Happy Honeymooning Day 11: Stone Town Revisited

 Thursday, April 3rd, 2025
7:37 PM

Zanzibar Airport

I am exhausted. I don't have the brain energy for a full update. Suffice to stay, I am so grateful we decided to spend more time in Stone Town. I've never really been in a city quite like it.

Friday, April 4th, 2025

7:11 PM

Treffen House Hotel, Doha, Qatar

Wow, okay, so I'm definitely going to give Doha it's own entry, because otherwise this would be way too long.

Let's start with Wednesday night, where Kenny and I, after lounging in our overwater bungalow all day, decided to venture to Paje for dinner. Haji must have been busy and he didn't answer any of my texts, so we called the front desk and asked for a ride to town for dinner.

At first, we went to a local food court called Bento, which had seafood, Mexican, pizza, burgers, chicken wings, ramen, sushi, crepes, and ice cream. However, we weren't really feeling it, so we walked around, looking for an Indian restaurant. 

Zanzibar feeds its stray animals.

We did come back for ice cream.

But the Indian restaurant we found was vegetarian, and so we moved on and found a different food court -- Mapacha. There we found what we wanted. Kenny got a burger, and I got chicken and fries with some homemade lemonade.

The size of a chicken drumstick that doesn't have a bunch of hormones injected into it.

Kenny keeps making friends.

"It's still pretty hot out," I mentioned.

"You're not made for this heat."
"And you are?"

"Yes. Built for it. It's in my DNA."

"Kenny, you know your family in all likelihood came from West Africa."

"But the ancestors."

"Mm."

"Exactly."
"So coming from Ireland and the Ukraine means I'm not made for 85 degrees and humid."

"Yes."

Okay, fine. Food was still good.

The next morning, we said goodbye to Konokono. Very sad! I fully could have stayed another week. Here are some photos Kenny took on our sad walk to reception.

Haji was there to take us to Stone Town, but on the way, we hit some traffic. It was a pretty serious jam.

COWS!

We recovered, and Haji dropped us off by the Freddie Mercury museum. We would pick us up in about 5 hours. We had the afternoon to enjoy Stone Town, starting with some lunch, where Kenny made ANOTHER friend.

I wanted to wander around aimlessly, but it was soon clear that was not the best use of our time. I like getting lost in cities, but that only feels romantic when you have a basic understanding of the history of the city. Getting lost in Paris, or London, or New York as an American is different than getting lost in Stone Town. Beyond this, Stone Town is a UNESCO heritage site, so there's a lot to learn about it that I clearly don't know. So while we were wandering around Forodhani by the pier, Kenny talked to a tour guide, JJ, who showed us around for about an hour and talked about the history and the culture as we walked through the city.

"You can ask me any questions at all!" JJ told us. "Ask me about this city. Ask me about a door. Ask me how many wives I have -- two? Ten?"

(I did not ask this question, but, from context clues, I landed on JJ having just the one wife.)

JJ told us a bit about Forodhani, about how it was originally built in the early 1900s, but was recreated in 2009 to be gardens right on the water. Now, it's used as a place for celebrations, which we would see later in the evening for one of the last nights of Eid (I'm really not certain how long the Eid celebrations last).

A fountain originally built in 1938 to celebrate the silver jubilee of King George V of England.

He took us next around Stone Town, showing us the one Hindu temple in the city since Stone Town is home to about 300 Hindus in Stone Town. JJ said that about 80% of Zanzibari were Muslim, 17% were Christian, and the remaining 3% were Hindu. 

Kenny having fun around town.

The entrance to the Hindu temple, which was closed when we tried to visit.

He then showed us a Shiite mosque -- a minority group, as most Zanzibari Muslims are Sunni. The spikes on the doors come from a design in India, where they were needed to keep elephants out. Zanzibar does not have any elephants, but they kept the design element anyway.

JJ then showed us around the market, starting with the chickens. People could buy their chickens for dinner two ways -- already dead, or ready to be slaughtered.

Ready to cook...

...needs a bit more work on your end before it's ready to cook.

JJ showing Kenny some lychee fruit.

And now JJ showing me some lychee fruit.

More fresh fruit for sale.

