Our day started a lot earlier today, we were up and out of the house by 08:30am. Arnold, Rich, Suzi and I went on a Dar bicycle tour. The bicycle tour was really interesting; we went through many different villages. One of the first stops we saw a man making a sweet snack of peanuts, caramelised sugar and wheat flour. The next stop we had african tea and chapati's for breakfast.

The tour took us through the more disadvantaged areas of Dar es Salaam. It was amazing to see that such a built up city still has so much poverty. The roads were dirt tracks and very uneven, safe to say it was slightly uncomfortable.

Part of the tour took us across a rean, where we saw cannabis plants being grown. Such a clever idea to grow the plants there - most people cross the rean, see the devastating state of it and hear of the damage it causes to the environment but don't stand there long enough to observe the plants. The grower stood nearby just across from the rean and clearly clicked on to the fact that we knew what he was growing.

Next stop was to a herb garden where a local conducts herbal treatments on sick people. She is also a midwife. They strongly believe in herbal medicines to aid the recovery of different illnesses. Following this we went to a herbal shop where there were a lot more herbs available to aid recovery of a lot more illnesses. The difference was that the local woman learnt through the generations whereas the owner of the shop learnt through going to school.

We walked through a local market, one of the biggest in the area. The smell was almost unbareable. A strong smell of fish mixed with rotten vegetables. Flies lingered around dry fish and massive piles of anchovies. The tour ended after around 4 hours with a soft drink at a nearby bar.

The afternoon was quite relaxed. We watched a few episodes of the originals in bed before heading to the site where Arnold's house is being built. Arnold has a schedule to visit there a few times a week as they are so behind on the work. There had not been much more development so we headed back home.

We had some food and got ready for Hollywood Fresh and Mansion Party. Arnold and Rich were in shirts and smart trousers whilst I was in a dress. Margaret (Arnold's Mum) took a lot of photos before we left. We started the night at News Cafe with a few beers for the guys and a few cocktails for me. Here we met Rahim and Brian. Next we went to Meganga's where we had a few shots and drinks. We decided that we would give Hollywood Fresh a miss and go straight to Mansion Party. Rich and Arnold went in one car, Rahim and I in another. Rahim followed the wrong car and we ended up getting lost. We drove up and down the same road atleast 7 times! Arnold wasn't much help at all on the phone, he wasn't given us any directions, luckily Rahim knew someone else at the party who told us where to go. We had driven past the turning everytime we had driven up and down the road we were on.

Arriving at the party, there were so many parking attendants and hundreds of cars! We walked to the gate where we had to pay 20000 shillings for entrance. Rich and Arnold were right by the gate. We lost Arnold almost straight away. The party was absolutely packed! It was literally like a party from the movies. If any of you have seen Project-X, it was like that.... I literally felt like I was at Project-X. It was amazing! Never been to such a massive party. They were mainly serving Hennessy at the bar, so thought i'd give it a try.. It was rather nice, but of course it would be, as it's expensive! We stumbled across Arnold after a short while. He always wonders off. Rahim and Rich looked after me and kept me in tow, so it was fine, we had a good night. I bought Rahim and Rich a drink of Vodka, Hennessy and Orange ofwhich they both chose but didn't like! Shortly after we headed for home. It had been a long, but good night of drinking. Definitely a life time experience going to a Mansion Party. It's nobody's mansion, someone rents it for the night and throws a party! Insane idea. If only we could rent Mansions back in the UK.... hmmmm!

Night all, H

PS. I am on a laptop, so the photo is not my own!