up for after August. I am very paranoid about being on vacation and running out of money.. but the fact is stuff here is extremely cheap with American dollars. It might be a lot to a local, but it is very affordable. The one problem I have is I hadn’t found a Barclays bank until today, so I had no idea how much money I had left in my bank account! I haven’t been buying anything at all, except food, and the motorbike, but I think for the rest of the time here, I will rent a vesper for about 5 days which is fairly cheap. Although… If I see I am fine on money, I might have to upgrade to the motorbike, the adrenaline rush on one of those is crazy! The fastest I went was 100km, but that was too fast for my first day on a bike.
The one thing I find interesting is how all the locals want to take me around town and have drinks with me or something. Dr. Lanz told me to be very paranoid, so I am! I always think I’ll either get mugged, killed, or stabbed. I think in all honesty they just want to have a drink and speak English to me, but I never take it that way. So far it has been very safe, and my street smarts are paying off, but I am always skeptical, I can’t let my guard down! Alright… I’ll write more in a few days, I’m off to turn black in the hot Africa sun.
