Though it has been quite some time since we returned home, we wanted to complete our blog and fill you in on the final leg of our journey, through Tanzania and Kenya in July.
After landing in Dar es Salaam, the biggest Tanzanian city, and checking into the hotel we had booked online a few days before, we heard a knock and opened the door to find a friend of Rutvik’s dad, known to us as “Bashir Bhai,” and one of his sons. This was a very pleasant surprise, especially considering that we had just landed in a new place and didn’t know anyone there. He graciously offered to meet us the following day to help us plan our time in Tanzania.
When we showed up at his office the next day, he roughed out a day by day itinerary for us that included both of the places we had talked about going: Zanzibar, the “spice island” off the eastern coast, and Arusha, the main jumping-off point for African safaris. He said he would arrange our tickets for departure to Zanzibar the next day. The next thing we knew, he had taken care of planning our entire time in Tanzania! And we had the BEST time!
We spent the rest of the day exploring Dar. It is a pretty small city and we walked quite a bit of it during the day to get a feel for it. In contrast to the big cities in South Africa and Kenya, Dar felt less cosmopolitan, less westernized, and much safer. Most businesses were small one location shops or outdoor stands. There is a very notable Indian presence in Dar. We walked to the Tanzania National Museum to find that the sign for the museum was a piece of computer paper tacked to a tree with “National Museum” and an arrow handwritten! Fortunately, it doesn’t rain much there! Later that night, we went on a hunt to find “chips mayai,” a local street food concoction of eggs, fries, hot sauce, and cabbage, which was interesting but didn’t live up to the hype from the other backpackers. Sad to say, Dar was not an overly exciting place to hang out, so we headed out the next day to Zanzibar.
Zanzibar is known for being the “spice island” and has gorgeous beaches and seascapes. We ended up spending most of our time in Stone Town, the main town on the island where the buildings create a sort of mazelike atmosphere, in a way like Venice. There are all sorts of cute cafes and restaurants along the waterfront, though Stone Town is decidedly Muslim so there weren’t many bars. At night, they have a street market set up with all kinds of grilled fish and meat kebabs, that are apparently very good. The octopus dish here is apparently delicious. We got addicted to something that we know as “Mix” (who knows what they actually call it?!?!), which is like an Indian chaat with lentils, tomato soup, fried dough balls, and beans (we think?), best washed down with a tall glass of fresh sugar cane juice!
Coincidentally, the Zanzibar International Film Festival was happening during the time that we were there, so we watched several African made movies, the most touching of which was about a center set up for women to drop off their newborn babies instead of abandoning them at the side of the road somewhere. Most of the producers were there, from all over Africa. Our claim to fame was seeing Danny Glover, who attended and emceed the event.
After a few days, we headed back to Dar by ferry. Bashir Bhai graciously welcomed us into his home for a lovely meal with his family and then took us with his wife and their SIX kids out for a tour of the town. We saw WAY more of Dar than we ever would have otherwise, which was great. It makes such a difference to know people in a place.
The next day, Bashir Bhai sent us with one of his employees on a bus to Arusha, the main starting point for safaris to the major Tanzanian game parks. His employee actually had his wife make us food for the bus since he knew that we were vegetarian and wouldn’t find anything at the few stops along the way. This Tanzanian hospitality was unbelievable! The bus passed by Mt. Kilimanjaro, which was no less than magnificent! So magnificent that unfortunately we were too awestruck to take any photos! Ha. Looking up, we were extremely grateful that we didn’t take on the climb, as we had talked about, though we did later meet several travelers that had reached the summit without much training! Apparently the majority of the problems have to do more with altitude sickness than with fitness. Or at least that’s what we like to tell ourselves.
We got to Arusha after dark and left on our four day safari early the next morning. We didn’t have much of a clue as to what to expect (except to see cool animals, I suppose) since Bashir Bhai had arranged the trip for us. Turns out there were five of us tourists, a driver/guide, and a cook. The British couple were travel agents that had been “made redundant” (laid off) and decided to pursue their dream of traveling Africa top to bottom and the Japanese guy was traveling alone as his wife was 7 months pregnant, a fact which they discovered only after they had paid a large deposit, so by his logic he couldn’t waste the deposit. Hmm…
The safari was AMAZING. We had a seven seater Land Cruiser with a top that popped up so that we could all stand up and look out. We saw all kinds of animals: giraffe, elephant, impala, hippo, dik dik, Thomson's gazelle, blue monkey, olive baboon, vervet monkey, bandit mongoose, buffalo, wildebeest, warthog, zebra, leopard, lion, cheetah, Grant's gazelle, eland, hartebeest, agama lizard, topi, jackal, reedbuck, and impala. (Yes, we did write them down.) We didn’t even know that half these animals existed! We also loved the African trees, like the flat topped acacias and the “sausage trees” that had big sausage-like seeds hanging down.
