#parkhyattzanzibar

[sandjsbeachbumbonanza]

Day 120 – Return to Stonetown

The Zuri chases you out of your room at 10am, but lets you stick around on the all inclusive until 2pm. Hence Dulla was due to pick us up at 2pm and we were going to make the most of our last afternoon at the Zuri. We woke up early, packed and had breakfast. We ran into the nurse and Veronika. The nurse told us that housekeeping swears they are still using the same detergent they used when we were previously here, and they rinsed out our bedsheets twice before changing them. Nevertheless, J’s rash spread overnight and she couldn’t sleep again. The nurse then grabbed one of the Masais and asked him to cut a large piece of aloe for her with his large knife. J spent the rest of her time at Zuri cutting off pieces of aloe and applying it to herself. She also bought a jar of aloe from the gift shop.

We hung out at the bar and had a few drinks while video chatting with one of J’s friends in Guam as they traded allergy war stories. It turns out that since moving to Guam, J’s friend has also had some reactions and is still getting acclimated to life in the tropics. This has convinced S that we will not be going on anymore tropical holidays after our walkabout.

Before we knew it, it was time for our final Aperol Spritz and passion fruit G&T as Dulla had arrived to pick us up. The folks at the Park Hyatt recognised us and check-in was smooth. We didn’t even have to show our passport details as they already had them in the system. J rested in the room while S went down to the bar, where his crown disintegrated even further on another bar crisp. We will be surprised if there is anything left of that crown by the time we return to England.

S came back to the room and asked J if she wanted to go to dinner. She still wasn’t feeling well, so we skipped it. At 11pm, J joined a late-night Zoom with her family, including her 93-year-old grandmother. Her grandmother doesn’t quite understand how Zoom works and kept trying to touch people through the computer screen.

[positively-beautiful-blog]

Stonetown of Zanzibar, also known as Mji Mkongwe, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Stonetown is considered to be the gateway town to Zanzibar. Characterised by its labyrinth of stone alleyways, ancient architecture and massive beautifully carved wooden doors, Stone Town is one of the last remaining authentic cities in Africa. #zanzibar #stonetown #doorsofzanzibar #parkhyattzanzibar #globaltraveller (at Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfSFOaKus42/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[michaeljolls]

#Repost @diasdesignfashion ・・・ Taken at @nomichicago, @parkhyattchicago, pictures here with Dr. Rebecca Reynolds. • • #Parkhyatt #parkhyattchicago #parkhyattmendoza #parkhyattstkitts #parkhyattjeddah #parkhyattmilano #parkhyattnewyork #parkhyattkyoto #parkhyattmallorca #parkhyatthyderabad #parkhyattgoa #parkhyattzanzibar #parkhyattmaldives #parkhyattparis #parkhyattvienna #parkhyattbangkok #parkhyattseoul #parkhyatthamburg #parkhyattparisvendome #parkhyattseoul #parkhyattaviara #rebeccareynolds #michaeljolls #nomiparkhyatt #diasgoawrap #goawrap #dias #diasfashion #diasusa #diasworldwide (at NoMI Chicago) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCpg1n1hxrk/?igshid=k6s6pm066435

[meggyfin]

Checking out Stonetown in Xanzibar before we head home. It reminds us of Morocco. Anyone else been here? Where should we shop? #eatdontbepreylove • • • • #travel #wanderlust #travelgram #instatravel #adventure #travelphotography #travelwriter #ilovetravel #travelblogger #travelfoodie #stonetown #stonetownzanzibar #zanzibar #africa #tanzania #vintagecars #parkhyattzanzibar (at Park Hyatt Zanzibar)

[hereistanzania]

Warm welcomes to the Park Hyatt Zanzibar . 📸 by @parkhyattzanzibar . #HereIsTanzania https://ift.tt/2SRuGFc

[chickabouttown]

Many photos ago on Instagram, I told you how people liked to tantalize me with pictures of the @ParkHyattZanzibar telling me just how much they thought I would like it. It was a pleasure to finally visit it for myself! Go to bit.ly/ZanzibarTips (case sensitive), or click the link in my bio, for my best tips on what to do when you are visiting the magical island of Zanzibar! (at Park Hyatt Zanzibar)

[muntazirs]

