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The Majesty Of The Sultanate Of Zanzibar. A Vacation To An Archipelago That Defies Time. Experience A Convergence Of Two Separate Civilizations.
Stepping out of the van, the odour of cloves fill the air as a farmer lays out mats to dry the spice .
Tall plants donned with little pink-beige flowers hold the desired clove as it is the harvesting season.
Stopping by the Persian baths, so called because Sultan Seyyid Said, the industrial sultan who shifted his capital from Oman to Zanzibar, purposely designed the baths for his Persian wife on the peak point on the island from where the Zanzibar beach view is splendid.
Clear of the grandeur left behind, the beaten baths are reminiscent of the grand old days of the sultanate when it became used as a country getaway in 1850.
All that remains today is the five toilets with dome roofs showing the stylishness and the personal compartment of the Sheherzade, the princess from Persia had a deep-set bath and a sunken well where the heated water emerged as steam.
After bath, the princes would lie on the balcony for a massage with the finest oils of the day. Unfortunately, the Persian princess found country living rather too mundane and left the Sultan to leave for home in Persia.
Enough with the baths, we take a trek inside a spice farm, this is Stone Town.
Amongst the town's most celebrated houses is the Beit al Ajaib or the House of Wonders designed by Sultan Barghash facing the seashore and the Stone Town.
Here there is a showcase of his sister, Princess Salme or Frau Emily Reute in the imposing home which had the finest embedded wooden doors, first elevator, electric power and water running from taps in the late 17th Century.
Princess Salme, was the earliest Arab woman who coached herself how to read and write and became excommunicated for running away with a German merchant.
Her chronicles are the first written by a woman of Arab descent from a noble family.
We check into our family house, known as Beyt al Chai, a three floor stone house in Stonetown where the rich of the sultanate once enjoyed a cup of tea in the middle of small chat.
It has been perfectly restored as a town house open to guests with each room donned in posh silk and brocade with time old wooden pieces of teak and other hardwoods.
The bistro serves the best sea-food on the island with platters of seafood prepared with skill and specialisation.
At early morning, we stroll into town. The narrow alleys are rush with Scooters, heavy four-wheel drive vehicles all jostling for space with pedestrians.
Plenty houses in this town still don the timber carved classic doors that have been gazetted as cultural.
At the Old Slave Market, we stop, where the Anglican cathedral now stands with its inverted posts, statues of the slaves and the altar where the slaves were whipped and beyond from the tree underneath where Dr Livingstone is cremated - he waged an untiring war against the ruthless trafficking of slaves.
As the sunsets and dusk sets in, we stroll out of the Old Fort which was erected from the wrecks of what was the Portuguese chapel and into Forodhani Square.
The backyards were laid out early in the 20th century (1935) to remember the silver jubilee of King George V and the attractive fountain and seats were put up to remember the silver jubilee of Seyyid Khalifa bin Hamud in December 1936.
As the sunsets in the horizon under the blues of the sea guests take gratification in the spicy flavors of the Zanzibar island feasting on delicacies and fresh juice.
The age of the sultans ended with the revolution of 1964.
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