Sweden and Tanzania 23/24

[ShelleyB]

For our next stop in Sweden we are heading to Gothenburg. Rather than yet more flying we had booked a 3 berth sleeper compartment from Kiruna to Stockholm, from where we would take an express train to Goteborg to arrive just after lunch. Unfortunately neither of these trains were to work out exactly as planned. In our first few days in Stockholm, we had a message from VY, the company running the sleeper, that an unrelated derailment of a freight train had damaged the tracks, meaning the sleeper could now only commence from Boden, a town about 3.5 hours from Kiruna, and between Boden and Kiruna there would be unreserved seating only. Separately we received notice that the express train we had booked to Gothenburg, as well as the return train, were cancelled, and we would need to rebook. Sadly, in looking at rebooking, only regional slower trains had room for all 3 of us, delaying our arrival into Gothenburg and limiting time for ShelleyB-son at Liseberg, a local amusement park in Gothenburg. We briefly considered changing everything to flying, but decided that we would still get enough time in the sleeper to enjoy the experience, and that slightly less time in the amusement park was not the end of the world.

So after dogsledding, we duly made our way to the train station. The train was completely packed, and with seating unreserved we just had to take what we could get and sit separately. It certainly felt like an extra carriage or two would not have gone astray.



The trip Boden proceeded uneventfully if a bit slowly, leading us to arrive late. Not that this ultimately mattered, as our sleeper was late arriving, leaving a lot of customers stranded on a outdoor platform in the snow. Our poor luggage is having to get used to this sort of abuse.




The train numbering also proved very confusing, with 2 carriage 12s (and we naturally boarded the wrong one initially, leaving us unable to work out where our berths were) and no carriage 13, despite some people having tickets for carriage 13. And no staff to help, so it was all a bit messy.
Sadly with all the drama and the lateness of the hour I forgot to take a photo of the sleeper berth. Suffice to say that although comfortable enough for sleeping it was very small. Barely wider than the bunks. The train also has first class cabins, but with our last minute planning these were already booked out. If able to book further in advance, I think first class could be a good option. Nonetheless, we all slept very well, not waking until 9am.

 

[ShelleyB]

Our delayed arrival in Stockholm on the overnight train made the connection to Goteborg a little tighter than we would have liked, but ultimately was not a problem. The journey to Goteborg was very pretty, and as it was so full we had a series of people being a 4th in our 4 person alcove. As we were passing a town where you could see the local water park from the train, we speculated that it was likely closed for the winter. The person sharing our alcove was obviously local, and corrected us to say that it was indeed open, that the slides go into outdoor heated pools, after which you can jump out and roll in the snow. I wondered if he might have been pulling our legs but I have subsequently looked it up and it seems to be true.

As one of the reasons for going to Goteborg was to visit Liseberg with Shelly-son, a mainly old-style amusement park, we had booked the hotel attached to the park, the Grand Curiosa Liseberg. But given the lateness of the hour we just dumped bags and went directly to the park. The park itself was pretty but, as we knew in advance, was relatively limited ride-wise, so 4 hours was plenty of time.

 

[ShelleyB]

After the park closed we returnd to the hotel. As you might expect from something attached to an amusement park, it is well designed to cater for families with small kids. There are oversize decorations everywhere, a carousel in the breakfast room, and a slide from the 1st floor to the lobby. The rooms all have a fantasy-style theme going on as well, with many (most?) having separate bunks for the kids. It appears to be an extremely popular hotel, and it’s chaos with all the kids. We are enjoying because ShelleyB-son loves it, but I would not recommend for people without kids. The breakfast space has advertising outside calling it “serene”, which it certainly is not. Great spread though, with plenty of sugar to keep the kids buzzing all day.

