A Deliciously Cheap Holiday on the Coast of Tanzania

In a recent effort to increase my readership, I solicited friends and family to follow my blog.  To my surprise, many of you agreed (thanks!).  I added your email addresses to my list, and sat back feeling satisfied with my day’s work.

But then came the time to write a new blog entry – the first that many of you would receive straight to your inboxes.  And that work was slightly more difficult.

It wasn’t writer’s block that I felt.  It was an insecurity similar to the feeling I have before hosting a dinner party (“Will people like my food?”) or prior to taking the stage to perform (“Do I sing well, in fact?).

The fact of the matter is, if you don’t like this blog entry, you might never come back to visit.  You might have already written me off, in fact.  (“Oh my god, maybe I’m a horribly boring writer!”)

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  I depart today from my usual personal-musings-style travel journal in order to write something that will (I think) interest all of you, might (I hope) illustrate the wonderful experiences travel can bring, and could (I pray) inspire you, too, to take to the road and discover the myriad possibilities the world has to offer.

And so, without further ado, here’s my proof that travel doesn’t have to break the bank in order to be awesome.

We all have different travel styles.  Our daydreams take us to different exotic locations.  And surely, we all have different amounts of cash that we are willing to part with for our travel.  Despite the fact that our proportions might vary from person to person, I believe that the ingredients for a successful holiday remain more or less the same.

(Feel free to change around the quantity of each ingredient until the trip tastes best for your buds.)

4 cups of the great outdoors

3 cups [a day] of delicious food

2 tablespoon of relaxation

1 teaspoons of cultural discovery

A new friend or two

A few pinches of luxury

A dash of adventure

Most of the people I know and meet would like to travel more.  For most, the decision to travel or not comes down to money.  Trips just cost a lot, and that’s a fact.  Right?

Wrong.

And here’s my proof that with only a little bit of moolah, you can create the recipe I detailed above and have a sumptuous holiday of your own.  In other words, here is how Bruno and I recently concocted a most-delicious recipe of a [weeklong] trip for $100US each*.

The coast of Tanzania is an ultimate sea/sun/sand destination, and Bruno and I certainly took advantage.  Our Toyota was parked a mere two meters from the ocean, and the high-tide waves lulled us to sleep at night.  In the mornings, we breakfasted to a sun rising behind the shadow of a dhow boat floating in the ocean.  Then, feeling a bit warm, we merely stepped out onto the beach and into the water for our morning swim.

Some days we strolled through the coconut trees.  Other times we walked through the mangrove forest just beyond the rocks.  One day we spent out at sea, snorkeling in the live coral reef among fish as bright and colorful as the rainbow.

And that’s how we got our four cups of the great outdoors for the week.

Most days I used local ingredients to cook up fresh and cheap meals, while our eyes feasted on the boats at sea, the crashing waves, the locals walking by.  Yet the thatched-roof restaurant with bright African-patterned cushions and tablemats, with its reasonable prices and wide selection, did manage to entice us quite a few times.  On the menu each night was seafood fresh off the boat.  Crab, snapper, taffi (Swahili fish), prawns – everything guaranteed fresh and guaranteed cheap.  Served with coconut rice and salad with a tangy garlic and lime taste.  Washed down with big bottled of cold Tanzanian beer.

And once, treating ourselves, we dined on prawn, avocado and mango salad served under a tent on a white sand island surrounded by water so turquoise it’s hard to believe its color hadn’t been tampered by artificial means.  By the way, this picnic was private, this island deserted.  Only us and the birds and the distant fishermen.

another dinnertime view of children walking past us on the beach and waving

1 tablespoon of relaxation

Several mornings, after a breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and muesli, with freshly squeezed orange juice, I did some yoga under our private thatch-roofed hut on the edge of the beach.  A perfectly relaxing way to begin the day.

