Halima greets me with a smile, a towel and some paper underwear. ‘Jambo!’ she says hello!’.
The turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean lap the dazzling white sand in front of the cabin as I lie on my back in the outdoor spa. In the distance, women walk at low tide, collecting seaweed that will be exported around the world for medicine, food and cosmetics. Halima is also using those algae.
I sip from a glass of tamarind and beet juice as she mixes it with coconut oil and salt to create a body scrub. It was a long flight and I had entered the spa exhausted, but I left happy.
We, four of us, are in Zanzibar, at Lux Marijani, a new 82-room resort on the northeast coast. It is the ideal place to refresh and replenish your energy before exploring this remarkable island that is as rich in history as it is in natural beauty.
The next morning, after a delicious breakfast, we head north along the coast, as our driver passes cow-drawn carts carrying small children. “We call them Zanzibar Ferraris,” he laughs.
Sarfraz Manzoor travels to Zanzibar, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean. Sir Richard Burton described the beaches of Zanzibar as a “pure white coast fringed with cocoa”.
Sarfraz takes a boat to Mnemba Island (above), the “best snorkeling spot in Zanzibar”
Above: a red colobus monkey, unique to Zanzibar.
We took a boat to Mnemba Island, known for being billionaire Bill Gates’ favorite vacation destination and the best snorkeling spot in Zanzibar.
“Polo, palo,” says (slowly, very slowly) Ali, the captain, as he lowers my seven-year-old son into the sparkling water. I don’t swim, so I watch Ali cut up mango, watermelon, and pineapple, which we feast on when the others return from diving with zebrafish, parrotfish, and scorpionfish.
19th century explorer Sir Richard Burton described Zanzibar’s beaches as a “pure white coast fringed with cocoa” and while he was not wrong, Zanzibar is more than just beaches.
South of Lux Marijani you will find the Jozani Forest. Our guide leads us through dense mangroves and mahogany trees. We are looking for red colobus monkeys, which are unique to Zanzibar. He points out, with unearned enthusiasm, some squirrels and millipedes, before suddenly shouting, “I smell like a monkey!”
We walk through the forest, following the smell, and then we see them: three monkeys crossing a telegraph cable stretched between two poles. One jumps from the cable to a tree branch, misses and falls before landing on a lower branch. We gasp with joy.
We then headed west along roads lined with banana trees and sugar cane fields. A minibus full of passengers passes by. “We call them dala dala,” our driver explains, “because the fare used to be a dollar each way to Stone Town.”
Sarfraz checks into Lux Marijani, pictured above, a new 82-room resort on the northeast coast
A street market in Stone Town, which Sarfraz describes as the “bustling, beating heart of Zanzibar”.
Stone Town is the bustling, beating heart of Zanzibar. Our base is the Neela, a newly opened boutique hotel just a stone’s throw from the Freddie Mercury Museum.
The Queen star grew up in Stone Town, and her former home is now a somewhat disappointing museum.
“Stone Town is about getting lost,” says Zak, the hotel manager. You are right, and it is certainly easy to get lost amidst the old winding alleys where Zanzibar’s stew of African, Indian, Arabic and European stories is present behind every ornate wooden door.
Men and women with charcoal crosses smeared on their foreheads emerge from the Anglican cathedral, a late Gothic building built on the site where 60,000 slaves were once sold each year.
We are surprised to learn that the altar is where the whipping post once stood.
Zanzibar was the center of the Arab slave trade. There is an excellent exhibition next to the cathedral, but to get a clearer view, visit the dungeons where slaves were kept while they were prepared to be sold. Here the past feels painfully present.
While in Stone Town, Sarfraz visits Freddie Mercury’s former home, pictured above, which has been converted into a museum.
We spent a morning driving to the southeast of the island to visit Kuza Cave, where my family goes swimming. Instead, I join a group of musicians playing ngomas (traditional goatskin drums) and singing a song called Jambo Jambo.
We will spend our last night in Stone Town strolling during the sunset in Forodhani Gardens, a park by the water. The call to prayer in the distance merges with the sound of a musician playing the oud in the square while a Rihanna song floats from a bar.
Toddlers kick a soccer ball while mothers paddle in the shallow water. An old man bangs shells while older children play makachu, a sport that involves running from the boardwalk and jumping into the water.
We drink it all one last time, before returning to the hotel.
Zanzibar has been wonderful and I hope it won’t be long before I can say ‘jambo’ to this most extraordinary of islands again.
