Backdate: East Africa trip Aug 2015 Day 1 - 10th Aug - Zanzibar, Stone Town, Forodhani night market
I got this question quite a lot of times before I flew. "Why, of all places, Africa?"
"Why East Africa, Tanzania among the whole Africa Continent?"
"Why Zanzibar island, off Dar es Salaam?"
My mum's question was arguably, "the best". "Why need to spend so much go Serengeti Safari to see animals? Can see in Singapore zoo too mah."
Well, she's worried about me, as usual, whenever I have to travel overseas. But this time, it's no joke, and I fully understand where she's coming from. I was embarking on a journey, a journey to a poor man's land where stereotype-stories told my parents and us, how starvation and heat could burn u, and how animals roaming in the wild could hav me and my friends as a sumptuous meal anytime. *Worse still, I heard from friends saying you'd have to sign an indemnity form, that would make u feel like signing your lifes' away.*
It did burn. Two things.
Sun-kissed me physically, and left my bank with a humongous hole. I changed about SGD5500 (USD 3971) to cater for spendings (including Safari cost) in this 2wks' trip, and the rate was alrdy nt very gd at an average of 1.385. I bought the Qatar two-way air tix in May ($2932.90), plus NTUC travel insurance coverage ($135). Also of cos, Africa was much a stranger land to us, and so we'd hav to take the necessary precautions before reaching Tanzania. *In a sense, we are spoilt and ignorant city kids. Then again, it's always good to怕输than cry ltr, should unforeseen circumstances happen.* We bought repellants like DEET, medicinal items and other items we deemed necessary. Aft much consideration, I took the Hep A and Typhoid vaccines at SGH, and bought the Mefloquine (total cost approx. $145, $17 for 8 tab, one tab a wk, before, during and aft travel) and Doxycycline tablets ($5 for 50 tabs, one tab daily, before, during and aft travel) for oral dosage to prevent Malaria during the Safari trip. But, I was somewhat worried over the psychological side-effects that one might have aft taking Mefloquine, like nightmares, depression etc, and even gt paranoid aft seeing videos of severe effects on some ppl lol. In the end, I went down a second trip to SGH, just to get doxycycline, thinking that I shld still be able to handle physical side-effects like indigestion and sunburnt, than going hysterical and my friends can't save me LOL. True enough, I experienced burning sensation on the back of my palms for most of the time. No one esle ard me had the same feelings, so I concluded it muz be the side-effect of Doxy, though lucky for me I wasn't sunburnt, nor did I exp indigestion or vomitting etc. *However, no matter how "hardworking" we were at spraying the sunscreen, it wasn't enough aft all. I'm 100% sure I'm a shade darker by the time I'm back in SG.*
See? a whopping S$9K for a trip. *Too bad that foreigners could not use Tanzania shillings for any transactions over there. Only USD.* I haven't worked for long, and am 100% 自掏-ing 腰包for my trip, so yeah er... I would hav spent a big portion of my savings (i.e. angpow money, bursaries, scholarship, tuition fees earned etc) on this trip alone. Plus with so many unknowns on the trip, so it's only normal that I hesitated for quite a while.
I'm not usually an adventurous person, but I'm a curious kid when it comes to the world. I love to travel as long, and as much as I can. *Some ppl would hav tot why not Europe instead? but I secretly hoped that I can save my Europe trip for travelling with my other half haha!* So, I thought I'd take the risk this time. On a brighter note, I am young and able-bodied, I have awesome company (YJ, SS, John, Alex, Jenny, ST, SF, Pi) for the journey, and even SS's family helping us out on our travel ard the place... so why not?
I don't like it to be just ppl telling me how nice/wonderful/awesome places in the world are. I wanna see and experience for myself, before I give my own two-cents. Furthermore, I haven't had any friends ard me who has been to Africa before, much less Tanzania (Mainland exploring Serengeti, Tarangire, Ngorongoro and Lake Manyara, as well as the off-coast islands Zanzibar and Pemba.)
Hey, so I'm one of the first few ppl that I know of to explore Tanzania, so near and yet so far away from the Cradle of Humankind in Johannesburg! *Oh well I recalled reading about Charles Darwin's theory that all human originated from Africa.* I would love to bring back new information that most city kids do not know of, and share with my family and friends. *Always feels gd to be a pioneer!* Half excited, half worried I was, D-Day for departure came in no time.