 

[craven morehead]

I have decided to have a crack at a TR of our upcoming journey to Sweden and Tanzania for this forum. We [me, Mr ShelleyB and ShelleyB-son (10)] are T-9 days away from setting off on the first leg of a 42 day journey that takes in Sweden and Tanzania. Why such an odd combination? It wasn't always meant to be this way. Our original journey was booked as follows as a mixture of Qantas classic rewards and revenue fares:

MEL-DXB-AMM Emirates J (CR) (STOP)
AQB-AMM-CAI Royal Jordanian Y (CR) (STOP)
CAI-DAR Egypt Air Y (Paid) (Transit)
DAR-ZNZ Flightlink Y (Paid) (STOP)
DAR-JRO Precision Air Y (Paid) (STOP)
JRO-DAR Precision Air Y (Paid) (Transit)
DAR-JNB Airlink Y (Paid) (Transit)
JNB-DOH-MEL Qatar J (Paid) (END)

But as you can see the first destinations we anticipated have become a little problematic in the last few months. After some discussion and with great regret we decided to skip Jordan and Egypt. Even though neither are directly involved, even aside from the possibility of local trouble, there is still the possibility of stray missiles and Egypt is likely to increase internal security at tourist destinations, which while it does increase safety it also gives it an inevitable military operation feel. Ultimately not quite the vibe we are looking for on our holidays.

So after a lot of internal discussion, checking of possibilities and preparation and discard of plans, we have settled on Sweden. One of the main limiting factors was the MEL-DXB-AMM were married segments, so we either had to discard them all and pay for alternatives (as 3 J class CR flights to Europe were clearly a pipe dream at this late stage), or keep the flights as transit only and add on paid flights from there. Ultimately we chose to keep them as transits with Sweden for a white Christmas as the ultimate destination. So now the flights look like this:

MEL-DXB-AMM Emirates J (CR) (Transit)
AMM-LHR-ARN British Airways J (Paid) (STOP)
ARN-KRN SAS Y+ (Paid) (STOP)
ARN-DOH-ZNZ Qatar Y (Paid) (STOP)
DAR-JRO Precision Air Y (Paid) (STOP)
JRO-DAR Precision Air Y (Paid) (Transit)
DAR-JNB Airlink Y (Paid) (Transit)
JNB-DOH-MEL Qatar J (Paid) (END)

So now the first leg is quite long as there's a few long transits - 9 hours in Dubai on the first leg, plus almost as long in Amman. The first was always in the itinerary (CR beggars can't be choosers) but the second a result of the limited options out of Amman on the same day we arrive. And sadly AMM will also very likely require collecting the bags (AFTER immigration) to check them in directly with BA as I think we'll have Buckley's chance of getting them checked all the way through from MEL-ARN with 2 separate PNRs on 2 different airlines, one of which is BA.

Despite the change in plans and the less than ideal route to Stockholm, we remain very excited for our journey. And it all commences with a bang with the EK A380 service to Dubai complete with Skybar, and finishes with Q-suites from DOH to MEL. Both of these experiences will be the first time for all the SB family.

I look forward to sharing updates as we go along. Hopefully not too many dramas as the first flight approaches.

This trip sounds awesome! Just dialing in now

 

[ShelleyB]

I’d like to say our NYE in Goteborg was full of partying and dancing, but sadly Mr ShelleyB and I are rather on the introverted end of the spectrum and ShelleyB-son is 10 and therefore rather stuck with our plans, whatever they may be. The day was was very rainy verging on sleet, so during daylight hours we stuck with indoor pursuits and took the opportunity to divest ourselves of many of our winter clothes by posting them back to Australia. This also allowed us to turf one bag (we’d brought an old and rather tired wheeled bag with us in the knowledge it would not come home), so that we are back to a single backpack and daypack each for the Tanzanian leg of the trip. This is much nicer and how we had originally planned to travel until our plans changed to include temperatures of minus 20 with plus 30, challenging our packing plans.

In the evening we celebrated the end of 2023 with a few drinks at the hotel bar, and a meal delivered by robot (of course). We also took a stroll down one of the main Goteborg avenues, and saw a few fireworks, but as the weather remained very ordinary we retired early to our hotel.

