Z'bar

For two weeks, I was convinced that both Kenya and Tanzania were lost causes. Anywhere you want to go is overrun by the tourist industry, and any westerner is just a big sack of cash for the locals to harass.

Zanzibar town is a definite step forward. There's still the full-court press in the market and near the tourist shops, but you can get away from it and get lost in the back alleys of a pretty cool town. It's like 4000 years old and all funky winding alleyways between ancient stone buildings with intricately carved ebony doorways. Sun and nice beaches on the shore, shade and cool breezes blowing smells from the spice markets through the streets. Yeah, I can deal with this.

The rest of the island is supposed to be your standard-issue tropical Paradise, completely ravaged by tourism. I'm bracing for the worst.

written by  Jason Kester on May 10, 2003 from Zanzibar, Tanzania
from the travel blog: Africa, 2003
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