*Tanzania is 5 hours behind SG.*
10/8/15: Left at 10+pm and took train to Changi airport to meet YJ, as well as to take some stuff from SS's bro to check-in with us on our flights. 2 of us were taking QR945 at 2.30am to Doha, for about 7.5hrs, before transferring to QR1355 at 8.25am (SG 1.25pm, 11th Aug), which would reach Kilimanjaro stop first, before arriving at Zanzibar. *About 19hrs' flight plus trf to ZNZ~ a feat for someone like me who isn't much a fan of flights.* The plan was to meet SS's youngest sister, ST at Abeid Amani Karume International Airport aft we touched down, and gather at their place before uniting with John, SS and Alex.
Even the Qatar service lady at the airport found it amusing that 2 young girls would be flying to Zanzibar for 2wks, a place I reckon she seldom see locals gg over to. Before that, YJ and I had a mission: to get Bengawan Solo kueh lapis and Pandan cakes, as an additional gift to the bird nests' we'd bought for SS's parents in adv, to thank them for their hospitality during our stay there.
We took the skytrain to another terminal at late night to try our luck, cos many shops were alrdy closed. Lucky for us, we ran into the Bengawan Solo shop before it closed at 1am, phew! Then, we rushed back to the terminal to board in time at 1.30am for Qatar's flight. *The 2 of us joked it felt like Running Man mission.*
Oh well, we even had time to do a wefie idea I had together before boarding, which says "Zan-zi-bar" and "Ka-ria-koo" (name of SS's hometown), and got it posted onto FB before flying off! *Trust me, my heart was thumping like mad knowing I would be taking 9 flights in the 2wks, and esp long-haul flights like this.*
I probably haven't slpt properly on flights, as usual, and we arrived at Doha airport at about 5am local time. *My stomach was seriously bloated and uncomfortable during the flights. More warm water and walking ard nex time!* We have a few hrs to "zombie-walk" ard, have breakfast (which was awful and ex), before our nex flight. *Nope I did not change any Riyal, so we paid using USD.*
QR1355 was one of the older planes from Qatar, with no individual screens for every passenger, and much smaller than QR945 too. *Whoa... really fitting since we're otw to Africa hor?* And yup the snapshot I took overlooking the vast plain speaks of the stereotype image of Africa I had since young... huge, poor and somewhat made up of mostly desserts, sand and mud lol. Pardon my ignorance la!
There was a technical stop at Kilimanjaro International Airport, and climbers alighted here for their trip to Kilimanjaro. YJ and I were observing how the local flight attendants cleared rubbish, since we had nth to do while waiting for passengers to board. *There was a funny music that kept on looping during our short stop. Can't rmb if it was irritating or bizarre or hilarious now.* And before we knew it, we saw two aunties wearing slippers and shorts sitting at the row beside us. We knew they were Singaporeans the moment they spoke, but we were too shy to approach them haha. We were guessing most of these passengers who boarded at Kili were back from their climbing trip, and most were sunburnt.
Woots we arrived at ZNZ's airport at about 4+pm local time! Filled in our arrival forms *Whoa there were alrdy many mozzies ard, so I panicked a lil'*, took our baggages and walked to the "arrival hall" we assumed it was. 99% African black ppl ard us, some cabbies and guides coming up to us nw and then. Honestly, I felt a lil' uneasy, cos both of us didn't hav any local mobile networks on our phones. *Couldn't uds anything in Swahili thr!* I tried to whatapp-call Jenny's SG number but to no avail. Aft about 10mins or so, I walked out onto the rd, and thankfully, I spotted whom-I'd-assumed-to-be SS's sister, ST, since she's the only Chinese among the crowd and she resembles SS to a certain extent. She and their personal driver, Lody helped YJ and I with our luggages onto the car, and we reached SS's home in less than 10mins. *Yes SS's whole family are African (Tanzanian) Chinese born there, and his dad has some noodle business and owns a small cafe next to their 3-storey home, which includes the open rooftop.*
Took photos of the bed we 2 slpt in SF's bedroom, and the cup "assigned" for my use during our stay, and not to mention the many cats freely roaming in and out of SS's place everyday haha. John, Alex and SS reached "home" nt long aft us, and we were introduced to SS's dad and mum, maid, Pi and SF. Jenny needed no intro though haha.