Happy New Year and safe travels to everyone!

 

[ShelleyB]

Have safely arrived in zanzibar after some flights I look forward to posting about. However, internet here is slow and unreliable, so may not be able to post daily as I have been.

In the meantime here’s a photo from our room balcony to whet your appetite.

 

[Seat0B]

Awaiting your posts with keen interest. Seat Son’s GF is South African by birth and has extended family scattered in several countries, so we are thinking that we might be making some visits to this part if the world in the future.

 

[ShelleyB]

Have found a semi-reliable spot in our hotel room to get the wifi, so catching up a few days worth of posts. When I last updated we had just had NYE in Goteborg. New Years Day was mainly a travel day. We took the train back to Stockholm as we were flying on to Zanzibar the next day. The train was fast (3 hours back to Stockholm) and on time. For convenience we were staying in the Stockholm Sheraton as pricing was OK for a fairly standard vanilla room with the great advantage of being right by Stockholm central for both our arrival from Goteborg and our departure to the airport next day.



This day was of course our final full day in Sweden, and yet again Stockholm turned on the snow for us, with some light snow on arrival but a full on blizzard by the evening.

After dropping our bags at the hotel we indulged in a final ‘fika’.



Dinner was a small pan-Asian place which was both very small and very popular, so we were lucky to get a seat. Ramen was OK, but not quite as good as we had earlier in the trip.

 

[ShelleyB]

And so the last day in Sweden arrived. Our flight was not scheduled until 3.10pm but we had some chores to do, including a bit of shopping for ShelleyB-son and flling in an online health form for Zanzibar. The latter turned out to be completely unnecessary but is not at clear on the government websites. Never mind, always better to have to have done more paperwork than required than less.

Anyway, we had only a 2 minute walk to the airport train, which was lucky as it was still snowing heavily.



Once in the station it’s an easy ride on the Arlanda airport express to the airport. Our flight today was ARN-DOH-ZNZ booked via Qatar but the first leg was on Finnair metal (AY1983). The aiport was under a lot of snow, causing a number of flights to be both late landing and departing. Our flight was a late departure due to the late incoming flight, and the need to de-ice the place for take-off. Considering the weather we really weren’t too late - about 50 minutes late to depart in the end.





Previously when I had booked the flights I selected seats via Qatar for the DOH-ZNZ leg and Finnair for the ARN-DOH leg. On the Finnair app other than the small(ish) Business class cabin, everything was marked as Economy, although there was clearly a smaller cabin with a 2-3-2 layout then a larger cabin as a 2-4-2 layout. As we are 3 I selected on of the 3 seat rows, expecting I would not be able to do so, as despite the labeling I figured it was actually premium economy. Nonetheless, the selection was allowed. I then imagined either at online check in or at the airport when collecting boarding passes we would get turfed from those seats, as we definitely only booked and paid for economy for this leg. But now, boarding passes issued fine. So then I figure that for whatever reason, Finnair were using one of their A330s with PE seats, but only running economy service, and we just got lucky with seat selection. As it turns out, we were in fact seated in premium economy with premium economy food and service! I have zero idea how this occured, but total bonus for us. The seats are quite nice, with an excellent entertainment screen, plus a full leg rest. Great food and service too. And despite the late departure caught up some time in the air and landed only about 15 mins late.

 

[SuePa]

ShelleyB-Son is going to have some great tales to share with his mates on return to school.
What a terrific experience! He looks as though he is loving every minute.

 

[ShelleyB]

Sadly the DOH-ZNZ leg did not involve magical upgrades. As is common for DOH, we had to bussed to plane (an A320) and suffer through a short (but overnight) economy flight. Unusually for Qatar, the service was quite poor. Previously when I have travelled QR I found the service excellent whichever class I am sitting in. Some of the other passengers were pretty ordinary too - the usual reclining of seats (even before take-off!) and hogging all the overhead lockers. At least it was a less than 6 hour flight. The arrival hall was packed, and I initially thought there was an arrivals card requirement in addition to the visa (already done) and the online health form (not required), but as it turns out we didn’t need to do anything as we’d already done the visa in advance rather than waiting for arrival. This was not initially clear but a quick chat with the immigration officer handing out cards was useful as it meant we could go straight to the passport control queue rather than join the melee filling out forms.

