Stone Town, the oldest part of Zanzibar City, is a truly fascinating place to wander. Its buildings and their facades reflect Zanzibar’s long trading history as a major seaport with its mish-mashed mixture of African, Arabian, Indian, and European cultures. Merchants’ houses, palaces, and mosques stand out, whilst below them on its convoluted streets and alleyways, crammed with small shops and life, an equally heterogenous mixture or people go about their lives.
On a trip in December 2023, I was entranced by the old town and spent two happy days roaming through Stone Town’s streets, sitting and listening to the atmosphere around me in its squares and plazas, and talking to its residents and street sellers. Usually in old cities like this where there is a warren of small streets with no perceived order, I follow a simple navigation pattern, I set off down a street and just keep turning left until I find myself back where I started, change direction slightly and repeat! Stone Town seems to be the only city I know that regularly seemed to require six ninety-degree turns before you returned to your original starting point! I loved it and hope to return as there is still so much more to soak up and absorb from this ‘put it on your bucket list’ destination.
Street scene in Stone Town: © UNESCO / Ron Van Oers
In Stone Town when you book a taxi in the middle of the old city because the streets are so confusing to navigate, don’t be surprised if the taxi driver drops you off outside the old city and then walks you for five to ten minutes to your hotel, or the hotel has sent somebody to meet you! On your own, you can rapidly lose direction, and as I wanted to use the exact location of my hotel (The Zanzibar Coffee House) as my central anchor point, I decided to place a little more reliance on my iPhone for directions than I normally do. In between my roaming rhombic routes, I was trying to fit in some of the key sites in the town and needed the most direct routes to walk.
To be honest, I am still getting to grips with the technology available on my phone to help the visually disabled, but I had been given instructions by my daughters on how to use Siri and was determined to use it. They seemed rather simple, and I was embarrassed that I hadn’t tried Siri and Apple maps before, but male pride and ego, common, and a willingness to listen to children’s advice in the past have never been my recognized strengths. However, Stone Town rat’s nest of layout demands requires a knowledge of your current location and real-time directions, and as I was keen to use the AI to speak to your iPhone through verbal commands, this seemed as good a place as any to try them out.
Also, my family was not present to watch me adopt a John Cleese-like approach to screaming and shouting hysterically at Siri, Steve Jobs, and Tim Cook if I couldn’t get the Map Apps to work whilst standing there in the middle of the street jumping up and down on a defenseless rectangle of technology.
These are the simple directions I had been given to make it work:
Turn on the Siri function by saying, “Hey Siri” or by holding down the side or home button on the right-hand side. Enter a command such as “Siri, direct me to Old Fort of Zanzibar on foot,” and Siri will give you step-by-step spoken instructions.
I must admit it worked well, especially when it decided to also link with my iWatch, although I did feel slightly vulnerable holding my phone in one hand and using my sensory white cane in the other. I prefer always to have one hand free in case of a mishap. Perhaps next time wearing a simple shirt with a pocket will be the easiest solution to pop the phone into. I also don’t like having my phone visible in case of theft.
Unexpected steps and objects at ground level remain the greatest risks of slips and trips for me, but I have seen reports through the Lighthouse movement in California that prototype AI-based technology headsets are allowing low-vision pedestrians warnings of ground hazards and help steer the walker out of harm’s way.
Lazerillo
Since talking about my experience in Stone Town other people have recommended I try the Lazerillo App which is specifically for people with severe visual sight impairment or low vision. I sense that this tool is more designed for urban living in the Western world than for use by travelers, providing directions to key places or businesses that have signed up to Lazerillo in towns and cities that are well mapped digitally, have pre-mapped transit points (such as bus stops, stations or closed road) and an environment generally amenable to accessibility for the disabled. The App also informs you what is around you which is an interesting feature, especially useful in city breaks or where sites of interest are located.
I am going to try this out in a future trip to a new UK city I am planning and will let you know how it worked.
Stumbling safely through strange streets
Any travel aid, be it an App or mobility aid, is welcome if it makes my enjoyment of travel easier, better, or less stressful. I did realise that modern technology is a tempting target for thieves. Several times in Stone Town when I sat down to listen and try and observe the street life around me, I was approached by groups keen to offer me tours, and local goods, to take me to specific places. Usually, when we spoke, they realised I was blind, and got talking they relaxed and told me more about how they make their living from tourists – most were legitimate ‘scams’ that applied selling pressures on visitors to buy, but two groups seemed to have a darker side to them. Perhaps the idea of mugging a blind tourist would attract too much police attention for them as they all had local patches in Stone Town where they worked, but it gave me the impression I was relatively safe, and once I got into conversation they were happy to talk and laugh, but I was warned several times that I had a ‘nice watch on my arm’ and asked what model of iPhone I was using. They certainly kept an eye out for Western tech contributions.
That remains the issue, tech can help us navigate or give us a general idea of the direction to travel, but a sighted companion is harder to replace and can be a safer option when crossing uneven ground, entering into buildings at your destination, spotting and following street signage instructions, and in pointing out the unexpected attractions of a place.
As for the quality of the Apple Maps on my iPhone, I sensed that the narrow streets had been mapped by motorbike, and even the motorbike didn’t dare go up some of the alleys I wandered past, and thus they were missing from Siri’s instructions. Why are these alleys always the most interesting ones to wander up and explore?
Footnote: For more information on the range of navigation apps available in the UK, visit the RNIB website.
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