I was floating in the crystal clear, turquoise blue water of Zanzibar, staring up at a beautiful blue sky, belly full of fresh calamari, salad, fish grilled to perfection Swahili style, thinking to myself…”Ummm…this ain’t so bad!”. What was intended to be a two day stay quickly turned into four. How can we resist? The beach is beautiful, the weather is great, the people are lovely and the food…oh the food. Only four days and we are already considerably plumper. Our pants are tighter, our cheeks are fuller and Spiros has that gleam in the eye he only gets after gorging on really, really good food. What can I say, we like eating. We had promised each other to cut back on the food now that we are off the bikes but one look at the breakfast platter and we instinctively knew what the other was thinking: “Screw that. We’se eatin’ ”. Aaaahh, the secret to a happy marriage: a mutual, undeniable weakness for really good food.
The other great side effect of our detour was meeting some really nice people; a couple from Monaco, a Dutch couple and 2 Israeli couples. It’s always nice meeting other people who share our love for travel. I loved listening to Jean Claude and Gaetanna talk about the places they’ve been to and things they’ve done; safaris, driving through deserts…really incredible journeys and every story told with such genuine enthusiasm, such zest for life. I loved it, it was intoxicating. Being from Quebec, we got a real laugh hearing about the first time he tried poutine. Let’s just say he wasn’t impressed with the soggy French fries, gravy and cheese curds he was served. I believe the word “Degolasse” was used.
So, we had a very nice stay at Zanzibar. The only slight annoyance was the exclusive, super-cheesy, stereotypical resort nearby. How many times a day do I have to watch a group of people “get-down” to YMCA and Disco Inferno before I can technically call it torture? Whatever it is, I’m sure we surpassed it.
Anyway, if you’re on your way to Zanzibar and want a quieter beach, go to Kendwa on the northwestern tip of the island. Stay at Malakai Bungalows. The beach is beautiful, the bungalows are quite nice, the price is reasonable and the staff is incredibly friendly. The restaurants along the beach are good, but for really good, authentic local food, eat at Malakai. Wow…don’t I sound like Lonely Planet? 
Update: It has now been two days since I prepared this blog and I still can’t get that damn YMCA song out my head. If this continues for another 2 days I may just have to ask someone to shoot me and put me out of my misery.
Subscribe Posts