A lot of noise has been made about local touism with exoerts preaching to wananchi the value of such tours to ecomomy, Some people blame this on our culture, but others put it plainly, we don’t have the money “ we also don’t have a tradinitonal of sightseeing take my money and go all the way to a national park to see animals or some old buildings? No way why shouldn’t start building a house or even marry another wife? A friend of mine said, when he heard that I was going to Zanzibar to visit the stone Town and Beit el-Ajaib “the hosue of won-ders”.
He even tried to borrow some each from me because according to him only the loaded can afford to tour and that was why he thinks I had started behaving like mzungu, I wasn’t all surprised by his silly attitude for a true Mbongo taking a vacation means either visiting your ancestal village or your wife’s relatives.
But I was helbent onbeing a tourist in Bongo. Why should for eigners be the only to enjoy the beauty of this country. So I set off to Zanzibar, and for the first time, I must confess, the beauty was breath taking to say the least, Iam not going to tell about all those wonderful historical places on the spice Island because this would kill your endeavour to follow my path however, what I will not forget are the con men I met at the port my way back. Coming from the interior, I had never travelled with so many wazungus around me like this . I left by the first boat at 7am
As the ferrry sped off to the spice Island I soon learnt there was a kiosk at the back of the boat. How much is a soda” I asked the guy behind the counter. I was stunned to hear the price. I looked and it wans’t the right place to start complaining. The Asians and wazungus around were buying as if it cost peanuts. I went back to my seat feeling even more hungry than before.I think I mst have dozen off because the next thing I heard was the guy next to me saying “ we are almost docking. When I looked through the window, at a distance I could se the buildings with antique designs overlooking the harbour.
The moment I stepped of the boat I noticed the diffrence; the two sides of Bongo were not the same. I was shosked to see the old chai maharage buses were still in operation here.
These small cargo carries have been converted into passenger cabins. The driver entertains two people in the front cabin with the rest of the passengers and the conductor crammed into the back In zanzibar, I noticed that not only eating places were few but also the prices of food were exorbitant.
He even tried to borrow some each from me because according to him only the loaded can afford to tour and that was why he thinks I had started behaving like mzungu, I wasn’t all surprised by his silly attitude for a true Mbongo taking a vacation means either visiting your ancestal village or your wife’s relatives.
But I was helbent onbeing a tourist in Bongo. Why should for eigners be the only to enjoy the beauty of this country. So I set off to Zanzibar, and for the first time, I must confess, the beauty was breath taking to say the least, Iam not going to tell about all those wonderful historical places on the spice Island because this would kill your endeavour to follow my path however, what I will not forget are the con men I met at the port my way back. Coming from the interior, I had never travelled with so many wazungus around me like this . I left by the first boat at 7am
As the ferrry sped off to the spice Island I soon learnt there was a kiosk at the back of the boat. How much is a soda” I asked the guy behind the counter. I was stunned to hear the price. I looked and it wans’t the right place to start complaining. The Asians and wazungus around were buying as if it cost peanuts. I went back to my seat feeling even more hungry than before.I think I mst have dozen off because the next thing I heard was the guy next to me saying “ we are almost docking. When I looked through the window, at a distance I could se the buildings with antique designs overlooking the harbour.
The moment I stepped of the boat I noticed the diffrence; the two sides of Bongo were not the same. I was shosked to see the old chai maharage buses were still in operation here.
These small cargo carries have been converted into passenger cabins. The driver entertains two people in the front cabin with the rest of the passengers and the conductor crammed into the back In zanzibar, I noticed that not only eating places were few but also the prices of food were exorbitant.
As a local tourist, I thought this wans’t fair I mean a bottle of soda as sh,1,000! I eventually got a place to break that fast at some astronomical prices. Then I found my way to the House of Wonderrs. The moment og glee was when I sat on Sultan Barghash’s throne next to his portrait for a moment I left like an emperor.
Surveying the traditional Swahili marine vessel, the Mtepe; I was saddened. The Mtepe was made of unique technology. Not a single iron nail was used. Where did we lose our grip on technology that even children’s toys have to be imported?
It was a pity that I had no guide to tell me all those fairy tales about those clean narrow lanes, However, my hunger led me to a place called CCM. What a sur-prised me was to find myself in a place similar to the pubs I had left in Dar, After a good meal I jumped into cab to the port. The timetable showed it was 10 minutes before the ferry left. Iwas desperate to get a ticket in time and that is when a bunch of ticket hawker surrounded me.
“the tickets are finished but we have some if at all you need to leave now” I asked for the price, but the black market price was almost double what I paid in the morning I decided to stubbornily to go to the offices. Guess what the windows of the places were still wide open with hardly any passenger what a narrow escape!
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