Highs and Lows in Stone Town

I can summarize my 24 hours in Zanzibar's Stone Town as a series of highs and lows. I met some wonderful people, but also a few pests, lingering behind me for essentially my entire visit, offering me city tours, invitations to souvenir shops or just some awkward company. I was ripped off on some purchases, but once I got the hang of bartering I got some excellent deals on spices. And although I had my camera stolen, I had enough good experiences to not let that cloud my impression of the island. So although Zanzibar has its fair share of blemishes, it has plenty of attractive attributes to redeem itself. It's very historic, with old buildings from the slave trade preserved to co-exist with new museums, white sand beaches and sea-front restaurants. The architecture has that Swahili charm that drew me to Lamu - not so much African as Arab. The weather is nice - humid, just the way I like it. The water is blue, the coffee is good, and the night market has great street food and a friendly market vibe I've found on slightly safer streets of Thailand. The Forodhani Gardens were a highlight of my time in Tanzania. They are lined with food stalls, each piled with mounds of skewers of local fish - red snapper, tuna, barracuda, white shark rubbed in local spices for a distinctly Zanzibar flavour. For dessert there is fresh fruit, banana-chocolate pancakes and sugarcane-ginger juice. For my last dinner in East Africa, I was fearless. Bring it on, giardia. Give me everything you've got.

The gardens were a perfect place to meet other travellers. As I sat on the stone benches by the ocean sipping a frosty glass of sugarcane-ginger juice, a rugged British backpacker named Charlie sat down beside me and we shared travel stories. I spent the rest of the night getting to know his travel group that had formed over the last few months - med students, British students on a gap year, a German couple on the Long Way Up to Cairo. We talked about our travels, our lives back home, and divulged some of our deepest secrets - like the fact that Charlie was the lead character in the movie Stardust, starring opposite Claire Danes. It's true. I googled it. So although there were lows, I had enough highs to make this minor detour before I headed to Dar Es Salaam worth while.