Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam is a huge city with over two million inhabitants but we didn’t notice much of this. Mainly because we stayed in the centre where most of the major sights can be found, the ferry terminal to Zanzibar, restaurants, hotels and banks. And we had no problem in finding our way.

I had always thought that Dar es Salaam was Tanzania’s capital. It isn’t. Dodoma is the capital and Dar is the administrative city. It has a seaport and an oriental feel. It is bustling, colourful and chaotic, hot and dusty.

The Asian District is especially attractive. Hundreds of small shops selling spices, exotic fruit and things typically Indian. We went to ’56 Bhog’ in Kisutu Street, an Indian restaurant specialising in the most tantalising sweets, wrapped in silver foil.

In the European District there are still many houses built in the fifties by the English. Some have been restored others are in less good condition. This is what colonial Dar es Salaam must have looked like.

Merchandise at Kariakoo Market.

Just west of the centre is Kariakoo Market a colourful African market, busy until night.

In the National Museum we admired a fossilised footprint dated 3.75 million years ago. Fascinating!

Makonda Woodcarvings

Nyumba ya Sanaa or House of Arts, an arts centre where artists have their workshops and sell their work, all of high quality and craftsmanship. I especially liked the woodcarvings made by members of the Makonda tribe.

In the Village Museum we saw replicas of houses and huts of different tribes living all over Tanzania. We especially enjoyed the traditional dancing and music.

Quick Tips:

When we moved out of Dar es Salaam we went by Scandinavian Express. This is by far the best company. Safe and reliable. It has no connections with Scandanavia, but their buses are Scania buses. They have their own terminal at the crossing Misimbazi Street – Nyerere Road. All other buses leave from Ubungo Bus Station, 12 km north of the centre (but still within the city boundary). It’s best to avoid Hood bus company. I saw them racing along and overtaking dangerously.

The only ATM which accepts Visa, Cirrus and Mastercard is on Ohio Street opposite the Royal Palm Hotel. There are guards so it is a fairly safe place to withdraw money.

I felt slightly uneasy when taking photos in Dar es Salaam. There were two reasons:

1. taking photos of strategically important buildings and government buildings could get me in jail.

2. Hauling out a big camera draws too much attention from thieves. So I only used my much smaller digital camera and tried to hide it in my hand when not using it.

Best Way To Get Around:

Daladalas are shared minibuses. There are thousands of them and very easy to use as their starting point and terminus are clearly indicated on the front. The fare is Tsh 150.

There are also numerous taxis, no meter but standard fare within the centre is Tsh 1500. To the airport is Tsh 8000, to the Village Museum is Tsh 4000 and to Ubungo Bus Station is Tsh 3000. Taxis are waiting in front of hotels and at road junctions.

The receptionist greeted us by name. I thought this very considerate. Three days before our arrival I had sent an email and the hotel had duly confirmed it. We soon found out that we were the only foreign visitors so it was not very difficult for the receptionist to remember our name.

From the airport we had taken a taxi, fixed price Tsh 10.000 (4 euros), and the driver assured us that Keys Hotel was value for money. When we saw our room we could not agree more.

It was on the first floor at the back, so no street noise. In fact our room was two rooms, newly painted and with tiled floors. The first is a sitting room with two huge armchairs, a coffee table and a desk complete with an electric kettle and complementary tea and coffee. A television with 30 channels, reception a bit ‘snowy’ but the sound was fine. One door led to the first bathroom and another door to the bedroom. It had a double bed with mosquito net, which fitted tightly round the bed and it had no holes. At night I did not hear any mosquitoes, but it’s the silent ones which carry malaria. Another door led to the second bathroom. There was hot water all day, unless the switch which is in the corridor has been switched off, so we checked this every night. The blue tap gave hot water and the red tap cold water. Just a minor thing to know.

