...the day he invented tonsilitis, the cruelest of diseases. Your body burns lots of energy to fight the infection, leaving you feeling tired and very very hungry; yet you can hardly bloody eat anything because it's too painful to swallow.
Oh well, much better now, but still on antibiotics for another three days (woo-hoo). After a few days of sitting around, feeling sorry for myself and watching crap Steven Seagal films, I finally got around to doing something yesterday.
It was a bit crap, but it was something. Lauren and I decided to go to Prison Island, so we paid many dollars to a tour operator, who walked us down to the boats. That was the tour operator's job. That's what these people do for a living. They walk people down to the boats. In exchange for hard cash. We realised of course, at this stage, that we could have just walked down to the boats ourselves and got a boat for a few thousand shilingi. The reason we didn't was because we wanted snorkelling gear, which, as it turns out, is also freely available, in the same place as the boats.
Our boat, interestingly, was called "Nakupenda", which means, "I love you". Nice. The Love Boat, eh? It was a simple affair with a tarpaulin canopy and a single motor; with the added bonus of a carpet. We were pleased to see that the rest of the Stone Town fleet also included such fine vessels as "Mr Bean" and "Luvly Jubbly".
We had been told by the tour operator that it cost 4000/= to go and see the turtles, which are in a cage about 100m inland, but that the beach was free reign and the rest of the island was strictly out of bounds, as it is a conservation area. Seeing the turtles for that price hardly seemed worth it, so we planned to stay on the beach. Unfortunately, we found out when we arrived that the tour operator had lied, so we didn't stay on the beach, and simply snorkelled off the boat. That'll show 'em. They get no money, and we get some coral, starfish and many small sea creatures (as one of the Divemasters at Swahili Divers, Ali, would say).
Last night we went to the bar at the Africa House Hotel (after going for a Chinese in our favourite restaurant, don't you know), and they had the house band in there, playing such stirling classics as Lionel Richie's "Hello", and "Dock of the Bay", as well as many Swahili numbers. Apparently, after we left, the girls' dancing got a bit saucy and they also sang "Rock Around the Clock".
But now I'm out of time!!!
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