In my trip planning back in the United States, I knew that I wanted to visit Lusaka, but really didn’t know where I was going to head afterwards. One idea was to travel east and chill out on the shores of Lake Malawi. Well, now was I there and it was time to make a decision. I chose to head to further north to Tanzania and visit Dar es Salaam and the Island of Zanzibar.
It certainly was a long bus ride into Dar es Salaam. From Zambia, we arrived at the Tanzania border crossing in the early morning before its 7 am opening. We waited around with the rest of the people for the gate to open. At 7 am, the gate opened and several hundred people surged through to have their passports stamped to leave Zambia. A line formed and only one counter was operating. After awhile, it was clear that this was going to take a long time. I stood in line for nearly 3 hours before getting my papers stamped to leave Zambia. Then I walked the short distance over to the Tanzania side to enter and found out that I needed a visa (I hadn’t checked this beforehand). The visa was $50 US for a month in Tanzania. I handed over my cash and waited for the necessary paperwork. It took another half-hour. Total time to get through the border check and back on the bus was 4 hours.
Then it was a 12 hour bus ride across the country to arrive in Dar es Salaam late at night. Total trip with the border crossing delays was 28 hours. At least I saw a bit of the country from the bus ride. After arriving, hired a taxi and got a downtown hotel room in Dar for $12 a night.
Roadside stand on the way to Dar es Salaam - photo shot from the bus
Dar es Salaam
The next morning I got up and started walking around Dar. Dar is the largest city in Tanzania with a population of nearly 2 million people. For some reason, I found almost all the businesses in the downtown had electrical generators operating. When I asked about this, I found out that Dar had daily electrical blackouts from 6 am to 6 pm each weekday – and my trip back to my hotel confirmed this. The daily blackout had been going on for the previous 3 months and was expected for the next 3 months, until the rainy season started. The reason was that the country is heavily dependant upon hydo-power and the reservoirs were dry.
I realized that I was very weak in my Swahili language skills and decided to see if I could find some language information on the internet – not an easy task with limited electrical power. Within a few minutes a local man approached me and was selling a small book titled “A Tourist Guide to Introductory Swahili” – So I bought the book for the equivalent of one-half US dollar.
Zanzibar (map of location)
After a couple of days, I got a ferry to the island of Zanzibar located off the coast. I was interested in this location because of its rich history. For hundreds of years it was an ancient shipping port with the nearby Arabian countries (and at one time belonging to Oman) and in the 1700s and 1800s was a major center of slave trading to the new world.
My stay in Zanzibar proved to be a bit difficult because it was during the holy month of Ramadan, and the island is about 99% Muslim. Everyone was observing the Ramadan fast during daylight hours. During the afternoons, there were no restaurants open – the restaurants opened at sunset when Ramadan allowed everyone to get something to eat. Even drinking water from my water bottle in public was considered taboo - it was 90 degrees. It was fun to explore the narrow winding streets of Stone Town. My guidebook said to wander aimlessly though the narrow, winding streets of Stone Town and get lost. I did. I never felt threatened or unsafe. I made a photo collection of all the ornately carved wooden doors that I saw along the streets. Some were hundreds of years old. I left after only 2 days in Zanzibar.
The old doors of Zanzibar - the finer the door, the more wealthy the owner
I got an overnight ferry back to Dar es Salaam , and got a taxi to the outlying bus station. It was very busy and many bus companies to choose from – I chose the Buffalo Bus Company to get me to Arusha, Tanzania’s second largest city, near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. This decision was to lead to another one of my adventures involving the Arusha Police Department.
Arusha (map of location)
The ticket area in Dar was a very hectic place, with ticket kiosks for each bus company. I walked up to the Buffalo Bus Company window and asked for a ticket to Arusha. The ticket seller said the price was 35,000 shillings. I thought this was high, but I believed him. He told me to hurry, as the express bus was to leave in about 10 minutes. It took me a while to find where the bus was, but when I got to it, I put my single suitcase in the lower luggage compartment of the bus, where the other passenger’s luggage was located. I got my seat, which was in the very back of the bus and I seemed to be the last passenger to board. To my surprise, the ticket seller followed me back to my seat and said that I needed to pay for my luggage storage. He quoted me a price of 25,000 shillings, which I didn’t believe since my downtown hotel bill was only 12,000 shillings per night. I said there must be a mistake and I asked the bus conductor to come back and verify this cost. The conductor came back to my seat and confirmed there was a charge, but I could only pay 15,000 shillings and it would be OK. Since he was the official conductor of the bus, I believed him and paid.
When I arrived in Arusha, I found a hotel in close proximity to the bus station. The next day I went back to the bus station and asked about the price of a bus ticket to Arusha and they quoted me a price of 15,000! I had been grossly overcharged for my bus ticket to Arusha! This really burned me up. In my morning tourist walk around Arusha I came upon the large central city police station. I inquired to an officer about my experience of arriving in Arusha to one officer, who took me to a different officer, who took me to a different officer who took me to a different officer. Finally, I was taken to Mr. Ramadan in the Traffic enforcement department. He hear my story and gathered his 3 police officers and asked me to accompany him in his police car (a beat up VW Gulf with doors that didn’t work). We drove to the bus station and went to the Buffalo Bus Company. This white guy and 3 police officers created quite a stir around the crowded bus station and everyone wanted to find out what was going on. There were cell phone calls coming to the police and the company calling the Dar ticket office. Luckily for me, I had kept my ticket receipt and the ticket seller’s ID was on the back. After about an hour of Swahili negotiations between the police and the bus company, they admitted their mistake and refunded my money – about $30 US overcharge on a $10 bus ticket. I felt vindicated.
I moved to a different hotel in Arusha. This was a backpackers hotel with a travel desk for tours. The price was only $5 US per night for a single room with shared bath down the hall, and that cost included a breakfast buffet. I couldn’t argue about that price. I made tour plans for another safari. I had heard about the Serengeti, and wondered about the cost to get there. I found out that Serengeti National Park wasn’t that close to Arusha.
My $5 hotel in Arusha featured a rooftop restaurant with a great view of Mt. Meru
15,000 feet high and Tanzania's second highest mountain
15,000 feet high and Tanzania's second highest mountain