There were too many ladies

QBar, the hostel we are staying in, is the place to be in Dar on a Friday night. After a 6 hour afternoon nap, Cristiano and I ventured down to see what the fuss was all about. We were somewhat surprised by the number of beautiful, scantily-clad African women that were doing their thing on the dance floor with ex-pats of all shapes and sizes. As I watched a long-haired ex-pat on the dance floor rub his head against his companion’s stomach, I started to wonder about the nature of their relationship…

QBar is described by Lonely Planet as:

one of the few budget places on the Msasani Peninsula and is very popular…The bar downstairs is a good place to meet travellers and expats [and loads of prostitutes]

Okay, I took some liberties with Lonely Planet’s description because they omitted the fact about the prozzies. Funnily enough, we meet some Irish girls on Saturday and their guidebook was far blunter about what goes on at the various bars in Dar and confirmed our suspicions about QBar (as did the taxi drivers, the people working at the Italian embassy and our housing agents). Suddenly, the receptionist’s comment on Saturday morning of there being “too many ladies” the night before took on a slightly different meaning.

On the topic of food, all the food we have eaten so far has ranged from good to great. There are two restaurants that are particularly noteworthy and, luckily for us, within walking distance of QBar. The first is Jan – Trattoria (Msasani Peninsula, off Kimweri Ave, btwn Kobil Garage and Lilylike Chinese) that is tucked away on a small, dirt street that didn’t make it into our guidebooks. It took about a half an hour of purposeful walking in various directions before we spotted a dimly lit sign announcing the presence of Jan’s, an Italian restaurant. The food is unbelievable with a menu abounding in thin crust pizza, gnocchi and succulent, marinated meat. I missed my chance to try lobster while in Halifax, but apparently I can make up for this by trying the lobster at Jan’s. This restaurant definitely meets Sarah’s and Lee’s standards of indulging champagne tastes on a traveller’s budget, albeit a somewhat well-heeled traveller. While at Jan’s, we got talking to an Indian couple sitting next to us who recommended that we also try a restaurant called Barbeque Village (Msasani Peninsula, off Kimweri Ave, north of Lillylike Chinese). I have to admit I didn’t fully appreciate BBQ Village, as our dinner trip interrupted my daily 6 hour nap and I felt seriously groggy. Cristiano and I thought the no jet lag pills cured our jetlag, but I’m not so sure. Essentially, we have a whole night’s sleep in the afternoon and then a nap at night. On the plus side, we have seen a lot of sunrises and are awake to hear the call to prayer at 4:30 a.m. Despite my otherworldly state, I appreciated the awesome Indian food available at BBQ Village.

I’ve realised since I got here how privileged we are as pedestrians in Vancouver. Walking around Dar requires your full attention, as trucks, taxis, motorcycles and heavily laden bicycles sweep by you in a cacophony of horns as you pick your way along well-trodden verges scattered with orange peels and discarded slip-slops. A moment of inattention results in screeching brakes and blaring horns. The joke “why did the chicken cross the road” would get little airtime in Dar, as the chicken would never get across the road. As Vancouverites, Cristiano and I haven’t quite developed the assess-and-dash skills necessary to cross major intersections so we rely on moving with the pack, which has worked somewhat successfully so far.

As a total aside, the image that sticks in my mind from this weekend is a very serious, young, black man carrying a glass, house-shaped fish tank, complete with stones, plants, fish and water, on his head as he walked through traffic. It was priceless.

Check out the writing on the water bottle on the picture. You'll note that Cool Blue, the type of water, can also be used to satisfy your body's water requirements.