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| Visas: All visitors require a visa except citizens of some Commonwealth countries (Canada and the UK excepted), Scandinavian countries, the Republic of Ireland, Rwanda and Sudan. For these nationalities, a free visitor's pass, valid for one to three months, can be picked up at the point of entry. You also need a yellow fever vaccination certificate to gain entry to Tanzania. Public holidays: New Years Day; Eid-ul-Fitr; Zanzibar Revolution Day (12 Jan); Chama Cha Mapinduzi and Arusha Declaration Day (5 Feb); Eid-ul-Adha; Good Friday; Easter Monday; Labour Day; Prophets Birthday; Saba Saba Peasants Day (7 July); Independence Day (9 Dec); Christmas. Good buys: Local crafts such as Singida baskets, soapstone and Makonde carvings, batiks, kiondos (woven sisal bags) and Tingatinga paintings. Typical food: Typical dishes include ugali, a staple made from maize and eaten with a meat, fish or bean sauce, nyama choma (grilled meat), and on the coast and in Zanzibar you will find Swahili dishes based on seafood cooked in coconut. Good reading: Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah, shortlisted for the 1994 Booker and Whitbread Prizes, is set in the decade before World War One, in the garden of a merchant's house on the coast of East Africa. Yusuf is 12 when he is sold into the service of the rich, perfumed merchant whom he has always known as 'Uncle' Aziz. |