We're in freakin Africa! Being on a new continent is fantastic and starting our African adventure in Zanzibar is incredible. Our first 3 days we stayed in Stonetown, a Unesco heritage town and the hub of Zanzibar. It's a lively place with friendly locals, world class beaches and historic building after historic building! We stayed at Tembo House, very conveniently located in Stonetown and on the beach! It was a long day of travel to get here from Bangkok, thankfully everything went off without a hitch. We even got to fly over Kilimanjaro which was cloud covered but still pretty cool! Our first day here we started at the Arab Fort and House of Wonders located literally next to our hotel. We weren't able to go inside either but the outside was pretty cool. The downfall of this area is the dozens of locals offering walking tours. They are friendly but annoyingly persistent! We expected the typical harassment you find when you travel but this place is next level! It's an expected side effect of a poor economy and an influx in tourists but is never the less frustrating. After a couple days here we learned how to say no the right way so they go away. Basically just shaking your head, not saying a word and walking on seems to work best. The architecture in Zanzibar is fantastic. It's a fusion of Swahili and Arabic styles, largely unchanged since the 19th century which put this town on the Unesco list in 2000. One of the best ways to explore Stonetown is by getting lost wandering down the tiny back streets lined with shops. When I say lost I mean lost, it's an absolute maze of streets. Thankfully it's not a very big place so eventually we popped out in a clearing and reoriented ourselves pretty easily. One top of incredible architecture are the doors. Zanzibar is renowned for it's ornately decorated doors studded with large protruding spikes and elaborate carvings. The brass studded doors are a design brought over from India. In India the studs were used to keep Elephants from crashing the doors, in Zanzibar they are used purely for decoration and a display of wealth. The designs on the doors are used to tell you about the resident, their occupation and wealth. We noticed a lot of thick chains on the doors as well and apparently these are in part to keep out evil spirits but also to show wealth. Most of the designs are floral and abstract since during the Arab occupation they forbid depictions of people and animals. After wondering around side streets we made our way to Mercury's Bar, a must visit for any Queen fan! In case you didn't know (we didn't before now) Freddie Mercury of Queen was born in Zanzibar! His family house has a plaque on it you can visit, though we never found it. Instead we visited the bar named after him which serves up nice food, drinks, excellent views, and of course lots of Queen's music! To finish it all off we stopped in at Forohani gardens at night for some dinner. The park comes alive after dark with food vendors light by oil lamps with cheap eats. We had to watch out for some scammy people trying to get us to exchange their USD into local currency, sneaky children trying to steal your food, beggars and the 200 cats that come out of nowhere. Once we got our food and found a bench we were good to go and the food was amazing. Our second day here we hired a boat man and headed to Prison Island. It's about a 15-20 minute boat ride from Stonetown depending on the sea and cost us about $22 each. Prison Island, also known as Changuu, has had a colourful history. In the 19th century it was used a prison for slaves until it was purchased by a British man who built a prison on it. It was never used however because it was converted into a quarantine station when Yellow fever and other diseases became rampant. After visiting the island ourselves we both agreed it's not the worst place you could be quarantined with gorgeous white sand beaches and lots of shady trees. Now it's home to a tortoise sanctuary for the endangered Aldabran Giant Tortoise brought over in the 19th century as a gift from the Seychelles. The government owns the island now and keeps the tortoises safe from poaching and provides them a good life where they can roam around and do what they like while allowing visitors to feed them and take photos for a $4.00 entrance fee. On top of tortoise the island is home to peacocks and an unusually small species of antelope called Duikers. We were lucky enough to spot one about the size of a small dog well hidden in the bushes. Today we're heading over to our second hotel in the North East or Zanzibar called Villa Kiva. It's located on a beautiful beach away from the hustle and bustle of Stonetown. Unfortunately Chris is under the weather today, not sure if it's something he ate or just too much sun so we're trying to keep it low key. We had a booked spice tour today to do en-route to the next hotel but decided to bail on it. We still have 4 more days here so lots of time to recover and find other fun activities!
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