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Zanzibar and especially Stone Town is a shopper's paradise. The narrow winding streets are lined with stores selling local crafts, antiques, jewelry, clothes and spices. Zanzibar Gallery, on Kenyatta Road, sells a huge range of printed fabrics and clothes plus silver jewelry and locally made massage oils and perfumes. Zanzibar Gallery is also a publishing company, and sells a range of new and second hand books on local history, plus diaries, address books, calendars and postcards featuring photographs by the shop's owner.
The Orphanage Shop, near the Old Fort, sells crafts and paintings by local artists and the orphans themselves, plus bolts of brightly colored fabric, which the in-house tailor can make up to your own design. Two of the best souvenirs to bring home from Zanzibar are Khangas - the brightly patterned fabric worn by local women as a matching skirt and head covering. It can also be used as a beach wrap or sarong.
Bao Game is played on street corners and in village squares across the whole of East Africa, with regional variations. In the US, it is known as Mancala, and consists of a carved wooden board, with rows of large holes, into which seeds are dropped, functioning as both counters and dice. It's surprisingly easy to pick up. Bao boards come in all shapes and sizes, from small folding ones ideal for rucksacks, to huge, ornate antique boards which double as tables. Be sure to buy some spare seeds at the same time to replace any lost ones in the future.
Beware of buying polished shells, lumps of coral or tortoise shell products in Stone Town or on the beach. Their collection and sale is illegal, and many of the species they derive from are already endangered.
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