Tanzania – Da es Salam / Zanzibar / Stone Town 坦桑阿尼亚 – 达累斯撒拉姆 / 桑给巴尔 / 石城 11/2018 Stop 9 站

19-20/11/2018. After the four-day Serengeti safari, I returned to Arusha. From there, I took a 14-hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. The next morning, I took a ferry to Stone Town in Zanzibar. I could have flown from Arusha in one and a half hours, but I did it the macho way, to savor the flavor of Africa. A bucketful of rain doused my enthusiasm on arrival.

To top it off, immediately after disembarking from the ferry, I was almost checkmated when I was asked for the first time—after I had run amok for the past few days in the country—to produce a yellow fever certificate. The officials explained that they, though Tanzanian, were different. They let me go with a warning. I felt like yellow fever running around causing mayhem. Zanzibar was a surprise. Almost predominantly Muslim, it felt autonomous from the rest of the country. Maybe that was what they meant when they said they were different.

The main town, Stone Town, struck me as a place of bygone glory. Magnificent old buildings showed clear signs of advancing years, their faces smudged with dirt and looking sad. A local enjoyed his weed and generously offered me some. I like my veg blanched, raw, steamed, fried, but not smoked, thank you very much.

Tanzanians are super at greeting strangers. I am always greeted with “jumbo” or “mumbo.” Not knowing what it meant, my initial reaction was, “What is this mumbo jumbo?” Eventually, I came to know, it means “hello” in Swahili. I know, I am a dumbo.

I also visited the Slave House. As recently as 1876, slavery was legal here. The graphic displays were hard to look at. It’s hard to watch humans being reduced to less than a dog—at least a dog is our pet and man’s best friend. This is a good place to search our conscience, to think about when we have been unfair to our fellow humans, just because they are different.

19-20/11/2018四天塞伦盖地猎游后回到阿鲁沙，我选坐十四小时大巴隔天离开这里，晚上到达累斯萨拉姆，坦桑尼亚首都，在车站后又苦等优步后才到酒店， 就这样折腾了一整天。第二天坐渡轮两小时最终到桑給巴尔岛的石城。如乘搭飞机， 从阿鲁沙一小时半后就降落石城，根本不需坐渡轮也不用在达累斯撒拉姆过夜。我想弄得复杂点会更有成就感，也可能脑子缺氧缺养。

石城第一印象就是昔日辉煌可惜陨落，不少豪宅大楼满面沧桑。

也参观了以前贩卖奴隶的市场， 展示人不如狗的一段历史；直到1876年，贩卖奴隶还是合法的。反观今天我们养狗，百般宠爱，这地方就是要找回我们的人性，回味这不堪回首的以往。