How God spoke to me! @park_hyatt_zanzibar @parkhyatt #parkhyatt #parkhyattzanzibar #zanzibar #stonetown #tanzania #sunset #sheesha #shisha #hookah #lifestyle (at Park Hyatt Zanzibar)

[mangobluete]

I will miss this place so much! #parkhyattzanzibar @park_hyatt_zanzibar #Zanzibar there is a new blog post up on the blog! 👉🏻 www.mangobluete.com (hier: Park Hyatt Zanzibar)

[stephanmatz]

Best cakes in town. #hyattregencydaressalam with a chef from #parkhyattzanzibar (at Hyatt Regency Dar es Salaam, The Kilimanjaro)

[positively-beautiful-blog]

There was so much to see and appreciate about Zanzibar. Something I found fascinating about the island of Zanzibar, it has more than 4m coconut trees, and each one has an owner.! In Zanzibar, the largest island in a semi-autonomous archipelago off the coast of Tanzania, coconut palms (and other fruit trees) are handed down through generations. #zanzibar #stonetown #beachhousezanzibar #zanzibarbeaches #parkhyattzanzibar (at Zanzibar, Tanzania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfSE9E3OyQ1/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[sandjsbeachbumbonanza]

Day 122 – Not our day

We had a rough night’s sleep again. J was still bothered by her allergic reaction and S was too hot to sleep. The hotel had replaced our bedding with ‘hypoallergenic’ bedding yesterday, and S found it uncomfortable to sleep in.

At some point in the morning, S was heading out of the bathroom when he slipped and nearly fell to the ground. A large puddle of water had collected on the marble floor of our room from a water leak in the ceiling. We began packing our things and called down to the hotel to ask them to move us to a new room. After a bit of faff, we were moved to a room on another floor with an ocean view. It is not amazing, but at least we are not having water issues (for now).

We went down for breakfast and J actually liked her omelette. The grapefruit was oddly desiccated and sour – we think it wasn’t fully ripe.

J realised she needed to soak and then rinse all of the laundry done at the Zuri in our bathtub as it was causing an allergic reaction. We did this. It took a while as there were multiple loads. The process required lots of manual labour, which is not our forte. S had to double wring out everything by hand after J had had the first go, to maximise the chance the clothing would dry. The compounding problem is that today was extremely overcast and rainy, so nothing is drying.

We were supposed to go to Prisoner Island today, but cancelled it due to the poor night’s sleep. We’ve rebooked for tomorrow (or so we thought).

As we were finishing up the admin and getting ready to head off to the bar, we got another surprise from Kenya Airways. Our flight on the 31st to Nairobi had been cancelled and they had kindly rebooked us on the 1st. The problem with that is that our flight from Nairobi to Cape Town remained on the 31st. We spent a number of hours trying to deal with Kenya Airways and find our own solution to this problem as they were useless. We even went down to the Concierge to ask him to help. He tried, but the Zanzibar branch of Kenya Airways was closed, so he suggested we try in the morning. At this point, we have no clue as to how we are getting to Cape Town. The only option appears to be Ethiopian Airlines. This would require 4 flights and wouldn’t get us in until a day later. Not ideal.

After finally exhausting options for today and still having no clear path to South Africa, we decided to go to dinner. We went back to our favourite, Beach House. We tried to sit next to the beach in our normal seat and were told it was going to rain, so we might want to sit away from the beach. Rain was an understatement. Shortly after we got our meal, a tropical deluge unleashed. Even our closer-to-the-main-area seats were getting soaked by the horizontal rain. We decided to move inside for another drink or two to wait out the rain. In the meantime, the staff bustled about trying to get chairs and tables inside to seat more guests. Our food was again, great. S had the chicken quesadilla, which started out spicy and got ultra fiery once he dipped it in the hot sauce, which he had thought was salsa. J had the Zanzibar pizza.

We headed back to the hotel after the rain died down and passed out from exhaustion, still not knowing how we were going to get to South Africa. We both thought that the allergy was going away, but it appears to have returned.

Who did we piss off to have a day like today?

[sandjsbeachbumbonanza]

Day 121 – Stonetown hospital

We woke up early today for our 14th COVID test. Unlike every other COVID test we’ve taken, we had to go to the hospital and pay in cash. Dulla had to take us to two different ATMs as the first one didn’t work. This seems to be a common occurrence in Tanzania.

