Stone Town

Written by True:

Stonetown: A seaside city with no street markings, an invisible police
force, and a rich cultural history. Upon arriving in Stonetown, almost
everyone thought that we were there fir our own pleasures, so when it
was discovered that we were taking a three hour tour, it was not well
received.

We started out in the town market, which our guide described as an
essential place for the people of Stonetown. It has three sections:
fruits/vegetables, meat, and fish. After viewing them, it was agreed
that it was quite possibly the most infectious market on the planet.

After leaving the market, we were taken to an Anglican church. We
walked down a set of stairs to a dark room about 20 feet by 15 ft.
with a height of around 5.5 ft. Our guide told us that it had been a
holding cell for 75 slaves, all women and children. Three slits were
carved into the wall for air and light, with a chain attached to a
single pillar near the doorway. Across the hall was a similar room for
50 male slaves, in a room one-third the size of a Ross classroom.

Next we were taken upstairs into the church proper. Our guide pointed
out a marble circle on the altar floor. He said it was the exact place
the whipping post had been when it had had been the slave market. We
then ventured out of the church and saw a memorial to those who had
been enslaved.

After our visit the slave market, we went to the "House of Wonders,"
so called because it was the first to have electricity and elevator on
Zanzibar. The house was built by one of the sultans of Zanzibar and
while it only gas four floors, it us close to 100 feet tall. It is
now amuseum containing many artifacts associated with Zanzibar's
arabic history. It has everything you might expect a regional museum
to contain, the only difference being the entire house has a very cool
mixtureof Arabic and Victorian architecture. Among some of the
artifacts were Dr. Livingstone's medical kit, the first president of
Zanzibar's car, lifesize replicas of the sultan's original bedrooms,
and numerous pottery shards, trinkets, a ridiculously large staircases.

After the museum, we went to the Old Fort. Built by the Portuguese in
the 17th century, it was abandoned when the arabs kicked the
Portuguese out of Zanzibar. It is now an ampitheatre with nightly
shows and overpriced tourist traps. It was also cool to learn that
when they are allowed, all if the local martial artists come to the
fort to train.

After the fort, we found an alley with tons of shops and my group lost
interest in the tour. When Timo asked us if we wanted to see more, we
asked him, "What will we see?" After he said it was more listening
than seeing, this ended our tour of Stonetown.

After watching an amazing sunset, we went to a food vender's paradise,
known as the Night Market. Everyone feasted on amazing and amazingly
cheap food, such as fish skewers, Zanzibari pizza, and cane sugar,
lime, and Ginger drinks. Then we had some gelato and headed back to
the hotel.