Dar es Salaam. 12/28/2018

Temperature about 88; Humidity about 125%!! Greetings from hot and humid Dar es Salaam –

We had breakfast at Mediterraneo outside on a deck perched just at the edge of (a bay that links to?) the Indian Ocean. It was quite pleasant and there were definitely moments when we thought we should just remain and have a relaxing two days; but after breakfast, off we went by taxi to the overly luxurious Serena Hotel. The hotel is in amazingly good shape for being about 30 years old (and having gone through many changes of ownership. I think the most recent incarnation as a Serena Hotel (which is a chain in Asia and Africa), was probably a nod to the ownership by the Aga Khan and an attempt to make it have some Muslim touches, but it didn’t work.

In any case it is delightful to have working air conditioning and a working toilet… and not having to sleep under mosquito netting (although we have gotten used to it having had it for the past two weeks). Mostly, I love not having to stare at the extra extra super-size can of bug spray that we had in our room — just in case we needed it. Forgot to mention that they only give out one key card, and you need to use that card in order to get the air conditioning going; so when you leave the room, you need to take the card in order to be able to get back into your room. (It is a way of preserving the use of electricity, but given the heat and the humidity and how long it takes to get the room even moderately cool, we didn’t want to chance having it turned off when we went for dinner last night.. So we tried a few credit cards, and then lo and behold our Clipper Cards (for BART) worked just fine, and the room was at least on the cooler side.)

But still, it’s over the top here at the Serena … although they seem to be training locals to manage and run the hotel, as every single staff person and manager we have met – from the waiters to the concierge to the cooks are all African.

We checked in and headed out immediately (didn’t even unpack) for the Kariakoo Market – which made the Owino Market in Kampala seem calm and organized. There is a building (3 stories) and it is surrounded for about six square blocks – maybe more with two rows of shops and stalls on either side of each block, leaving a passage way of about two feet to walk – body to body. Guys carrying huge volumes of goods on their heads are also walking in this two foot passageway.

And hawkers are clicking coins together to announce that they have things to sell also! The clicking of the coins was funny because in Oakland’s Jingletown neighborhood men would come home on Friday nights (or so the story goes) clicking their coins (and “jingling them”) because they had been paid for their week’s work. A few guys had microphones so they were announcing something trying to attract customers but their volume was deafening.

Anyway, given the unbelievably close quarters and the heat and humidity, walking two or three blocks in Kari (as the locals call it), was exhausting. We walked for about two hours until we thought we would drop – we were both dripping wet. We also had the ridiculous notion that we’d find a restaurant in all of this – since we hadn’t had any lunch. After two hours (buying nothing but being ever fascinated at the smells, the sounds, the interactions between people, and the unbearable climate), we headed to a taxi whose roof light was pretty much a bunch of wires hanging from the top of the car. Somehow he got the car off the sidewalk where it and a whole bunch of other taxis were located, and off we went – back to the Serena where the staff was a bit surprised to see us arrive in such an unfashionable (to put it mildly) vehicle. By the way, we saw many Muslim women in burkas or Burka-like outfits; cannot imagine how they fare in this heat.

We freshened up a bit and headed to the National Museum in a spiffy taxi that is among the “approved” taxis at the hotel. The Museum houses a lot of the history of Tanzania and several of the bones that were found by Leaky. The museum and the exhibits could use a bit of renovation. It’s unfortunate because they have several interesting pieces. One interesting note, the museum housed a structure that was about 3.5 feet tall. According to a plaque, this structure was holding hundreds of drawings made by children ages 5-7 in Tanzania. The “box” will be opened in 50 years (2063, I think) and researchers hope to see if children 50 years from now will be drawing in the same manner as they are today.

As we left the museum, we noted that on our GPS it was only about a 20 minute walk back to the hotel. So we decided to hoof it. While the temperature hadn’t changed and the humidity was still high, but the sun was down and there was a slight breeze in the air so we thought we’d give it a try. Along the walk we passed an interesting poster in front of a building. Turns out that the building is their fashion school (according to the guard who was very curious that we were studying this sign. He explained using very limited English that the top two rows show “good dress” and the bottom two rows show “bad dress.” Very interesting.

We truly strolled, back to the Serena, had ice cold fresh watermelon juice and then headed to our room to freshen up and off we went for dinner. We opted to take the easy way out since many of the restaurants we had hoped to try, including what is considered a really fantastic Ethiopian restaurant mentioned to us in Kigali, were closed for the holiday week. We went to Cape Town Fish Market about 15 minutes from the hotel on Oyster Bay. It was a lively place – totally packed when we arrived, but we got the one remaining open table. Again the crowd was quite mixed and actually mostly Tanzanian. Indeed once a table of about 18 with young Canadians left, there were very few foreigners. After dinner we asked where to walk for a taxi, and again one of the wait staff decided to earn some extra money so we hopped into his car and he drove us to the hotel. English is really pretty tough to come by here in Dar. People all know a few words but that’s about it. This guy had a beat up old car, but was quite sweet. I think the hotel must really wonder where we are finding these guys.

Tomorrow we are hoping to get up very very early (not promising anything) to head to the fish market where they have auctions for the latest catches that morning; it’s supposed to be quite fascinating. But the auction time is 6:30 am. Not really sure we will make that. We missed the famous Tokyo fish auctions when we were there because we overslept. Who know we may miss two fish auctions. We shall see.

All the best –

Fern

PS – We are watching CNN International and Al Jazeera in the evenings and are seeing what foreigners are hearing about what is going on in the US and they must be totally appalled.