Once we arrived at the hospital, we were asked to pay for the test and then wait in a queue. When S asked when the test results would be dated, we were told they are usually dated 5 hours before your flight. It took about half an hour to get the test. It was quick, but painful. J then went back to reception to ask to see a doctor. S ended up waiting in the car with Dulla. J paid in advance to see the doctor, about $8.50. This process took about 15 minutes as she was paying by credit card, and the payment guy had to set up the machine for payment. J then took her receipt and was told to wait to see the doctor. After seeing the doctor, J was sent to the hospital pharmacy to buy medicine and her shot, then sent back to the payment desk to pay the pharmacy, then sent to another room to get her shot, then sent back to the pharmacy to pick up sterile water for her shot, then sent back to another room to wait for her shot with a room full of people on IVs. She finally got taken to the doctors’ dressing room to get her shot. The whole ordeal took about 2 hours and was very confusing. We won’t bore you with the details, but if you can avoid seeing a doctor at the Global hospital in Stonetown, you should. S is happy J got treated, but is now concerned that she’s exposed herself to COVID in the hospital waiting room given the number of children that were brought in with dry coughs, lack of masks and lack of social distancing.

We went back to our room. They had fixed the water pressure in the shower and bathtub. After a while we went to the bar, and J started to itch again. She was wearing clothes that had been laundered at the Zuri. We now are sure that it was the Zuri detergent that caused the allergic reaction as the allergy seems to be lessening. She immediately went up and changed out of those clothes and started rinsing her Zuri laundered clothing in the bathtub.

When she came back to the bar, she decided she did not like the margarita she had been ordering and gave the bartender her own recipe (Cointreau’s recipe). This improved the margaritas dramatically, albeit they are still not amazing.

Dinner was at the Beach House again. The drinks were good, as always. S enjoyed his chicken curry and J enjoyed her burger. There was a small island cat begging for food and some teenage boys were playing football again at the beach in front of the restaurant.

[sandjsbeachbumbonanza]

Day 101 – Zanzibar

We woke up at 4:30am to meet Dona so we could catch our 8am flight to Zanzibar. It was a quick and easy ride to the airport. However, there was lots of security and we were forced to trolley our bags about a quarter of a mile on rough, unevenly paved road. The staff at Uganda Airlines was actually very nice and very efficient. They even walked us from check-in to the lounge.

The lounge was one of the better lounges we’d been in and had great food. S had a chicken salad sandwich, a mini pizza and a veggie samosa. J had hardboiled eggs and watermelon. The staff also kept our drinks filled without even asking. The WiFi was faster than the WiFi in our former London flat. When it was time to board, the gate attendant came to escort us to the gate. The plane was a brand new Bombardier CRJ-900, with engines in the back, so it was a very quiet flight. As we were the only ones drinking white wine, at some point a flight attendant came by and asked if he could leave the bottle with us. We did not say no.

The flight was just under 2 hours. Getting through passport control was fairly easy, though we had to fill out an unexpected landing card and show our yellow fever vaccination certificates to be allowed in to Tanzania. We met the Park Hyatt driver and headed out. It was then that J realised she left her important documents at passport control. Figuring there was a high chance we would never see these documents again, we headed back to the airport. J and the driver went into the airport and found a lady who tirelessly went around the airport until she tracked down J’s documents. Apparently a good Samaritan turned them in, rather than stealing them. We got very lucky.

The Park Hyatt is housed in a building that was formerly many other things, including the English Polo Club of Zanzibar. It is reasonably modern and nice. Our room looks out over the city and it’s a very nice room up to Hyatt standards. There is a famous mango tree in the hotel grounds. It is over 100 years old and still produces mangoes.

After we checked in, Nelson in Concierge came to our room to discuss the activities that are available through the hotel. He said that between 85% and 95% of the people here are Muslim. After getting to know us and J’s proclivity for pork products, he admitted that he is Christian, and knows where to find pork if J wants some.

