Zanzibar

Hi Guys

Decided to head to Zanzibar for a weekend of R & R. However in usual Dawn style more drama's were ahead of me!

We headed down to the ferry port to catch the early ferry to make the most of our weekend. We arrived at the ferry port with plenty of time to spare - only to find out that we actually needed our pastports to go to Zanzibar! We jumped back in the bajargi (tut tut for those of you who have been to thailand)and headed back to our house to collect our passports. We had 45 minutes to get back to the house, collect our passports and get back to the ferry port - we were pushing it for sure. We got back to the ferry port with 5 minutes to spare and the ferry was still in the port - relief - well for all but 5 minutes! Got to the ticket man, who then told us we were to late, they had closed the gate and we were not getting on the ferry! TIA (this is africa, for god sake!) nothing ever runs on time, so we couldn't understand why they wouldn't let us on that ferry. After arguing with the ticket guy for 10 minutes we accepted defeat........

The guy then tried to sale us a flight (Hmmm.. now I understand!). This gus was obviously trying to rip us off - however I was the only one who could see this. The other girls thought this was an awesome idea. The guy told us it was 10 minutes to the airport and her would give us a free transfer (sure he would!). Apparently the next plane left at 10.30 - it was now 9am. the next ferry left at 1pm and took 2 hrs. The plane took 20min. I could see the advantage of this but anyone who knows me knows I hate flying and the thought of getting on a tiny plane was giving me palpatations!!!

So finally we agreed to go by plane as it was only $30 more and we headed on the 10minute journey to the airport (bulls***), 30minutes later we arrived at the airport. There was a guys who meet us at the airport and took us through the security. Not sure what they were checking for on the x-ray machine as my freind had pepper spray & a knife in her bag and I had a razor but it was like "come on through!". After getting through customs we had to pay this mystery man a departure tax (hmmm....) think that went in his pocket. We got to the departure lounge (which was a shack really), only to find we have missed the 10:30 flight (oh what a surprise!!!) the next flight was at 12:30! We had been well and turley riped off and after agruing with the airport people - we got a free coffee (great!).

Eventually it was 12:30 and we got on this tiny plane (my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest at this point). My friends decided to sit right behind the pilots, this would not have been my first choice but I was in no state to argue. The journey was not to bad really, the views were amazing it really did only take 20 minutes. I did get a little concerned at one point when my friend started talking to the pilot ( why is so har to understand that you do not distract the driver!!!).

Well I can say Zanzibar was well and truely worth the stress to get there. Beautiful beaches, cocktails, great food and amazing scenery. Totally loved every minute, felt very guilty to be living it up though when I thought about all the poverty I had left back in Tanzania. Gona be an interesting transition back to reality in Perth that is for sure. Pic's on FB already.

xxx