Yellow Fever

[bavmorda]

Heh! good luck finding somewhere to spend all that money. Anyway when you get there just ask your driver to take you to the bank and withdraw with a credit card. Was using an ABSA credit card at the time (2010) and it cost roughly R40 to draw a few thousand rands worth of shillings.

PS. Enjoy being a millionaire (in shillings anyway). Personally I put it all on the bed and rolled in it

Hi Vampire, I got the cash man, I'm not going to use ATMs. Would like to know where is better to exchange here or there.
I checked the prices and at least from what i have looked is more expansive then SA. R.200-300 dinner 200-300 rand drinks, some other small buys and it is R.1000 per day. I'm even little bit concern if R.1000 will be enough per day. I don't want to go there and count pennies. Not my understanding for a holiday.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Hi Vampire, I got the cash man, I'm not going to use ATMs. Would like to know where is better to exchange here or there.

Where would you plan to change here? I don't know of anyone who deals in TSH here. AFAIK you will have to do it that side, and you'll have to change back to USD before you come home if you don't want to sit with them. Then you'll pay to change the USD to ZAR again.

 

[bavmorda]

Hi I can confirm, went to Eastgate and Sandton, I could not not find one exchange bureau that deals with schilling. I thought, let me exchange half here and half there and see where is better, but did not work that way. Will have to change them all there in that case. I'm going to try to spend all of them, that i don't need to exchange back to dollars. Spending is not the difficult part i hope

 

[Willie Trombone]

What I do is spend any remaining cash on my hotel bill and the balance using card since the hotels take card.

 

[Nicci]

Just exchange all your money to US Dollars. They accept that in Tanzania / Zanzibar all over, in fact, they prefer it. There is NO place that will exchange ZAR to Tanzania Shillings. Just exchange to dollars and then use that when you in East Africa. Also, please do consult a doctor / travel clinic re the different malaria medications. I cannot stress enough how important it is to take this.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Just exchange all your money to US Dollars. They accept that in Tanzania / Zanzibar all over, in fact, they prefer it. There is NO place that will exchange ZAR to Tanzania Shillings. Just exchange to dollars and then use that when you in East Africa. Also, please do consult a doctor / travel clinic re the different malaria medications. I cannot stress enough how important it is to take this.

You will generally pay more if you pay in dollars as you'll usually be given the hotel / restaurant / etc's own exchange rate. If you're trying to save a few bob, then don't do this. If you're after convenience then this is the way to go. Remember that with USD you seldom deal in cents, so R10 is effectively the lowest denominator.

 

[^^vampire^^]

Hi Vampire, I got the cash man, I'm not going to use ATMs. Would like to know where is better to exchange here or there.
I checked the prices and at least from what i have looked is more expansive then SA. R.200-300 dinner 200-300 rand drinks, some other small buys and it is R.1000 per day. I'm even little bit concern if R.1000 will be enough per day. I don't want to go there and count pennies. Not my understanding for a holiday.

I was on full board so didn't pay anything at the hotel. Most hotels that do let you pay separately for meals are hellish expensive therefore the 200-300 rand per meal. Go local, I got 3 king prawns (each the size of my fist) and the biggest plate of rice on the planet for the equivalent of about R70 at a local restaurant (prob +- R100 now).

I started off in US Dollars when we went and then drew shillings from the ATM. As someone else said $1 is your lowest denomination and it will be cheaper if you pay in shillings.

Your hotel may say that local beers and soft drinks are included but they give you an 80ml plastic cup that they fill each time to deter you from using the free stuff.

Also go to local spaza shops on the beach for coke etc. Paid US $1 for a coke in a glass bottle and chips and biscuits were around $2-$4. Cheapest I found in a hotel was $4 for a coke. Cocktails were about $12 upwards at most hotels and fairly small.

If you want to do tours get a local agent or your tour driver if you have one from the airport to organise. Make sure you tell them it's expensive as you are from South Africa. To give an example to visit the monkeys at Jozini, Spice Tour and Swimming With Dolphins would have been about $400-$500 per person. Our guide let us do all of it for $125.

Also buy alcohol at the airport at the duty free and take with if you are expecting to do a bit of drinking of spirits. Beers are decently priced if bought at local bars (not at hotels) but other spirits can cost you a bit. Did a fair amount of "car barring" there. Would fill up a huge glass in my room and then go chill in the pool.

 

[nortistortis]

^^ Never drink decanted liquids while travelling

 

[bavmorda]

Thanks a lot guys for all the suggestions. I got dollars for my hotel, tours, taxi or emergency. For all the rest food, drinks, presents i'm going to use schillings. I'm organizing the whole thing my self and i hate all inclusive resort type services. When going away i like to feel the local vibe as well. Will try to be at different places every second night and spend time little bit like local and using local transport. I'm not a person who sits in a hotel. That's why i need local currency in cash. This is how i have done all my trips. This is my first one to a real poor third world country. That's why not too sure how it is going to work out. One more time thanks a lot guys. Got all my stuff, waiting for my scuba boots to be delivered on Wed and I'm ready. Leaving on Sat.

