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travel@pangolin.liZanzibar - Matemwe & Stone Town
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home Travel directory Tanzania '03 main Sand Rivers, Selous Chole Mjini, Mafia Zanzibar |
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contact last updated: 28-Jan-2006 All text/pictures are subject to copyright by pangolin.li |
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The last part of our trip was spent on the island of Zanzibar; first a few days of beach life on the Eastern shores at Matemwe Beach, and then, as the final (and as a re-accommodation to city life) a few days in Stone Town, in Emerson & Green Hotel.
Matemwe Beach Guesthouse
Matemwe Beach is a beach-lover's dream come true: a ribbon of sand as white and fine as flour, fringed by swaying palm trees, and contrasted by several hues of blue from sea and sky. However, our stay there was a bit ill-fated: already when leaving Mafia, I felt sick, and all my joints ached. And it got worse. Anyway: Getting thereThe flight from Mafia to Zanzibar was eventless, except for the nice aerial view of Stone Town when we arrived. We had a private transfer to Matemwe booked. The scenic trip takes one hour, and leads through many villages, with green orchards and vegetable patches.Matemwe Beach Guesthouse - Asali Suite
The "hotel" structure of Matemwe Beach consists of a open main house with reception, kitchen and dining room, as well as now 17 bungalows and the "Asali" honeymoon suite. The bungalows are nice, neat and clean and seemed well worth their price. They are arranged in three rows parallel to the beach. A bit too close together for my taste, and the path connecting them also doesn't add to privacy, but they seemed very nice. We were the really lucky ones, however, since we had booked the Asali suite. The Asali Suite is a standalone house a bit off from the main guesthouse area. Entering through a heavy wooden door, you enter another world. The house is a round structure open to the sea (can be closed with canvas), with walls towards the back and the sides, and a high thatched roof from which hangs a chandelier. The view to the sea is obstructed by palm trees, but this keeps the wind away and makes the glimpses through the foliage even more special. This is one of the places that will cause troubles should we ever decide to get married - because it will be hard to pick an even better honeymoon suite compared to the likes of Asali suite. Entering the house, the concrete plunge pool in the middle of the room first catches the eye. To the right is an open kitchen with table, to the left a closed bedroom, then the shower room, and a large sitting area with cushions, a low table and many books. A door leads out to the open air shower and toilet, enclosed in a little walled garden. In the middle of the room are two deck chairs from where a few steps lead to the beach. Meals can be served in Asali suite, or else you can go to the main dining-room. We mostly used in-room service, since I was ill. Fresh fruit and cool drinks were always available. The staff was also very kind in helping me to organize the trip to the Ayla clinic in Stone Town. Activities
The beach in front of Asali Suite is not separated from the rest - this would be a pity, to cut off a piece of this endless white beach. Furthermore, there is a little shady platform on stilts hidden in the palm trees, to laze away the afternoon watching the sea. There is no complete privacy on the beach; the waterline is used as the main path by the locals, so you see a few people on bicycles during the day, or fishermen and -women using the low tide to empty their weirs. There were a few salesmen selling coconuts, sarongs and stuff, but without the hassle of more touristy areas. Once came a lady offering a massage - wouldn't recommend that, it was a rather careless, pricey affair - but at least it made her day, and that of her daughter and probably a few other relatives. Many people come to Matemwe to go diving near the Mnemba atoll - which must be spectacular (well, can it get better after diving in Mafia?). We didn't try due to my illness, but the dive center made a very professional impression. We didn't do much else than lying in the shade and driving to Stone Town to get me malaria-tested (negative - though it would have been much easier to have this done in the excellent hospital on Chole island), and to call home to our travel doctor to learn that it might well be dengue fever (which was also tested negative, back home). Two days and a few diclofenac pill laters, the high fever and the pains all over my body receeded. Ready to leave for Stone Town. What a pity that we couldn't enjoy this paradise better! Stone Town and Emerson & Green HotelEmerson & Green Hotel
Lenny had us booked into the presumably nicest room of the nicest hotel in Stone Town - the West Room of Emerson & Green. Arriving from Matemwe Beach, our taxi dropped us on a parking lot somewhere behind the House of Wonders, and the driver led us through several streets and turns to the main entrance. Climbing a few steps brings you into a hall which still very much feels like the old merchant's house of 1870 that it was - but with modern additions. Everything is covered with old furniture, pieces of art and colorful fabrics in arabic style. To get to the West room, we climbed many more cranking stairs, to arrive on a landing with wooden doors. Further up is only the rooftop terrace where meals are served - but more about that later. Our West Room was stunning. Really. With the windows covered by airy latticework, the sun bathed the room in patterns of shadow intermingled with bright patches of exploding color. The color came from the huge four-poster painted Zanzibari bed covered in violet, the bright pink of the curtains, the grey-green concrete which formed the sunken bath and a low bench running along the wall, the old inlaid wooden cupboard, the colorful rugs on the floor... And the view outside was not less spectacular. From our small balcony we could see the House of Wonders, a Hindu temple, the port and a maze of more or less dilapidated roofs inhabited by cats, chicken, even goats - and the occasional human visitor. Only the rooftop terrace above offered an even better (360°) view. On the less excellent side were the tiny toilet and the lack of water pressure, but this was expected; furthermore, the rooftop terrace with its evening noise and food smells doesn't really keep you in the room during the evening. We visited several other rooms, and some more have been added in the meantime, but I think I'd go for the West room again.
What we did in Stone Town
Stone Town is a lively town bursting with inhabitants. Emerson & Green is very centrally located, so we were in the middle of this bustle: Narrow lanes cramped with curio shops (some of the stuff actually even nice, some other the same stuff you get all over Africa), but also with little supermarkets, barber shops, or the Indian tailor where I bought a 5 m pink sari cloth (no, I never wore it). Most of the time we let ourselves be driven by the crowds and enjoyed the old town like this, but there are a few things to mention anyway. One of the most magical moments was an instant downpour, where all of the curio sellers put their items inside, to reveal a bare street with much more charme. At the end of the old town is a huge food market (part open air, part hall) - yes, of the picturesque kind with heaps of fruit and vegetables, with the smells of half-alive fish and spices all over - but we didn't see many tourists there. Also the nearby bus terminal was dominated by locals. Getting lost again in the maze of old-town streets, we found the port, with a not so impressive marina, and the Freddy Mercury Beach Restaurant where we had a good lunch. A bit further on is the House of Wonders, the former sultan's palace. It hosts a museum of local artefacts, but more impressing were the carved wooden doors, the view from the upper balconies, and the methusalem escalator. Also worth a visit was the old public bath, an arabic hammam (out of use) which is renovated and very well shows the serene architecture and age-old mechanism of hammams. And just opposite are two of the nicer carved doors we saw...
One of the best places though only exists at night, really. A bleak daytime park is then transformed to the Forodhani Gardens food market, an assortment of stalls selling barbequed fish, beef, chicken, fruit, rice and softdrinks, to be consumed on plastic chairs with small kids and dogs scurrying between your feet. We took one dinner on the Emerson & Green rooftop terrace (gorgeous view and sunset atmoshphere, and okay food), and one in the Blues restaurant behind Forodhani (a sister restaurant of Blues in Camps Bay/Cape Town - on a platform over the beach/sea, with a big menu, also okay food), and had meals someplace else - but the stalls on Forodhani topped them all! To me, Stone Town is not really a place to go sight-seeing, but the city and its atmosphere are a sight as a whole. We were not that happy to fly home to the Swiss winter. Go to:
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