SS's parents brought us all to Stone Town, a UNESCO world heritage site, in 2 cars. We reached thr in like 10mins, and walked the area before arriving at the Forodhani night market at Forodhani Gardens. The town indeed has this ancient feel to it, but with a mix of slightly modern hotels in the midst of old, run-down buildings.
For fear of the female Mozzies aft dark, I was clad in long pants and wore a jacket over. The weather was alright, and there were both locals and tourists at the market. There were many BBQ seafood and pizza stalls ard. SS's father was not very approving of us having food outside, for they nv really did themselves, for fear of hygiene etc, but still they treated us to the chicken pizza (TsH 5000), which was yummy-licious leh!
Yes, we were pretty thirsty I rmbed, and John and SS bought mineral water from outside the Police stn at Forodhani Gardens lol! *I wonder if the vending machine belonged to the stn or what?* Then, I vividly rmb walking to somewhr we could see the shorelines, and as the place was darker than at the night market, I lifted my head and saw lots of stars, pretty clearly! *My first time seeing so many stars, maybe cos it's the 1st time I'd been to "suburban/rural" places.* I think Pi was trying to be educational and told us a bit about the history of the place but I clean forgotten about it alrdy shugs lol. *Literally "star-struck"~*
We toured ard Stone Town aft some bites, and saw Tanzanite on display *aish shld have gotten one back haha*, a post office, and aft SS's doctor cousin, Kam Chau, joined us, the big grp of us "barged" into one of the hotels over thr~ and Pi wanted to take a grp wefie on the top of that hotel. *Omg the stairs up to the roof was creaking lor~*
Yes there's a swimming pool at the lobby area, and the whole places gives off a Portuguese and Arab/Africa vibe.
We were pretty noisy up and down the stairs haha... like hyper-active kids. Took a photo with the bell-boy (?) before we left the hotel.
*rRandom rRant: feels like I'm killing myself with long blog posts aft every overseas trip! Took me like 5hrs to finish this post, and it's only D-1 of my trip! What to do? For the sake of written details to remind myself, as my "ageing and ongoing-to-be-limited memory space" bugs me lol.*
"Why East Africa, Tanzania among the whole Africa Continent?"
"Why Zanzibar island, off Dar es Salaam?"
My mum's question was arguably, "the best". "Why need to spend so much go Serengeti Safari to see animals? Can see in Singapore zoo too mah."
Well, she's worried about me, as usual, whenever I have to travel overseas. But this time, it's no joke, and I fully understand where she's coming from. I was embarking on a journey, a journey to a poor man's land where stereotype-stories told my parents and us, how starvation and heat could burn u, and how animals roaming in the wild could hav me and my friends as a sumptuous meal anytime. *Worse still, I heard from friends saying you'd have to sign an indemnity form, that would make u feel like signing your lifes' away.*
It did burn. Two things.
Sun-kissed me physically, and left my bank with a humongous hole. I changed about SGD5500 (USD 3971) to cater for spendings (including Safari cost) in this 2wks' trip, and the rate was alrdy nt very gd at an average of 1.385. I bought the Qatar two-way air tix in May ($2932.90), plus NTUC travel insurance coverage ($135). Also of cos, Africa was much a stranger land to us, and so we'd hav to take the necessary precautions before reaching Tanzania. *In a sense, we are spoilt and ignorant city kids. Then again, it's always good to怕输than cry ltr, should unforeseen circumstances happen.* We bought repellants like DEET, medicinal items and other items we deemed necessary. Aft much consideration, I took the Hep A and Typhoid vaccines at SGH, and bought the Mefloquine (total cost approx. $145, $17 for 8 tab, one tab a wk, before, during and aft travel) and Doxycycline tablets ($5 for 50 tabs, one tab daily, before, during and aft travel) for oral dosage to prevent Malaria during the Safari trip. But, I was somewhat worried over the psychological side-effects that one might have aft taking Mefloquine, like nightmares, depression etc, and even gt paranoid aft seeing videos of severe effects on some ppl lol. In the end, I went down a second trip to SGH, just to get doxycycline, thinking that I shld still be able to handle physical side-effects like indigestion and sunburnt, than going hysterical and my friends can't save me LOL. True enough, I experienced burning sensation on the back of my palms for most of the time. No one esle ard me had the same feelings, so I concluded it muz be the side-effect of Doxy, though lucky for me I wasn't sunburnt, nor did I exp indigestion or vomitting etc. *However, no matter how "hardworking" we were at spraying the sunscreen, it wasn't enough aft all. I'm 100% sure I'm a shade darker by the time I'm back in SG.*
See? a whopping S$9K for a trip. *Too bad that foreigners could not use Tanzania shillings for any transactions over there. Only USD.* I haven't worked for long, and am 100% 自掏-ing 腰包for my trip, so yeah er... I would hav spent a big portion of my savings (i.e. angpow money, bursaries, scholarship, tuition fees earned etc) on this trip alone. Plus with so many unknowns on the trip, so it's only normal that I hesitated for quite a while.
