25 April 2010

dar es salaam

after a sad farewell to cam & alex (though quick as our taxi was waiting for us and hugs had to be quick as we were all sweatin balls...) will and i continued our african journey in dar es salaam, the capital of tanzania.  we drove through the big city and it was cool to see people walking on the streets - men selling newspapers, fruits or cellphone chargers to drivers waiting for the light, maasai tribesmen, women in full burkahs...very diverse and very colorful.

Sea Cliff Hotel is kind of a resort and has a mini-shopping mall attached to it.  in this little outdoor mall, there are a couple different restaurants; for dinner, William chose Spurs.  when we walked into Spurs, there were about 20 employees singing and clapping happy birthday to one of the 200 white customers.  there were lots of balloons and lots of screaming children - so to avoid them as much as possible, i chose to sit in the smoking section.  Spurs is like a Friday's, without the flare, but their decor is full on American Indian - the lights are tee pee chandeliers and the walls are decorated with totem poles.  i'd like to again mention that William chose the place.  will got a burger with a fried egg & my bbq chicken wasn't bad at all...just clearly the opposite of african.

the next day we hired a driver to take us around and show us the sites of the city.  we started off with the fish market - where people sell, auction and buy fresh catches.  a very nice man, who called himself Captain Ndu-something, showed us around the entire market - taking the liberty to reach into other people's stock to show me some of the biggest and/or most beautiful fish i've ever seen.




afterwards, we headed to some sites - the war memorial, the freedom torch and botanical gardens.  then it came time for the driver to stimulate the tanzanian economy and take us to some places where we could get haggled and be forced to spend money.  well not forced - but kinda.  can't compain though - found some great gifts for the family and it was awesome to see the tingatinga painters at work.  we had a more normal dinner at the hotel's cafe by the ocean and got to watch another sunset over the indian ocean.  =)

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