For those of you who don’t know or haven’t seen The Lion King - it means no worries. This weekend I went to Zanzibar, Tanzania for vacation and although it was a little short, it was amazing. The sands are white (whiter than I am) and the water is a shade of blue that I’ve never seen before.
We landed at the airport in Dar Es Salaam, passed through immigration and made our way over to the PrecisionAir booth to grab some tickets to Zanzibar. However as we were walking, some fairly aggressive locals came our way asking about flying to Zanzibar and telling us they had cheap tickets. They were wearing airport ID’s so it seemed ‘official’, but at the same time – suspicious. So, what did we do? After a few minutes of discussion we decided to go with them in their taxi to the domestic terminal - it’s about a two minute drive. After we arrived we bought ’tickets’, which if you ever have been or ever plan to travel in Africa, it is sometimes a little shady. Laws are not strictly enforced and people tend to act a little aggressive. Our names were written down on a paper, and we were shown to the airplane.
After taking a little propeller plane over to Zanzibar International we had finally made it. The view from the plane was amazing! Flying over the blue water and seeing other little islands – I couldn’t wait to hit the beach and check it out. After landing we exchanged some money and hopped in a cab to go to BlueBay Resort. It was a long 45 minute drive to the resort, but the spot we picked out was great. It has these private club houses that are divided into 4 spacious rooms each – a great getaway from modern cookie-cutter hotels.
Breakfast and dinner are provided by the hotel (half-board) and are pretty decent. Each night has a different theme, we experienced Italian, Indian, and ‘Far East Fusion’ nights and they each offered a good selection of foods. Breakfast carried the normal varieties of food you would expect: eggs, fruits, pancakes, waffles, sausage, and breads.
After we ate dinner the first night we stopped by the Guest Services office to ask about the kinds of tours they had and what we could explore on the island. They have a company on the island called Safari Blue which offers excursions, snorkeling, etc – and we set up a tour with them through the hotel. At the time the hotel said there were about 5 other people going, but we didn’t realize that meant 5 people from our hotel alone. So, when we actually got to the beach site where the tour began it was more like 40 people.
The Safari Blue team took us out for guided snorkeling at different areas (which makes me want to buy an underwater case for my camera). Our guide focused mainly on us, which was great. He would point out different animals/coral and explain what it was. It was my first time snorkeling, so it was a good experience for me. The water was very clear and calm, perfect water for swimming around looking at the fishes. After snorkeling at different spots they brought us to another beach where they had been BBQing seafood – lobster, squid, and other kinds of fish with rice and sauce. The dessert was various fruits from the island and they gave explanations of each one we were about to eat. After eating they gave rides on an outrigger which was a lot of fun.
We then hopped in the boat to another island for a quick swim and then headed back to the main island. The total trip time took about 10 hours. After we arrived back at the hotel, we asked the driver if he would take us to Stonetown the next day. The hotel tour prices were very expensive – if I recall correctly it was about $112 per person to tour Stonetown. The driver not only drove us there, but got us a tour guide as well – which costed $110 for the whole day.
The guide (who was very nice) walked us around for a few hours and told us the history along the way. We took a boat out to Prison Island, where they would take the Slaves when they misbehaved, and it also has a lot of tortoises there. It wasn’t too exciting, so you wouldn’t regret skipping this.
He also took us through several small markets in town, which included many shops for souvenirs. Be careful when buying because many of these shops have the exact same items – I’m not sure if they are manufactured somewhere or they are truly created in nearby villages like they say they are. Whatever you do, haggle with the shop keeper. We bought two paintings from one shop and nearly got the second one for ‘free’. There is another thing that we could have skipped, and that was “The House of Wonders”. Unless you’re a big history person, skip it. A quick five minute story about the place will suffice, but make sure you go up to the second story balcony to see the view. You’ll have to pay about $3 per person to get in, but I think it’s worth it.
Some things we didn’t see that we would have if we had more time: spice tour, and the tour to see the Red Colobus Monkeys. There will be another time to see them. 
Our last morning ended with massages from the hotel, and another adventure of buying tickets at the airport. Overall, I would go back again. The entire experience was great, but the views alone made the trip a worthwhile expense. Sadly, I’m using the old version of Photoshop CS4 – so the RAW I was shooting in can’t be opened with it. Only the last day of our trip I turned on RAW + JPG – but it was too late. I’ll post some of the pictures after I upload them tonight.
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in the mail. I’m just about finished and will post a little about it afterwards. This book could not have come at a better time in my life - where I am in the process of becoming a successful entrepreneur.
and honestly, I have mixed feelings about it. Obviously I am not an expert in the field of business, and have no basic knowledge on the subject either, so this probably wasn’t the best book to start off with but – it did open my mind to the types of marketing businesses use. The type of business that I am starting is mainly online, so many of the offline strategies that 
