When I asked my Tanzanian travel agent about the tours on offer in Zanzibar, she very quickly recommended a Stone Town tour and Spice Tour but the quoted prices were way out of my budget for this unexpected trip. Upon arriving in Zanzibar, I very soon found out that like most third-world tourist spots, you can easily find someone to be your tour guide at a much cheaper rate. But being a girl in a new island, I decided to go with someone recommended by a friend. Our tour guide was neither too expensive nor too cheap and his name was Said – a herbalist by trade and a medical officer by qualification. Who better to show us around.

The tour guide fetched us from our hotel and we drove uphill to Bububu where the spice farms are located. I found it fascinating that Zanzibar is renowned for its spices yet none of these spices are indigenous to the Island. When the Omani Arabs stumbled upon Zanzibar, they thought it was paradise coming from their dry arid desert. Over time, more fruits and spices were introduced to the island as supplies for the port and for the people that eventually decided to inhabit the island. 

I was totally unprepared for my walk through the bush. Somehow I imagined this to be a well maintained farm or park with neat rows of spices growing and paved walkways. It’s thoughts like these that make it obvious that I’m used to South African luxuries.

It was a Sunday afternoon so it was a lot quieter than it usually is. The first thing I saw were the bright red rambutans growing on a tree. I first tasted this in a Thai restaurant in South Africa and then I tasted it fresh in Thailand. It’s like a litchi only much meatier. I was surprised to learn that most fruits come in a number of species. We walked past trees with different sized and shaped rambutans. We also saw some boys harvesting them to sell the market. They gave us one each to try out. So delicious!

As we passed by some flowers our herbalist tour guide shared some of his secrets with us. He showed us a flower which you pinch and a drop of liquid comes out of it. It’s used to clear up eye infections. My mother speaks fondly of a time when she was growing up and her parents used herbal remedies from their garden instead of visiting doctors so I quite happily listened to all of this as most of his “remedies” correlated with the medicinal properties of spices that I know. My colleague, on the other hand, was a bit sceptical.

We saw lots of different types of mango, bananas, lemons, jackfruit, lime and other fruits I’ve never heard of. I learnt that the farm is the property of the government however you can rent out a tree and sell that harvest in the market. The cool thing about this tour is that you always get a taste of everything edible that you see.

Our guide picked up some leaves and squished it between his fingers and made us smell it: the sweet fragrance of ylang ylang. He did this with most of the plants so we’d first guess the spice or fruit based on the aroma.

Who knew peppercorns could come in green, white and red! Most spices are dried in the sun to get the dark black colour like black peppercorns, cloves and vanilla pods. Said even shared a remedy for that uncomfortable bloated feeling when you’ve ate too much and your tummy just won’t digest everything fast enough: drink some crushed pepper mixed in water. In no time, the gases will naturally escape from your tummy.

Did you know that there are 2 types of lemon grass? I always thought it was from the same plant. The bulbous part that Indians like to add to their tea and the leaf blades that the all the TV cooking shows love to use. They actually come from 2 different species. No wonder I can't find the one I'm looking for at Woolworths.

Our tour guide showed the bark of the iodine plant which bleeds when you cut it. If you apply that liquid to a wound, it becomes a white paste and acts as an antiseptic.

As someone who is accustomed to eating hot food, Zanzibari chillies are deathly hot but the fire ants loved the treat our tour guide gave them. He sliced up a chilli and served it on a leaf. Millions of ants came out of nowhere to attack it! It was definitely a sight to see.

I cook with turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves almost every day. It was fascinating to see how these grow, which parts of the plant it comes from and how it looks in its raw form.

Our next stop was to what I thought was another fruit I’ve never seen before. Our tour guide cut it in half and handed to me to inspect. There were cocoa beans inside.

We spotted more bright red rambutans with those signature prickles but when it was cut open, we realised it wasn’t a rambutan at all. It had little seeds in it which when squashed stains your fingers red – nature’s very own colourstay lipstick.

Nutmeg is like a seed of a fruit, like the pip of a peach. I’ve never seen nutmeg with the red mace covering before. In Zanzibar, it’s used as a substance to tone down your logical thinking and excite your senses. It is given to Zanzibari brides for the celebrations on the eve of their wedding to allow the shy bride to loosen up to dance and have a little fun.

Our tour ended at the spice market. Most tourists do the spice tour as their first tour so they aren’t aware that the prices here are inflated in comparison to the already inflated Stone Town prices. There are various whole, ground and mixed spices for sale. I’m used to buying spices all the time and mixing my own so I was more interested in vanilla pods and saffron which are very expensive back home. They also sell perfumes from the flowers that grow on the farm.

