Stone Town

Zanzibar is now a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania. The Persians settled here to serve East African ports. After them the Portuguese gained control for 200 years until 1698, when the Sultanate of Oman conquered it. They started to plant spices on the plantations outside the main city Stone Town. But most of the products came from East Africa. Ivory and slaves where the most profitable goods. During the 19th century Zanzibar became a British protectorate because they were against the slave trade and hence more popular. After a pro British Sultan died in 1896 and the successor didn't like the fact that the British were defacto governing the island. This led to the Anglo-Zanzibar war. It lasted 38 minutes and is now known as the shortest war in history. The Royal Navy pounded the Beit al Hukum Palace and afterwards a cease fire was in place. 1963 eventually Zanzibar gained independence. A month later the bloody Zanzibar Revolution ended in genocide. Thousands of Arabs and Indians were killed and even more expelled. Tanganyika played the cards rights and was able to merge with the Republic Zanzibar and Pemba.
Of course these days Zanzibar is a major tourist place, serving lobster to fat people. But the charm of Stone Town is still there. Arab women hush through the narrow alleys, baskets of colorful powders are being sold, the architecture impresses with Portuguese, British, Arab and Indian influences, and the atmosphere gives the impression of multicultural harmony and religious tolerance.
Zanzibar is rather expensive. I managed to find a room for 10$ in hotel that currently got renovated. The owners were all young guys with rasta and getting stoned most of the day. The last night one of them had a local Muslim girl in his room. After screaming at each other in the room, they spilled into the hallway where she was holding up a knife and he was bleeding from his hand badly. The next day I asked him what happened. Apparently she refused to have sex with him and then he decided to "force" her.
There are many museums and palaces of Sultans in Stone Town which are pretty good. I checked them all out and the for example the old slave market. That's where the slaves that came from East Africa were sold to Arab people or were brought into the slave trade triangle between, Europe, Africa and America. Today there is only a basement visible where they were stored, a monument and a church with the altar on the exact place where the whipping pole used to be.
After the British Empire outlawed slavery in 1833 some Sultans secretly went on with the slave trade and stored the slaves in a cave 10km north of Stone Town. But after he died nobody wanted to take over the business.
In the evening people go to the food market at the oceanfront and eat fish, beef, Zanzibar pizza and many other things. Competition is fierce.
I usually went to the Reggae bar which is a dirty, cheap local place where locals get completely wasted. But they sell by far the cheapest beer in this Muslim town. But crime is not a big issue.
On a spice tour I got to know a guy from New York, who normally does stand up comedy in the bars of Hells Kitchen. No subject was taboo.
I usually stayed in the park during the day where I got to know a Kenyan, who told me the story of his life. To make it short, he sleeps in the park, he has no money at all, struggles to get a job because the few jobs that are around will go to Zanzibar citizens, he used to fish on a dhow for 20 US cents a day and much more. He was well educated and had a nice personality. I spend about 3 hours each day with him.
The last 2 days I was on the island presidential election were in preparation. Big groups collected all the citizens and they then gathered on a plaza where they hailed their candidate. He won well over ninety percent in Zanzibar.

Dar Es Salaam

Dar es Salaam - not the capital city of Tanzania (Dodoma is) - is the economical heart of Tanzania. The biggest port next to Mombasa on the east coast of Africa, supplies the Hinterland, but also whole countries like Malawi, Burundi, Rwanda and Zambia. The cargo gets offloaded and packed on to trucks which are seen all over Tanzania.
Dar es Salaam means "harbour of peace" and got important when Sultan Majid bin Said of Zanzibar decided, that a port on the mainland of Tanganyika would be helpful. When he died the importance of Dar Es Salaam declined again. But only two decades later in 1887 the German East Africa Company established a station there and trade came back. In 1900 the construction of railways began and boosted the local industry.
The British captured Tanganyika during the First World War. Indians were brought in to built the railways and became part of the population. 1961 after experiencing rapid growth Tanganyika became an independent country and Dar es Salaam served as the capital. Even after Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the current country called Tanzania. 1973 Dodoma was made the capitol city, but still lacks the importance of Dar Es Salaam.
I arrived in the huge bus station, which is conveniently 10km out of the city. Traffic jams are omnipresent. After the minibus drive I took a short ferry to cross the harbour and a tuktuk eventually brought me to Mikadi Beach. Just a couple of kilometers outside the city center there is a wonderful beach, with clean water and bungalows. A good base to get to know a zombie city like Dar Es Salaam. My foot got really bad and I didn't move to much during the first few days. Weekends a lot of local people from the city come to swim in the ocean. Actually they don't swim, because they never learned it. Tragically a kid died during my stay. He drowned even though there where no waves nore currents.
The owners are a really nice Chilean-Zimbabwean couple with cute little girl with whom I played a lot. Mikadi is also a stop of the overland tours coming from Cape Town to Nairobi to visit Zanzibar.
The city it self is rather dull with no real historical part. A lot of rich - mostly white - folks live north of the city heart in smart neighborhoods in mansions behind high walls. I met up with two girls, who I got to know in Mombasa and went to Western style bars with views of the bay. Quite nice, quite expensive.
My foot got better, I got a visa for Malawi (100$ for one month) and read a lot of books. After one week of camping beneath the palm trees, swinging in the hammock, white sand and amazing sunrises I was ready to go to Zanzibar.

Lushoto

At the end of the 19th century during the German colonial period Lushoto at a big influx of German settlers. During the 28 years of German rule a lot of plantations were built and missionaries successfully tried to spread there religious believes. The weather climate is more European since the town is in a hilly area above the Wiliams Valley (Wilhelmstal) named after Wilhelm I.

After a long bus ride I stepped out of the bus and while doing that I screwed up my right foot. It was not that bad initially, but I had a lot of pain while walking. But since the whole idea of coming here was to hike the hilly area I decided to walk to a famous viewpoint anyway. After an hour or more I was limping badly and was able to rest on top of a cliff with a beer in my hand and a magnificent view of the valley beneath. Then I walked back and got a lot of attention because I was a white, limping, barefoot tourist in agony. Back in the 2$ hotel room I decided that hiking wont make things better. The town itself has the most colorful market I have seen in Africa. It is not big, but the local people, especially the women, wear the traditional, distinctively African clothes which mostly consist of thin towels. Men are usually drinking in bars and are chronically unemployed. After two nights I had to leave because there was not more to see in my walking radius and I was ready for the beach and some treatment of my foot.

Moshi

The bus is shaking heavily as we slowly advance to the Tanzanian border. Sand is coming in through the windows and covers everything. Tsavo West National Park is on right side, but no animals visible. The border - the Kenyan officials jokes that he now has to arrest me because I overstayed my Kenyan Visa by 30 days, but he lets me pass. A tarmac road welcomes us on the Tanzanian side. We swiftly arrive in Moshi.
Moshi is on the foot of the world famous Kilimanjaro (5895m) which is also the highest peak in Africa. Snow still covers the summit, but will vanish in the decade(s) ahead. It is mostly invisible because of clouds produced by the evaporating snow.
Moshi is remarkable unremarkable. A city of 150'000 people, mostly sustained by hard currency from tourists. A five day hike to the summit costs anywhere from 800$ to what ever people are willing to pay. After checking out the city on the day of arrival I walked up the slopes towards the Kilimanjaro. The classic African, reddish dirt road took me through villages, lush forests, to small scale farms and picturesque creeks. A nice "safari" with the peak visible at all times, until the sun got to strong and the volcano decided to cover its nudity.
In the evening I went out for some beers in local bars and left after 2 nights spend.