14/8/15: It's time for our 2D1N trip to Pemba Island! A big thanks to SS's parents for arranging and buying of the ZanAir round trip tix (USD200), Fundu room fees (USD190 each after split between all 10pax) as well as the boat trip and snorkeling at Misali Island (USD40). *Trust me, USD430 is alrdy cheap. Room costs alone per pax wouldn't be so low if not for her parents' help and negotiation~ just go check out Fundu Lagoon resort's website and you'll know.* We went out before sunrise, to catch our morning flight to Pemba Island from ZNZ airport.
Walked over to the area where domestic flights were. *Hey there was wifi connection there sia~ not bad!* The waiting area was small, and our baggage were weighed using manual weighing machines. Wow the only other one I saw is the one at STC's weighing room... not really for use alrdy nowadays though haha.
I don't think we can take photos at the waiting area, but I took anyway. Soon after, the beautiful sunrise signaled the arrival of our aircraft! *The patches of clouds were huge and looked kinda near to us!*
It's a small plane that sat about 12 or 14 passengers and the Captain. *Alex snapped up the seat beside him~ oooh but apparently that guy wasn't too friendly, so poor Alex had to sit pretty "obediently" beside him lol.* To tell the truth, I was nervous cos it's the 1st time I'm taking a small plane, cos the feel of turbulence is even stronger in small aircrafts.
The flight over to Pemba island was a lil' more than an hr I think. Lucky for me the weather was pretty nice, I think we experienced noticeable turbulence only once or twice when the plane passed thru the clouds.
And so we arrived at Pemba airport! This is a domestic airport, so it was even smaller than the one in ZNZ. We grabbed our baggages, and hop onto the van catered for us. *Had to drop Pi halfway at his home in Chake Chake cos the Fundu Lagoon has a pretty strict policy... each room can only have 2 ppl staying in at most, regardless if it's a suite or not. We got no choice but to "sacrifice" Pi, but think again 18rms x 2 pax = 36 ppl, plus their staffs... loads of privacy thr.* I can't rmb how long the journey to Fundu Lagoon was by car, but it sure was bumpy and mostly unpaved. It probably took us less than 2hrs, cutting through forests too. What you see otw was lots of simple mudhouses and one or two schs along the way. Mostly clothed, but a few naked children ran ard outside their houses too. Some of them were friendly, and waved and smiled to us as we drove by. *We saw SS's pri sch too~*
We got off at a village behind Fundu Lagoon resort, and their staffs were thr to help us take our staff and guide the way "down" rocky steps to the reception.
Fundu Lagoon is on Pemba Island, which is part of the Zanzibar archipelago and lies to the north of its larger, better known sister island, Unguja (which is ZNZ la). The hotel is situated on a remote and beautiful beach on the south western side of Pemba, and is only accessible by boat. *We took a van, but the ride was nt the most comfortable, probably that's why the hotel would only offer to bring their guests in by sea route.* The toilet near the reception area has very nice dual flap doors haha~
*There is tipping culture over in Tanzania, so each of us paid 10000TsH to the staffs.* We had the packed lunch we brought over from ZNZ while waiting for the rooms to be ready. 10 of us took 5 rooms out of 18rooms at Fundu Lagoon (whoa tycoon neh tycoon~), and there were 2 suites and 2 normal rooms. All the rooms consisted of canvas tents set under makuti (thatch) roofs on wooden decks, all with views over the sea. It was nice of SS they all to give the Jungle suite (rm 12) to YJ and me~ It is a beach suite, but slightly set back from the beach among the mangroves with great privacy. *Awesome for couples, and you still hear the swishing of the seawaters very clearly from your rm!* It also has an extensive private deck with elevated seated area for relaxing and reading, and a plunge pool.
Aft we put our things in our rm, Alex, John, SS, ST, SF, YJ, Jenny and I went over to the snorkeling equipments area to try on the diving suits, mouthpieces and flippers. I think I wore size 4, but the shoulder area was quite loose lol. *My first time snorkeling... in the open sea somemore omg! For a non-swimmer, I think I am courageous, though honestly I hadn't tot much of the consequences... too excited about it liao lol.* YJ and I were the only non-swimmers, but she has had one snorkeling exp in Indonesia.
Took a speedboat over to Misali Island at about 1.30pm (package was till about 4pm, inclusive of lunch), took us about 20mins to reach. As per the intro on Fundu Lagoon's website, the coral reefs just off the main beach of Misali provide convenient and exciting snorkeling.
It was pretty warm since it was afternoon. I rmb the gals headed over to a small toilet somewhere in the middle of the greens to take out our tees haha. Then we came back, and the person in charge reassured us that they will take care of our stuffs... yes we had no whr else but to leave them on the sun loungers. Alex, John and SS went off for their shoots first, while YJ, Jenny, SF, ST and I headed off to our snorkeling trip with one African diver coach. *The sun was glaring la~ so we couldn't open our eyes properly.*
We adjusted our pipes, and learnt how to breathe underwater while snorkeling (breathing through mouth, which I'm so not used to) on the boat before going into the waters. My mouthpiece was a lil' big, so the coach exchanged his with mine. One by one, they all went in, and I was the last to go into the waters. *Oh man I didn't know my legs couldn't touch the flr so I was grabbing desperately to the sides of the boat lol.* ST was a natural at snorkeling it seems, and she helped the coach take care of SF and Jenny at first. The African coach came to help YJ and I.