Even if you have a short time in Zanzibar like I had, I’d definitely recommend doing the Spice Tour. It only takes a few hours and I left knowing so much more about the island, its history and culture.

Planning a trip to Zanzibar the day before didn’t leave me with much options for accommodation. Also considering that I was strapped for cash, I just took what the travel agent offered in terms of flights and somewhere to stay. In hindsight, I was quite pleased with what I was given.

While checking in at the Mtoni Marine, a spiced tea was served as a welcome drink. I happen to think I know quite a bit about spiced teas but this was by far the best I’ve ever tasted. It was served piping hot in a little cup and the hotel reception staff were more than happy to pour more for us when we wanted.

The first thing we did after checking in to our room was check out the cosy beach at the hotel. There’s a pretty mangrove type area where big trees were growing in the waters. A pier separates the mangrove area to the rest of the hotel’s beach which is safer to swim in. I love piers and walking as far in as possible. Watching the depth of the waters and how the waves crash against the stones on the pier is absolutely breath taking. For a three star hotel, it is definitely value for money to be able to stay on the beach.

For lunch and supper, we dined at the hotel’s sports bar. I must say that the food takes super long to prepare. There’s free wifi so you can use the time to catch up with friends and family. Expect to wait an hour though – I call it Swahili time – but the food is definitely worth the wait. Zanzibari food is similar to Durban Indian food but it’s much more mildly spiced. The restaurant only takes cash or adds the bill to your room if you prefer to pay by credit card. They actually have quite a cool tipping policy. If you pay cash, the waiters get the tip and if you pay by credit card, the tips are settled amongst other hotel staff. I like it as most hotel staff are paid similar rates yet waiters get all our tips and not the other staff that helped prepare our meals or make our stay pleasant.

Back at the hotel room, it was a simple and clean room. The bed and chairs weren’t that comfy and the balcony was a waste because there were bugs waiting to come into the room. What the room lacked in terms of luxury, it made up for in décor. There were woven laundry bags and hangers made from some sort of leaves hanging in the room. Fresh flowers and leaves were placed on the pillows and elsewhere in the room which extends the atmosphere of the environment outside into the room. Outside the hotel buildings, there was tons of greenery. The palm trees and other plants and flowers growing in abundance kept in theme with the island.

Breakfast was served in a little lapa on the beach. Even if breakfast isn’t your thing, just gazing into the horizon across to Prison Island is mesmerising and enough to start your day in a happy mood.

The hotel can organise tours in and around Zanzibar. As tour “companies” come a dime a dozen in Zanzibar with lower prices than what the hotel offers, you can negotiate with the hotel on price. It probably won’t be as cheap as what the man on the street can offer but you can pay less for a professional tour.

Overall, Mtoni Marine was great for my 24 hours that I had to spend in Zanzibar. I would definitely return if I had to stay for a short while however for a relaxing beach holiday, I’d probably choose a more luxurious hotel or resort with a secluded beach.

Mambo! I was in Dar es Salaam for two weeks on business and I thought what better way to spend my weekend than to jet off to the island of Zanzibar. This was the first island I visited by plane and I was terribly disappointed. From the air, this looked a large piece of land – not at all like the little island paradise that I imagined in my head.

Once I got to my hotel though, I forgot all about the business trip I was on back in Tanzania. The air was beautifully warm and humid – even in winter. The beach calm and blue and the sand just beckoned me to spend my day lazing on it. But with only 24 hours in Zanzibar, I had to get a move on.

1. Savour the taste of Zanzibar

I loved the food of Zanzibar. Lunch was a chicken curry chapatti wrap. This is so different from the Indian foods on offer in Dar es Salaam. I can only describe Zanzibari food as mildly-spiced Durban Indian style food.

2. Tour Stone Town

I am fascinated by the history of all cities and countries. I dream the stories of long ago to life and I am amazed to see how that the past has shaped the current state of the land. I definitely recommend a tour of Stone Town, the town that was built from stones by the Omani settlers. It is one of the oldest surviving ancient towns in Africa and as I walked through the town with the original buildings, roads and markets, our tour guide explains how Zanzibar became such a cosmopolitan city with European, Indian, African and Arab roots. It is truly the only country in the world where everyone’s facial and bodily features are unique – no one looks like the race they descended from anymore – they have all been mixed together to create what are the current inhabitants of Zanzibar.

3. Shop at the Stone Town markets

The markets in Stone Town are really for the locals. People come there every day to buy fresh fish, meat and vegetables. There are also market stalls with clothing like kangas, burkas, kurtas, scarves and shawls. Just about everything is for sale – and I much rather prefer shopping on the streets to my usual shopping in a mall. Prices are negotiable so you could come away with a good bargain – much cheaper than the shops at the hotel. I left there with spices that are much cheaper than what you would find in South Africa.

