Karimjee Jivanjee Office Building: Photo courtesy: Planning Unit University College London — Wikimedia Commons
There’s a difference between the Dar I remember, and the one I find on line. Many of the old buildings are demolished, and I stare at a photo trying to place where the picture fits into the map of Dar I hold in my head.
A year before I came to the coastal town, I spent a week in Bali. Kuta Beach had a dirt track leading to the ocean. There were no hotels so I rented a room in a local family’s house. Only traditional Balinese food was available.
Twenty years later, I revisited the island with my daughter. We had just completed a hard two weeks going from one end of Java to the other, and Bali seemed like paradise to my daughter. I however, was disappointed. The once petite women had grown plump; the family house I’d stayed in was replaced with rows of shops; you could eat halal Kentucky Fried Chicken; and the beach was no longer free, you had to pay to sit on the sand.
This makes me apprehensive about revisiting Dar es Salaam, a town I remember with majestic buildings and a casual, relaxed atmosphere.
I went to a secluded beach in Lombok and it was (and still is) my all-time favorite beach. There were times when I was thinking of going back, but then I think it’s better to keep my memories of the beach the way I remember it.
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What I intend to do too. I learned my lesson from Bali.
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I am planning to visit Dar during the first week of August. So I am religiously reading all your Africa posts!!
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Look forward to reading you experiences — some of mine are rather nostalgic. Don’t miss Zanzibar!
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It can be hard to go back years later. We however returned to Essaouira in Morocco ten years later and although some things had changed, the core and authenticity, had not!
Peta
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