After a bit of rest, we went on a 3-hour walking tour of the city. Zanzibar is an archipelago and has two main islands: Unguja, where we are staying, and Pemba. It has such an interesting history. At one point, the Sultan of Oman moved the capital from Muscat to Zanzibar and it is still heavily influenced by Omani culture. In 1890, Zanzibar became a British protectorate, but continued to be under the sovereignty of the Sultan of Zanzibar. In 1964, the Sultan was deposed and fled to Portsmouth, England. Zanzibar is now an autonomous region of Tanzania and it has its own presidents and two vice presidents. It joined together with Tanganyika (the mainland) in 1964 to form Tanzania.

Zanzibar was also the main port for the East African slave trade. It is horrific to understand what the Africans, Indians and Arabs did to the people. We learned that although slavery was officially banned here in 1873 by the Zanzibar Sultan following the advocacy of David Livingstone and pressure from England, the slave trade continued underground until 1919. We even visited former slave holding chambers at the former slave market, which is now an Anglican church. The conditions were worse than you could imagine.

The city is influenced by the different cultures that have left their mark here. Old town Stonetown (the capital of Zanzibar) is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Many buildings had a unique building material called ‘coral rock’, which is made of actual coral. To keep with the building standards, any renovations or rebuilds must be consistent with the original materials used. This means some less fortunate Zanzibarians have to leave their homes and sell them to wealthier people so they can be renovated using original materials. Many of the streets are very narrow with small shops all around. There are multiple markets where people try to sell you nuts, casava chips, fruits, vegetables, fish, meat and spices. Two little boys even tried to let J play with some small, pet monkeys. Unfortunately, we did not have any cash at the time, so we begged off.

One of the main attractions, the House of Wonders, was closed because part of the building collapsed recently, resulting in a few casualties. It is called the House of Wonders because it was the first building in Zanzibar to have electricity, a water tank and a lift. It was gifted to Zanzibar by the English to commemorate the abolition of slavery.

Last, but not least, we stopped at the former house of Freddie Mercury, AKA Farrokh Bulsara. He was born and grew up in Zanzibar, but moved with his family to England after the Zanzibar Sultan was deposed. We got to see a copy of his birth certificate.

After the tour, we sat outside at the hotel bar looking over the waterfront, for a few drinks and casava chips.

We spent some time considering where to eat dinner. The most ‘local’ and authentic restaurant here is strictly Muslim and does not allow any alcohol. We therefore looked for other options. One restaurant, Six Degrees South Grill & Wine Bar, was recommended to us as it serves some Zanzibari dishes, but is also tourist friendly. We couldn’t find the current menu online, so they brought it to us on the veranda of the Park Hyatt. We decided it was fine as there were two Zanzibari dishes on the menu.

One of the hotel employees walked us to the restaurant. It was only a 5-minute walk, but because the streets aren’t marked here, it’s easy to get lost. We were surprised to see that the place was packed with tourists. We haven’t been to a restaurant that busy since Rishi Sunak’s Eat out to Help Out programme was going on in London.

J had the chicken breast with mango couscous and S had the grilled kingfish in a tomato and coconut sauce with chapati. The food was fine, and reasonably priced. The first bottle of wine we picked out, a Pinot Grigio, was undrinkable, so we ordered a second bottle, a rosé. The server recommended it saying it was a popular choice. It was a struggle to get down, but we managed.

We made the short walk back to the hotel. S went to the bar for a nightcap and J went to sleep early. S spoke to a group of 5 Koreans and asked them how they managed to get out of Korea in the current circumstances. It turns out they work in Africa and hadn’t been back to Korea during COVID.

[muntazirs]

Honestly, the best shot I captured this week with my i6plus. @park_hyatt_zanzibar @parkhyatt #parkhyatt #parkhyattzanzibar @hyatt_kilimanjaro @hyatt @beautifulhotels #picporn #photography #pictures #photo #bestoftheday (at Park Hyatt Zanzibar)

[muntazirs]

It's Hot! ☀️☀️☀️ @park_hyatt_zanzibar @parkhyatt #parkhyatt #parkhyattzanzibar #zanzibar #stonetown #bythepool #sunbath #tan #lifestyle #hot (at Park Hyatt Zanzibar)

[muntazirs]

It's a beautiful day! @park_hyatt_zanzibar @parkhyatt #parkhyatt #parkhyattzanzibar #pool #sun #heat #lifestyle #zanzibar #stonetown #sunbath (at Park Hyatt Zanzibar)