little piece of heaven, Zanzibar (island off Tanzania)

Jambo

Habari



Inhale slowly, aaaah exhale even slower. Tons and endless amounts of fresh crispy air, clear headed, tensionfree and no traces of jetlag. An amazing and most relaxed holiday I’ve experienced so farJ I have been dreaming of this and am still fantasizing on the memories of it…



Karibu to Zanzibar! Pookie and I (by the way, we want to be together and still love each other dearly, it is just not possible for us right now) explored Zanzibar Town (Stone Town – a world heritage site) on arrival. Very interesting historical creation of Arabic architecture (old wooden doors), small alleys, many scooters, cats with beautiful eyes, black women in abayas (those black dresses), rastas, old buildings that are peeling, spice markets, fish markets and random people trying to sell random stuff.



Then we went to the North (Kendwa – close to Nungwi) where we sat on the beach as a romantic couple watching the stunning sunsets every evening (stayed there for 3 days), ate good food (I gained some weight), (I) slept an average of 9 hours daily excluding the many times I fell asleep on the beach or a hammock, long walks and generally chilling and listening to music.



We mutually felt it was time to move on and explore other parts of the island, so we went to the East coast to Jambiani. We basically had a beach and lodge to ourselves living in a village (May is low season, apparently the worst time to go – blah blah, luckily I never listen to these things, because we had amazing and perfect weather). Our bungalow was right on the beach (5meters away) and we spent our nights sleeping outside on the stoepbed covered by a mosquito net (they chowed me alive nonetheless). Went for a tour to the village Kizimkazi and into the deep, deep sea where we swam with dolphins!! Had lunch in a local’s home, wow!


Life is slow on the island and we chilled. Content.


Finally back at the airport, I checked my roster online (I’m on standby remember) and saw that I have a rest day the following day, so the Pookies stayed one more day in Stone Town where we experienced the night markets (where they sell freshly catches of the day and freshly squeezed sugarcane juice). Explored a new area and enjoyed our last moments together, the weather was gorgeous.



Back at the airport I had an interesting experience. In my flight to Dar, I sat right behind the captain, haha (smallest aircraft I’ve seen and been on – seats only 12) and no co-pilot, a passenger sommer seated himself next to the captain. A 15-minute flight cruising at an easy breathable 7000ft!!



Aaaaaah, life is wonderful



Upendo,

Alta

Star of Africa (Accra, Ghana)

Atisen

First of all, my head is still spinning from all the traveling I did last month, and now that I'm on standby, my life is turned upside down again... I've been meaning to write this long ago, just never had the time. I never get used to staying up at night, getting up early or forcing myself to sleep during the day, but at least I get used to missing out on sleep. Soon I'll be 40.

So, like I said last time, I was off to London, instead I went on a 4day trip to Ghana. One of my personal goals, is to see more of Africa this year. So far so good:) The trip works like this: we fly to Accra (Ghana), land afternoon, book into our hotel (which we get to keep for 3 days without having to check out). Spend the day and night in Accra (where we went to the beach, ate local food = disgusting, be surrounded by hundreds of people trying to sell stuff to us while we are trying to relax on the beach, play an ancient game with the locals then end up buying the game, smoke shisha AGAIN, look at the many men jogging passed training for soccer or something = creating an entertaining scene of an African Baywatch movieset for women, haha, get a peaceful snake wrapped around my neck and pay for that, then finally get tired of trying to relax and go back to hotel)

Then we work a 'normal' 10 to 4 day flying quickly to Abidjan and back (Cote d'Ivoire = Ivory Coast) and have the rest of the afternoon free again (where we went back to the beach because there was a beach party, drank local fermented palm 'beer' = disgusting, got harassed more, tried to dance to live reggae music while being surrounded by locals, get overpriced on our dinner, then finally give up and go home, screw this)

Have half the next day free, go to mall where we found Truworths, Woolworths, Game, Shoprite, Huisgenoot, Savannahs, Lutzville wine!!! and got curious about the amount of South Africans in Ghana!!?

Felt like a little holiday, easy flight, friendly people. They openly practice Christianity (you'll walk into the clothing shop and the guy in the back is blasting his gospel album)

Average beach, average place, average experience:)

Meanwhile, Rico wanted me back, spent two more weeks as his girlfriend and had a lot of fun, then I had to break up with him last night:( It's the right thing to do:) Pookie is the love of my life!

For my vacation that is finally approaching, I'll be going to another African destination: Zanzibar!!

So stay tuned, watch this space:-)

How are you doing?

Hugs,
A