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Stone Town aka Freddie Mercury’s home town

STEVE McKENNAThe West Australian
Bustling Stone Town, Zanzibar.
Camera IconBustling Stone Town, Zanzibar. Credit: Steve McKenna/Steve McKenna Picture: Steve McKenna

Getting lost in Stone Town is a given.

Aromas, from the pretty to the pungent, spike the steamy air of this historic quarter of Zanzibar. Like the medinas in Morocco, it’s a maze of narrow alleys hemmed in by tightly packed coral-stone buildings and hole-in-the-wall stores selling everything from antiques to fabrics and spices.

Shopkeepers try to tempt with “good offers, cheap price” while other Zanzibaris, many in colourful outfits and fashions, shuffle along on foot or ride past on bicycles and scooters, ringing their bells and beeping their horns.

Yes, even if you attempt to track your progress on your mobile phone map, you’ll end up temporarily lost in UNESCO World Heritage-listed Stone Town. But rest assured, you’ll eventually find yourself again, perhaps when you see a landmark like Freddie Mercury’s childhood home. He was born, Farrokh Bulsara, in Stone Town in 1946.

Arts and crafts store at Stone Town old fort.
Camera IconArts and crafts store at Stone Town old fort. Credit: Steve McKenna

Or perhaps the 17th century fort, built by the Omani Arabs after they’d expelled the Portuguese from this tropical island, part of an archipelago off the coast of Tanzania. Under the Arabs, Zanzibar was a hotspot in the trade of slaves and spices but, these days, it’s one of Africa’s most alluring destinations, with visitors beguiled by its natural beauty and melting pot of cultural influences. European and Indian flavours complement the African and Middle Eastern heritage.

Its multi-storey palaces and mansions are among the most distinctive features. Many were built for wealthy Omani merchants and sultans. One of these, the House of Wonders, dates back to 1883 and is so-called because it was the first property on Zanzibar to have electricity, and the first in east Africa to have an elevator.

Other attractive buildings, many with elaborately carved wooden doors and latticework balconies and furnished with eye-catching lamps, paintings and sculptures, have been converted into hotels and guesthouses, cafes and restaurants.

And they’re just the ticket when you want (OK, need) to cool down, with their ceiling fans, air-conditioned rooms, breezy rooftops and refreshments.

I return more than once during my four-day stay in Stone Town to the Zanzibar Coffee House, a five-minute walk from the Anglican cathedral, which was built in the 1870s by British missionaries over the site of a former slave market.

Inside Zanzibar Coffee House.
Camera IconInside Zanzibar Coffee House. Credit: Steve McKenna

Decorated with coffee paraphernalia, from vintage adverts to bulging sacks, the coffee house serves caffeine hits, hot and cold, using beans sourced from the Tanzanian mainland and roasted in-house with a huge Probat machine.

Another stand-out address for food and drink, also housed in a restored 19th century Arabian mansion, is Emerson on Hurumzi. With the sun setting on the horizon, we are ushered into this boutique hotel by a smiling Swahili man in yellow robes and a kofia (a brim-less cylindrical cap worn by men in east Africa).

We climb several winding flights of stairs to a rooftop bar-restaurant, where there’s a breeze and sweeping views over Stone Town and the Indian Ocean.

Stone Town seafront promenade.
Camera IconStone Town seafront promenade. Credit: Steve McKenna

And we spend a lovely evening, legs stretched out, backs and bums cushioned by patterned fabric pillows and padding, as the robed waiters bring cocktails, wine (from South Africa) and a multi-course banquet. Similar, we’re told, to the kind served at Swahili weddings, it bursts with flavour and includes salt-and-pepper squid with baobab sauce, kingfish with grated coconut, pumpkin Persian pilau rice, goat curry, green papaya salad, then mango and avocado meringue, followed by ginger tea.

Adding to the atmosphere is the sound of the call to prayer drifting from Stone Town’s many mosques and the trance-like tunes of a local band performing taarab, the traditional, haunting music of Zanzibar.

It’s all wonderfully exotic.

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