January 15th, 2024
I had planned on one night at a small bay called Pongwe, at
a slightly fancier place than my usual accommodation that I choose while I’m
travelling for 3 months. However, I was
going to take the budget way to get there.
I took a boda boda from the place in Jambiani to Paje, as this was a
bigger village and the dala dalas (the local buses) would be departing from
there. Since the motorcycle taxi was
ordered by the place I was staying, I made the cardinal mistake of not asking/negotiating
the price before we rode the 6 km to Paje.
After arriving, the guy wanted 10,000 shillings. The night before I got a boda boda for half
that. Whatever, I wasn’t in a mood to
argue over $3. I visited and ATM and
there was a bus across the street. I
spoke to the driver and he said that I would have to get off at another town
and find another bus to get to Pongwe, up the east side of the island. I found a seat right at the back of the bus
and about 20 minutes later, the bus stopped and the money collector motioned me
to get off. Looking at Google Maps, I
knew that this was not where I wanted to disembark, there was no road heading
north from here. He agreed and I squeezed
my way back down the aisle to my seat.
Ten minutes later, again not where I thought I needed to be, the bus
stopped and the guy motioned for me to come forward. We both got off the bus and he pointed across
the street, where there was some sign for a guesthouse by a forest called
Jozani, and before I knew it, the bus was pulling away down the road. Shit, that was dumb Dave.
Even though the sun was out, and it was hot, I didn’t figure
my situation was dire. There had to be
another bus or passenger truck passing by soon that would pick me up. I watched down the road, walked 20 meters to
the next patch of shade, and repeated. A
few of the trucks passed by going the other way, but none heading in my
direction. There looked to be a small
town about a kilometer away according to Google Maps, so I continued on.
A car pulled up and stopped beside me as I was walking. The driver asked if I needed help and I
explained my situation. He offered that
I could hop in his car, and he’d take me to where I could find a boda boda to
take me north to Pongwe. It turned out
that Abdalla was returning home to Stone Town from the east coast of the
island. He’s involved with tourism and
is often going to hotels to meet with clients (I have to admit, I didn’t quite
understand his job). He was a super
friendly and helpful guy.
As we approached a roundabout in the countryside, that was
where I had hoped the bus would have originally dropped me off, he asked if I
didn’t mind if he negotiated with the boda boda driver to get me a good
price. Absolutely! I joked that I knew I would get the “mzungu
price”.
A motorcyclist named Sayed offered to take me for
“twenty”. I asked “Twenty US
Dollars?”. No, twenty thousand Tanzanian
shillings, which is actually about $8.
Uh, okay sure. He apologized that
at first we had to head briefly to his home so he could grab his licence. No problem, I’ve got all day. We pulled into his yard, where his three
youngest of five kids and wife were. The
children were super cute and the oldest boy had a bandage and a splint on his
forearm. I asked about it but wasn’t
quite sure what he had done to it.
We were back on the road, past by the roundabout where
Abdalla had dropped me off and continued north.
Three to four minutes later, there was a compact car pulled over on the
shoulder and there stood Abdalla.
What?!? He wasn’t planning to go
this way as he was headed to Stone Town.
We pulled over and Abdalla walked over to us. “Is everything alright?” he asked me. “Yes, we just had to go to Sayed’s house to
get his licence and he grabbed a jacket.”
I was impressed, Abdalla was very concerned for my well being. Thanks Abdalla!
I stayed at a placed called Amber Lodge and it was a nice,
quiet place. There was only a couple of
other couples with one son staying there (I think they were Polish). There was a nice little pool, and it was
right by the beach. Unfortunately, they
recently had a huge amount of dead seaweed up against the 2-3 foot concrete
wall, so there was a bit of a smell.
Nonetheless, it was a nice resort. I had some excellent tempura calamari for a
late lunch and a fish curry as I watched a match from the Africa Nations Cup
with Cameroon and the underdog Guinea tying 1-1.
My room:
The room was super comfortable, even with air conditioning,
and I had a wonderful sleep…even though I’m still having some wacky dreams
thanks to Malarone, my anti-malarial pills.
This one had many parts to it, but one was a friend’s kid sticking a leg
out from a high ledge where I was standing too, and a killer whale coming up
and taking her into its mouth…thankfully she survived. I won’t mind when I stop having to take these
pills!
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