4. Walk through Forodhani Food Market

From the late afternoon, the food market situated on the waterfront comes alive. I was greeted with the sight of all kinds of fishing boats getting ready for another catch. There was seafood cooking on grills – ready to be served. Prawns, crabs, fish just calling you to taste them. There were also vegetables, samosas, drinks... It’s like a culinary paradise.

5. Appreciate the African and Arabian influences

I loved the architectural style of the Arabian arches and intricate details that were on display in most the hotels and older homes. It was also quite refreshing to know that you are in still Africa with animal statuettes as décor or the flowers and leaf-woven baskets that adorned most places.

6. Watch the sun set

It is an island so leaving without feeling the Indian ocean on your skin, watching the sun set and just relaxing in the warm late afternoon would be a huge injustice. I can’t wait to go back for a proper beach holiday here.

7. Go on a spice tour

Being Indian, I am no stranger to spices. Most times, I can’t even remember the correct English name for it but I sure know how to use them, grind them, mix them together and cook delicious meals with them. What I didn’t know was how they are grown and harvested and transformed into some of the products we buy at the store. I toured the land where fruits, herbs and spices are grown and got to taste, smell and see exactly where the spices I use every day originate from.

There is so much to do in Zanzibar. I cannot wait to go back with more time to take in all the wonders the island has to offer…and to relax on white sands against crystal blue beaches. 

As soon as I stepped into the hotel, I noticed the décor finishes and ambience synonymous with the Hilton hotels that I've been to in South Africa. It feels very much like an upmarket city hotel until you take a walk around the back to view Oyster Bay where the hotel nestles against the banks of the cove. A wooden pier goes out into the calm bay to a thatched viewing deck to overlook the calm serenity of the waters and of the fishing boats.

Before I became lost in my surroundings, I was warmly welcomed by reception staff. They handed me a warm fresh-from-the-oven cookie – completely unexpected given the norm of welcome drinks at hotels. Reception staff is friendly and in general the hotel staff are always greeting guests and teaching them a little Swahili in passing.

The rooms are very spacious for a 4 star graded hotel but what I really like is the business desk and comfortable office chair in the corner of the room. It’s quite refreshing for a hotel of this nature to realise that people on business trips are here to work and therefore provide the resources to do so comfortably. The paper is delivered to your door every morning and it’s a great way to kill traffic time when taking a cab to work.

The décor matches the old school wooden doors throughout the hotel but with so much space, the wooden furniture doesn't over-power the room. I’m not a huge fan of the tiled floors but these leave the room feeling clean, bright and sparkly...and it's oh-so-refreshing to cool to walk on the cold tiles barefoot when coming in from the hot sun outside. 

I was a bit disappointed with the view from my second floor hotel room. It was sea facing – exactly what I wanted – but the view was more of the large palm trees blocking the ocean from me. Knowing that the ocean is just behind those trees is good enough for me though.  The view of the pool area, though, does make me feel like I am on holiday instead of slaving away. I am extremely jealous of my colleague who is just a floor below me yet hers overlooked the pool, palm trees and the bay!

I simply love all the greenery of trees, shrubs and flowers growing around and between the hotel buildings – it keeps in theme of the humid climate of the city it is in.

Breakfast is my favourite meal served at the restaurant. Not only do they have a full English breakfast and continental buffet, they also offer a variety of Indian foods for breakfast too – bhajias, rotis and jeera rice were some of the tastes of the East that I am devouring every morning.

I’d much rather experience other restaurants rather than be cooped up in the hotel. The are many restaurants situated a few minutes away from the hotel. Among them is the The Waterfront – a lively restaurant right against the waters. There is also a market to shop for curios and little gifts to take back home. Given the roads and driving styles in Dar-es-salaam, I’m quite grateful that restaurants and markets are just a short walk away.  

Given the choice of so many hotels Dar-es-salaam has to offer, I think I’m happy with my choice of staying at Double Tree over the next two weeks.

I’m generally excited to be travelling…especially when it’s somewhere on the beach. My two week trip to Maputo though is being filled with stressful work, tight deadlines and colleagues without a sense of adventure.

Everyone told me about the amazing beaches of Mozambique so despite my stresses I decided to explore Maputo’s shoreline. I’ve seen many a beach in my day but this has got to be the most unique beach. There’s a very small strip of shore during high tide and the ocean seems to stretch out forever. When the tide is low, the waters recede so far back that you walk for ages just to reach the waters. Little shallow tidal pools form along the damp shore. And the sands reflect the ripples of waves that were there just hours ago. Little holes dot the rippled sands with the evidence of little creatures digging themselves free.

