48 Hours In Dar es Salaam

BY Laureen Rossouw & Marushka Stipinovich

For my last issue as Editor of Elle Decoration my art director, Marushka, and I travelled to Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar and together we discovered the magic, colour and mystique of East Africa.

Dar es Salaam is a bustling, energetic and layered African city replete with colourful markets, street vendors, malls, high rises, many restaurants and even more idyllic sandy beaches. I never realised how close we South Africans are to Tanzania; the flight from Johannesburg took just over three hours.

As we stepped off the plane in Dar es Salaam it became very clear we had arrived – the heat, the billboards and the buzz… In the first few minutes, as you drive through the streets of a new city, you see it clearly and uncontaminated.

Heading towards The Oyster Bay (an upmarket hotel near the popular Coco Beach), we were excited by it all and inquisitive by what was in store. As soon as we’d dropped our bags, we headed downtown, braving a dala dala (local minibus) to look for colourful fabrics and anything unknown and exotic.

My colour of choice for the trip was orange, and I packed my week’s outfits to work around it. I found beautiful vlisco, bought a stylish straw hat, some wooden beads and colourful bangles to complete the look.

We ate nyama choma (a local barbecue favourite) and street foods like cassava chips and samosas and, of course, lots of exotic fresh fruits.

At night, we danced to the rhythms of bongo flava music –a mixture between rap and R&B, the most popular in Dar’s vibrant night life.

For our last lunch, we had fresh prawns and a tall Kilimanjaro beer at one of the many make-do and charming beach cafes – kitted out in bright plastic chairs and loin-clothed tables, with the slow sounds and rhythms of Reggae in the background.

Exhausted, energised and inspired we left East Africa’s ‘Harbour Of Peace’ for the next leg of our inspirational journey.

Images – Marushka Stipinovich