Big city – we haven´t really missed it yet!
Five days in Dar Es Salaam, the biggest city in Tanzania with 4,5 million people, made us realize how lucky we are to live on the beautiful island of Zanzibar.
Dar Es Salaam skyline with the citys golf course in front.
Tallest building in Dar Es Salaam – the bank of Tanzania.
Don’t misunderstand! We were glad to be in a big city with high buildings, less conservative clothing and shops with more European things. Dar Es Salaam has almost everything: good shopping, interesting restaurants, plenty of big hotels, beaches and even a park and a golf-course in the middle of the center. It is divided into to major areas; one is the city center where the boats from Pemba and Zanzibar come in. The other area is the Peninsula where most tourists go for better beaches. Here you have American diners, chain-hotels like Hilton and Marriot and the nightlife.
The city-center where we stayed had local food, local hotels and local shops and mostly local people; sometimes we were the only tourists in the streets. But that’s how we like it. However, we tried to be extra careful as everyone in Zanzibar warned us that it could be dangerous for mzungos (=white people) in Dar.
The reason we went to Dar Es Salaam was Jurgitas visit to the private hospital of Aga Khan – one of the best and upmarket hospitals in the country. The goal was to share experiences and see how they are running the hospital. The visit was good and it was a motivated group (Jurgita + 4 of her colleagues) that came back from the mainland!
And me?… I had five nice days on the mainland. In fact, I had some very nice walking trips while Jurgita was at work. But when we took the boat back and got closer to the harbor of Stone Town – the main city (or the only city) of Zanzibar – and the sun was shining on the stone buildings and people were swimming at the city-beach – I felt I was home…
Having lunch at the peninsula.
A selfie from the Penisula with the beach in the background.
Dar Es Salaam city beach is only for boats and not for swimming.
A group of pelicans looking for food when the tide is low.
Nice view from our hotel in Dar Es Salaam.
Coming back with the ferry to beautiful Zanzibar.
With a ticket saying I am from Lithuania.
