I never saw myself as a diver. I always thought it was quite dangerous and extremely expensive and you can spend your money in a much wiser way. My boyfriend Roel, however, had his PADI certification for some time and really wanted to share the experience with me. So during our Thailand trip in 2016, when we planned to stay a couple of days at the diver's paradise Koh Tao, it was a done deal for Roel that I need to try diving. I didn't have too many expectations; I think a part of me wanted to try it to get Roel off my back, and it would be easier for him to understand I don't want to dive once I have actually tried it. 

Immediately after getting our rental car in Stone Town, we set off on an approximately 2-hour-long journey to the other side of the island—the peaceful city of Matemwe. We planned to first make a quick stop at the Oce Ocean diving school (which I chose based on the immensely positive feedback they have received online) but due to getting lost on the way (never trust Google maps in underdeveloped parts of the world!) we arrived only a minute before closing. The staff were so nice that they stayed open and discussed the details of my skill training in the pool the next day. I must admit, I did feel a little nervous then, but the instructors at One Ocean made me feel much more relaxed. I felt I was in good hands.

The nerves came back the next day as soon as I woke up. I became a little restless and that feeling didn't stop until the training was over. First thing in the morning, I walked to my diving school to be transported to a resort in Kiwengwa about half an hour away, where I would be joining two other people for my scuba equipment. It turned out to be a Swiss couple approximately my age and we were trained by a Finnish instructor. We first had to have our fins, BCDs, and wetsuits fitted and then proceeded to gather everything else, such as masks and snorkels. The biggest challenge of the training turned out to be putting on the wetsuit. As the water can get cold, a wetsuit needs to fit very snugly so that water will not get underneath and make you cold. And so putting it on turned out to be a real pickle. Both I and the other girl were struggling to put it on for a good 20 minutes, after which my hands had visible scratches and little abrasive wounds from how aggressively I had to tug it. Finally, I picked up my scuba equipment and carried it all the way to the pool, still with a little tremor in my legs (also because it was so heavy) and a faster-than-usual heartbeat.

The rest of the day seemed easy compared to the horror of putting on a wetsuit. We started the training very relaxed, as we had to prove that we can swim for five lengths of the pool without stopping and afterward that we can float on the water for 10 full minutes. Our instructor wasn't kidding; she took the training so seriously that we had to complete each skill to the T. The whole group did quite well on all of the skills, but there were a few that we had to repeat a couple of times, such as the emergency ascent when you need to swim for 5 meters without any oxygen. For me personally, buoyancy (how much you float up and down while underwater) posed the biggest challenge, which is rather unfortunate as it is one of the most important skills to master as a diver. No matter what I did underwater, I couldn't stay still without moving my arms or legs and would always tip over to the side or on my back as soon as I stopped moving. After a long time and a lot of frustration from all sides, we figured out that the problem lied in the very heavy cylinder for my small upper body and the bad distribution of weights.

In the end, and even though we really didn't waste too much time repeating skills, we ended up in the pool for a good 6 hours with just one 15-minute break to change into a full-body wetsuit as we were all freezing half-way through the training. At 14.30 when we finally left the pool, we were all tired, cold, and extremely hungry. And perhaps a little hangry.

The fun part really started on day two, when we were about to conquer the ocean and do two dives to the depth of up to 12 meters. I was perhaps even more stressed about the actual dives—in the end, you never know what can happen in an ocean, especially with the added danger from fish and the fact that you're so far below the surface.

As I walked to the diving school that morning, all of these thoughts were running through my mind. But as soon as I met my instructor for the dives, I felt relieved. Nick was a very laid back and nice South African guy whose some of the first words out of his mouth were "we will keep everything chill because otherwise I get stressed, and that's not good." Nick—or Nicki how I started calling him—said exactly I needed to hear. If you're already stressed yourself, you don't need a strict instructor who's gonna stress you out even more. You need a friend, who's going to tell you it's all okay and that you're able to do it. You need yourself a Nick.

