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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAnyway, we didn’t miss the bus, and were soon heading south. The bus had 2 aisles and just 3 seats (each with access to an aisle) so reasonably comfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within a couple of hours we were at the border. We were still there 2 hours later, having queued to go through immigration controls. We were surrounded by money changers as we re-joined the bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The journey continued through pleasant though not spectacular scenery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we stopped for lunch we realised we should have changed some money at the border as we were unable to get cash via mpesa (mobile money) and had to limit our meal to what our few notes would buy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n We shared the bus mostly with a big family group heading to a wedding in Dar es Salaam, then women with henna-ed hands. They’d brought food and drink and shared with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All was going fine until we reached the outskirts of Dar, when the traffic got appalling: they are constructing express busways throughout the city (down the middle of roads) with consequent chaos. By the time we’d dropped off the wedding party and reached the bus station we were very late. Still , some people travelled in comfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I started researching Dar es Salaam I discovered there was a modern cable-stayed bridge, so of course it was my ambition to run across that bridge, then back on the old shoreline road with a view of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a shower and breakfast we headed off to explore the city centre. This involved frequently negotiating the roadworks around the new bus route, with big “bus stations” in the middle of streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First stop was an ATM, then the Lutheran Cathedral<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along the waterfront, taking care not to get arrested for taking photos of government buildings, we saw the ferry across to the main port area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then the fish market – an amazing place with sights and smells<\/p>\n\n\n\n We tried to resist the hard sell, but the guy selling these lobsters was charming (and worked hard for his money)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having chosen 2 for our brunch, he took us to another area to get them prepared, then to a cafe area where they were served with chai and chapati<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back along the waterfront we found the Catholic Cathedral, with splendid doors<\/p>\n\n\n\n Making our way back towards the hotel we passed the Ngazija Mosque<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Dahya Punja Library was the first Indian Gujarati Library in Africa and served a key role as a cornerstone of its roots for the Gujarati community<\/p>\n\n\n\n Near the hotel we found a Syrian restaurant with good and inexpensive food, including amazing falafels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After supper we walked to book Joyce’s bus ticket back to Diani and buy some beer, passing more interesting buildings. Shree Swaminarayan Mandal <\/p>\n\n\n\n BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before heading to Zanzibar I took a last run round Dar es Salaam. They’re building a Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) right into the city, and the busways beneath, and it’s mayhem!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet another mosque<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back to the hotel – shower, breakfast, pack and taxi to the ferry for the next installment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thursday 5\/12\/2024 – Bus to Dar es Salaam It was indeed an early start – Grace’s dad picked us up in his tuk-tuk about 05:15, and we were soon standing by the road waiting for a bus that hadn’t yet left Mombasa. We’d followed the joining instructions too literally, not allowing for African Time. It… Continue Reading Into Tanzania<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","radius"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43dbc-Hf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2710,"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions\/2710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.asimons.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFriday 6\/12\/2024 – Dar es Salaam<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nSaturday 7\/12\/2024 – Dar es Salaam<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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