I haven't went underwater for a long time, plus snorkeling is something new for me. Maybe I didn't breathe correctly, or bite my mouthpiece tight enough, so I kept drinking the salty seawater... so much so that my throat was in much pain! *Lucky my goggles were pretty tight, so didn't really have waters seeping in.* After a while, ended up 1-to-1 teaching~ ST helped the other 3, while the coach taught me alone lol. *Lol at times I hugged him macham panda to a tree la~ cos I can't swim and knowing the fact that I'm in open sea made me even more nervous alamak.* Anyway, I did swim a certain distance before the nervous wrecks got me again, and I told him I wanna go back to the boat haha... can't afford to down any more salt. I vaguely rmb seeing lots of sea urchins and small fishes nia haha.
Somehow ended up ST coming over to coach me in the shallow waters. I thought I got better but still wasn't comfortable with gg to the deeper areas haha~ so I practiced a bit myself... yay they cheered me on haha. However, on my way walking back to the boat, I could feel something poke my right foot. I wasn't sure but once on the boat, I took out my flippers and saw a very tiny hole there, shld be the sea urchin. The coach asked if I felt pain or anything, but I didn't felt anything, so he said it shld be fine.
We had the lunch prepared by them... sandwiches. I changed mine with Alex since he didn't want "vegetarian" one, and I couldn't have the beef one. We saw a large Japanese spider crab kept in a vat by the locals, and one of the guys explained to us they would let it go back to the wild soon, cos it's a conservation area so they won't eat it. *Oh a grp of locals were playing carom too!*
Went back for a second time of snorkeling, this time with the other 3 joining. I decided to give myself a second chance... to practice, even though the coach kept telling me, Jenny and SF to try again. *Jenny said she was fine until she saw the sudden drop in the height somewhr and got terrified.*
Alex and John were fine snorkeling, but SS had quite a difficult time too... think she kept drinking the waters too haha. At one pt, we were all back onboard, but Jenny and the coach was snorkeling till somewhr pretty far away. Suddenly, we saw dolphins not far from them! The boat driver signaled to the coach, but he caught no ball lor lol. *Aish they were nearer to the dolphin but didn't see it!* We tried circling ard that area, hoping we'd see some again but I guess the weather was too hot, so we saw none, and headed back to Fundu Lagoon. *It's weird but I could sense the coach looking over all the time. I avoided eye contact many times on the way back~ omg.*
YJ and I walked all the way back (quite a distance from the reception though) to our Jungle suite! *Aish missed the complimentary sunset Dhow cruise cos we were so tired and resting on our beds before dinner! What a waste coming to think of it now.* The room is equipped with twin beds, mosquito nets, ceiling and standing fans, and indoor and outdoor seating areas. Each has an ensuite bathroom with fresh hot water shower, toilet and basin. The rooms are connected to the main buildings by wooden walkways or paths through indigenous forest.
Show u guys the suite! There is a outdoor shower too~ wow so close to nature~ but I'm afraid of mozzies la so no way will I shower there. And who know's if security is tight?
I love hammocks I reckon! Oh and it really was relaxing~ YJ was showering so I was taking pics inside and outside our tent.
The "Marauder's map" of Fundu Lagoon is cool! And all the can drinks and alcohol in the fridge are FOC for guests! They have all the necessities... coils, repellant (theirs smell so nice as compared to DEET!) After showering (thought I didn't like the smell of their night conditioner much) and it was not yet dinner time, YJ and I were somewhat tired aft snorkeling, so she took a nap while I rested on the bed. *I heard sounds of waves and noises from animals... reckon it's squirrel? Very peaceful.*
I kinda love the woody, calming feel of the whole place. Beach dinner for resort guests starts at 7.30pm. Took a shot of the sunset, and then headed over to SS's rm, which was on the "top of the jungle"~ way high up, which means the room suits star-gazing!
Oh well, we don't have the best cameras, and even the pro Alex didn't bring his tripod whatsoever up thr, so we simply lied down on the sun loungers at their balcony to欣赏the star-filled sky. *That's me, Alex and YJ in the dark pic above haha!* Didn't stay for too long cos we did not want to miss the dinner under the stars!
The resort has limited amt of guests, so it felt like a private beach dinner that the resort caters for their guests~ felt like we were treated so nicely! SS's parents, Alex, YJ, Jenny, John, SS, ST, SF and I were on one long table. It's buffet style, and there were quite a number of alcoholic drinks to choose from~ no extra charges neh! *Oh man I can nv forget how yummy the crayfish was!* Even though the weather was supposedly cooling at night, and being by the sea it could be slightly colder, there was one campfire burning in the middle which helped warm the place up a lil'~ it's a heartwarming dinner indeed. *LOL we were laughing at SF cos she couldn't stop ordering white wine~ so much so she didn't mind finishing up ours for us!*
After dinner at about 10pm, Alex, YJ and I walked to nearby Alex's room facing the sea. I couldn't help but to admire the starry sky again. Alex brought his tripod and DSLR cam out, while YJ used her normal cam to try to capture the stars using Alex's tripod. We talked a bit under the stars, related, non-related I can't recall... but pretty nice talk thr. *I saw a shooting star shot past the sky~ beautiful!*
Shld be about 11+pm by the time YJ and I head back to our rm. We didn't feel like slping yet. So, we took 2 bottles of Sprite, wore their robes and headed out to the pool area. *Of cos we had to cover up ourselves asap... cos mozzies are active at night!*
We were sitting and talking casually when suddenly YJ saw a praying mantis (pic above... but dark eh). It's funny how this insect tried to "commit suicide" by hoping into the pool itself, but somehw made it back on land aft one round of struggling in the pool. Then, it tried to jump in again~ this time round we dunno whr it flew too haha. YJ then continued to try her luck at capturing the stars, and she did successfully~ a few pretty and clear shots from her compact cam!
*rRandom tThought: It could have been due to the clash of opinions. It could have been our moods. But I'm glad, looking back, on the whole, nothing hurt.*
If given a chance, I honestly dunno if I want to live in such a place for life, but it's definitely an awesome getaway for urban kids.
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