KARIBU!

That's welcome in Swahili and that is also the very first word we heard when we flew in to Dar es Salaam, capital of Tanzania in East Africa.  My daughters and I travelled to DAR from Bangalore via Doha and landed into Julius Nyerere International Airport - named after their first President and Baba wa Taifa (Father of the nation).
My husband was already there and he, along with our friendly driver David, picked us from the airport. It was wonderful to see the husband after nearly a 4-week gap and ofcourse, the girls were overjoyed.  Both of them started speaking at the same time vying for their father's attention!

As we rode into town, DAR looked like any other Indian town; the vegetation is very similar to what we find in India - plenty of bougainvillea trees, neem, gulmohar, frangipani shrubs with lovely, sweet smelling white flowers.  The traffic is a lot better as compared to Bangalore - lane discipline is mostly followed. But ofcourse, we could not escape the omnipresent and omnipotent traffic jam.  While waiting at the signal, a few hawkers rushed in selling their ware - fried cashews, cool drinks, sun-glasses and such other stuff.  We also saw a few carts selling roasted corn and some more carts filled with sweet potato and tapioca.  These happen to be the staple food in Tanzania.

At the Double Tree Hotel

During low tide

We reached our hotel - Hilton's Double Tree situated in the Masaki area - a beautiful locality with broad, clean roads and a lot of green shrubbery.  You will find most of the expats living in this area.  In fact, the High Commissioners of various countries reside here in big, beautiful houses, well manicured lawns and gardens and ofcourse with high walls for security.  The girls thought there would be two prominent trees in the premises - befitting the hotel's name; but we didn't find any.  The hotel offered a wonderful view of the sea.  A walk-in bridge built over the sea and ending with a viewing platform was a great attraction; the view and the experience was wonderful especially during high tide. Small dhows sailing with their sails unfurled looked magical and serene!

The view bridge - during high tide 

The trip from the airport to the hotel cost us 50,000 TZS (Tanzanian shillings).  I was dumb struck at the astronomical price but then got to know from my husband that 1 INR fetches 32 TZS, so roughly that worked out to Rs.1500. 

Places we saw,  things we did / didn't do  in DAR

Enjoying the waves at Coco Beach!

A view of the slightly muddy waters of Coco Beach

Boats adrift adding to the charm.

1.  Coco Beach - Situated about 2 kms from our hotel, we visited the Coco beach one evening.  The breeze was lovely and we watched the waves rise and fall.  The girls enjoyed wetting their feet (and half their clothes too) in the spray while we watched the ships and schooners sail in the distance.    We took a long stroll on the beach with a pleasant breeze blowing. I ensured that we had an even longer walk than we had set out on. I was carrying my shoes in my hand, along with my daughters'; somehow dropped one of them and realised it only much later.  So, we had to walk back the entire stretch of the beach in search of the missing shoe.  My husband finally found it and earned some brownie points! (while I received a lot of brickbats from my dear ones!)

2. Makumbusho (meaning museum) - The concierge in the hotel advised us to visit the Makumbusho in the city.  We wanted to ride the auto and asked him how to call for one.  He very simply said, "Just call out, Hey Bajaji, and he will come." We thus got to know that the autos are called Bajajis - as there are several Bajaj autos plying on the roads of DAR. We hailed a Bajaji and reached the Makumbusho.  At first sight, we were wondering if we had reached the wrong place - there didn't seem to be a proper entrance and the front was packed with small restaurants.  We then approached from the side, bought the tickets at the counter and began exploring the museum.  It was a wonderful experience - the Village Museum is set in the open and has about 20-odd different models of huts and dwellings that the various tribes in Tanzania reside in - thatched huts, clay huts, round ones, conical shaped, etc.  We could enter each hut and and thus got to look at some of the utensils, equipment and weapons used by the tribes men.  The information boards hanging beside each hut gave a fair description of the people and their practices.  Many of the huts and the equipments reminded us of our own Indian villages  - we can definitely find a lot of similarity here - the weapons used, the simple lifestyles, the importance given to animals and cattle,  the peaceful coexistence of man and nature.
Another highlight of our visit was the entertainment provided by the dancers - dressed in their traditional attire, they sang and danced their traditional dance forms to the tune of drum beats.  Even though we did not understand the language, we could appreciate the rhythm and beat of the drums.  The girls enjoyed it immensely!

