...bloody ill again. 'Snot fair!! I think it might be tonsilitis but haven't been to the doctor yet because the one that's recommended to me is closed at the moment. Althea and Lauren have gone off to the beach with Lauren's friend's children, and I'm left all on my Billy back in Stone Town.
On Saturday Lauren came over to Pemba, and her and some Canadian guy called Avi and I went to the bullfighting in the far north of the island. I wasn't too bothered about going, and I don't think Althea was either, but it was interesting anyway. It wasn't so much bullfighting as bull-taunting-and-then-running-away-by-a-very-large-crowd-on-the-village-football-pitch.
We had hired a car for 20000/= to take us there and back, and were under the impression after talking to the driver that it was still only 20000/= if he took the Italian guys, who tagged along, back to their guest house in Mkoani.
Unfortunately it turned out that what he had meant was that he wanted an EXTRA 20000/=. Whoops. So the Italians walked off without paying anything and we had to pay the original 20000/= between ourselves.
Then the next day (Sunday) it turned out that Swahili Divers was booked out and we couldn't stay the extra day we wanted. So, I took a hacksaw to my shoulder and hip in order to compensate for the use of their equipment, and we went on our way. We intended to catch the ferry from Mkoani, but the Sunday service had been cancelled so we had to stay another night (in the same guest house as the Italians). And I thought Chake Chake was dull. The view from the verandah at the guest house was beautiful, however, so we quite happily sat around there in the hammocks.
Then in the evening we spent the whole dinner talking to a very annoying South African bloke who seemed to take a very dim view of everything under the sun. He also seemed to think that AIDS has nothing to do with the fact that life expectancy in Tanzania is just 45. ER, HELLO! HOW THE HELL DO YOU THINK THEY WORK IT OUT?! He also thought that the only way to deal with it on Zanzibar is to bribe the Imman to tell people to use condoms. That's sustainability for you.
Got the ferry Monday lunchtime and, rather disconcertingly, had to queue to get on. When we got to Zanzibar we had a very annoying taxi driver take us to the guest house who, whenever we told him the price it should be (1500/=, about $1.60), kept replying, "Okay, two dollars is okay," even though we had already agreed the price with him before we left. Then we had a very annoying waiter when we went to eat, who made us wait an hour for pizza, and then apologised that he had been on the phone to his mother. Then we got pizzas with nearly uncooked dough. From then on, however, it's been just dandy.
Haven't really done much, but did go to Forodhani gardens the first night we were here, and had grilled fish kebabs and Zanzibar pizza, which isn't really pizza at all, but is rather nice.
No comments:
Post a Comment