Continental breakfast is included: fruit juice, toast, jam, butter, tea or coffee. Eggs could be ordered at an extra charge. There is also a restaurant with international dishes to choose from. Excellent service and a nice ambience. Only the coffee after the meal was a bit of a disappointment, very weak instant coffee, but we did get a big pot each.

There is a security officer at the entrance and on each floor. So that intruders cannot walk in, or steal anything. I liked the padlock on the toilet roll.

Keys Hotel is close to the centre and at walking distance from the ferries to Zanzibar.

The good points of this hotel are: its proximity to the Scandinavian Bus terminal--10 minutes on foot--and its hot water. Not two degrees warmer than the cold, not lukewarm, not a mere trickle. A full hot stream. For the first time in three weeks we had a real hot shower.

The room is the standard hotel room: two separate beds of which one is a narrow double, mosquito nets without holes, but too small to be of any use as they did not fit round the bed, were more like a straitjacket, television with an inside aerial unable to receive any programme, a noisily humming fridge, empty, a fan and air-conditioning which had difficulty in fighting the heat. The room faces south and gets very hot in the afternoon. It smells of camphor balls, repellent against insects.

Our room is in the new wing, Tsh 20.000 (20 euros), but the newness must have been some time ago. There is also an old wing with rooms at Tsh15.000 (15 euros). Breakfast consists of two boiled eggs, three slices of toast, a very tiny dollop of jam and spiced tea. It was served in the dining room / restaurant, a very dark place which had been closed for dinner the preceding evening. This a bit of a disadvantage because Dar es Salaam is not the place to wander about at night in search of a restaurant.

I think Keys Hotel (see my entry about it) at the same price is a far better value for the money.

This museum is small enough for me to enjoy. I spent just over an hour and there were not many other visitors so that I could see everything in solitude.

What I liked best was the trail of fossilised footprints which were left in wet volcanic ash by two adults and one child. They date back 3.75 million years and were found in Laetoli 40 km south of Olduvai in north Tanzania near the Serengeti plains. This was a very important discovery as it proved that men was walking upright way before anyone had imaged. These human beings were 100-150 cm tall and weighed up to 50 kg. There is also a skull on display, quite small, very much like a chimpanzee, but with different teeth. The footsteps in Laetoli have been covered up again. What is displayed in the museum is a plaster cast.

Another exhibit I liked very much was a bicycle made entirely of wood. And its wheels really turned.

The Marine Biology Hall contained a large collection of seashells all labelled. I collect them myself and could now see their names. Most of them were the same as I had found in Indonesia. After all it’s the Indian ocean which is in between Indonesia and Africa so no wonder that the shells were similar.

In the History Room there is a tiny fragment of moon rock from the Apollo mission and the original Uhuru torch which was planted on top of Kilimanjaro on 9 December 1961.

There was a temporary display of black and white photos in the entrance hall all depicting ordinary people and street life. Nyerere’s mercedes was also on display a bit dusty but apparently in full working order.

We went across the road to the botanical gardens and walked in the shade of the trees. This garden is reasonably well-tended and dates back to German times. A pleasant place to spend some time.

The Village Museum is 12 km north of the centre of Dar es Salaam. The taxi fare is Tsh 4000 (4 euros). It is an open-air site with replicas of houses of the different tribes who live in Tanzania. They are surrounded by plots of local crops. Everything is clearly labelled both in Swahili and English. Some of the trees are also labelled which I liked very much as I had seen them quite often but never knew their names.

There were not many visitors and we were the only ones to watch the traditional dancing and listen to the drummers. One used the metal seat of a chair as a drum, others had traditional drums. They were full of energy and clearly enjoyed what they were doing. They only spoke Swahili so communication after the performance was slightly difficult. But we could make clear that we had enjoyed the performance.

There are also resident artists and I bought some clay figurines from Petro Paulo Mayige. His figurines depict scenes from village life. I bought a man playing bao. This is a board with four rows of eight holes and sixty-four counters which have to be moved in a certain way to capture your opponent’s counters. The little man I bought has a triumphant facial expression because he is winning. His opponent looks, who is loosing, looks very sad.