Day two started off by us being transported some 20 minutes further to the north of Zanzibar to be closer to the Mnemba Atoll. We were picked up by a bus and later transported to our diving location with a little speed boat. On the way there we saw a bunch of dolphins swimming along the boat and all got very excited that we might be able to see them underwater. We first let all the more experienced divers do their thing, because as Nick sassily said, "I don't need to get in the middle of this chaos". We let them all jump off the boat and we started putting on our equipment in peace.

I must admit the first dive (this time I was joined by a different couple from Germany, with the boyfriend already certified and only joining on a fun dive) wasn't so memorable. It was also not supposed to be; we started the dive with a leading line like a bunch of animals on a leash and we also ascended using it. When we were down there, I didn't have much time to enjoy the surroundings: we had several skills that we needed to perform (such as removing water from a partially flooded mask) and I also had to get used to controlling my buoyancy with the new wetsuit, new cylinder, and more weights. The fact that Nick started telling us about the divers that choose to dive to depths of 150 meters and have a higher chance of dying than surviving (including personal stories of deceased extreme divers), definitely didn't help calm our nerves and left me extra alert to everything scuba-related.

The second dive was a little more enjoyable, but with the skills to perform and the still somewhat unconfidence in one's abilities, I didn't pay much attention to the sea life. Indeed, after we surfaced and got on the boat, Nick told us that at some point he saw a very rare fish and wanted to show us, but none of us saw him signaling to us as "the sand seemed so interesting." We were just trying not to drown. A big disappointment was that due to my shitty foggy mask, I couldn't see the couple of dolphins that swiftly swam around us in distance. Even though trying to find dolphins again underwater became task number one, we didn't spot them again.


Nick, Roel and I were left alone and with no more skills to practice. And so halfway through my third dive, I only had fun dives in front of me when I could fully enjoy the sea life around me and diving as such. On the last dive of the course, we went to a place called the Aquarium and this was truly the place where sights were breathtaking. We dove all the way down to 18 meters, and even though I thought that it's still a pretty safe depth, Nick later told me that a lot can go wrong at 18m that you might not so easily recover from. Despite the no-show from dolphins, just minutes after returning down there, we saw a huge wall of dozens of barracudas and later a similar wall of other fish. Both times when I saw them, I got so excited I almost breathed in some water. We saw amazing coral, almost all of the Finding Nemo cast, and a couple of rare morays and stingrays. In fact, at some point a stingray that had been hiding under Nick panicked and swam away so abruptly and quickly it was out of sight in a second. Later on the boat, Nick told us he almost peed his pants as he didn't know if it was coming after him. One sting and he'd be dead.

When we returned to the boat for the last time, it was official: Nick told me I am getting PADI certified. I jokingly said that he should revoke Roel's certification as the first time we made a descent, he forgot to put his mouthpiece in. (Good luck diving without oxygen.) And Nick agreed.

On the way back on the boat, which took us all the way to Matemwe on a half an hour journey, Roel told me that we are going to the Philippines next to get out PADI advanced. Let's see.

There's a handful of places that get to earn the nickname paradise on earth. And there are even fewer of those that are affordable enough to make their beauty accessible to the wider public. Zanzibar is one of those. 

So what was our holiday? Some look for pristine beaches and relaxing with the sound of waves crashing onto the shore. Some crave adventure and excitement of water sports or vibrant nightlife. And some need the breadth of history and culture enlightening the life of the previous generations. Zanzibar had it all—and more—and in the limited 7 days we got to enjoy the island, we traversed through all such experiences speechless.

The beginning of our holiday, however, wasn't all roses, when my passport wasn't valid for long enough and Roel got almost deported back to the Netherlands because his visa ran out. Perhaps to make up for the stressful beginnings, we got to experience a great holiday.

Relief overcame us as soon as we passed the immigration check and entered the country. After getting a sim card with a data plan (note: do not ever buy a sim card at the airport; it's a complete rip-off) and negotiating the price for the taxi, we sat inside a van with a very nice local man driving us to our first hotel. Swedzan House was a nice and basic little place with everything that we needed and no extra frills. After quickly dropping off our bags at the reception and changing into lighter clothes (long jeans and sleeved t-shirt indeed didn't prove to be Zanzibar weather-proof) we headed out to the heart of Zanzibar City—Stone Town.