Once outside the airport, a quick(ish) taxi to the old town (Stone Town) saw us checked into the Tembo House Hotel on the waterfront. Stone Town itself is a Unesco world heritage site. The Tembo hotel is an older colonial style building that has had a few lives prior to becoming a hotel. It’s a little tired now but these old buildings require constant upkeep. It certainly has character and service is excellent. The Hyatt next door is certainly posher but comes with a substantially higher price.

 

[Seat0B]

What a terrific experience! He looks as though he is loving every minute.

I was just thinking this too!

 

[ShelleyB]

Yesterday’s taxi driver was, unsurprsingly for this part of the world, also available for private hire and tours. As we were happy with the drive into town, and his vehicle was well kept (and appropriately licenced), we arranged to have him take us to Jozani National Park. Jozani is the home of the Red Colobus Monkey, found only in Tanzania.

The drive was interesting, and our driver a font of information. We used Ali a few times on our journey and if anyone finds themselves in Zanzibar we can highly recommend him and provide his Whatsapp contact. In any case, we arrived at the park bright and early as Ali tells us later it becomes a bit of a people zoo.

We were then taken around the park in a small group with one of the local guides. The tour was excellent and it was good to be in a small group. Managed to see (but not photograph) the elephant shrew, and enjoyed watching a large group of Red Colobus. The Red Colobus monkeys are quite limited in their diet, not enjoying many of the foods people have in their possession. They therefore stay in the trees, mostly keep well clear of people. This is in contrast to the Blue Monkeys also found in the park, who eat a wider variety of things and thus liable to steal any food you might have or anything else you might use a food bribe to have returned. Luckily we kept well clear of these except for some sitting on the car Ali jokingly said he would let in. But we knew it was a joke as Ali would never let anything like a monkey inside his pristine car.







In the evening we walked around Stone Town, and enjoyed market food in the Forodhani food market. The market is great, and enjoyed equally by locals and tourists. Mr.10 took to chicken shwarama, although he horrified the seller by not having any sauce.

 

[Seat0B]

Such fantastic photos @ShelleyB. The first one of the monkeys is beautiful. And I too like to take photos of doors in exotic places

 

[ShelleyB]

As most of you probably know, Zanzibar is often called the Spice Island. Spices have long been culitvated in Zanzibar, and there is an almost equally long history of trading spices and fighting for control of that trade. These days spices and fruits are a major source of income for Zanzibar. Tours of spice farms are ubiquitous, both of private and government farms. We arranged a tour of a large government farm and it was both enjoyable and informative. Perhaps I am a little ignorant, but was not previously aware, for example, that peppercorn is a vine and that the colour depends on how they are prepared eg. black pepper is sun dried but green pepper is oven dried.







In the evening we ate back on the waterfront at Stone Town at the very popular Cape Town Fish Market. Food prices at venues like this, which are mostly populated by tourists, are good but not super cheap. Alcohol, however, is very cheap. A G&T is generally around $5-6 AUD and the local beer about $4-5. A big contrast to Sweden where prices of food were roughly on par with Melbourne, but alcohol (esp wine) was a bit higher.

 

[ShelleyB]

From Stone Town we travelled to Matemwe, a town on the east coast of Zanzibar. For good or for ill, much of the accommodation on the east coast is made up of resorts, without that same “genuine town” feeling of Stone Town. Certainly that appears true of Matemwe, where it is quite hard to get away from the beach resort area. Nonetheless, one of the attractions of Matemwe is its proximity to Mnemba Atoll, which offers some good snorkelling and diving opportunities a very easy boat ride away.

