Dar Es Salaam - Capital of Suckiness

There must be some sort of travelling law in East Africa. I don't know – call it the “The Bigger the City, the Suckier It Is”.

Profound, I know.

But seriously, first it was Nairobi (often called Nai-rob-me by tourists) that left me with a distinctly poor impression. I had higher hopes for Dar Es Salaam, since it was supposed to be more laid back and chilled out.

Sigh. Nope.

We rolled into Dar after a 7 hour bus ride, notable only in that the DVD player was thankfully broken so instead of overly loud local sitcoms or poorly dubbed B movies, we got to rock out to local reggae music.

I immediately caught a taxi into the center and ended up staying at the local YWCA, right downtown.

Again, this is where the LP's age hurt – since 3 years ago, the Y was extolled as spotless clean, cheap, and a great value.

… and they got 1 of the 3. It was cheap at $10, but very very grotty. (Mom and Dad – to give some perspective, it made my fraternity bathroom look luxurious. Seriously.)

So, let's just say I didn't plan on staying in my room much. I went out and wandered the sleepy downtown area before finding an air-conditioned Thai place – a nice change after Lushoto's filling but plain fare.

The evening was quiet – Dar doesn't really have places to go out, so I found myself in the local Movenpick hotel for a decent pizza and a few Kili's.

Just like Nairobi, the streets are really not safe after dark, so it was a somewhat nervous 300 meter walk back to the Y then bed.

The next day was pretty chilled out too – I braved the scrum of touts outside the ferry building to get a ticket to Zanzibar. One of them was astonishingly persistent – ignoring no less than 20 refusals, he just followed me and lurked behind while I got my ticket hoping for a commission, but I just shrugged at the agent – saying I had no idea who he was. No commission for you, sir!

The rest of the afternoon, I checked out the local fish market, where it would have been fantastic to take photos of the massive variety of fish on display. I figured that would have been a bit dicey so headed on my way and ended up at the Masani Slipway – a western-style enclave on the outskirts of town.

This was a good place to recharge the batteries and check out the local artists' co-op, so ended up with a pretty good fresh tuna steak sandwich and a beer, before heading back into town.

Dinner was at a locals' Indian place – Dar has a big Asian population, and then got back to the Y before dark, more than ready to get the heck out of town to check out Zanzibar in the morning!