Going on safari made us want to watch the Lion King all over again. It is unbelievable how much Lion King looks like the Serengeti, with the flat topped acacia trees, big rock formations, lots of flat low grasslands, and stunning bright orange sunsets – nice job Disney! Kel took this one step further when we saw a lion lying in the grass close to two massive rocks. She said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if that lion climbed up on that rock and looked out just like Simba in the Lion King?!” Sure enough, it did! And, even better, another lion climbed up on the other rock and looked out the other way! We could watch the lions for hours, and, though we didn’t see the much talked of “kill,” we were able to watch two lions tag team a group of buffalo, eventually singling one out and making a run for it, though the buffalo was strategic and managed to get away. It was almost magical, like being in another world or watching a parallel universe. As much as Kel talks up the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, there really is no substitute for an African safari to really experience wildlife.
Each night we camped in a different campsite, eating simple meals prepared by our cook, playing cards, and chatting by the campfire. Often, the campsites were in or near the park, so it was possible for animals to come into the camp. One day, Kelli was in the bathroom around 6am when Rutvik heard that an elephant had come into the camp right by the bathroom. He ran to find Kel, who at the time was clueless about Dumbo outside, and she came out to a huge crowd staring toward her and Rutvik running at her. Fortunately, the elephant headed off but this was quite an ordeal while still half asleep!
Originally, we had planned on hitting the beaches on the eastern coast of Kenya, but we had so much fun on our Tanzania safari that we decided we just HAD to check out the Masai Mara in Kenya as well while we had the time. The only difference is that we had no Bashir Bhai in Kenya to help us find a reputable company, so we spent several agonizing days talking to different safari companies in Nairobi, trying to find a quality company that wasn’t too expensive. There are tons of touts roaming the streets of Nairobi, and we struggled to make a decision. Do we go with a reputable company that will charge us a lot for a reliable though likely mediocre experience or do we try a tout from an unknown company that will charge us less but we’ll have an unpredictable experience? We decided to be adventurous, and we GRILLED the company we found to get the best guarantee that we could. We were extremely skeptical and even paid extra to put it on our credit card just in case… and Kelli PROMISED to write a review of the company and post it in several places online, whether it was good or bad. It worked out amazingly! And we have a great recommendation for a budget tour company for you now!
Nairobi itself was, for lack of a better word, intriguing. Based on its reputation and things we had heard from other travelers, we were on edge, especially at first. Our best piece of advice: Do NOT rely on an outdated Lonely Planet Africa guidebook!! Our first night there we relied on a recommendation for a slightly upmarket hotel… and ended up unknowingly staying at a rent-by-the-hour place! As we were told, “the taxi drivers know that one real well…” Eek! Our second mistake was relying on the owner’s recommendation for a cab outta there, as it proceeded to break down just as we turned onto the main street. Nairobi was an adventure and we spent much time exploring the city on foot and especially enjoyed bargaining in the markets, where we were able to successfully negotiate an “antique” mask (with quite fresh looking paint, might we add) from 300,000 shillings to 800 shillings! We have to wonder, do typical tourists actually pay anything close to the starting price?!?! We also found an upscale, very westernized coffee chain called Java House with fabulous mocha frappucinos and free-wifi. We spent many afternoons there catching up on emails, preparing for our big Berkeley move, and savoring the delicious chocolate chip milkshakes and decidedly un-African baked goodies. Preparation for our return stateside. Mmmm….!!
I’m not sure if we had been coming to the realization that we were heading home over the final few weeks or if we were over-excited to be seeing family and friends back home or if we were excited to start our new adventure in Berkeley or if 4 days in Nairobi was too much for us, but by the end of our time in Nairobi, we were ready to head back to the US. What an incredible 10 months we had! We flew from Nairobi to Dubai (about 5 hours) and then flew directly from Dubai to San Francisco (about 16 hours!). After the super long flight, not having driven for 10 months, and spending most of the year on the wrong side of the road, we stepped off the plane, got a rental car, and hopped onto the San Francisco freeway during Friday rush hour. It took no less than 2 minutes for us to get flipped off - twice! Welcome back to America!!
