The beach

So once we arrived on the island, the next few days were spent just hanging out around the beach. It was truly beautiful. The place we stayed at had a lovely deck above the beach, and it was wonderful to sit on the deck, or lay on the hammocks, watching the change in the tides, the clouds, and the colours of the water. I had my camera at hand most of the time, so I have, um, well, one or two photos of the various incarnations of the sea. It was just so beautiful. It wasn't the palm tree lined beach like what you see in some of the photos, but I actually thought our beach had more character than that.

We took a lot of walks on the beach - you could walk for a really, really long ways in one direction and hardly see any people at all. Just beach, beach and more beach. Or you could walk the other direction and stumble upon, first, a fishing village where the local people still make dhows by hand, and then more resorts, complete with the little souvenir shops and all.


I really have way too many photos of the most amazingly aquamarine water and white sand... it's really hard to chose which ones to post (and consdering that our internet is pretty slow here, it's after 11pm and I don't have that much battery power in my computer... you'll get away with seeing only a few! Those of you know actually know who I am have seen a whole lot more of these photos on facebook :) ).
Anyway, it was amazingly beautiful, and I loved just walking along the beach and stumbling upon a few random things.
I also spent a lot of time on the deck at the resort, just like this:

It was truly a relaxing way to spend a few days! The food was mediocre, and of course, being a Muslim island, I never did get to feast on bacon, which I've been longing for. But they had great smoothies, amazing little mashed potato balls, and lovely fresh fruit juices to sip on all day. Really wonderfully relaxing. Even though it's supposedly high season, the place really wasn't very full at all. Which was nice, because you could always find a deck chair to sprawl out on, and the dining room wasn't packed at meal times. However, it also wasn't so deserted that you felt like something must be wrong, if you know what I mean. It was a good balance.

We also went on a sunset cruise and snorkling trip. However, there were so many clouds that day that the snorkling wasn't the best, and there wasn't actually a sunset. Well, I mean, there was a sunset, but you know what I mean! Even though the snorkling wasn't the best experience I've had (me in my vast experience of it - this was the third time I've gone!), it was still awe-inspiring to feel like I was swimming inside an aquarium! I still get absolutely amazed at the variety and assortment and colours of all those creatures under the sea. There really isn't anything like it (ok, well, maybe diving would be even cooler, but I don't actually know if I'd be brave enough to try diving - not to mention the fact that it costs about a bizzilion dollars!). Here's me after my under the sea trip:

Cute, aren't I? It took a few hours for the face-mask imprint to disappear...

Anyways, I could tell so many more stories, as it was a truly unforgettable time - though in a good way. Nothing seriously bad happened at all. It was really lovely and relaxing, and after four days, they really did have to drag us away from the beach, on to the next adventure in Stone Town.