I arrived in Dar and had a nice first evening there, meeting a friend for dinner and a good sleep afterwards. The next morning I moved to a different hostel, where I was welcomed in a very friendly manner. I then decided to go for a walk around town, to discover the city. It having been a Sunday, I thought it would be nice to walk around.
What actually happened was not so nice... and for reasons that become apparent later, also extremely stupid on my part. Let me start at the beginning... I was walking and had had quite a nice walk around town, obviously having been approached by various people trying to sell me things etc. when at one point I was approached by someone claiming to be a university student, studying music and who would like to give me one of his cds (first stupid part...) I agreed to walk to the shop with him.... of course, then on the way a "friend" turns up in a taxi (might I add, a legitimate looking one - with the yellow stripe and a cab number etc.) and offers to take us... (next EXTREMELY stupid part).. I get in the cab. I honestly do not know what I was thinking/that I was thinking at all... this is the stupidest thing a person could ever do, and is something I would never do at home, so why in a foreign country - where these things happen ALL the time and one is given a million warnings?!!! In any case, the rest can be summed up very quickly - I was robbed of all the valuables I had with me and some money which was taken from the ATM with my card (luckily my cards don't work very well in Africa and only a certain limit can be taken from them per day); more importantly, I was very lucky that it was clear all they wanted was to take my money and that nothing worse happened. They let me keep my cards, sim cards and my camera memory card, also they gave me some money to be able to take a cab back to the hostel (nice thieves if you will...).
Obviously I was in shock, but most of all I was so angry at myself for putting myself in this kind of position - and really what worries me most is that I do not understand how I could be this stupid! In any case, I'm very happy nothing worse happened and I consider myself extremely lucky. But this just goes to reiterate that these things do happen, and that one should be vigilant at all times!
In any case, upon arrival at the hostel the manager was extremely helpful and friendly, comforting me and trying to make me feel better. I also met another nice traveller that evening and we spent the evening chatting - obviously I told her what had happened and she said that she probably would have done the same thing.. which is also why I want to share this... just to make people aware that these things happen and to really really be careful!
The next day that girl and I spent the day around Dar, discovering the cloth markets, taking in the different colours and patterns (absolutely beautiful!), going to the fish market and buying a ferry ticket for my trip to Zanzibar! We found an amazing bakery in the Hindu part of town, where there are also quite a few Hindu temples. Surprisingly we couldn't find a single bookshop selling normal books - we found one selling childrens' school books and one selling religious texts - goes to show that some things we take for granted are really not found everywhere (not to say that there isn't a bookshop in Dar, we just couldn't find one)!
Apart from my stupidity and what happened as a result thereof, Dar is actually quite a nice city, although in my opinion two days would suffice to see what there is to see. Most people do tend to use it as a stop-over on the way to Zanzibar anyway, which is where I am now; but more on that next time :)
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