At one of the shops in Mwnege market

3. Mwnege Market - This is the famous wood carvers market in Dar -  a must see place.  It has several rows of shops that sell various pieces of art  and curio items made from wood - intricate work displaying the Masai tribesmen and women in their attire, holding their spears and shields; the beautifully carved and coloured giraffes, hippos and other native animals, necklaces and earrings.  We also got to see the exotically named Tinga Tinga paintings - bright, oil paintings on canvas depicting rural life.   As you

This board game is similar to the Pallankuzhi of Tamilnadu

enter the market, you will be invited by the shop owners to visit their store - calls of KARIBU (welcome) and ASANTHE (thank you) reverberate loudly.  The sellers are warm people and are willing to bargain and drop prices; they don't mind even if we start at 50% of the quoted price. In fact, one of the sellers cheerfully said "Mama, please go high.  Ask a better price."   We finally settled for a slightly higher amount - satisfactory to both of us!  We picked up quite a few pieces to give as mementos to friends back home.  One particular curio is called the kalabash, made from dried gourd - ash gourd or bottle gourd.  Intricate designs are etched on the exterior of the gourd and painted with bright colours. It looks big but is weightless. 

Airtel's building in DAR enroute to Mlimani

4. Mlimani City Shopping Mall - This is one of the biggest malls of DAR.  Anything and everything that you may need, you can get it here in the South African shop called Shoprite.  Built on a huge, sprawling area, this mall also houses some good Indian restaurants and a movie theatre. In fact, this being close to my husband's office,  he would order food from the Indian restaurants here  - even Kerala's koththu parota, and aapams were available. Hence, he did not miss Indian food much during his month long stay.  He missed his wife's cooking, though! 

The street scene at Slipway

Right at the eastern edge of the land! 

On the embankment - enjoying popcorn

5. Slipway - Situated right next to the Double Tree Hotel, this is a seafront facing shopping arcade.  We took a leisurely stroll on a Sunday evening - it was filled with the locals, enjoying their Sunday, eating at food stalls or having dinner at the restaurant by the sea.  The children's amusement park was completely full and much to my younger daughter's disappointment, we did not go in.  We mollified her with a packet of popcorn from the road-side stall.  We then walked down the slipway towards the water edge.  It was literally the Land's end - walking up a small paved pathway that directly led into the ocean! A truly wonderful experience.

6. Upanga Club - We visited this Club set up by Gujaratis in the late 1800s.  It gets its name from its location in East Upanga. A non-member can also visit this club and thus we had excellent Gujarati food.  We ate some heavenly samosas, lip-smacking kachoris, methi bhujias and other delicious stuff.  Looking at us eat, I am sure any onlooker would have thought that we had been starving for several days!  During the weekends, this place gets filled up with Indians and Tanzanians of Indian origin - eating to their hearts' content and playing Housie.  We missed the Housie session, though.

the Dala-Dala

7. Dala Dala - The city bus is called Dala Dala and is generally packed with people.  Some of them are very old mini-buses and I guess only the bravehearts board the bus.  There are T-shirts with slogans such as "I rode the DALA DALA and survived to tell the tale."  This was one thrill ride that we dared not try, especially after reading the T-shirt slogan.

8. Local food -  We found that Tanzanians love to eat beef.  Tapioca, sweet potatoes, corn are also their favourites.  We tried some of the local vegetarian dishes served in the restaurant in Double Tree and enjoyed them.  We tried this slightly sweet dish called mandazi that was served at breakfast.  It reminded me of our very own Mangalore Buns - made from flour, mixed with mashed bananas and curd and fried in oil.  Another dish that we liked was the Ugali, a cooked cake of maize flour - again, similar to our Ragi mudde / kepai kali that we prepare back home.  This was served with a vegetable gravy that was very tasty!