Around the world in Dar

This past weekend I decided to combat island fever by taking an overnight trip to Dar es Salaam. I am still waiting on my residence permit to come through but I was in some much needed time off the island so I sucked up the extra cost of the non resident price and sailed to the mainland on Saturday morning with Sabrina and Jamie.

We arrived in Dar around noon on Saturday then headed to the Oyster Bay area of town where our friend is staying who was kind enough to let us crash in her apartment for the night (that’s one key benefit to having friends around the world!) After we unloaded our bags we headed to the mall for some retail therapy. The mall in Dar is actually incredible, it’s huge and has everything you could possibly want, making the whole experience kind of overwhelming!  While I was in Accra I did go to the mall but the one here in Dar is way more impressive. I think because Tanzania is so close to South Africa we can thank the country for providing massive chain stores such as Mr. Price and Shoprite. I can best describe Mr. Price as your regular home store meets clothing store and Shoprite as your Walmart meets Best Buy and both store allow you to pay with visa which is also a scary thing. Thankfully I left my visa in Zanzibar and only had a limited amount of shillings on me which allowed me to purchase only a modest amount of items instead of cleaning out the stores!

Saturday evening we decided to head out for a nice Italian dinner at a restaurant called Zuane which is where our global adventure started. The food and service at this restaurant are both amazing and the pizza is thin crust greatness!

One of the main modes of transportation around Dar is little 3-wheeler taxis which are half the price of a normal taxi and twice the fun and adventure. In Dar these taxis are called Bajajis (named after the Bajaj company that manufactures them in India). 

With this being said, after our fabulous Italian dinner 5 of us pile into 1 bajaj and head off to the Slipway to use the Barclays ATM. Now, the slipway is in a rather upscale area of Dar, I know this because the Hilton is in this area! However, the road to Slipway is just filled with potholes. Now picture this road all muddy because it rained in the afternoon, oh and also picture 5 of us in a bajaj driving down this road with the driver doing an amazing job a manoeuvring around the potholes and trying to not tip the bajaj over! I was actually 80% sure that I was going to end up with my face in the mud but we did make it clean and smiling only to use the ATM then turn around and drive back the same way we came. My question was, why don't they repave the road? Apparently the reason I was told is that if the road is fixed then the Hilton would have to open up their parking lot to public parking and they don't want to do that. Not sure how much truth there is to this answer but that's all I've found out thus far!

Our next stop around the world in Dar was at a British pub which was so surreal it was like being at pub in London except they had Kilimanjaro on tap and not Guinness. We stayed until the crowd started to thin out then we decided it was time for some dancing so our next destination was a salsa bar bringing our adventure to Latin America. I just love how every big city I’ve been to has its own salsa community with fabulous dancers, it’s amazing to watch and although I did partake in some salsaing I still require more lessons to be considered an OK salsa dancer!

Our final global adventure in Dar brought us to India at a place called Garden Bistro. Who knew there was such a huge Indian community in Dar, it was literally like we were transported to a bar in New Delhi (not that I can compare first hand but I can only image the scene being exactly the same!)

So 1 night, 3 “continents,” I can say that Dar is a cool place and I realized that in Zanzibar I live in a sheltered bubble – paradise in disguise! While I do appreciate the fact that I can visit a gorgeous beach any day of the week, I do miss the options and amenities of bigger cities. Thankfully the ferry is only 2.5 hours each way making Dar an easily accessible weekend trip once I have my residence permit.