Annukka and myself were invited to the Irish national day in Dar es Salaam on the 17th March 2007 – Saint Patrick’s Day! I was very surprised to see so many Irish people that are in Tanzania. As there are none at all in Mtwara it was nice to once again meet some people from my home country.
The party itself was quite similar to the Independence Day party of Finland we attended in December. After we had finished up at the ambassador’s place everyone made there way to the newly opened Irish bar in the Masaki district. It provides a beautiful view of the ocean and a view of slipways to the right.
We spent a few more days in Dar staying in the centre at a hostel called – Safari Inn. It’s a usually backpackers place. Nothing special. Cheap rooms are available for those with a residents permit. The room we stayed in hadn’t any mosquito nights which although was a bit worrying was nice to sleep without one for a few days. Thankfully our room hadn’t any cockroaches as we heard from quite many other backpackers they had some unwanted creepy crawlies in their room.
It was nice to get a good feeling for Dar by staying in the centre. This time DAR didn’t feel as hectic as it did when we first arrived. We visited the Indian quarters where Annukka found quite many fabric shops. A lot of shopping might be done here before we leave for Finland in June.
It was also good to visit a super market again and eat some cheese. I didn’t think I would miss diary products as much as I have done and even better because in the shops they have Irish cheese! Annukka bought yoghurts although she would have to wait for some time to have Finnish milk again.
It felt safer to walk around Dar this time perhaps as we know a bit more Swahili than before so we don’t stand out as fresh tourist just in the country. It seemed to help that we where saying “mambo” to people.
We visited one hotel wondering whether could get a view of the city from a higher vantage point. After the bell boy had shown us the city view, from the top floor, he told us he would talk to this manage and see if there are any rooms empty so that we could see the harbour. A misunderstanding perhaps with the bell boy and the manager perhaps as when the manager came to greet us he outlined a play to give us a tour of the different rooms available in the hotel. The point was to go there and take pictures from the high point but felt a bit silly to take pictures when the manager thought of us as potential clients (although we didn’t look like ones especially for this hotel).
We bumped into a friend from Mtwara who happened to be in Dar and staying at the same hostel as we where. As we didn’t have any plans for the day we agreed to go to the Mwenge market to look at some – Makonde carvings. There was just so many here I was really surprised. The shop owners have a really hard time keeping the carvings clean as they are constantly gathering dust so most of them where busy during our time there. Others where sitting around play bao, a traditional Tanzania board game. It was good to have a look for future reference as we will probably visit again before leaving. After spending easily two hours going from shop to shop we went to the village museum which also had a lunch time buffet meal just ready as we were arriving.
After eating we went inside the museum to have a look at the traditional houses from different parts of Tanzania. The houses where kept in good condition with information on the around the houses describing where they where from and about the tribe that lives in them. After the walk around we were just in time for traditional dancing. I was a little disappointed with the dancing as I would have hoped it was more prepared. It seemed that people where arriving late and just joining in if they had nothing else to do. The clothes they where wearing where torn and not in great condition. I also thought there would be more than just 3/4 people there. Although not so satisfied with it, it was in itself interesting to see how they do the dancing.
The party itself was quite similar to the Independence Day party of Finland we attended in December. After we had finished up at the ambassador’s place everyone made there way to the newly opened Irish bar in the Masaki district. It provides a beautiful view of the ocean and a view of slipways to the right.
We spent a few more days in Dar staying in the centre at a hostel called – Safari Inn. It’s a usually backpackers place. Nothing special. Cheap rooms are available for those with a residents permit. The room we stayed in hadn’t any mosquito nights which although was a bit worrying was nice to sleep without one for a few days. Thankfully our room hadn’t any cockroaches as we heard from quite many other backpackers they had some unwanted creepy crawlies in their room.
It was nice to get a good feeling for Dar by staying in the centre. This time DAR didn’t feel as hectic as it did when we first arrived. We visited the Indian quarters where Annukka found quite many fabric shops. A lot of shopping might be done here before we leave for Finland in June.
It was also good to visit a super market again and eat some cheese. I didn’t think I would miss diary products as much as I have done and even better because in the shops they have Irish cheese! Annukka bought yoghurts although she would have to wait for some time to have Finnish milk again.
It felt safer to walk around Dar this time perhaps as we know a bit more Swahili than before so we don’t stand out as fresh tourist just in the country. It seemed to help that we where saying “mambo” to people.
We visited one hotel wondering whether could get a view of the city from a higher vantage point. After the bell boy had shown us the city view, from the top floor, he told us he would talk to this manage and see if there are any rooms empty so that we could see the harbour. A misunderstanding perhaps with the bell boy and the manager perhaps as when the manager came to greet us he outlined a play to give us a tour of the different rooms available in the hotel. The point was to go there and take pictures from the high point but felt a bit silly to take pictures when the manager thought of us as potential clients (although we didn’t look like ones especially for this hotel).
We bumped into a friend from Mtwara who happened to be in Dar and staying at the same hostel as we where. As we didn’t have any plans for the day we agreed to go to the Mwenge market to look at some – Makonde carvings. There was just so many here I was really surprised. The shop owners have a really hard time keeping the carvings clean as they are constantly gathering dust so most of them where busy during our time there. Others where sitting around play bao, a traditional Tanzania board game. It was good to have a look for future reference as we will probably visit again before leaving. After spending easily two hours going from shop to shop we went to the village museum which also had a lunch time buffet meal just ready as we were arriving.
After eating we went inside the museum to have a look at the traditional houses from different parts of Tanzania. The houses where kept in good condition with information on the around the houses describing where they where from and about the tribe that lives in them. After the walk around we were just in time for traditional dancing. I was a little disappointed with the dancing as I would have hoped it was more prepared. It seemed that people where arriving late and just joining in if they had nothing else to do. The clothes they where wearing where torn and not in great condition. I also thought there would be more than just 3/4 people there. Although not so satisfied with it, it was in itself interesting to see how they do the dancing.
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