When you finally reach the warm waters, you can wade so far in to the shallow waters. In the horizon, you see another shoreline and it feels as though you can wade right through to that island. If I had a life jacket and a friend who could swim with me, I would have totally tried out that theory. The waters didn’t even reach past my knees when I turned around and looked back towards the shore I walked from. It was intensely scary to see how far in I had gone and my mind kept thinking about what would happen if the tide quickly changed while I was standing there. If this was a beach in Durban, I’d be too far in to be able to stand on the ground and the current would be far too strong to keep me one place. Here the beach is calm and welcoming. There were even lagoons with trees – nature’s umbrellas – where people chilling under.

All week I’ve seeing people that looked like they were standing far out in the ocean and now I understand why. The calm shallow waters make it quite safe to be able to go far in. The locals live off the ocean and either fish off the piers, off the banks of the harbour, stand far out in the beach or use fishing boats.

It’s a pity that I’ll be busy at work for the rest of the week so I can’t play on the beach and be amazed by it again.  

 

Last year, I promised to donate a blanket for every new follower I gained on my blog. Then in an unfortunate turn of events, I was out with a terrible flu during the weekend of the Twitter Blanket Drive! I could barely get out of bed and I definitely couldn’t live up to my donation promise in return for my increase in blog following. To make up for that, I decided to donate blankets equal to the total number of my blog followers this year.

I donated 20 blankets and also delivered 10 blankets each from @sacred_sha, @Nellytjie and @Deepikapoona. That was 5 bales of blankets squeezed into my little Corsa Lite. They all made their way through to this year’s Twitter Blanket Drive at Melrose Arch.

We were greeted with complimentary glasses of the Fire and Ice Hotel’s famous milkshakes. While I was getting help to bring up 50 blankets, I was saddened by how poor the turnout was. I heard there were tons of people last year and I was part of the huge gathering the year before. Maybe this was attributed to the increased number of drop off points or the poor marketing to the build-up of the event on Twitter. I hardly saw the flood of #tbdza tweets on my timeline the way I did in previous years.

I eventually opened up the 50 blankets and threw them all into the blanket area. There was a massive amount of blankets considering the small turn out. I called it a night after being entertained by Deep Fried Man. And I left on that cold night with a warm feeling in my heart.

Thank you for helping me to donate those blankets so that more people can be just as warm as I will be this winter.

I’ve been so conflicted for most of this year about my writing. In fact, it all started last year…and ended with a lesson that took me one and a half years to learn.

I started this blog because the everyday hustle of work and the little life there is after work just wasn’t leaving me satisfied that I was doing enough with all that life has to offer. I needed to supplement my monotonous life with something else that makes me excited. That’s when I started dancing and a year later I decided to start writing again – something I was incredibly good at when I was a little girl. My childhood years spent reading and writing developed a style of writing that I lost through my adult years of studying and working. A style of writing that won me competitions and made me proud of a final product. The reading and writing that I missed.

And then life happened again. All of a sudden work consumed so much of my time that I stopped dancing and had very little time to write. It took me a year and a half to realise that I let work get in the way of my passions. Never again!

So now I sit here a month after vowing to leave work to work hours and to embrace the little time I have outside of work to focus on my passions. I started dancing again and it’s like going from an advanced level to a struggling beginner. It makes me despondent and I definitely don’t feel enthusiastic about going to class. I started writing again and I realise that the self-inflicted pressure to write in certain genres is preventing me from writing what I want to write; to being able to just tell my story the way I want to.

Only recently did I become aware of the fact that life changes and it changes you as a person. Along with that, priorities change and passions change. I don’t know if writing and dancing are my passions anymore but I intend to still keep pursuing them and to not be so hard on myself. After all, it’s the stuff after work that makes life worth living. I intend to live every day how I want – happy.

I rarely have favourite anythings but La Trinita has to be my absolute favourite restaurant. It’s a combination of great food, ambience and the best service.

It’s a small, family-run, Italian restaurant hidden away in the Kyalami Downs Centre. As soon as you enter the restaurant, you’re greeted as if you’re family and made to feel comfortable. The mother and daughter duo, Tessa and La-La, have very good memories and even remember the time last you visited.

After you’re ushered to your table and given delicious warm breads, the chef La-La comes to take your order giving personal attention. I don’t even bother looking at the menu. La-La asks what you feel like eating or what flavours you like or dislikes and suggests your meals for you. She also goes into great detail describing the special dishes for the day that makes your mouth water.

