The great escape

Now, let me say first off that I loved Ethiopia. It is the most fascinating country I have been to, with an incredibly distinct culture and history. But it was a tiring country. After surviving the 2 day bus journey I came down with a second lot of travellers diarrhea and this one continued for days. So rather than going to the south of the country as planned, we decided we had to get out. Jason spent a couple of days doing the walk to the Hilton (for the airline office) whilst I lay around feeling sorry for myself. Meanwhile we also visited the hospital in an attempt to find out what was wrong, and get some antibiotics.... this proved a useless exercise with the high point being when the doctor asked in stilted English "Do you have a fever?" - I don't know! Maybe you could check???! With only two more days to wait until the flight, we decided I would live and hopefully Tanzanian medical care would be more helpful. So on Monday 23rd we set off from 18 degree weather in Addis in the middle of summer, landing in 30degree weather in winter in Tanzania. Ah, how good it was!

Feeling bouyed by escaping Ethiopia we quickly purchased a ticket to Zanzibar and were soon on a tropical island paradise! We heard lots of warnings about the touts in Zanzibar from other travellers, but after Ethiopia where spending 60seconds without being hassled was cause for celebration we hardly noticed there were any here. Also, antibiotics are available over the counter. Luckily my ill stomach seems to have remained in Ethiopia and we are now firmly ensconced on a beautiful white sandy beach beside azure waters, with nothing more to do than complain about the hideous prices. (Bit of a shock from eating for $2 a meal, going to $10 each!!) I think we'll be here awhile...