We then walked out where JJ showed us "New Town," across the way, which was once separated by water but had since had the land "reclaimed," and now there is a road there.

"The Darajani Souk." Souk/souq is Arabic for "market."

The spice part of the market was unbelievable. We were hit by scents of cinnamon and cardamom and jasmine and vanilla and cloves immediately, and I could have stayed there forever. Everything smelled amazing...

...which was in direct contract to the fish market, where everything smelled terrible. Still, very fresh fish!

These mussels are cooked. Also, some flies.

We continued walking, where he showed us an old Aston Martin and then the Anglican church, which had been around since 1907. It was right by the slave markets, which is now a museum. Kenny decided he did not want to see that exhibit because slaves were still being sold as late as 1909, and for what amounts to about $400 USD in today's money. He just did not have the emotional bandwidth for that, and I get it.

(I think the Old Fort had a slave market that was active in the 1700s, and the slave market discussed by the Anglican Church was active throughout the 19th century and into the first decade of the 20th.)

So we continued our tour, walking around, seeing what Stone Town is and what the people have made it. 

(The UNESCO heritage site designation is, I believe, a double-edged sword, because there are things the citizens here are literally not allowed to change (or, you know, improve/update) because it's historical. I don't know enough about any of this, but I also do know that there is a lot of development coming to Zanzibar, that hotels and investment companies from outside Zanzibar, Tanzania, and even Africa are very interested in what they can get out of this place, and that it's all too easy to say they're doing it to preserve authenticity while also offering luxuries to tourists that the Zanzibari nationals can't themselves access.)

A Swahili restaurant up there, and street meat to the side. Would have wanted to eat it, but at this point, I was a big baby and needed somewhere cooler to sit.

Kenny and JJ goofing around.

Stone Town showing support for Palestine.

...up to where the Hamamni baths were once in use (Turkish-style baths used by the elite until the springs dried up). While we can't use them now, they are being renovated to become a tourist attraction once again. 

We also learned that the doors around Stone Town are considered art, famous in of themselves, but their numbers are dwindling due to sales or even outright thievery. Now, therefore, it is fully illegal to even change the door. 

This one below is now the doorway to a souvenir shop, and the chains indicate that the owner of this once-home was a former slave trader, and therefore a man with some serious status.

Our tour ended at the Maru Maru hotel, where apparently Chelsea Clinton stayed back in 2013. They had a picture of here and everything. They also had a beautiful rooftop view of the entire city. I was so hot, so sweaty, that I wanted to just relax there with some water for a couple hours.

A view from the rooftop of the Maru Maru hotel that includes the Catholic Church in Stone Town.

A view of the Indian Ocean from the Maru Maru hotel rooftop.

A photo Kenny took from the rooftop.

Our meal of Indian food in Zanzibar. Saved it for last. Kenny had biryani and I had butter chicken.

I was ready to walk around after 5 PM when the worst of the heat was starting to dissipate. We went to Forodhani, where the Eid celebrations were in full swing. We got chicken skewers and watched children run around. Girls wore cute dresses (kind of like Easter, honestly), and if they were sisters, they matched. The kids ran around, the babies were fast asleep on their mothers' shoulders, and everyone was there to have fun.

We saw so many women carry their babies and toddlers over their shoulder like this, and the babies were ALWAYS passed the f out.

Those skewers hit.

Haji picked us up and brought us to the airport, where we said goodbye to Zanzibar and got ready for our final travel destination -- Doha.

I am still tired, and I still want to write about Doha (because that was a definitely an interesting city, and I'm still processing my thoughts and feelings about it), but I feel so grateful that Kenny and I came here for our honeymoon. The people were definitely the best part of our trip. The history and culture were fascinating. We did some very cool things, and we also got to enjoy some genuine luxury while we were there. It meant a lot to Kenny as well, and I think perhaps in a different, more personal way -- a way more attached to his identity, in how he views himself and how the world views him. That he could decide on a whim to get his hair braided because it was getting too difficult to manage, find someone, and have the whole experience take 20 minutes and $30 -- this is not a world he lives in back home. 

I'll have more reflection later, but that might have to wait until we're back home.