The restaurant is definitely a place for everyone. There’s a kiddies area and large table arrangements for bigger crowds and there’s quiet corners for a romantic date too. The waiters are helpful but generally out of sight and not really needed with La-La’s hands-on approach. When La-La is busy in the kitchen, they are, however, just as knowledgeable about all the dishes and their flavours and extremely helpful.

For starters, we settled on soup. I loved the butternut soup topped with a little bit of chilli the last time I visited La Trinita so I ordered it again. Still delicious but I this time I tasted the mushroom soup. Divine! Rich and creamy and tasty!

I’ve heard many good things about La-La’s seven layer lasagne but it’s not a menu item because when she prepares lasagne, it sells out so fast. I called the day before and asked her to make her lasagne and to save a piece for me. The piece she saved for me was more like a family-sized portion. I barely made it through a third of the dish. The sauce is rich and creamy. The lasagne sheets hid away layers of the mince sauce, soft mushrooms and béchamel sauce. My favourite was the generous layer of the mince sauce on top which give it a perfect balance of everything – not too much pasta and not too much filling. I can see why people rate it the best lasagne they’ve ever had.

And just when I thought a dish could not get tastier, I took a bite of my date’s main course – kingklip with a lemony caper sauce topped with bacon. The sauce complemented the fish so well and who would ever think of adding bacon to a fish dish. The saltiness of the bacon played well with the citrus flavours of the sauce which kept each bite of fish rich, moist and flavourful throughout the meal.

To end our meal, we shared a tiramisu which the waiter told me is the best dessert on the menu. It was as you’d expect a good tiramisu to taste. When it was time to leave, I was hugged goodbye, given my doggy bag (to taste La-La’s cooking again the next night) and given a take-away menu. The pizzas are perfect for a quiet night in but I think I’d rather dine at the restaurant next time too. 

This year, I noticed a huge marketing of the celebration of the Indian festival of colour, Holi, on social media. Traditionally, it is a cultural festival celebrated within the Indian community. So I was pleasantly surprised at the extension of the Holi One invitation to everyone. At last a sign of tolerance of cultural festivals – or so I thought.

For millennia, Holi has been celebrated in India to welcome in Spring. Prayers are performed at home or at a temple and then celebrations begin. The colours that Spring brings is symbolised in the fun and games. It’s all about setting free your inner child to happily throw around coloured powders and naughtily smear it on friends when they least expect it.

Based on the Hindu holy day, the Holi One festival, held in Cape Town earlier this month hailed 10 000 people all dressed in white to celebrate with music played by top DJs. Every hour, a countdown released a burst of coloured powder into the air. Revellers partied to the uplifting electronic music, whilst simultaneously getting higher with alcohol and whatever else…

Thinking back on Diwali, I had hoped both Hindus and non-Hindus would be more tolerant of each other so that the holy day could be observed and celebrated. A few months later, we have an abundance of acceptance of Holi from non-observers. Participation even!

I can’t help but wonder whether this acceptance isn’t the mark of a society changing its tolerance levels but rather of a society that is conveniently tolerant. The right to celebrate Holi isn’t publicly called into question as it was by many for Diwali. Probably because Holi One is fun – or rather deemed as tolerated fun. Even though it’s based on the Hindu festival of Holi and borrows many of its attributes, the Holi One festival is essentially one big party featuring many things that Holi is not.

When organising a festival that is meant to promote peace, love, happiness, tolerance and unity, one would think that the organisers would have involved the people where the concept is borrowed from. True religious tolerance would have steered the organisers to speak with Hindu people or perhaps even a body that represents them nationally like the Hindu Maha Sabha. Instead, the event was heavily promoted on social media for ticket sales without much of a thought of the people who have celebrated the festival for thousands of years. The result is unhappy Hindus who feel like their religious festivals are disrespected, tainted and commercialised.

A ridiculous analogy would be like organising a huge party on Ascension Day in Europe. We could celebrate with the release of helium balloons or fire lanterns every hour representing Jesus’ ascension into the heavens. Let’s bring on the best DJs, hottest electronica and hand out acid and various other psychedelics so that we can all get high for the occasion. 

We can’t protect every religious and cultural festival from being commercialised and stripped off its true meaning. With better management and consultation, perhaps a compromise could have been reached to avoid encroaching on something culturally sensitive.

There are many successful religious festivals that, although commercialised, still maintain their religious essence without disrespecting the religion such as the festivals for the Chinese New Year, Diwali and Christmas.

It’s Holi One this year. How would you feel when next year the party is Ramadaan One, Yom Kippur One or Easter One?