I bought a pair of pants in this Gucci shop in a Zanzibar village for TSH35 000. Sound expensive and exclusive? Only until you translate the amount into rands: R165. So they were obviously a genuine fake, even if the casual signage wasn’t enough to tip one off.
It’s a nice, tongue-in-cheek bit of humour from the beach vendors trying to catch tourists’ dollars on this Indian Ocean island off the Tanzanian coast. The “˜Beach Boys’, as they are known, ply everything from curios to excursions. I was offered a snorkelling trip to Mnemba Atoll for a low-season special of US$20 (R140), considerably less than the US$80 – $130 (R560 – R910) a person advertised inside holiday resorts. It seems you can negotiate more than the price of souvenirs.
I like to buy local and top of my shopping list was a Masai-red kikoi , which I bought while wandering around Stone Town. I also picked up a packet of vanilla-flavoured Tanzanian tea at a spaza-type shop, as I’d enjoyed the Kilimanjaro range of teas at the hotels where I’d stayed.
I held off on Zanzibar’s famous spices until I did a spice tour and then bought direct at US$3 (R21) a packet on a spice tour at Maganga Spice Farm. I was told the bigger spice farms are government owned and tend to specialise in a few spices, whereas the smaller, privately run farms have a good range. My guide at Maganga, Abdullah Mtanda, was extremely knowledgeable as he showed me the wide variety they have on this seven-hectare property.
I can’t help wondering how they fared during the monsoon season when the red earth gets too muddy to access the plantations and tourists stay away. However, things should be looking up now as high season starts in mid-June and continues into July and August. This comes with correspondingly high prices for accommodation. South Africans will find better deals kick in around September – watch out for my article in the July issue of Getaway on good-value packages for budget travellers, romantic couples and families.
