Incredible First IMPRESSIONS of the Island of Zanzibar S7 EP.14 | Pakistan to South Africa
The cars are still inside. I think it's gonna take some time. Look at that... That's our motorcycle. We are gonna travel through these narrow streets. Assalam Alekum Wa Alekum Salam Do you know where is the Swahili house? Assalam Alekum and Good Morning from Dar es Salaam... The biggest Tanzanian city...
It's early in the morning and we are at the port. We already sent our motorcycle, Rangeeli, to Zanzibar yesterday. Hopefully it must have reached there by now. We are now gonna follow after Rangeeli.
My ferry to Zanzibar will be leaving in 25 minutes. The ferry ride is about 90 minutes or so. There are two ferry companies here; Azam Ferries and Zan Fast Ferries. I'm using Zan Fast Ferries; the same service I used to transport the motorcycle. I found the whole process to be very easy.
Normally, you can just come here and get a ticket. Thanks to Mr. Zamir, the director of Zan Fast Ferries, everything regarding my ticket and transport of motorcycle were taken care of.
Hence it was really easy for me. I got here in a car with all my luggage. Let me introduce you all to Jeffert who was quite eager to be in the video. Jeffert, you wanted to be in the YouTube video. Right? Yes. Yes. He brought me here, so early in the day. Thank you so much.
We have got a helper here. I shipped some of my luggage with the motorcycle. Whereas, I'm carrying the rest of my stuff with me.
That's the ferry terminal. Our ferry is ready to sail at 7 am. The doors were closed at 7 am sharp. If everything goes normally, we hope to be in Zanzibar in 90 minutes. The ferry has multiple classes. Economy Gold...
Platinum and VIP... There is a difference in the charges of foreigners and locals. Foreigners need to pay 30 USD for economy. 40 USD for gold... Platinum costs 50 to 60 USD. The VIP category has separate rooms.
Other than that, the ferry is quite clean. You can expect to have a very comfortable ride. The first ferry of the day leaves at 7 am.
The second one at 12pm, then 2pm and the last one at 4pm. So there are 4 fast ferries each day. We'll definitely share with you if we see anything interesting along the way. We are in the captain's cabin at the moment. They have given us permission to take some shots here.
Captain Donald is here. We also have some of his colleagues.... including his chief engineer. So you always have 4 people in here. Chief Engineer Chief Officer Captain Second Engineer So there's only one captain? Yeah, thank you. That's the economy class where you sit in the open area.
There's no air conditioning. Perhaps that's the reason it's a bit underpriced. In my opinion, one enjoyed the ride more like this. Personally I'd prefer to be in the economy class. You are sure to enjoy more, out here.
The indoor sitting is air conditioned and it's very comfortable. However, here you can have the cool sea breeze. It may not be that comfortable if it's too hot.
There's a shade here though. But still, it may not be that comfortable for everyone. Anyways, this would be my personal preference. People here are really friendly. You can enjoy the sea as well as tiny islands around you.
Also you can save 10 to 15 dollars in ticket. There might be some refreshment in there. Coffee or biscuits for instance... But I don't think we need any refreshment in this 1.5 hour journey. We have reached Zanzibar, precisely at 8:30 am.
The journey took exactly 90 minutes. It's gonna take 15 minutes or so before we leave the ferry. And the bigger boat you see over there is the one with our motorcycle. It reaches here at 4:30 am. And the customs office opens at 6 am. So you will have an hour or so.
By the time you get here, your motorcycle will already have got here. And we are here exactly at the designated time. Waiting for the people to leave. And hope that our motorcycle gets cleared soon. We have here... Mudassar. Mudassar is taking us to...
Welcome to Zanzibar Thank you Lets go Here's Ayaz from Karachi. He will help us with the clearance of our motorcycle. He works in Zan Fast Ferries. The motorcycle is inside? Yes, thank you.
People in Tanzania call a motorcycle, Pikipiki. They already have the keys. It's such a busy place that it's really overwhelming.
Would be really difficult to manage everything alone here. It's not impossible but still not an easy task either. Even the cars are still inside. I think it's gonna take some time. Look at that... That's our pikipiki. Our luggage is also here.
Let's get the luggage in place. A little more time is needed before the motorcycle is cleared. Lets go...
Still a minor thing left to do. So far we have got hold of the motorcycle. The customs people will give us some documents shortly. Let's see how long we still need to wait. It's now more than 1.5 hours since we got here.
Okay Ayaz. Thanks very much. Let's get going. I have already booked a hotel.
It's right next to the old town called Stone Town. Just 6 minutes away from here. However, we'll have to see what the roads and streets here are like. Can we actually ride our motorcycle in these streets here. I have paid 60 thousand shillings as charges on the port. You can convert it yourself.
