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Zanzibar
Discover the spice of life on these enchanted islands off East Africa.
By Ulrike Lemmin-Woolfrey

Over the centuries many have fallen prey to the lure of Zanzibar. Its name alone conjures up exotic images of lush tropical forests, white beaches fringed with palms and a colourful past. Many visitors have come to its shores – Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Indians, Omanis and even Chinese traders and explorers, attracted by the proximity of the African mainland and its vast reserves of natural treasures.

Just 40km off the Tanzanian mainland, Zanzibar is a cluster of islands with two more prominent ones – Unguja or Zanzibar Island and Pemba. The capital, Stone Town or Zanzibar Town, located on Unguja Island is an intriguing mirror of the islands' mixed and turbulent history. So named for its stone buildings, as compared to the mud and palm front huts found elsewhere, Stone Town exhibits a mix of architectural styles that is quite unique. Once dominated by tall white palaces and merchant houses that reflected the wealth and status of its inhabitants, the past splendour is evident even today, although it is a little frayed around the edges. The current shabbiness is partly due to the destruction of some of the main palaces in Zanzibar's brief war – 45 minutes and listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's shortest war – on August 27, 1896. The nationalisation of the majority of its important buildings in 1963, during the revolution following Zanzibar's independence from the British protectorate, was also responsible for the shared living and subsequent neglect of the beautiful properties that dot the Zanzibar islands.

For visitors capable of looking past the dirty facades, there are splendid features such as large iron-studded wooden doors that speak of the wealth of their previous owners. Wooden shutters and intricate balconies adorning the buildings allow a glimpse into the Arabian heritage of families that once lived in these houses where shade and privacy were assured for the women of the house, who could then participate in the busy goings-on below without being seen by the world outside. Stone benches called baraza line each narrow street providing the perfect outside majlis area for residents to sit in, greet friends and show their trades and wares to each other. During the rainy season the baraza provide safe stepping stones, perfect for avoiding the muddy ground below.

To get the most out of Stone Town you should allow two or three days at least before you go and explore the rest of the island. Getting your bearings is easy enough with the labyrinthine maze of streets of the old town being bordered by the coast, Mizingani Road and the market on the wide Creek Road, all of which are good reference points. But to really immerse yourself in the mystique of Stone Town and get a feel for the charm of this rabbit warren it is good to get yourself lost on purpose. You will find yourself strolling past small shops, cafés, a myriad of mosques, churches and temples, people smiling and shouting "jambo" at you. Eventually you will alight at some place where you will soon enough recognise some landmarks. It takes less than an hour to circumnavigate the old part of town, so the stroll back to your hotel should not be too strenuous.

For some guidance, start at Bait al Ajaib, the house of wonders, the former palace of Sultan Barghash. A perfect example of the more recent Zanzibari architecture – it was built in 1883 – the building is dominated by iron columns over two floors providing shade for the surrounding verandas. All rooms are built around the four walls creating a large courtyard in the central space. Tall wooden staircases connect the floors and impressive doors allow entrance to the rooms. Full of memorabilia and knick-knacks charting the history of the one-time ruling family and the town itself, the house of wonders got its name because it was one of the first buildings here to get electricity, with people coming from all over to wonder at the spectacle.

Just to its right is the old Arab Fort with its still much used amphitheatre and some good art galleries, and to the left of the Bait al Ajaib you will reach Gizenga Street – a souvenir hunter's haven with one shop next to the other selling anything from the native tinga tinga art, beaded Masai jewellery, woven baskets, carved African animals and the ubiquitous kanga.

Kanga is the local cloth that women wear every day. Sold in twos – one for the body and one covering the head – the colourful prints are apparently a legacy of the Portuguese, but the slogans on each are in Swahili. Providing advice or tongue-in-cheek humour, each one has its own unique saying, often containing digs at unfaithful husbands or anything else for that matter. From 'Don't discard your old rug for a passing mat' to 'A liar has no holiday, he is on duty all the time,' the local women choose their kanga as much for the print and colours as for appropriate sayings. For visitors they make for perfect beach wraps, table cloths or material for cushions. Just remember to get your slogan translated before you leave, as you never know what you could inadvertently be proclaiming to the Swahili-speaking world.

From Gizenga Street turn left toward the unique building that now houses the Emerson and Green Hotel. In the 1980s two American expatriates, Emerson D Skeens and Thomas Green, took pity on the large house, once owned by Tharia Thopan. Folklore has it that Thopan was second only to the sultan in importance, and was hence allowed to build the second highest house in Stone Town. It was this building that Skeens and Green decided to save from inevitable ruin.

