We began the day with a spice tour at Chuini Spice Farm. Georgie had been replaced by Anjan, unfortunately, who was next to useless and ignorant with it. We got to smell a number of leaves and taste a few things, namely green peppercorns, green chillies and coconut. A local man climbed to the top of a coconut tree to fetch some fruit for us, which reminded me of 'Cast Away' as the coconuts fell to the ground with a huge thump. As we completed the short tour someone had kindly baked us some fresh cardoman shortbread cookies to sample which were very nice.
Then we were bundled back into the buses to go to lunch. I couldn't believe it when we pulled up outside the 'hotel' we ate in on arrival in Zanzibar three days ago. This guy Anjan clearly has no imagination or consideration for his tour group! Again we were offered beef biryani, fish biryani or chicken biryani for lunch and a choice between red or pineapple juice. Yes, it was the same choice as we were presented with the other day.
Ian and I are far from impressed by this guy Anjan. During the spice tour this morning he spent most of the time talking on his mobile phone or speaking to only half of our group instead of waiting for everyone in the group to gather within earshot so only a few people knew which plant he was muttering about or knew that he was even talking!
After lunch we went to the former slave market which was interesting despite very little to see. The chambers where the slaves used to be kept was haunting and difficult to believe how many men, women and children were kept in such small confinements. The only original chain from the slave days was incorporated into a sculpture outside. While walking backwards away from the sculpture, trying to move out of someones way so they could take a photograph, I managed to fall backwards and land on my arse with my camera falling around me, having tripped over the dedication stone! Luckily no one filmed my dramatic acrobatics despite my rather large audience!
We were bundled back into the buses to be transported to Lail Noor Guest House to dump our bags and then we were bundled back into them again to go into Stonetown. Anjan played the useless idiot again, running ahead of everyone, talking only to the one or two people in his immediate view, ignoring everyones requests or pleas for guidance and generally annoying people. It wasn't remotely clear what was expected of us and he was behaving as 'though we were the ignorant ones.
Iand and I wandered around Stonetown bartering with shopkeepers. Ian successfully haggled and bought a travel size bao board and I managed to buy a printed sarong. We spent most of the afternoon playing bao on our new travel size bao board and drinking coke in the shade by the harbour.
We then met everyone for dinner, which was another Anjan special, leaving a lot to be desired. His attitude was a repeat of this morning and afternoon and he made no attempt to explain what any of the dishes available at the barbecue stalls were. He was hopeless. I'll be very glad to be shot of him tomorrow.
Copyright 2002 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.