I'm not in a position to convert that into dollars, at the moment. 25 to 30 USD... that's my guess. There are many options available for hotels. But I'm doing all of that on the go. For instance, I just booked this hotel while I was sitting there.
Doing so, one has already missed most of the options. Because people have already booked the hotels for those dates. But it's much easier if you can do it with a margin of few days. So... Welcome to Zanzibar I have wanted to visit this place for a long time now. Alhamdulillah... It's a dream come true.
Hope to explore this in a nice way, in the days to come. Once you are in the narrow streets, coming out of them is the real challenge. As a matter of fact, going in there is also a challenge. This is the fish market. Looks like an interesting place.
Where's that... Hey how are you? I have to go to the Swahili house... Apparently, the navigation has abandoned me here.
It's not showing me any directions beyond this point. I think we can go there on motorcycle... But cars can't go there. People park their cars here... And then they use the local transport method. That is to give their luggage to a cart guy who can get the luggage to the destination.
I have no clue where to go... Well... Lets turn this way. If we are going the wrong way... No.. .we are on the right way. I am actually following the live location.
So... We have to go... This way... We are passing through the middle of old town.
Let's see where our hotel is. Assalam Alekum Wa Alekum Salam Do you know where is the Swahili house? Okay. Thank you. Okay I think that's the one.
At last... We are here. Look really nice. Assalam Alekum My name is Abrar. I have a reservation here. I just booked on booking.com
Just now? Yeah. We have checked in to the hotel. Really lucky to have found this hotel. Even though I booked on the go. Some people recommended me another hotel by the name of Temba house.
But that didn't have any room. Finally we got this hotel and I'm really pleased about this. I just randomly booked this hotel after going through a couple of reviews. The location is amazing. It's right at the heart of old town.
It's a really beautiful historic building. It goes back two centuries. As soon as you step inside... You can actually feel the way it has been renovated. It's adorned in a minimalistic fashion. A lot of tour guides bring the tourists here to give them a glimpse of old town from the rooftop.
We will also go there. Some tours include showing the rooms of this hotel as well. Just to show the tourists how old buildings here looked like. Luckily we are already here.
Time for a room tour. This is our small room. The bed is comfortable and clean. There are many windows for good ventilation. Mosquito nets are available because we might need them at night. There's a nice view of old town from here.
Let me share that with you. Take a look. There's a very spacious and clean washroom on the other side.
It's a little surprising for me to find such spacious washrooms in an old building like this. On the contrary, I was expecting to get a tiny little washroom. But it's rather clean. You can see how colorful it is. We are now at the rooftop. There's a restaurant as well as a cafe up here.
You get a really majestic view of the old town from here. Because most of the bigger buildings have 4 to 5 floors. You won't build any building here that is higher than this. There could be one outside the old town. But over here, this is one of the tallest buildings.
And it's located at a very central location. Personally, I really loved this place. I paid almost 70 USD per night for this hotel. All other hotels also started from this price range.
So, you can say that you have to pay around 50 USD per night for a decent hotel here. If you are going towards the mid range, then the price goes up to 70 USD. Other than that, there are many resorts here too. We'll see. I'm gonna stay here for two nights.
After that, we may change it for a better location; a beach location for instance. Or we could explore a totally different area. We'll try that you get to experience different flavors of Zanzibar in each vlog from here. Let's sit here and do our lunch. I have already ordered my lunch.
Hopefully it will be here soon. We have ordered a late lunch for us. Let me show you... This is prawns curry. Along with some rice and veggies.
Talking about food prices... Mostly, cafes and restaurants like this one, are more famous among foreigners. That's why the prices here are quite high. Comparing this with what I know is that these prices are really high.
I think I paid around USD 15. I don't think I have paid this hefty price before. Anyways... that's how tourist places are like. We are now gonna enjoy your meal. I hope it tastes great.
Right now, we are at the rooftop of our hotel. Here's Mr Akhtar who is a Zanzibar born. That's his wife. They have a daughter who is behind the camera for now. It was really nice meeting you. Thank you so much for your useful tips to explore the island.
We'll try to portray it with the best of my skills. There are some more families here. I didn't expect that people would be watching my videos here as well. I met their daughter in Dubai. She lives in Arusha. Some of you might still remember her. She's Shaista and she's from Tanzania.
She asked me to say Hi to her parents through this video. They are watching from Arusha in Tanzania? They are watching from Zanzibar. Akhtar and Farida. So, I'll see them in Zanzibar Tanzania next year. Yeah. Definitely.
Insha Allah Some people reminded me of this in Dar es Salaam yesterday. Thank you very much for seeing me. I'll try to explore Zanzibar for all of you. Remember me in your prayers.
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2023-12-13 19:54
