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Zanzibar, 2006

“South” at Emerson & Green in Stone Town.

Of all the hotel rooms, in so many places, over the years of traveling for work, this was the first time, only time, the room had a free-standing door. “Room” might be an inaccurate word here.

During those years of traveling, I had some very nice surprises in lodging, a place better than expected, or a serious upgrade. I was overnight in Las Vegas to meet some folks to head out to Death Valley and had a reservation at Caesar’s Palace for the gathering spot. The hotel was overbooked and offered me a very attractive package if they could just buy me a room somewhere else that evening, but it was our convening place so I had to decline. Then they gave me one of the suites (seriously, it had more square footage than my home) they reserve for the high-rollers, requiring me to agree that I would only stay one night. I can’t imagine they thought they would have any trouble dislodging me if I tried to stay, so it was easy to say yes.

Barbara and I had just finished leading a photo safari in Tanzania and were treating ourselves to a few days R & R on Zanzibar. I don’t remember how we came to reserve this place; all we knew was it was a little larger room, but not the biggest. We arrived at Emerson & Green’s and discovered a group of buildings with rambling, interweaving, connecting corridors and stairwells and, following our check-in host, came out on an open rooftop, with this free-standing door. He opened it and the bridge to the other rooftop was the entrance to our room–cross, turn right, three steps down.

The green roof on the right was the large bedroom, with fourposter bed (and mosquito netting that worked), all in lush, dark wood, and cool shadows. There was an open courtyard sitting area and the green roof on the left was “the facilities,” which included a large stone tub that extended partially into the bougainvillea-roofed space. There was even a mosque nearby, and the tinny loudspeaker’s call to prayer several times a day became part of the sensory experience.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index