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This morning I made my way to the restaurant on my own, Arnold loves to sleep and I love to eat, so I said that I would meet him in the restaurant whenever he decides that he's had enough sleep for one day. Breakfast had stopped being served, I mean it was almost midday, so I probably should have guessed that. They would only be serving from their main menu. I decided to have a burger, I haven't had a burger in ages! And because I really fancied an egg, I love eggs for breakfast, I had a fried egg on top.
Much to my surprise, Arnold joined me rather quickly, I hadn't even received my food and he was up. He was also hungry, I think the hunger enticed him to get out of bed. Arnold went a played pool whilst he was waiting for his food whilst I enjoyed my own company sat at the table, I sat thinking and enjoying the view. I reminisced on the time that I've spent here, and thought about things I want to do before I leave in order to make the most of my experience here in Tanzania. My burger was deeeelicious! I think there are two reasons, firstly because I haven't had a burger in so long, and secondly because it was homemade. That's what I love about he food here, everything tastes nice because it's freshly made and not out of a packet.
I planned to do a bit of sunbathing today as I have only caught some rays for a few hours when Rich, Arnold and I went to the yacht club a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately, the weather has not been great here today, it's been on and off rain all day. After brunch we went down to Kendwa Rocks and booked on to a sunset cruise. Arnold went back to bed for the whole afternoon whilst I sat in the restaurant and relaxed. Again I reminisced on my trip. I have been ever so lucky to encounter such amazing experiences and this trip has helped me to see and realise my positives and negatives. Yes, I could spend my time sunbathing and embracing the sun, but what's the point in that? I don't gain anything from that, only a tan that will last a few weeks, for me that's not worthwhile. I want to do as many things as possible whilst I am here in order to make the ultimate best out of my trip. There are a few things that I want to do before I leave and then I think that I will be satisfied that I've made the most of very given opportunity here.
Around 3pm I went for a nap in the room as I knew the night would be long. I only had a short 30 minute nap before getting Arnold up, we went for a quick game of pool and headed to Kendwa for the sunset cruise. The sunset cruise started around 4:45pm, we were on a small dhow boat. Wine and Pringles provided, fab! Although there was heavy cloud, we were still able to see the pinkness of the sky whilst the sun was setting. We passed many small islands on our trip. A lot of them have small beaches and coves, whilst only one or two of them are lived on. Arnold and I had quite an indepth conversation about aspirations for the future. I always find it interesting to hear what others aim to do and achieve in life. Arnold hopes to be an actor and I hope to be an accountant and so our paths are very different. Surprisingly, there is rather a lot of structure and theory behind acting; I thought it was very unstructured and opposite to the way I like to work, but it's not that different. Throughout my time here, my friendship with Arnold has become stronger than I could have ever imagine. We were good friends when I arrived, we always have been good friends but speaking to someone over social media is not the same as conversing face to face. I thought I knew Arnold very well, but there's things that can't be shown or expressed on social media, or at least not to the extent that they can be expressed in person. I've learnt more about Arnold in my four weeks here than I've learnt about him over the past year and I will be really sad to leave, he's helped make my experience here and has made it possible to do all of the things that I wanted to do, even though he's done it time and time again, it's never a problem or too much hassle. He always says "if you're happy then I'm happy".
After returning from our sunset cruise, we met Josh at Kendwa. Josh had been giving training in a hotel just down the beach and so it would have been silly for him to be in Zanzibar and not stay for the full moon party! We had one or two drinks before heading back to the hotel to get changed. I was waiting for the boys to get ready so I sat in bed and started doing some sudoku, Josh was not happy, he said it makes me look old and makes him feel sad haha, so he took the sudoku book off of me and put it out of my reach.
We walked to a local fisherman's restaurant for dinner. When I say walked, I mean hiked, it was up hill on dirty beaten tracks, flip flops were probably not the wisest of choices, but then again, most of my evening will be spent on the beach and I'd look a bit silly in a pair of hiking boots or trainers, haha! Josh and Arnold ordered octopus whilst I ordered tuna steak. Alcohol was not served at this restaurant as Zanzibar is a Muslim country. Josh somehow persuaded them to go next door to the shop and buy him some sachets of vodka which had to be kept hidden in case we offended other guests. I was made to try octopus, which I did not like the idea of. Gazing at the tentacles on the octopus' legs made my body clench up inside. Eventually I did try it, I closed my eyes to put it in my mouth so that I couldn't see the sucker pads on the tentacles. Octopus is actually very nice, once you get over he slightly chewy texture, but I do not think I could have a portion of octopus to myself. My tuna steak was divine! Probably the best tuna steak that I have ever had. Josh started chewing on the skin that I had left, ew! He shortly put it back as it was very fishy. Our meal was an absolute steal, it was 27000 shillings for the three of us, and that included drinks, under £12! The prices here still manage to amaze me!
A short walk towards the beach, which was now down hill, brought us to Kendwa a Rocks where the music was pumping, guests were going crazy and drinks were flowing. It was different to the last full moon party we went to as this time there was a carnival and face paint theme. It's also no longer Ramadan and so there were a lot more people. Arnold ventured off on his own, as he does, so Josh and I had a nice little conversation. All of Arnold's friends are really nice here. Josh said to me that he will make sure he looks after me which is very sweet. They All look out for me here. It's very different to home, here you can hold a conversation with a guy, have a drink with a guy and dance with a guy and both be on the understanding that you are just friends, at home, it's not like that, if you were to share those experiences with a guy they would think it's something more, not all of the time, but a lot of the time. The difference here is that the guys have a lot of respect for the girls and will always look out for them and help them out. We met up with some of Arnold's and Josh's friends before heading to the dance floor. Again we lost Arnold. Mind of his own that one. Josh can throw some shapes!
Unfortunately, around 2/3am I noticed that my phone was not in my bag. Josh helped me look around as did Arnold when we found him, but we had no luck. We tried ringing it but there was no answer. Arnold and I bumped into one of the orders from Sagando Hostel that we stayed in in Paje, even he offered to help look for my phone and tried ringing it; even people that you don't really know help come together and work as part of a team with you. I also realized that money had gone from my bag, and so I hadn't lost my phone, it had infact been stolen along with my money. Kendwa don't accept cash, you have to have a guest card and load money on to that. I cried so much at the thought of losing my phone, not only was it my only way to stay in contact with friends and family back home, the last 600 photos that were on there have all gone. My Dropbox account had no more memory, and to upgrade it I needed a computer, which I don't have here, and so they were only stored on my phone. Such a devastating thing to happen! Luckily, I have sent a few photos to family and friends on whatsapp, and Rich and Arnold have been taking photos, so I will be able to get photos of the trip, but it's not quite the same as having your own photos. Still, I have to be grateful to the fact that I will have photos of my trip. My parents were absolute angels, they answered my phone calls at 4am and tried to help out as much as they could. They tried to block the phone but couldn't get through to EE and so have said that they will do it tomorrow.
Arnold tried to calm me down, but I felt so distraught, I didn't think through that I had sent photos and Arnold and Rich have photos, the only thing going through my mind was that I couldn't contact or update my family. I have a Tanzanian number, in which I text my Mum and Dad on, but it's not the same. I have even more limited contact with my sisters, other family members and friends.
Despite this event, the evening was absolutely fantastic! The party was booming and I had an amazing evening with Josh and Arnold. A great way to end a fantastic weekend in Zanzibar!
H
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