Pure Shores

Priti Mahajan spent a few days at Zanzibar’s picturesque Mnemba Island, and came away with memories for a lifetime.

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There are few places in the world where the quaint is as charming as it is in Stone Town, in the old part of Zanzibar City in Tanzania. The diverse and chequered past of this UNESCO World Heritage Centre (it was a major hub of the spice trade in its heyday) seems to have finally settled into a languid harmony of Portuguese, Arab, Indian and English influences.

My husband Gaurav [Mahajan] and I arrived at Stone Town on an early flight from Mumbai, en route to Mnemba Island, a luxurious private island retreat. We began with a leisurely breakfast at the serene terrace at Park Hyatt, watching little boys jump gleefully into the ocean, giving us a fabulous start to the day. The water sparkled under the morning sun and fishermen were busy casting their nets from old wooden boats painted in bright colours. We could have stayed there forever, but decided to shake off the reverie and explore the town in the few hours we had before our journey to Mnemba Island. All around us were narrow winding alleys, ivy-clad mansions, breathtaking mosques and buzzing bazaars. We chanced upon designer Doreen Mashika’s store, and I bought myself a stunning cape in her trademark bold colours, decorated with local motifs. After some very fine Arabic coffee and a delicious piece of cake at the heritage Zanzibar Coffee House, we clambered into the limousine that would ferry us to the speedboat to the ultra private and very intimate Mnemba Island.