The biggest difference we could see from Mozambique was that the rectangular mud houses were mostly roofed with corrugated iron.
Once we hit Dar es Salaam we got caught in the traffic for 2 and a half hours. We wanted to get out of the bus and catch a taxi but the driver and his two conductors wouldn't let us. They let some of the locals out but would let us get our bags from the bins under the bus. It was so frustrating as it took us 8 kms out of our way. We think they wanted us to pay them some money for our bags.
We met a young lad on the bus and he got us a taxi. We checked into a hotel in a rough looking part of Dar. The manager upgraded us to a room with aircon and a TV as well as an ensuite for $48 NZ.
The view from our hotel down the street to the mosque. Every night there were dozens of people sleeping on the footpath along this street. To the left was a block where they repaired cars on the side of the road so it was greasy and oily and always cluttered with bits of car parts.
Unfortunately there is no common area in our hotel so we have been unable to met other travellers and get some information on travel in Burundi and Rwanda. The only place we see others is in the restaurant which is also used by the public and means you have to vacate your table as soon as you have finished eating.
We wanted to cash some of our American Express Dollar travellers' cheques but found the office here couldn't do that for us. We need more dollars to buy visas.
We managed to find a Vodacom office to get a new SIM for our mobile modem (dongle) and needed to do a lot of online research for the next few countries we plan to visit. We were able to chat with our daughter and see how the plans were going for her wedding in August in Rarotonga.
We were very happy to find restaurants with Indian dishes and enjoyed having vegetable curries, thalis and samosas.
The city was easy to walk around so we enjoyed seeing some of the old buildings like this one which was once a school. The architecture is a mix of Arabic and Indian.
This shop was decorated with leaves as part of an Indian festival.
These 3 wheeler taxis are common in India and have been introduced to Tanzania. They do cause a lot of accidents as they go too fast and are quite unstable.
Met an American woman at our hotel who was working on her PhD. She had studied art history and was interviewing the locals on their dress and looking at the textile industry. We have seen bolts of fabric made in Tanzania all through the countries we have visited so far. She had learnt quite a bit of Swahili so she could get to appointments with locals in different parts of the city. We have managed a few greetings and a couple of expressions in Swahili and the locals love it if you try and then expect you to be fluent!
The touts are a real nuisance in Dar. They want to push you in the direction of a tour company to take a safari or to climb Kilimanjaro or buy a bus or a ferry ticket. The guide books tell you to take care with people on the street selling tickets etc.
John has had his eyes tested again and the pressures are all fine. The optician was happy to have a chat with him and learn all about the surgery he had had. I had lost a nose pad on my new Namibian glasses so was able to have those replaced too.
40% of Tanzanians are Muslim while 40% are Christian. We saw people dressed in capes with little bonnets like the ones we saw when we were in Yemen and learnt they are a Muslim sect who take a pilgrimage to Yemen. Their clothes are bright colours rather than the common black. We have seen some women with masks and others with veils so there are all kinds of Muslim groups. We have also seen a lot more disabled people on the streets than we have in the other African countries we have been to.
Occasionally we have seen men from the Masai tribe and they look so out of place in the city dressed in their red cloth robes carrying their sticks and wearing their long knives. A local told us that they are employed as security guards as they are so strong. A few times we have seen them outside the city limits tending huge herds of cows on the side of the road.
I got a sore throat the first night here and in no time it had moved to my sinuses and caused sore ears. I dosed up on anti histamines and the pressure on my ears and in my head cleared. At first I thought it might get worse and was prepared to get a blood test to see if it was malaria. It has nevertheless slowed us down so that is a relief.
Bought a ferry ticket to go to Zanzibar Island.
