Day 90: Stone Town to Dar Es Salaam

We set the alarm at 05:30 and actually manage to leave at 06:00. The Ferry is right across the road, but they suggest to arrive at least an hour early. We were, however, almost the first ones there, which was good as no-one bothered us. We showed our ticket to someone at a gate and then they directed us to the VIP lounge. A massive hall with big reclining sofas.

We sat there until almost 06:40 when suddenly the door opened at the 20 odd people who arrived after us got up and started walking briskly to the ferry. We put our big backup in a cargo box and then chose a seat next to the window.

The waves were much bigger and Caro being prone to motion sickness didn’t feel good at all. One attendant noticed this and handed her a plastic bag – just in case. After the safety video two random clips of aerial shots over building sites was shown and then a move started. When the name Vin Diesel came up, Hugo knew it was a pirated version of the new Fate of the Furious movie. This was bad news as we still wanted to watch the movie, but watching it now would just be a waste as the sound is bad it it probably won’t finish before we stop. We thus tried to not look. Hugo through his jacket over his face and managed to sleep a bit.

Caro made it to Dar Es Salaam with her breakfast still inside, but didn’t feel too well. We requested an Uber after walking through and just flatly ignoring everyone outside the Ferry building no matter how friendly they sounded or how long they walked next to us or how many IDs they showed.

The Uber driver took us to the Mlimani City Shopping Mall – as requested. It only cost 12,810 TZS. Matilda, our host, told us to wait in front of the KFC. After a few minutes a woman came walking towards us, we assumed it is Matilda. She greeted us, asked us where we’re from, what we are doing here, etc. And then she just walked away. Apparently she wasn’t Matilda. A few minutes later the real Matilda came and asked almost the same questions and then led us to her Pajero.

Her house was just more than 500m away. The room is a small granny flat next to her house. She offered us tea and chipati. We talked a while and then we asked if we can do some washing. She had a machine, but no tumble dryer. The sky was blue, but clouds was already forming again. We hanged up the washing and then walked back to the mall.

We first went into Game to see the prices, we were shocked at how expensive it was. We then went to the Nakumatt (Kenyan brand) and started loading a few items into a trolley. Soon we realised that they are even more expensive, so we just left the trolley and went back to Game. We bought 114 000 TZS worth of groceries and toiletries, which should last us a few days. Compared to the 75 000 TZS we paid for only 3 meals at Miramont it is actually still rather affordable. We, however, couldn’t get over how expensive some things were and couldn’t get ourselves to buy it. We did indulge in a 200g block of cheese for R80.

We walked back to the house with the heavy shopping bags. The bajajis (tuk-tuks) wanted 3000 TZS which was the same as the minimum fare for Uber, which would have been applicable for such a short distance.

We took the washing off and chilled a bit, before going back to the mall yet again. We had an appointed with Vin Diesel. We bought movie tickets for The Fate of the Furious. The cinema claims to have the biggest screen in East Africa. The popcorn was a let down and the seats had the same mouldy smell as the cushions from Jambo Brothers. The movie was at least as exciting and implausible as always.

Matilda offered us rice and beans for dinner before we went to bed for an early night.