A first-day travel vlog in Stone Town, Zanzibar, by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting arrival at their hostel, wandering the maze-like alleys, and reacting to ornate doors and boatyards. They sample local foods (sticky rice, octopus curry, mandazi, sambusa) at a local cafeteria and later at a bustling sunset night market where they try "Zanzibar pizza" and chocolate-banana desserts. The pair also visit museums including the slave chambers (noting up to ~75 people were held there), reflect on tourist crowds and navigation challenges, and end the day heading back through dark alleys.
Chapters
So I just ventured out of our hostel for the first time. This place is like a maze, but I love it. And I went to the ATM to get some money, and it basically gave me $100 in the equivalent of $2.
We survived the night in our hostel last night. Sorry if I was a little bit of a diva when we got there, but we're gonna stay three more nights now.
At this point, I've done, like, hours of research looking for somewhere else to stay, and I pretty much decided that the place that we're at is about as good as it gets for the price that we're willing to pay.
But we're really excited about our first day in Zanzibar. Today's agenda is eat. Apparently, the cuisine here is the best, so we're just gonna walk around and eat what we see.
Also, the city is built like a maze. My little ATM adventure this morning was a ton of fun. So we're just gonna wander around the city, get lost in the maze of buildings, and then there's a few, like, touristy things that we should stumble upon along.
So many of the doors here are super ornate like this. I think it has something to do with the Indian influence here, but it's been so fun to see all the pretty doors.
Hi, guys. Jumbo, Jumbo here.
Downtown guide.
Let's take a walk around.
So many people want to sell us.
Stuff right now looking for the SE.
Pr and we found it somehow through the maze of all the buildings. I love this place so much. It's like a mixture of, like, Hanoi and Vietnam. Just, like, the crazy little streets. And then, like, for some reason, it kind of feels like Nepal with, like, an African influence.
It's awesome.
I love old boats.
This is so cool. I don't even know how these things float, but these guys are over here fixing this boat. That boat definitely should be floating.
The old sailboat's the coolest. The sail looks like 500 years old.
It's like a massive piece of piece of canvas that would weigh, like, 2,000 pounds and flip the boat over. I'm so sorry about this terrible spot that's right around in here. It's been there since yesterday. No clue what happened. Obviously, something got into the camera, but my sister and her husband are meeting us in Portugal next week, and we're going to try to get them to bring us a new camera so we can get rid of that.
I've come to fork in the road. Try to get back.
They look the same.
That way.
Or that way.
I think this way.
It's a miracle. Going back to the main road, we.
Wandered through, like, a hundred different alleys on the way to the beach, which took, like, 15 or 20 minutes to get there. And then we wanted to get back to our place because there's a local place that's supposed to be really good for lunch. And somehow, first try, with no map, we made it back.
Not with any of my help.
And this is where we're grabbing lunch. Supposed to be, like, cafeteria style or something like that.
I think everyone else left only planet too.
No locals, but it was supposed to be the best place to get local food. What is that? That looks delicious. What is this?
This is a zasbar. Local rice. This is Japan.
These guys house everything in.
This is the mandas.
That's okay. You're in the kitchen.
This is a coconut.
Yes.
And this is gani bread. This is fine mandazi. And that is sambusa. This is a rice. Rice, bread. And this is a chicken.
I would like the local rice. I think that'll be funny.
And then.
The octopus.
One potato ball.
Yeah.
This is hilarious.
Hello. Hello. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. The same as you.
Oh, I've missed these.
They call this, like, an egg drum or something. It's room temperature.
We know you like samosas, so try that.
Kind of like a meat pie. Well dry. If all this was warm, it would be fantastic. But now it's Nate's turn to try.
The rice.
The guy behind the counter suggested that we get the local rice and also octopus, coconut curry stuff. So got a little adventurous and tried exactly what he recommended.
The rice is really sticky.
Nice.
Yummy. It's really good. Can you see the suction cups?
That tastes like tomato base. The only octopus I've ever had was, like, super chewy. I will say that's the most tender octopus.
Car. What was the verdict?
Lunch was.
I'm a little disappointed. I think maybe Lonely Planet ruins that place. So all tourists were in there?
I don't know. All the food was just room temperature, almost really good.
We have been walking in circles looking for this place. According to our maps, we were right next to it the whole time. This is the first sign that we might be in the right spot.
Thirty minutes later, we found it.
Now Nate is paying the tourist tax to go into the museum. At least the tourist tax can be done. We'll actually know what we're looking for.
It does. And we're doing another museum. I'm gonna say by the end of this, we'll be sick of the museum. But gotta take the time to learn about things Once you get.
This church was built on top of the spot where they would bring slaves here and whip them to see if they were strong enough to be their slave. And it happened right here.
That's where the post was.
There's a guy buried right here.
Who.
Would buy the slaves in zanzibar, and then he would set them free. And then he built this whole village for them to live. And he built this whole church before he died. And now he's right there. What a cool guy.
We just entered the slave chambers.
This is slave chambers, where slaves were kept before taking to market. So they often 75 slaves will be kept in here. Slaves lived here for two, three days. Most of them died because of suffocation and starvation.
I'd say best museum we've been to. Yeah. That was really good.
It's intense.
Very intense.
What happened here, we'll leave it at that.
Day Wore out.
So we both passed out For a little while this afternoon. Now we're going to eat again. There's supposed to be some, like, sunset night market Where a bunch of vendors set up. And we've heard really good things about zanzibar pizza, which is not actually pizza, but that's what they call it. It's like they're just starting to get set up.
They're.
This man is going to town on some onions.
That is gonna be so good.
Wow.
Kara, what's happening?
We're having the zanzibar edition of diving in the olympics.
Seems like it's just for fun.
Keeping my promise Came back to these guys. There are tons of options for pizza. I think I'm gonna go ve g and cheese. And then nate's gonna go to another stand, and we're gonna see who this is.
Better.
That looks delicious. Did you put ketchup on it?
I got ketchup and chili.
Nice.
It's delicious. I think this is my new favorite street food.
Yeah. It's like, that is a huge statement that you just made.
It's like, so many things that I love veggies.
Look how huge this banana is.
I mean, that thing is like, how.
Do you think it's so big.
Time for dessert.
Thank you.
Oh.
Oh, my gosh.
This is a mars bar. Nutella and bananas covered in chocolate circle.
Bringing back memories of roadies in thailand.
We've never had a mars bar on it.
Dinner far exceeded lunch today.
I'd say we had a successful first day in zanzibar. Now if we can just navigate ourselves back through the maze before it gets dark.
Dinner was so good.
Been craving chocolate all day.
Finally got it.
No shame now. People tell you not to walk in dark alleys. You have no choice. Here it's just all alleyways, and now it's all dark.
