Dar es Salaam

"Dar es Salaam", house of peace in arabic, quite a nice city on the Indian ocean coast (the beach and the ocean being the nicest part), the downtown has some old buildings in arabian style, small shops and few fancy towers for hotels & casino. Easy to walk around, from a mosquee to another in small and quiet streets to finally reach the harbour, it's interesting but not so exciting...

Dar es Salaam citycenter

A few kilometers of traffic jam away - with highly skilled drivers - to the west of town is the international airport Juluis Nyerere (HTDA). Going to the north, same distance & traffic mess, is the Peninsula, the neighboord where most of the expats lives. The doors are locked, the airconditionning turned on; with a good book, a 70 minutes shuttle is also long enough for a good sleep.

Dar city & Peninsula (background)

Dar center

The peninsula is more residential with ambassies and NGO offices, the seafront shows a great view of the coast. There are enough good restaurant in this quiet neighborhood to pass the week without cooking and a few bars for some drinks - but not too many.

Dar es Salaam harbour

Besides the city center the interesting Kariako market, where you can "fix" a motorbike (again) or find car spares parts, cheap clothes and anykind of stuff you can need for your house.
 

Kariako

Continue north of the Peninsula to find the white sand, palm trees and crystal clear water beaches...with a fresh beer on a side, get suntan, order some fresh fish platters...quite good to relax once in a while.

5' Ferry trip

Same on the south side, just across the harbour with a 5 minutes ferry transfert, a few kilometers down is kipepeo beach. Same sand, same cold beer with an interesting ferry safari ("journey" in swahili), its pretty fun and quick to go on a bike.

 

 

South Beach