Day 315 – Tanzania

August 16, 2010 – Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania

We’re woken up to the sound of the prayer call. This wouldn’t normally be a problem except it’s about 4:00am and we were hoping to sleep in.

We eventually manage to get back to sleep, only to be woken up again at 7:15am, except this time it’s by an air-raid siren.

It looks like we’re not sleeping in today…

We later learn the air-raid siren goes off twice a day to remind the population of Zanzibar of when they gained their independence from the Sultan.

Why can’t they just send out a text message saying “don’t 4get – we’re free from the Sultan :-) LOL”?

After a great breakfast on the rooftop of our hotel, we head back out into the city and wander around. We enjoy the ocean breeze, do a bit of souvenir shopping, scope out some places to eat and check out the former slave market.

In the 1870s, the first Anglican cathedral in East Africa was built on the old slave market site and today the only remnants are the holding cells in the basement of St. Monica’s Hostel, located beside the church. We take a quick tour of the site, which includes a brief history of the slaves’ living conditions, the founder of the church and how the cathedral was constructed.

There’s also a “trick question” at the end of the tour, which I get right.

During the cathedral’s construction, the Bishop used it as an opportunity to train many of the former slaves in various trades and unfortunately, a significant construction error occurred. The question was to look around the cathedral and see if you could spot “the error”. I noticed that the 12 columns in the interior were installed upside down, which is correct.

It’s good to know I’ve still got it…

We also discovered the BEST BROWNIES EVER. They’re from the Zenji Hotel & Cafe and they become an addiction… we have one almost every day we’re in Stone Town.

For dinner, we find a wonderful restaurant called “Malindi’s Takeaways”. They serve roast chicken and chips.

That’s it.

We had seen it from the outside earlier in the day and decided to check it out. When we walked in and asked for a menu, the guy just said “no menu – chicken and chips”.

At this point, we knew we were home…