I also bought a young girl with a baby on her back who is picking unripe rice from a big bowl.

I didn’t know that the artist is quite famous. As a young boy he watched the older women in his village making clay pots. He would take some of the clay and make his own creations. As a young man he worked in the casting department of the national museum for some time. But now he has his own workshop in the Village Museum. Some of his work can be seen in the National Museum in Dar es Salaam, Skansen Museum in Stockholm and the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., USA. It was only after I had bought my figurines that the artist told me about his career. Actually I was quite proud that I had recognised real talent.

Petro Paulo Mayige

Nyumba y Sanaa is an arts centre where artists have their workshops and sell their work. It’s all of high artistic value and much better quality than the works of art which are offered in the markets all over Dar.

The prices are fixed, but still very cheap. We bought ‘skeleton’ woodcarvings which varied in price from $2 - $6. There were leather shoes and handbags but I did not buy these because I was not quite sure if the animals were protected animals. If they were, the custom officer would catch me, and the goods would be confiscated. Then a fine has to be paid. There was also a huge range of baskets, jewellery, textiles, pottery and Tingatinga paintings.

Tingatinga was a self-taught artist who painted fanciful and colourful animals. His art became very popular and soon attracted a circle of students who learned to imitate his style. These days there are many Tingatinga painters who sell their work.

Traditional Tingatinga paintings are square in format and feature colourful animals against monochrome background. High-gloss paint gives the paining its glossy appearance. These days there are many formats and multi-coloured backgrounds. Besides animals there are also spidery men, Masaai warriors, houses, hospitals and people.

When we had done our shopping we had a meal in the arts centre restaurant, European cuisine, and watched traditional dancing accompanied by drums which was being recorded for television.

‘You have come British time.’

We arrived 90 minutes before departure.

’Our boat has technical problem today.’ he continued and gave us a big smile and gestured us to sit down. ‘There is a flight at 12 and a fast boat at 12.30.’

Our cancelled boat was the slow boat, it would have taken four hours to get to Zanzibar. Four hours Tanzanian time. From experience I know that this would mean five hours our time. People in Tanzania are very generous about time, making it longer or shorter, whichever suits best.

We had chosen this slow boat because over the years we have learned that these faster boats usually touch the top of the waves and make everybody seasick.

But this time we had no choice and decided on the fast boat.
’Show us the boat.’ I asked. He duly took us outside and pointed at a catamaran. Later on we boarded a completely different one, and I was not surprised at all.
Our man then invited us to go to ‘the launch’, which appeared to be the lounge, and was a waiting room resembling a beehive: Zanzibarians returning home.

Soon two neat lines were formed, one for women one for men, proceeding alternatively to board the catamaran. Men were scanned by men, women by women. Men carrying headboards, chairs and other interesting merchandise went on board. We followed and were separated from the crowd and directed upstairs, which slowly filled with foreigners who had paid in dollars and other first class passengers.

The ferry terminal is opposite the cathedral. There are two counters: one for dollar payments, foreigners, and one for local currency payments. Bring your passport as you will have to show this when buying your ticket.

When you disembark in Stonetown, don’t follow the crowd. Foreigners have to fill in an immigration form and get their passport stamped. On leaving the ferry bear left and you will find the immigration office. Your Tanzanian visa is also valid for Zanzibar. When formalities are over taxi drivers will offer their services. They will suggest hotels, first the ones where they get a high commission but they don’t push you. If you don’t like the hotel of your first choice or if it is full, they will happily tour the city with you, no extra cost. Some hotels are in back alleys and difficult to find. When negotiating the room price bear in mind that the first night is more expensive as you will also have to pay the taxi driver’s commission.

Price of the ferry from Dar es Salaam to Stonetown, Zanzibar: non-residents $20 inclusive of tax $5 for the slow ferry. The fast catamaran: $30 and $5 tax