Nice breakfast with a nice view and fresh soft breeze, followed by slacking at the pool. This is getting a bit repetitive, not necessarily a bad thing so far but we’re getting there.

We decided to actually have lunch today though, and had Chili con carne, which was really nice but it’s getting a bit old with the waiting times, especially when we were offered a taste (it was ready) but made the mistake and said we could have it in 20 minutes (got it just under an hour).

More reading at the pool, but to show you that everyday is not the same – can you spot the difference in this photo?

It’s not obvious – but the water have been replenished/cleaned

For late afternoon we decided to watch a movie and chose Chappie – I did not know that Die Antwoord would be so prominent in the movie but can recommend it although Mona was less impressed. On the candy front we had now finished the Turkish peppers and did the mistake of going in for the Bassett’s Wine gum since they had switched to a “new recipe”. They added a strange-tasting purple color but changed the consistency and to some extent taste of all sorts to something resembling the poor copies you can find in supermarkets. Mona randomly checked out Bassett’s Winegum page on Facebook and had a few good laughs about the colorful bashing of traditionalists lamenting this foul taste.

More reading and then sleep – I think the amount of time doing nothing despite being in an epic place has now reached it’s limit. I find myself reading news and if it wasn’t for that work account have been locked due to password policy change I might have checked how the project is doing in my absence.

Sometimes it rains.

Luckily in this season and region it’s short bursts which makes all smells come forth, settle some of the dry dust and another excuse to stay inside. It’s not like that sideway, umbrella devestating rain I’ve learned to love from my years in Göteborg but still – rains are underestimated.

We had a cosy breakfast starting just before the rain broke out so Mona quickly helped some of the staff collect pillows before they got too wet – we have different cravings, I ran and grabbed my camera to get some different photos. After breakfast we retreated to our couple-cave (I guess that’s the equivalent of a shared man-cave?). At 16:00 we checked the weather and it was better, but a bit windy – and Mona was “almost done” with her Audiobook so we stayed inside a bit longer. 4 hours later she was indeed done and we headed to Seles for another dinner.

An hour after ordered we got our dishes – about expectations, but we felt sorry for the other table who said they were starving and asked how long time it would take and were told it would take 30 minutes. When we left they had waited 45 minutes without luck. I understand that when dishes are done from scratch it takes quite a bit longer, but setting expectations shouldn’t be that hard. On the other hand I cannot come up with an excuse for it taking 15 minutes to get a Sprite when there are 3 guests per waiter either – TIA.

The food was OK and I guess hunger is the best spice, however when we were getting the bill at the bar we were charged for another dish to our surprise. Turns out that since we asked “does it come with a sauce” and got the reply “yes, coconut sauce” that mean we changed our dish from catch of the day to a fish curry – obviously. The interesting thing however was that at this point the staff did not say “sorry for the mixup, of course we will charge you for what you ordered” but stated “so now you see why you have the higher price”. Being a man of principle I could not let this slide and asked to get a word with the manager, again to my surprise the barman explained I could go to talk to her myself. It got sorted out in the end but I don’t see us going there again.

It did however raise an interesting subject on our walk home, why is it like this? Why does waiters not look around to spot guests requesting attention (orders which could generate tip) or how can it take them 10-15min to get a soda? Seles is absolutely not unique in this aspect but it’s pandemic in Africa and I would argue worse here than south Africa, strangely the service level on the Safari was much better though (also 6 Degrees in Stone Town should get credit for their service here). I refuse to believe this is some genetic deficient, but several of the places have had european owners who I only assume have seen good service elsewhere and can convey the requirements to their staff (I can understand if they have not been abroad and experienced good service themselves). Why the standard shrugging of shoulders and TIA-comments rather than incentivize your staff to improve service?

As we woke up there was grey skies and even some drizzle – in other words a  perfect day to leave the resort for a little excursion into Stone town. According to forecast weather would improve over the day and it’s always a bit hotter in Stone town compared to the coast.

So after breakfast we took a 90 minute taxi drive and well there the driver called a guide who would do the 2-3 hour stone town tour for about 10 USD.

There are lots of beautiful doors and interesting stories who our great guide (depicted to the right) shared. History is also ugly and the slave trade one is perhaps one of humanities lowest – I was not aware that good old Dr Livingstone was rather instrumental in the abolishment and it makes it more understandable why two people from his expedition carried his corpse halfway through Africa so it could get a proper burial in England – that however, was intentionally left in Africa. We visited the Slave Market in addition to the regular tour (which included markets, famous buildings such as Freddie Mercury’s house) and had all in all a great tour.

When we were done it was time for some shopping, I snagged a nice pair of sandals at Surti and Sons but otherwise we were bad tourists. On Julia’s recommendation we had a late lunch at 6 degrees which is strongly recommended, except for making the Old Fashioned with crushed ice the food was great, good value and I could easy see this becoming a favorite to hang out if I was to live in Stone town.

One last stroll passing the market where people now were preparing food stalls for the afternoon, smelled great but we were completely full after 6 degrees.

So we found our taxi driver who had been waiting on us with bags and headed back “home”. We also got around to book our flights Auric Air, and went the safer route with an earlier flight to avoid Air Precision. The only problem seems to be a 20kg limit including soft bags for hand luggage – but we’ll solve that somehow…