Sympathetically restored, the hotel now has ten guest rooms, each unique with individual architectural highlights such as wooden balconies or an outdoor shower, and all have Omani fort-like 20ft high wooden ceilings, windows with shutters and stained glass. They are all furnished with Zanzibari antiques, cupboards and most impressively huge four-poster beds draped in romantic, and necessary, mosquito nets. Ask at the reception and you will be granted a tour of the hotel. It is certainly worth a visit. The hotel also boasts Stone Town's highest restaurant, a meeting point for expatriates and visitors alike. It is a mere four storeys up, but nevertheless overlooks the tin roofs of the city and allows you to watch the dhows sail home at sunset. Every night an entirely different menu is served to guests reclining on carpets and colourful cushions.

Stone Town, which has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2000, is busy restoring its unique architectural gems. Sights such as the house of wonders, the house of culture, the Persian baths and the old church are some of the many buildings that look a lot better now than they have done in years. Unfortunately, the palace of the illustrious Omani Princess Salme, of Memoirs of an Arabian Princess in Zanzibar fame, where she spent most of her time as a child in Stone Town was destroyed in the war. The ruins of her father Sultan Sayyid's palace at Mtoni, however, can still be visited and give some insight into the life of the revered ruler. He had relocated Oman and Muscat's capital to Zanzibar in 1832, and introduced Zanzibar's gold – cloves – to the islands, and thus helped Zanzibar make its fortune.

The cloves and the other spices that still dominate Zanzibar's exports are something you cannot escape when on the islands. The local cuisine, a mix of Arabic, African and Creole, with fresh seafood as the predominant ingredient, is not spicy, but tasty. Cloves, cinnamon, anis, cardamom and many more often lend a rather unique flavour to the cuisine. Throw in some coconut as well and you will have a good measure of Zanzibari food. To learn about the islands' heritage it is important to learn about the spices. A trip to a nearby spice plantation is a must for all visitors. A guide will take you around, letting you touch, smell and guess at what is growing on the farm. And even the most fervent cook will be utterly stumped by the way some of our best known and much-used spices start their life. Pepper, for example, is a creeper – together with vanilla and passion fruit – and the different coloured pepper corns that can be found in nearly every kitchen do not come from different plants, but owe their different hues simply to the stage of ripeness and time of picking. Cinnamon is a bush, and you can use its bark, leaves, and fruit – and if you chew the stalks of the leaves you can even enjoy the refreshing taste whilst walking around. Spot ginger, lemongrass, chilli, vanilla, cardamom, turmeric, curry leaves, nutmeg, cloves, bay leaves and many more kitchen staples growing wild. Pick any one of the ten species of banana, prickly jackfruit and smelly durian, guava, papaya and the ubiquitous coconut – in the last case, one of the guides will swiftly climb up and chop a nut down for you on request. Walking through the dense vegetation is magical, the entire plantation smells of spices and fruit, and it made us wonder if the chickens living on the farm actually turn out tastier – being constantly marinated in spices in their lifetime – than your common backyard variety. Turns out that the Swahili word for chicken is kuku, pronounced cook-coo, which just about sums it up.

To get further into the lush greenery of Zanzibar, a trip to the Jozani Forest is an essential outing, especially as it is the home to the red Colobus monkeys. To visitors from the Middle East the tall trees seem even more impressive than they already are. Red mahogany, teak, giant palms and many other hardwood trees tower over you, whilst the undergrowth provides shelter for smaller exotic creatures such as the chameleon, elephant shrew and some other pretty unique inhabitants. But the truly unique residents are the monkeys. They cannot be found anywhere else in the world but in this small enclave on Zanzibar Island, and behave as if they well know that they are protected and admired. Living in social groups of up to 50 monkeys, they are as individual as many of us. There are the shy retiring types who watch you from a distance, the mother and babies who are curious but careful, and the youngsters who cannot stop showing off, including jumping on to low-lying bran-ches just in front of the foreign visitors and amusing them with their antics. Although your guide will try and tell you to stay away, some off those young artists with their long straight tails (not used for hanging off branches, but only there for balance), long red hair on their bodies and white 'punky' hairstyle, will do anything to come closer and have a good look at you. It made us wonder who really was watching whom.

Further on from Jozani Forest the roads lead you to the east coast with its beach resorts and dive centres. Scuba diving is one of the main draw for visitors from around the world to come to Zanzibar, as the long coral reefs and clear water of the Indian Ocean is – just like here in Oman – filled with colourful life and major attractions such as dolphins and turtles.

In the last few years Zanzibar’s authorities have realised that tourism is the best way to boost the slowing income from the traditional export of spices and have invested heavily not only in the restoration of Stone Town but also in the building of luxury hotel properties, primarily on the east and north coast of Zanzibar island and Pemba. Even though tourism is flourishing compared to earlier, the influx to the islands is still relatively small – with about 100,000 visitors per annum. As such the impact on the islands' natural resources and ethnic charm are still minimal and you can get a feel of the true Zanzibar.

Zanzibar does deliver pretty much everything its name promises the hopeful traveller. It is most certainly an exotic getaway with undisturbed beaches, centuries worth of rich history, bounteous and unspoilt environment and excellent cuisine. And it has been the melting pot of African and Arab cultures. There really isn’t more that one could possibly ask of a holiday destination.