I'm not usually an adventurous person, but I'm a curious kid when it comes to the world. I love to travel as long, and as much as I can. *Some ppl would hav tot why not Europe instead? but I secretly hoped that I can save my Europe trip for travelling with my other half haha!* So, I thought I'd take the risk this time. On a brighter note, I am young and able-bodied, I have awesome company (YJ, SS, John, Alex, Jenny, ST, SF, Pi) for the journey, and even SS's family helping us out on our travel ard the place... so why not?
I don't like it to be just ppl telling me how nice/wonderful/awesome places in the world are. I wanna see and experience for myself, before I give my own two-cents. Furthermore, I haven't had any friends ard me who has been to Africa before, much less Tanzania (Mainland exploring Serengeti, Tarangire, Ngorongoro and Lake Manyara, as well as the off-coast islands Zanzibar and Pemba.)
Hey, so I'm one of the first few ppl that I know of to explore Tanzania, so near and yet so far away from the Cradle of Humankind in Johannesburg! *Oh well I recalled reading about Charles Darwin's theory that all human originated from Africa.* I would love to bring back new information that most city kids do not know of, and share with my family and friends. *Always feels gd to be a pioneer!* Half excited, half worried I was, D-Day for departure came in no time.
*Tanzania is 5 hours behind SG.*
10/8/15: Left at 10+pm and took train to Changi airport to meet YJ, as well as to take some stuff from SS's bro to check-in with us on our flights. 2 of us were taking QR945 at 2.30am to Doha, for about 7.5hrs, before transferring to QR1355 at 8.25am (SG 1.25pm, 11th Aug), which would reach Kilimanjaro stop first, before arriving at Zanzibar. *About 19hrs' flight plus trf to ZNZ~ a feat for someone like me who isn't much a fan of flights.* The plan was to meet SS's youngest sister, ST at Abeid Amani Karume International Airport aft we touched down, and gather at their place before uniting with John, SS and Alex.
QR1355 was one of the older planes from Qatar, with no individual screens for every passenger, and much smaller than QR945 too. *Whoa... really fitting since we're otw to Africa hor?* And yup the snapshot I took overlooking the vast plain speaks of the stereotype image of Africa I had since young... huge, poor and somewhat made up of mostly desserts, sand and mud lol. Pardon my ignorance la!
SS's parents brought us all to Stone Town, a UNESCO world heritage site, in 2 cars. We reached thr in like 10mins, and walked the area before arriving at the Forodhani night market at Forodhani Gardens. The town indeed has this ancient feel to it, but with a mix of slightly modern hotels in the midst of old, run-down buildings.
We toured ard Stone Town aft some bites, and saw Tanzanite on display *aish shld have gotten one back haha*, a post office, and aft SS's doctor cousin, Kam Chau, joined us, the big grp of us "barged" into one of the hotels over thr~ and Pi wanted to take a grp wefie on the top of that hotel. *Omg the stairs up to the roof was creaking lor~*
*rRandom rRant: feels like I'm killing myself with long blog posts aft every overseas trip! Took me like 5hrs to finish this post, and it's only D-1 of my trip! What to do? For the sake of written details to remind myself, as my "ageing and ongoing-to-be-limited memory space" bugs me lol.*
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