Welcome To Dar

By now we were nearing the end of our Tanzania and Zanzibar adventure, looking to spend the last few days exploring the bustling and chaotic former capital city of Dar-Es-Salaam. The crossing from Zanzibar back to Dar had been noteworthy mainly because at least half of our fellow passengers were seasick on a journey where we had simply enjoyed the movement of the boat and certainly didn’t think it was a rough crossing.

Dar, hot, dusty and humid, isn’t a place where traipsing around loaded with backpacks and struggling to find your hotel is an attractive prospect and we were just getting a little fractious when a skinny, swarthy individual approached us.

“What are you looking for?”.

“It’s Ok. We’re OK thank you”, Michaela responded, wary of being hooked in.

“No tell me, I will help you”.

We gave in and showed him the name of our hotel.

“Ah yes”, he smiled, “I know it, it’s hard to find. I show you. Follow me”.

And we were hooked in, despite ourselves.

Admittedly, he did take us straight to our hotel, and it was indeed difficult to find, the frontage being 100 yards down a side street despite the address being in the main drag, but inevitably he then looked for payment for his services. As we handed over some cash, his response was a little daunting.

“OK, now I am your guide. In Dar you need guide”. Equally worrying was the fact that he now took a seat in reception while we checked in, and contentedly stayed there as we trudged off to our room. It took several checks, some in person (“are you ready to see Dar now?”) and some by phoning reception, before we finally established that he’d gone and the coast was clear.

Dar has a long history of incoming migrants from the Indian sub-continent, resulting in a cuisine with an exciting African/Indian fusion which leads Lonely Planet to tell you not to miss a Dar curry whilst in the city, so we were delighted to discover that our hotel was in the middle of the Asian Quarter. So who is going to be better than the hotel receptionist when it comes to a recommendation….

“Yes it’s true”, she smiled, “curry in Dar very good.”

“So which restaurant is best for good Dar curry?”

“Here, in the hotel”.

Yeah right. She would say that, wouldn’t she.

“OK thank you, so which way should we walk to find other curry restaurants?”

“No you cannot walk. Not safe for white man after dark”.

“It’s OK, we’ll be fine. We won’t walk too far”.

“Not safe”.

“OK so we’ll get a taxi. Where should we tell him to go to?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Mr Sharman, you listen to me. White tourist like you cannot go out of this door after dark. Not one step out of hotel. Please understand”.

I understood. Reluctantly we accepted that tonight’s curry would be here, in the hotel, which felt like missing out, until I went back to my Lonely Planet book and looked up “top curry restaurants in Dar”, only to find that the number one recommendation was….the restaurant in our hotel.

And, true to form, the curry was magnificent. All’s well that ends well.