Stone Town is a small area of the city right at the coast that bears the most of the history and authenticity of the old times, with narrow alleyways and mostly white buildings built in Swahili style. The majority of Stone Town is still inhabited by locals who are often crammed in a small apartment, despite the wealth that all the tourism brings. Indeed, restaurants, cafés, and souvenir stalls in Stone Town are growing in numbers and the place does feel like it is becoming more and accustomed and even tailored to the herds of tourists it gets each year. Nonetheless, we visited Zanzibar in the middle of September and the whole island felt rather empty.

After a brief walk along the beach and to the Old Fort, and fueled by amazing coconut shrimp curry for less than $3, we decided to go to the old slave market where slaves from all of eastern and central Africa were sold. One review of the place described it as a 'truly sobering experience' and we couldn't have agreed more. The oppressors would cram 50 people into one small room with no facilities and only a two centimeter-wide opening through which the sun could shine. They would chain them on their neck. A lot of the slaves would die in these chambers even before they could make it into the slave auction. Only the strongest would survive and would be worth keeping as slaves. The second ordeal would wait at the auction itself when all slaves would be whipped. The ones who didn't cry were sold for the most. Ironically, while slavery has spread as a legacy of the British colonial system, it was also a British missionary to stop this atrocity in Zanzibar.

Interestingly, slavery was not only a western affair. Slavery has truly become an institution and a way of life for many Africans, and often slaves would own their own slaves. People would be kidnapped from their own homes when vulnerable and sold and abused by their own people—Africans. The guards at the slave market were also slaves—the strongest ones. I guess in such desperate times you'd do anything to escape your ordeal.

Slavery is often dismissed as something of the past, but more people are estimated to be in modern types of slavery (such as sex trafficking) than ever before. Even this slave market in Zanzibar was still operational at the beginning of the 20th century.

It took us a minute to shake off this experience, but knowing we would only have one and a half-day in Stone Town, we decided to traverse through the streets again, enjoy drinks as we were watching the sunset, and get a nice dinner and an ice cream in the city.

The next day we woke up early and went to the Changuu (Prison) Island. The main draw of the island are the some 200 turtles they house in the sanctuary, from little babies all the way to the 160-year-old grandmas and grandpas.

 





But the island previously served as a prison for slaves that were to be traded at the auction but that tried to escape. Later on, with the black fever outbreak, the island served as a quarantined area where all infected individuals (slaves or not) were sent to contain the disease. Nowadays, it even houses a little bar and a lot of amazing picture spots all along—especially due to its amazingly turquoise waters.

As we said goodbye to Stone Town, we made our way to the eastern side of the island in our rental car. In the end, renting a car was a great decision that allowed us to be extremely mobile and see much more than an average tourist. The way to the eastern coast led through amazing little Zanzibar villages, set in the middle of beautifully green palm trees and under the beaming sun. Adorable kids wave at you as you pass by and for a moment the whole journey feels like it could have been your destination.

After a night in Stone Town, we planned to stay two nights in Matemwe (right next to my diving school One Ocean) and three nights in Pwani Mchangani (right next to Roel's kitesurfing school) so that none of us needed to travel all the time and also so that we would see more of Zanzibar.

We arrived in Matemwe later than expected due to some bumps on the way. (Metaphorical and literal—Google Maps really doesn't work well in underdeveloped areas and sent us through an almost untraversable road. After 15 minutes, having moved several hundred meters, we gave up and turned back seeking an alternate route, but the damage to our ETA had already been done.) We quickly sorted the beginning of my PADI open water course that I was beginning the next day, and went to check in to our hotel which sat right next door.