The drive across from Stone Town to Matemwe (with our man Ali of course) was interesting and allowed time for a discussion of the price of land and housing in Zanzibar. Ali indicated that, consistent with many places, waterfront land is quite expensive, obviously particularly in tourist areas, land away from the beach was generally reasonable, such that a person such as himself, running his taxi business, could afford to buy land.

Our room at the Kena Beach Hotel is very nice, with plenty of room to spread out and even a little garden. After a day of rest, we have snorkelling booked out to Mnemba Island with Scuba Fish.

 

[ShelleyB]

Just off the coast at Matemwe is a small atoll called Mnemba. The island itself does not have permanent habitation but does have a very exclusive hotel. Surrounding the island is a coral reef, some of which is in good condition, some less so, and still with a good variety of fish. Our journey out to the island with Scuba Fish Dive Center was very enjoyable. On days when the tide is low in the morning (such as this day), snorkellers and divers are bussed from the hotel around to the next beach, where we are loaded into small boats to be transferred to the main boat. Scuba Fish have 2 traditional style wooden boats, although they not so traditional as to be lacking outboard motors, the Tamsyn and the Caroline. Today we were sailing on the Tamsyn.

When we left the hotel and first arrived on the reef it was bright, sunny and very hot. However, upon arrival the weather closed in and it was bucketing down. This being the tropics though the rain was warm and the water even warmer - a bath-like 28 degrees. We had an excellent snornkel, with substantial numbers of fish, including stone fish pointed out by our guide (we never spotted one independently), healthy anemones and some OK coral. After lunch provided by the crew, which included plenty of local fruits, we had a second snornkel similar to the first. As an aside, I will add that while all the fruits on Zanzibar are great, the pineapple in particular is just sublime. Ridiculously juicy, sweet and tasty. We all agree they are substantially better than anything we have had at home. Best pineapples ever.

Overall an excellent day, and as we returned at high tide, the boat returned us directly to the beach in front of the hotel.

The rest of our day we spent loafing around the hotel before going for a walk to suss out dinner options. As the options at our hotel were quite limited, we wanted to find somewhere else to eat. A number of options were available on the beachfront, but ultimately we settled on the restaurant at Villa Kiva. The menu here was extensive, with many options for Mr.10, as well as a perfect view of the beach.

 

[ShelleyB]

All of us love to kayak, and so it was high on our wish list to get on the water in a kayak in Zanzibar if we could. There were a few companies, but we decided to go with Ecokayak, a company in the south that takes kayak tours of Uzi island. I must admit we were all initially confused by the name “Uzi Island” as following a quick look at google maps it doesn’t look like an island at all. However, once on the tour, our wonderful guide Abdullah cleared that up - it’s only an island at high tide. At low tide there is a single stone road which connects Uzi to the main island of Unjuga. It was down this road we first travelled for a visit to Uzi town - 3km of bone shaking driving.





We then went to the kayak start point for a fabulous lunch.



And then a kayak of perhaps 1-2 hours (not sure) among the mangroves. This included past some extensive sea cucumber farms (all exported for the Asian market), plus a short stop back at the first road out to Uzi, which was rapidly becoming inundated with the tide. Our guide was amazing, and after the kayaking we got to meet his mum and one of his little brothers. The ecokayak business is not his (it’s run by another Abdullah, thus my initial confusion), but our guide also runs his own tour business all around Zanzibar. I can highly recommend him and have his Whatsapp details if anyone is visiting this way.

 

[OZDUCK]

Looks like a lovely day out with great photos. But are there 'bities' among the mangroves?

 

[ShelleyB]

Looks like a lovely day out with great photos. But are there 'bities' among the mangroves?

Surprisingly no. We did not get bitten at all by mozzies or other bugs in Zanzibar. They have almost eradicated malaria in Zanzibar and I think this included a large mozzie eradication programme. We commented that if we’d been around home we would have been eaten alive.