We arrived at the hotel hot and tired, the ride in was through a "not so great" area, sort of industrial and it was a little nervewracking, not only the way it looked, but the taxi driver drove like a crazed man, and of course I had no seatbelt. Nicole was quite concerned and tried to tell the driver, but he sort of mumbled "yes, yes" and wasn't too concerned in the least. We careened off and stopped for gas prior to arriving at the hotel, and at the pumps a Dalla-dalla pulled up, which is the city bus. They are small buses, more like a large mini van and are supposed to be full of character and "fun to travel with the locals" Full of people is what they were, so full that it looked like a bunch of people trying to fit as many as possible in a phone booth. Some were standing in the doors and windows with their backsides hanging out, ready to sideswipe anyone who ventured too close. It must have been so hot and smelly in there, we instantly swore that we would never take a dalla-dalla.

The hotel is beautiful, very Moorish in design, lots of wood and carving and....a gift shop to die for, with VERY reasonable prices.

We went up to our lovely air-conditioned room and even though we hadn't slept for nearly 2 days and the time changes were confusing us, we decided we needed to unpack and re-organize ourselves. It was about 2:30 when we went to bed, but the alarm clock was not working properly either so we were using 3 times, Canada time, Local time and alarm-clock time.

The bed is the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in and FOUR big feather pillows. I slept with 2 under my head and one on each side and I didn't move all night. I felt like a piece of electronic equiptment, all tucked into a cut-out styrofoam place, just fitting me perfectly. I dreamed that a mosquito was sitting on my cheek, pulling dowm my eyelid and saying: "Are you in there?"

We woke up ther next morning feeling not too bad, no worse than I used to feel as an 18 year oild after partying all night. We went to the hotel restaurant for our free continental breakfast, let's see...oj and a croissant and coffee? No, we had a choice of eggs, sauage, fried potatoes, cold cuts, cheeses, cereal, yogurt, bowls of nuts and prunes, fresh fruit, breads and buns, muffins and pastry. It was fantastic! So, we ate and headed out for our first day in the African port city of Dar es Salaam. It was true culture shock. But I am out of time, so I will finish tomorrow.

These computers are very slow, and we don't get much time, so now time for spell-check.