Matemwe turned out to be a nice, quiet place with a lot of space on the beach sprinkled with hotels and resorts. However, it felt too quiet for our liking. All the travelers were concentrated in their hotels and there were very few beach bars or places to hang out. We chose the location because of my diving school, which was right next door, but we probably wouldn't choose Matemwe again as Zanzibar has so many other amazing places to offer.

On Tuesday evening, we moved to Pwani Mchangani. The primary reason for us to stay here was that there was a kiting school and Roel wanted to learn how to kitesurf. Unfortunately, the wind in Pwani was really weak the whole time we were there—and it had been quite poor all year long.

We discovered Paje quite by mistake. It became Roel's plan B for kitesurfing after the conditions in Pwani Mchangani turned out disappointing. On Tuesday, Roel drove all the way to Paje in the southern part of the island as the wind is usually the best there. He drove alone for an hour and a half one way and in the end did manage to do some beach training. And so I moved the last two dives of my PADI course to Thursday and we went chasing the last little bits of wind in Paje on Wednesday. We were not so lucky.

Instead, we spent the morning on a SUP, chilled in a great spot called Mr. Kawaha, and spent the afternoon at a beach bar B4. Despite the disappointing wind, Paje was a great one-day trip location. Paje has recently been regarded as a laid-back party location of the island where young people come to kitesurf and hang out in the beach bars during day and party at night. The water in Paje was just as bright blue as elsewhere and the presence of a bunch of beach bars made the place very approachable and social (unlike Matemwe, where you can basically just hang out at your own resort).

Our last destination was Nungwi, a picturesque town on the northern tip of the island perhaps most popular with tourists and best known for its beautiful beach, a plethora of beach bars, and amazing sunsets.








The vibe of the town is very laid-back (just like pretty much the whole of Zanzibar) but you can feel that tourism has entirely overtaken the village. The beach is full of restaurants and bars that extend all the way to the end of the beach, not exactly inviting you to put down a blanket. There are souvenir stalls all around the place - something we have only seen in Stone Town by far. Nonetheless, Nungwi offers amazing views and a lot of affordable hotels right on the beach while giving you the opportunity to escape the resort life at night into one of its many bars. Roel immediately fell in love with this place and I can for sure see why.

I started to see these contrasts already on my very first day in Kenya. I landed at the international Jomo Kenyatta airport, one of the top 10 busiest airports in Africa, receiving as much as 7M passengers each year. And yet as I entered the arrival hall, I was greeted by a small terminal with a shabby roof, three almost-foldable kiosks selling sim cards and one security guard. Little did I know that this little hall was nothing like the other arrival halls with western cafes and an atmosphere that makes you think you never left Europe.

So to stay on theme here, let me divide my experience of Kenya into the most basic contrast of all: good and bad.


Nature, nature, nature. Kenya truly is a beautiful country. In many places, you will find the unspoiled beauty that was once found in popular places like Thailand. Tourists are slowly discovering Kenya, but it is still not a common destination, leaving you the freedom to discover a lot of places without the crowds of western tourists. From safaris through hiking to the beach, Kenya has something for everyone. On the other hand, Kenya still has a long way to go to truly preserve its natural beauty, especially since littering is far from uncommon.

Gorge in the Hell's Gate National Park

Strong sense of community. People within one community (such as family, friends, or even a village) help each other much more than in Europe. It is common for the whole family to chip in for medical treatment for a sick family member. After being at my company for one month, I was asked to give some money for the funeral of my colleague's granddad. And on the very first day in Kenya, our landlady drove me and Roel to the supermarket, waiting for us until checkout, and drove us all the way back, while her two friends were waiting in the car for us to be done. Nonetheless, people really don't respect each other beyond their community (e.g. our neighbors playing loud music until the wee hours week after week despite our relentless complaints) and in a way, Kenya really is a dog eat dog world unless you have a strong support group. Or enough money.

