While it may seem like this whole trip has been a holiday (and ok, in a way it has), when you have visitors you have an excuse to switch out of budget traveller mode and into holiday mode proper. The last time Colleen visited I thoughtlessly caught malaria and we ended up doing little more than touring Ivorian hospitals. This time, it would be a proper holiday, and with everything that Tanzania had to offer surely it couldn't fail to be a glorious success?
As the campsite I was at was pretty nice (and because I was still frantically working on the tuktuk) I didn't find us a hotel to stay at, but rather than have Colleen camp on her first night we upgraded to a beachside hut. This was nice, though came with a nocturnal visit from a rat who, sniffing out a chocolate bar wrapper in the pocket of my one pair of shorts, chewed through the crotch to get at it. My wardrobe, already meagre, was now missing a crucial element.
Due to late booking, we travelled Royal Class on the ferry (meaning we sat in a small room with one other guy; a bit weird to be honest), but to counterbalance that got a packed local bus with semi functional headlights for the drive across the island to our hotel. The place we were staying was great though, and rather than just a room we had a small two storey house to ourselves. It sat right on the beach along the east side of the island, looking out on powerdery white sand, palm trees and turquoise blue water. On our first day we took a stroll along the beach and into the 'main town' of Paje. Colleen's graphic designer side had a blast, nerding out on the hand drawn signs for all the businesses, and I managed to find a replacement pair of shorts from a little thrift shop (where most of the donations seem to have come from people a lot, lot fatter than me).
Day two was snorkelling, and we set off early to catch our boat. Zanzibar has a great reputation for both diving and snorkelling, it was easy to see why. Just 50 yards from shore was a small reef with thousands of colourful fish, fish that were really not at all bothered by the presence of people. They would swim right up to your mask and eyeball you, only darting away if you tried to reach out and touch them. Not at all bad for Colleen's first time snorkelling.
Day three was biking. We had bumped into Bekka, my friend from Malawi, on the island and she mentioned that her and a couple of friends she had made also wanted to go biking so we made tentative plans. I suggested we form a gang called "Tom's Biker Bitches", but neither Colleen nor Bekka was keen for some reason. As the other two girls didn't end up coming, we will never know if I could have swung the vote on the name 3-2 in my favour. We hired a couple of scooters with roaring 125cc engines and did a loop around the south east corner. We cruised through a couple of small villages and stopped off at a couple of beaches, before heading for what was marked on the maps as a Sea Turtle and Tortoise Sanctuary. It looked a little ramshackle when we turned up and we almost didn't go in, but Bekka haggled the entry fee down to under half price so we changed our mind - and I'm glad that we did. They had a pool full of sea turtles that we were able to feed (and pick up), had a python in a shady pit, and best of all had three giant tortoises. And they really are giant.
From there we headed up to tourist favourite restaurant "The Rock" (no one got my "Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?" WWE jokes; wasted), a small restaurant perched on a rock just offshore. At low tide you can walk, but at high tide there is a little boat that rows you out. The view out over the Indian Ocean at sunset was spectacular, and the food was great too. Not a bad way to end our time on the island.
Next morning it was back on the bus to Stone Town, where we had a wander round to a) just see the place and b) buy stuff to finish the tuktuk. Stone Town reminded me a bit of some towns you find in Italy - narrow streets, tall buildings and unpredictable scooter riders, but all the more charming because of it. After that it was back on the ferry (standard class this time) and off to get ready for our tuktuk adventure...
As the campsite I was at was pretty nice (and because I was still frantically working on the tuktuk) I didn't find us a hotel to stay at, but rather than have Colleen camp on her first night we upgraded to a beachside hut. This was nice, though came with a nocturnal visit from a rat who, sniffing out a chocolate bar wrapper in the pocket of my one pair of shorts, chewed through the crotch to get at it. My wardrobe, already meagre, was now missing a crucial element.
Due to late booking, we travelled Royal Class on the ferry (meaning we sat in a small room with one other guy; a bit weird to be honest), but to counterbalance that got a packed local bus with semi functional headlights for the drive across the island to our hotel. The place we were staying was great though, and rather than just a room we had a small two storey house to ourselves. It sat right on the beach along the east side of the island, looking out on powerdery white sand, palm trees and turquoise blue water. On our first day we took a stroll along the beach and into the 'main town' of Paje. Colleen's graphic designer side had a blast, nerding out on the hand drawn signs for all the businesses, and I managed to find a replacement pair of shorts from a little thrift shop (where most of the donations seem to have come from people a lot, lot fatter than me).
Day two was snorkelling, and we set off early to catch our boat. Zanzibar has a great reputation for both diving and snorkelling, it was easy to see why. Just 50 yards from shore was a small reef with thousands of colourful fish, fish that were really not at all bothered by the presence of people. They would swim right up to your mask and eyeball you, only darting away if you tried to reach out and touch them. Not at all bad for Colleen's first time snorkelling.
Day three was biking. We had bumped into Bekka, my friend from Malawi, on the island and she mentioned that her and a couple of friends she had made also wanted to go biking so we made tentative plans. I suggested we form a gang called "Tom's Biker Bitches", but neither Colleen nor Bekka was keen for some reason. As the other two girls didn't end up coming, we will never know if I could have swung the vote on the name 3-2 in my favour. We hired a couple of scooters with roaring 125cc engines and did a loop around the south east corner. We cruised through a couple of small villages and stopped off at a couple of beaches, before heading for what was marked on the maps as a Sea Turtle and Tortoise Sanctuary. It looked a little ramshackle when we turned up and we almost didn't go in, but Bekka haggled the entry fee down to under half price so we changed our mind - and I'm glad that we did. They had a pool full of sea turtles that we were able to feed (and pick up), had a python in a shady pit, and best of all had three giant tortoises. And they really are giant.
From there we headed up to tourist favourite restaurant "The Rock" (no one got my "Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?" WWE jokes; wasted), a small restaurant perched on a rock just offshore. At low tide you can walk, but at high tide there is a little boat that rows you out. The view out over the Indian Ocean at sunset was spectacular, and the food was great too. Not a bad way to end our time on the island.
Next morning it was back on the bus to Stone Town, where we had a wander round to a) just see the place and b) buy stuff to finish the tuktuk. Stone Town reminded me a bit of some towns you find in Italy - narrow streets, tall buildings and unpredictable scooter riders, but all the more charming because of it. After that it was back on the ferry (standard class this time) and off to get ready for our tuktuk adventure...