To Vampire: not sure "what car barring" is. How many bottles of spirit i can take with me. Was thinking 1-2 bottles of Bacardi. And then buy local beer.

 

[^^vampire^^]

Thanks a lot guys for all the suggestions. I got dollars for my hotel, tours, taxi or emergency. For all the rest food, drinks, presents i'm going to use schillings. I'm organizing the whole thing my self and i hate all inclusive resort type services. When going away i like to feel the local vibe as well. Will try to be at different places every second night and spend time little bit like local and using local transport. I'm not a person who sits in a hotel. That's why i need local currency in cash. This is how i have done all my trips. This is my first one to a real poor third world country. That's why not too sure how it is going to work out. One more time thanks a lot guys. Got all my stuff, waiting for my scuba boots to be delivered on Wed and I'm ready. Leaving on Sat.

To Vampire: not sure "what car barring" is. How many bottles of spirit i can take with me. Was thinking 1-2 bottles of Bacardi. And then buy local beer.

Each person can take 1 bottle of spirits or 1 bottle of wine but it must be purchased at the duty free shop!

Enjoy the local vibe but just be aware it's a different culture and they are accommodating because you are a tourist with money. If you are staying in Stonetown travelling will be fine but most of the hotels are far away from civilization (what little they have there), roughly 30-60 minutes from main centres so you will have to get a tourist taxi to take you around to main attractions or to a central point that you can get around from.

They have local tuk-tuks but they look relatively unsafe. They also overload the tuk-tuks so people generally have to unload and walk around police checkpoints to avoid fines (few 100 meters each way of checkpoint which can be tiring). I never saw any tuk-tuks coming near the hotels.

Also it is very under-developed with 95% of the people living in pretty much squalor. It is definitely not safe to travel at night - that and you won't be able to unless you walk. Always carry water with you as it is very humid and hot.

Car Barring is when you drink booze in your car then you go to an attraction or event (like drinking out your car then going to a show or the rugby). Just meant that I would go to my room to fill up rather than purchase the overpriced alcohol at the bar at the hotel.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Thanks a lot guys for all the suggestions. I got dollars for my hotel, tours, taxi or emergency. For all the rest food, drinks, presents i'm going to use schillings. I'm organizing the whole thing my self and i hate all inclusive resort type services. When going away i like to feel the local vibe as well. Will try to be at different places every second night and spend time little bit like local and using local transport. I'm not a person who sits in a hotel. That's why i need local currency in cash. This is how i have done all my trips. This is my first one to a real poor third world country. That's why not too sure how it is going to work out. One more time thanks a lot guys. Got all my stuff, waiting for my scuba boots to be delivered on Wed and I'm ready. Leaving on Sat.

To Vampire: not sure "what car barring" is. How many bottles of spirit i can take with me. Was thinking 1-2 bottles of Bacardi. And then buy local beer.

Make sure you try the nyama choma in Stone Town - it's a street buffet with some seriously good nosh including a lot of seafood. You pay next to nothing for the chow. I ate till I was full for around $5-$10... Chapatis, prawns, calamari, steak, chicken, etc. etc.

 

[bavmorda]

^^ Never drink decanted liquids while travelling

What does it mean. Bottle that is all ready open?

 

[bavmorda]

Thanks Vampire. I think to travel through the island. I'm not going to stay at one place. Start from Stone town, go north to Kendwa, Nungwi then Dongwe, Paje and Jambiani. Make a full round and go back to Stown Town. This way i would have seen both sides of the island. I'm going to use local transport will see how it is going to work. Also i hope the weather will be nice.

 

[scudsucker]

I'm going to use local transport will see how it is going to work.

]
Hot, and slow. HOT and SLOW! But it is cheap.

One word of advice: take your SA license, and while you are in Stone Town, get a Zanzibari International license. You may want to hire a scooter or a car (just US$40 / day, it is a bargain if you get a few friends to chip in) and you must have a license. And you can only get them in Stone Town.

It will cost about TSH10 000.

 

[bavmorda]

]
Hot, and slow. HOT and SLOW! But it is cheap.

Ha-ha funny. Well I'm not in the rush at all. Got a whole week. Keep well.

 

[scudsucker]

Also: when you are in Stone Town, ask your hotel where to get a Daladala, and what numbers you can take.

If you go down to the market/bus stop, you'll see loads of daladalas; you will also find all sorts of "helpful" people offering to "help" you find a suitable daladala. They will, after they have had you sitting under a tree far away for an hour or two, helpfully suggest that there are only one or two daladalas on that route every day, and you have probably missed them. Then they will helpfully suggest that you instead hire a car... and by a miracle, they happen to know someone who is willing to hire out his car.

This caused me a 2 hour wait in Stone Town, before some helpful guy told us we were being conned, and to catch a different daladala, to a different bus stop entirely, about 5km away. (cost TSH500). We then got our daladala within a few minutes. Cost TSH2000.

 

[nortistortis]

What does it mean. Bottle that is all ready open?

That's up to you, but I suspect you generally know what I'm getting at.