Hakuna matata. This saying, popularized due to the Lion King movie, means "no worries" in Swahili. And the statement that everything is hakuna matata in Kenya could not be truer. Whatever the problem is, people always find a solution or learn to live with it. If your car breaks down, you can be sure that a dozen people will surround you within a minute and try to fix it. (And while around Nairobi they will always ask for money afterward, this is definitely not the case in other parts of Kenya.) We never found this relaxed lifestyle more prevalent than in the coastal areas where people "chill for a living." For instance, Jawad, a young adult in Lamu, operates a dhow sailboat business and is paid to relax on a sunset boat tours every weekend. Undoubtedly, living with less stress is something that westerners could learn from Kenyans.

Sailing on a traditional Swahili dhow boat in Lamu

Kenya, and especially Nairobi, is very welcoming. Nairobi is full of expats, who are almost always searching for new friends. Already in our first week in Nairobi, we met a lot of people that we ended up spending a lot of time in the months to come. Talking to random people in a bar is nothing weird and everyone is usually very open to making new connections. Even local people on the street very often just greet you without wanting anything.

The food is great. No, I don't mean Kenyan food, which very often consists of ugali (cornmeal porridge), some sort of meat (often organs), and sukuma wiki (cooked kale). But across Kenya, and of course, especially in Nairobi, you can find exceptional restaurants serving any kind of cuisine you can imagine. The only one I have yet to find is the Slovak one.




It is still a poor country where people live from day to day. For many Kenyans, salaries are paid on a daily basis and saving is not a big thing. What often happens is that people start every single day anew, with no spare money. The fact that Nairobi is a very expensive city compared to the wages really doesn't help. In addition, a huge chunk of the population is unemployed, and any day you will see a lot of people just hanging around in the streets with nothing to do. In addition, the majority of the people who become beggars are handicapped due to the lack of access to healthcare and the inability to afford even simple procedures that would entirely prevent their disability. The one good side effect of the Kenyan poverty for expats is that Kenya offers some affordable luxury, allowing you to visit beautiful places to relatively good prices.

While Elephant Resort in Malindi

'Efficiency' has completely disappeared from the Kenyan dictionary. Kenyans are literally never in a hurry. In our very first week of being in Nairobi, we went to a fast-food restaurant where one staff member prepared our orders one by one, while the other four of his colleagues stood around and watched him. But the lack of efficiency seems to extend to every part of life. Working at a coworking space, on a daily basis I have around 20 people around me. And while many of them are developers and people who spend the whole day on their computer, none of them, in fact, use a computer mouse. This inability to see the value of small adjustments and investments in order to optimize efficiency is one of the reasons why many African businesses still cannot compete with their European or American counterparts.

Flexibility reaches undesired amounts. The hakuna matata mentality translates into people being extremely flexible. While on the one hand, it can be convenient to always be able to change your mind without any repercussions, I have found that this cultural habit proves to be more of a challenge. Booking back-to-back meetings is usually suicide, as meeting times are rarely respected. In fact, there is a running joke in our company that our management team meeting starts at 10:00 am Kenyan time, 10:30 am real time. Even conferences for hundreds of people routinely start an hour late. In fact, I learned the hard way that agreement or one's word doesn't mean much here - when a Kenyan company revoked my contract already after quitting my job and moving to Africa. But more about that here (coming soon).

Enforcement and regulation is a joke. Police are in most cases completely useless. When I got my phone stolen, they wrote me a report for my insurance company but never bothered to investigate. The same happened when Roel's bag was stolen. From my perspective, police are in most cases the biggest danger out there. With corruption reaching astronomical levels, police randomly stop cars, take your passport and only give it back if you pay. In fact, money will get you literally anything in Kenya. A local friend told me that if I wanted to become a Kenyan national and had some money, I could get it done within a day. Regulation of many aspects of life doesn't really work either, even though I must give kudos to the government for trying, such as recently introducing a ban on all plastic bags.

Security guards are everywhere in Nairobi and really change your feeling about the city. Especially after the recent terrorist attack on the Dusit hotel in Nairobi, security guards have sprung like mushrooms in literally every side of the city. Sometimes you go through three security checks before you can enter a shop. On the one hand, guards are there to make it safer for everyone, but their relentless presence and their loaded guns everywhere you walk really do not make you feel safe.

