Malaysia: Well, not quite...

I had originally intended to go to Malaysia after the Indochina trip, to the northern part of Borneo. My plan was to dive there and spend some time exploring the jungles to see the orang-utans. But, this is not the best time of year for diving in that region and I decided that seeing the orang-utans is something I would rather do when travelling with somebody instead of on my own, so I went back to Zanzibar! I knew I would be back, although I didn't quite expect to be back so soon!

I have flown overnight many times, but I don't ever remember seeing the stars like I did on the flight from Bangkok to Mumbai. And because there was not a cloud in the sky, the twinkling of street lights and cities of India seemed to mirror their counterparts in the firmament. It looked really beautiful.

Having only booked a one way ticket into Zanzibar, there was a bit of fun and games getting onto the plane. I didn't have a visa and planned to just get one on arrival, but technically you need to prove that you are not intending to stay indefinitely to get a tourist visa, by having onward flights arranged, and at the stricter airports like Bangkok and Mumbai, they weren't happy with me just saying I would book the return flight when I was here. Eventually, I managed to persuade them I was only visiting (showing the rest of my itinerary did the trick), so it was all sorted and I was back in familiar surroundings. It was a great feeling watching the scrum of taxi drivers at the airport trying to take the plane load of Italians that arrived at the same time as me, so I just sat back and watched the melee unfold as I waited for a lift from a friend!

My plan here was to catch up with friends, dive at the old sites and visit some parts of the island that I missed last time round. As it turns out, the catching up with old friends - and making some new ones - took over and the first few nights were spent visiting the old haunts of Tatu, Livingstones and Bawani.... Only a few people knew I was coming back, and a lot of jaws hit the floor as I met up with people again (I think David takes the prize for the best look of surprise, but making Emilia speechless is also quite a feat!). There was an added bonus, as Ruben came back to Zanzibar on the same day - it felt like we had gone back in time four months.

My stay also coincided with a full moon, so of course a few of us headed up to Kendwa Rocks for the full moon party. It was much busier than my last full moon party and it was a good (and late) night. Squeezing seven people into a tiny car to drive back down the bumpy back roads to the bungalows seemed like a perfectly sensible idea at the time, but time will tell if the suspension on Laura's car agrees!

The following day, we spent a very relaxing day at the beach in Nungwi. I had been to the village before, but not made it to the beach and it matches Paje and Kendwa for its beauty. The ocean there is very salty and lying back in the water with palm trees swaying in the breeze along the shore is a very agreeable way to recover.

I also went to see the slave chambers and coral caves at Mangapwani. Slavery is self evidently abhorrent wherever it takes place, but the conditions in these illegal holding pens, set up by the arabs when slavery was outlawed on the island, must have been indescribably awful. Today, the caves are home to bats, snakes and jumping spiders and walking through the pitch black caves, over jagged coral rocks in intense heat and humidity was a bit of an adventure! The bats were cute though!

I wasn't sure how long I would stay in Zanzibar this time. My next booked flight was from Singapore to New Zealand on 16 December, but the tickets are - at least theoretically - flexible. However, most of the flight that I could potentially switch to are full with people travelling for Christmas, so I planned to leave Zanzibar on the 14th. As with all best laid plans, that didnt quite work out, as I was persuaded that I couldn't miss Steffi's birthday party on the 14th and so now I leave on the 15th. And my time in Singapore will be just a few hours in the airport. At least I've heard it's a good one!

So, with (another!) farewell dinner at La Taverna, followed by learning a few German birthday songs and sayings at the stroke of midnight for Steffi's birthday, I started saying my goodbyes again to these shores.

I wonder how long I can stay away this time....!