Because we have to hurry on the internet, I am never really sure what I have said, and the connection is really slow so I have no time to review or to check spelling, please excuse all the repeats and spelling errors, I will edit when I get home. Already I have used 7 minutes, just to log on and write this much.

So I will contiune with Jan 10, the first day.We decided to walk to the docks and see if we could find the place where we were to purchase our tickets for Zanzibar, to be ahead of the game so to speak. The walk there was easy, but once again, nothing was as we imagined. The dock area and "offices" where you buy tickets was just amazing, and I mean that in a rather disgusting way. Hot (as always) humid (as usual) touts in your face hollering at you to come with them (this all seems familiar, I think I have written it already) We found the Fast Ferry booth and high-tailed it back to the hotel, the whole time I was thinking "How are we EVER going to navigate this place when we actually have to buy a ticket, and where the HELL are all the other tourists??"

Then we decided to go and see about the Scandinavian Bus Lines, which is the line we were going to use to go to Arusha, and Arusha is where we caught the small plane for Haydom. We looked on the map and the bus line looked not too far at all. We decided to walk. The doorman asked if we wanted a taxi, and we said "No", we ffigured we could walk. He was quite horrified and said that we could never go that far on our own. It was "traffic time" and too hot.

You know, I am quite sure I have already written this, but between regular e-mails, my journal, and this, it all starts to blend together.

Anyhow, we decided to take a taxi after the doorman, a bellboy, a strange man and another bellboy all decided that it would be about 3,000 shillings. They hailed a driver and the doorman said to him "3,000 shillings" and as we got in the bellboy said "3,000 shillings" and as we drove away and said where we were going, the driver said "17,000 shillings." What??? So we started to negotiate, which is always done BEFORE you get in the cab as the cabs here have no meters, but, we thought it HAD been negotiated and we told him that, and we sort of thought that we would get out and walk. He told us his name was Jonathon and we could not walk there, "too far, too much traffic, hard to find." As we nwere discusssing this we came to a street corner that was incredibly busy, even though a policeman was directing traffic, it was a huge disaster and we knew at that moment that we could never have walked there, so we settled on a price, 10,000 shillings for there and back. (the original 17,000 he quoted us was for one way only.)

Well, thank the Taxi Gods for Jonathon, the area was the worst area we had seen yet, Nicole told me after we got back that whenh she saw the turn-in to the bus depot, she nearly (sorry Nicole) crapped her pants!! Once we got in to the actual compound it wasn't quite so bad, but Jonathon came inside with us, made sure we got our tickets and then drove us back again.

Todays Lesson: Always listen to your doorman and taxi drivers. Especially in a third world country.

Tidbits.

The people here, even though so many of them are "in your face" are so incredibly beautiful. Their skin is this amazing colour, like mild chocolate, and so smooth, with perfect complexions and white, white teeth. They have incredible posture and the women wear these colourful "kanga's" and the men wear bright shirts and every is always smiling and laughing.

Tomorrow..."Hundred Dollar Taxi Ride." (Ever seen that show on the travel network? We have implemented it into our travels.