Despite security guards, crime rates are exceptionally high. First of all, walking outside after dark is a big no-no in Nairobi that even locals do not dare to do. Stealing is a big part of life here and there are only a handful of expats who leave Nairobi without having their phone stolen. The worst part about it is that those who steal do not even think they are necessarily doing something bad, as they are only 'taking from those who have everything.'

Health and safety are not big priorities. Despite having the best marathon runners, Kenyans are on average not very healthy or fit. Naturally, this is primarily caused by the lack of proper nutrition for a lot of the population. But even those Kenyans who belong in the middle class do not seem to care too much about their health. Their food is very simple and always the same, full of oil, salt, and sugar. They do not usually like to experiment with new cuisines and even though they never say no to food if you offer, they stay true to their Kenyan cuisine. This is also one of the reasons why many Kenyans consider hiking Mount Longonot or Elephant Hill as very difficult, even though we found it very doable. Safety enjoys a similar statute. People regularly walk in between cars waiting at the traffic light selling small bites. They cross highways like it's no big deal. They refuse to wear a helmet on a motorbike even though there is one available.

Hiking Mount Longonot (2,776 m)

Driving habits are rather poor. Most importantly, drunk driving is not stigmatized. This means that quite a few accidents happen at night after people go home from parties. Secondly, Kenyan always use their big lights at night, whether they need them or not, whether they are inside or outside the city. They also don't exit the fast lane after overtaking. One funny observation is that there are often speed bumps on a highway, as they pass through villages where people need to cross to the other side.

Cyber? What's that? Even though people are slowly realizing that cyber security is to be taken seriously, this renaissance is very recent and definitely still shallow, making Africans approximately 20 years behind the US, Europe, Singapore, or Japan. One most striking manifestation of this is that people leave their unattended laptops in a public space in an unlocked state, and probably don't even realize why that would pose a problem.

African definition of cyber

Kenyan men are quite the players and often like Western women. Be it in the gym, at a club, or just in the streets - Kenyan men are very, very keen on socializing with Western women. And they often don't even leave you alone when you say you have a boyfriend. In addition, the whole dating culture in Kenya is very relaxed, with many men not wanting to settle down until their 30s.



Almost all Kenyans have a Christian name: Catherine, George, Victor... This is a legacy of the colonial times at the end of the 20th century when western colonists gave Africans names that they could pronounce. Later, Christian missionaries spread the notion that together with baptism, Christian names are going to secure Africans a place in heaven. As written by a Kenyan writer here, "In the psyche of the Kenyan mind, Christian names came to be seen as formal, official, a sign of being educated, no longer a heathen, saved from one’s primitive nature. Long after the country gained independence, this mentality remained." I somewhat understand the value in introducing yourself with a name that the other party can comprehend (I also sometimes pronounce my name in the American way if I meet Americans) but the fact that Kenyans still use their European names in basically all official settings is very sad and disturbing to me.

Many use their African name as their last name. The vast majority of Kenyans have at least three names: European name (used in official settings), African name (used with family and friends), and their surname. Interestingly, very often they only use their first two names when introducing themselves fully. For instance, my colleague is called Mark Ochieng Onyango, but really only uses Mark Ochieng.
Kenya is very, very conservative. At least for my Dutch standards. The majority of the country is Christian and all of my colleagues go to church every Sunday and even sign in the choir or play in the church band. Conservativeness also means that the traditional gender roles are very much enforced here, with the bride still being bought by the groom's family, women expected to raise the children, and so on. Homosexuality is not only still a big taboo, but a lot of people are outright homophobic.

'Hello' in Swahili always has the meaning of 'Hello, how are you?'. Kenyans whose English lacks a bit do not recognize the difference between "hi" and "how are you?" and in fact, sometimes when I greet the security guard at my apartment complex with a "Hello!", he just responds "Fine."!

People do not say goodbye when they hang up the phone. This might be a cultural thing but I am pretty sure it also has to do with the fact that people do not have phone subscriptions and pay per minute. This way, they try to minimize the amount that they pay.