The Dar Days Are Over!

Mambos!

I realize I have been MIA the past week, but I was spending my penultimate week in Tanzania on a little vacation to Dar es Salaam and Bagamoyo.  We spent the first part of the trip (from Friday through Wednesday) in Dar.  Keeping in mind that at first, we were all miserable and thought that nothing could possibly compare to the trip we had been anticipating to Zanzibar, it ended up being completely fantastic in its own right.

To get the worst part out of the way, it took about twelve hours to drive to Dar.  By bus.  Using back roads.  Oh, and we left at six o’clock in the morning.  And we decided not to be well-rested for the trip (which was probably a good idea), but ended up going out pretty hard on Thursday night, thinking that we would be driving on paved highways the next day.  Joke’s on us, because we took a “shortcut” to Dar that involved several consecutive hours on unpaved roads filled with ditches.  Looking back, I really think it was actually funny, but only in that kind of way when everyone is collectively despondent so it makes things oddly hilarious.  To keep going with the bad stuff, we arrived at our “beachside resort” hotel.  Once again, the joke was on us.  To say the least, it wasn’t what we expected, mostly because it wasn’t what the website showed.  Let me just say congratulations to the Belinda hotel’s marketing team, because they have a fantastic website.  Anyway, we were initially in miserably hot triple rooms that had one bed and two cots, no mosquito nets, brown water gurgling from the shower, etc (you can paint your own picture).  Thankfully, the hotel moved us around and put us in their nicer singles, so I got a single room with a fan and (sometimes) air conditioning.  Compared to how I thought I was going to spend my days here, I felt like I was at the Ritz Carlton.  It even had a balcony, so no complaints here.

View from my balcony :-) 

The rest of the days in Dar were awesome.  Without going into too much detail about each day, let me just say that we saw a good bit of the city (including, surprisingly, a mall) and a good bit of the beach.  It was interesting being in the “biggest city in Tanzania” because I connote big cities with skyscrapers and skylines, but the biggest city in Tanzania isn’t quite what I had pictured.  In some ways it’s a lot like Arusha, but just bigger and more densely populated.  Some cool things we got to do around the city: going to a cultural museum and seeing some traditional dances, walking around the campus of University of Dar es Salaam, and going to the natural history museum.  All good stuff.  To be honest, for basically everyone, this trip was a much needed break from life in Arusha (two months of living in a house with twenty people can be a bit much, and I know because unfortunately they all have to live with me), and what we really came here for was the beach.  All the other stuff was a bonus, and I was eager to experience all of Dar, but at the end of the day, I needed to get in some salt water (do I sound too much like my father here?).  It was necessary for everyone to get some ocean time, and I think none of us had ever been in the Indian Ocean before.  The beach was beautiful.  One day we went to a beach resort that was absolutely what you picture when you think of a beach resort; pool, bar, tiki umbrellas and lounge chairs on the beach, white sand and a blue ocean.  It also came with, hands down, the best meal any of us have had since we’ve been here.  Ultimately, it was the pick-me-up everyone needed and was a day full of bliss.  Side note: most people know how I feel about being tan and my vendetta against sunscreen, but I think being this close to the equator was a whole new ballgame, and let’s just say that at the end of the day I could barely move my arms or back because they were completely fried, so sunscreen has won this round.  Lesson learned. 

Museum of Natural History 

Cultural exhibition with music and dancing!

White Sands beach resort 

 Climbing on some of the rocks - was harder than it looks! 

Soccer on the beach :-) 

Our last day in Dar was another fun day, and (per my request) we went to Wet n’ Wild Water Park.  At first, I couldn’t figure out if I thought it was a completely cheesy and ridiculous idea or not, but after spending most of the day there, it turned out to be a lot of fun.  Because it’s Africa, half of the water slides weren’t working, but the ones that were working were a good time.  Of course, you can only go on so many water slides for so long, but there was also a pool with, wait for it, a swim up bar.  I honestly think that there is nothing more rewarding than sitting in the water and being served a drink, and I can say on behalf of almost everyone in my group that they also wholeheartedly agree.  For some reason, one thing that I wasn’t prepared for was the school field trips to the water park.  When we first showed up, there were tons of kids in those matching camp uniform shirts, but the first few hours we didn’t see much of them because they stayed on one side of the park with the kiddie rides and we stayed on the other.  However, after a few hours, a lot of mixing happened, and all the kids ended up in the pool that had the pool bar (which was obviously where we were).  Also at that pool was a water stage, meaning a dance floor with a DJ and “rain” coming down on everyone dancing.  So tons and tons of the kids, who are obviously way better at dancing than any of the mzungos in the pool, are dancing all over the stage, and in the water, and it was only a matter or time before we decided that dancing with the kids was a great idea.  It ended up being a lot of fun, we danced, I started a conga line, and we exchanged some sweet dance moves with a bunch of eight years old.  Honestly, I think I learned a lot.  We also rented double tubes for some of the slides, and ended up taking a lot of kids down with us on a bunch of our rides.  It was unexpectedly this awesome day where you get to recapture a little bit of your childish, youthful side, while reaping the benefits of being old enough to drink while doing it.  Pretty perfect, actually.  Around three o’clock we wanted to head to the beach.  The Water Park is basically right on the beach, and when you climb up to go down the slides, you have an amazing view of the ocean, which was somehow even more beautiful than the view we had seen two days before.  So, we left the park and went to the beach, and this beach was at a less busy resort, so it seemed even more peaceful and untouched than where we were a few days before.  The water is so nice here; I know that it’s Africa and I can only imagine what’s in the water, but I mostly figure that 1) it can’t possibly be worse than what’s in the water at the Jersey Shore, and 2) it’s ocean water, and something about ocean water fixes everything that’s wrong with you.  It worked wonders on my sunburn and bug bites, as well as a dozen other cuts and scars I have from falling down all the time (sadly, I haven’t fixed my clumsiness over here and continue my streak of falling at least once every day; Ralphie would be so proud).  The ocean here is really cool, too, because I have never seen tides quite like the ones here.  I know that tides come in and go out (something about the moon is ringing a bell), but I haven’t ever experienced ones that are as drastic as the tides I’ve seen here.  When we got to the beach, we had to walk really far out just to get to the water, and then swim pretty far out (the water was actually really shallow) to get to deeper water.  However, in an hour or two, the water completely changes, gets really deep in some parts, creates sandbars in others, and comes all the way back to shore where we started.  Like I said, I know this happens at every beach, but there’s something that’s awesome about experiencing it here.

 Waterpark!  Notice all those kiddies in the background! 

 View from the top of the slides :-) 

To be completely honest, at first nobody was really that excited about coming to Dar.  It has been a long two months, and it seemed like it could be a miserable trip that was doomed from the start.  However, completely the opposite happened, and now as I sit here writing this blog entry on my last night in Dar (even though I have no idea when it will actually be posted since the hotel also mislead us about its internet…) I am sad to leave.  This also has a lot less to do with where I was, and mostly to do with the people here with me.  I’m sure I could have a good time at any beach or pool, but I have really enjoyed spending this free, relaxed time with all of my friends here, whether it be enjoying the beach and loving what we are doing, or being hysterical and miserable together during the less organized, more chaotic parts of the trip. The reality that I'm leaving very soon is kicking in hardcore, so I am really cherishing the time I have here at the end of all this, and I am especially appreciative of the time I got to have in Dar. 

Next up – Bagamoyo!