Most afternoons, when the heat of the African sun was too much to bear and we’d gotten our dose of the great outdoors, we hung out by the pool.  Sometimes we swam, sometimes we drank cooling vanilla milkshakes, and sometimes we read in one of the many hammocks conveniently situated around the pool.  I admit to whiling away a good many hours, reading a good many books, in a hammock – but the resort had a book exchange, so you can’t blame me!

I certainly got my two tablespoons of relaxation.

This is Africa, and it would be a shame not to see it for what it really is.   A fifteen-minute stroll took us to the non-touristy fishing village of Majengo.  We wandered through the narrow dirt streets bustling with people.  The sound of the nearby mosque competed with the classical choruses of the nearest church.  The women set tiny fish out on plastic mats to dry in the sun, and the odor was strong and fishy.

Children played with makeshift balls in the streets or handmade plastic boats by the water.  Old men  with wise eyes watched the world go by.  On the shore, fishermen brought in their catch, repaired their locally-made trimarans, or prepared for the night-shift at sea.

We searched fruitlessly for the market for a time.  Finally, following the only person we met that spoke a bit of English through the windy mazelike streets of the village, we located the sweetest small [green] oranges for our breakfast, as well as a few tomatoes, green peppers, potatoes, and cabbage.  We could have bought some dried fish or squid, too, but the smell and the flies weren’t appetizing.  Bruno did eat a few local donuts while I learned a few food-related Swahili words with our new guide and friend.  Later, I wielded different Swahili words at a drunk man chatting me up outside a bar.

A trip is not a trip until you’ve visited a market, spoken a language you hardly know with feigned confidence, and fended off clumsy attempts at flirtation.

Traveling offers the opportunity to meet lots of interesting people coming and going on their own journeys.  Without even trying, we met a young English couple who had recently quit their high-paying London jobs to travel the world.  After road-tripping across Europe they were backpacking from Ethiopia down to Tanzania.  Soon, they would move to rural France to set up a bed and breakfast with some likeminded friends.  We also met a solo young French guy backpacking across Tanzania for several months.  Between snorkeling in the water with his own gear, climbing baobabs along the beach, and playing evening football with Majengo locals, his days were pretty busy (and cheap, too).

Three interesting people – and loads of interesting conversations – helped flavor our week on the coast of Tanzania.

Waves lulling us to sleep, breakfast to a rising sun over the ocean, a swimming pool surrounded by hammocks and coconut trees, and a private boat trip to a private island?  Need I provide more proof of the luxury we bought for less than a dinner at McDonald’s?

Getting to Peponi was a bit of a journey, and it’s not for the faint of heart.  Only 35 kilometers from Tanga, the nearest city, it feels a world away.  Once we exited Tanga city, the tar road ended and the bumpy African country roads began.  We jolted and jerked along for the next two hours, but I’m getting used to that now after having driven so many kilometers in Africa.

What I still can’t get used to is the traffic.  Sometimes the road was so narrow you’d think it was only wide enough for us, and still the gigantic busses and speedy motorcycles would double us.  They don’t even mind that people are walking along the side of the road and cows, chickens, and goats dart everywhere.

It’s certainly not Canada, here on these bumpy roads.  But adventure is part of the trip, and is harmless – as long as you have your seat belt on!

And that, for those of you who have made it this far, is how Bruno and I spent our first week in Tanzania.  Proof that with less money than it costs to buy a new pair of shoes, a holiday can be memorable, relaxing, cultural, adventurous, and even luxurious.

*Breakdown of our costs at Peponi Beach Resort:

Camping cost us $5US each per night, and the snorkeling trip (including lunch) was a steal at $15US/pp.  Meals at the restaurant (with drink) average $7-8US and we ate several times.  Other days, we bought local food and ingredients at the market in Majengo and self-catered.  We drove ourselves from Tanga to Peponi and back, costing us about $10US in diesel.  Mangrove walk, yoga, swimming pool, and hammock time is free. J

To view earlier blog posts of our travels in East Africa, click here.