We woke up and went to breakfast in the hotel. Fruit and coffee was provided. We had to pay extra for eggs...thirty cents in total for the both of us.
My flight didn't leave until after 9pm, so we had a full day in Dar. We decided to go to a beach. I had never been in the Indian Ocean, so this was my opportunity. We went to Kipepeo Beach. We walked to a ferry stop, which we then took across the bay. Then a Dolla-Dolla ride got us to the beach. It was a beautiful: white sand, blue-green water, free grass huts on the beach, not many people there...gorgeous. We just sat around and read under the grass hut.
On our walk back, we stopped for milkshakes in a mall. It was David's first milkshake in a year. It was my first shake in two weeks.
Back in the city, we walked around for a while trying to find a place to eat. It was still too early for any sort of street-grill place, so we decided to just get some fresh fruit. We got some passion fruit, which was absolutely bizarre. When you crack open the citrus peel, the inside is a mush of pulpy blobs surrounding seeds. You just suck it out and crunch the seeds along with the membrane and pulp. Tasty, but so odd.
We also stopped at a juice bar that serves freshly-pressed sugar cane juice. Unlike our difficult effort eating the fibrous cane, this was pure juice that you could drink out of a glass. It was awesome! We both agreed that it seemed less sugary-sweet than a regular Coke. Go figure. More water, maybe?
While we were wandering around trying to find somewhere to eat, we were again getting annoyed with the locals pestering us white men. One guy walked up to me with a note card with exchange rates written on them. "Look at this," he said to me. I held up my hand to shield my view from him. I didn't need any shillings. He didn't like being ignored, so he shouted, "LOOK AT THEM!"
I turned back and shouted, "NO!" For crying out loud. What kind of business practice is that? Yelling at people to try and force them to patronize your business. Sheesh. I was not treated as a person. I was treated as a walking dollar sign.
I took a shower since I had a long trip back home. David saw me to the airport. At the security gate, we had to say goodbye. I was really sad to leave. I mean, I knew it would be nice to be back in The States, but I was sure going to miss hanging out with him. We spent over two weeks side by side. And now it was going to be over a year until I saw him again. It choked me up.
Flying wasn't too stressful. In London I had to really boogey to get to my gate on time. There was a sign that had a table of gates and how long to allow to get there. It said to allow twenty minutes to get to my gate. I had five minutes until my boarding time. I got there in five minutes.
I got back into the US at around noon on Saturday. By the time I had gotten through customs, I had just spent 27 straight hours in airports and in the air. Wow.
All content and photos Copyright © 2004 Travis Pettijohn.