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As I boarded the bus early in the morning in Nairobi I prepared myself for the scheduled 12 hour journey to Tanzania. Interesting sights along the way, but nothing to keep me awake for more than 20 minutes straight! Luckily I woke up in time for the border, for what should be a simple procedure of getting my visa. Should be! When I handed over the $50 U.S., the customs officer quickly smiled and stated he didn't have any change. I pointed out that I had seen the Kenyan in front of me receive his change. Amazing how the officer then said he'd ask his colleages if they might be able to scrape together the $20 owed back to me. 20 minutes later I boarded the bus with my transit visa and $20. No way is the only fight against corruption!! Bloody ironic that we then remained stuck at the border for a further 30 minutes with a flat tire!!

Aaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhh, Zanzibar

Coffeecat
2005-12-24 22:46:05

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coasts, but as it was a chance to swim I was content. I couldn't figure out why the others in my group didn't run in as well, although the skies were a bit stormy. As I paddled and floated through the currents of the Indian Ocean I started speaking to the 2 other daring swimmers from another group. How proud was I to learn that Paulette was from Vancouver! So how many times can you say 'it's a small world' in one lifetime? And then Anita turned out to be catching the same train to Zambia in a few days. Swimming in new waters when ever you can certainly pays off!

As I walked into town for a meal later in the evening, I bumped into Anita so I joined the
gang of girls for a meal on the seafront. What fun it was to have a giggle and flirt with the waiter! The fact that he turned out to be gay only made the evening more entertaining.

The next day I signed up for a tour to the south coast beach of Kizimkazi where I was hoping to swim with dolphins. As I collected my flippers and snorkel and walked towards the boat my mind couldn't stop thinking of Flipper the Dolphin pulling me back to shore. Not concentrating on this walk through the shallow tides wasn't the smartest idea. I missed stepping on the deadly sea urchins by just a millimeter or so. Then I saw our boat. Although it was named Rambo, it didn't look so tough. Ah well, this is Zanzibar life now. When we far enough off the coast not to swim back, I noticed the full time bailing water motion of the skipper. Hhhmmm, hopefully Flipper really will want to take me the whole distance!! After a lot of searching the waters, we joined a couple of other boats. A couple of dolphins had been spotted so I jumped in. Again, I was the only one from my boat in the water? Maybe I'm scaring them all off??? Anyways, I sorted out my mask and then looked straight down. Wwwoooooooooo, bit of a jolt to my system to see these ...