On modes of traveling...

I have always liked traveling by bus (it comes right after traveling by train). It usually is cheap, you get to see a lot of the landscape and the local people, and it is ecologically more sound than being alone in your car. That is why I opt for taking the buses in most places I find myself in. I have traveled that way in many cities and countries. Even in the USA where supposedly only poor people take public buses and many people think you're kind of strange if you voluntarily hop on one of them. (I guess with rising gas prices that might change...)
The cheapest way to get around here is going by Minibus. That means either one of those small Toyota vans or some sort of Pick-up with a roof. Now the name minibus is quite aptly chosen, those things are small, but nevertheless one wouldn't believe the number of people and baggage one can fit into one of them... The minibus system is not new to me, I have traveled with them several times in my sojourn in the Middle East. But I have never shared one with 25 people, yes, you can fit 25 people on the back of a pick-up. Mind you, there are actually rules on how many people are allowed in one bus (and it is way less than 25) and the buses get stopped and checked frequently by the police, but what happens is that the police raise a fuss and start discussing it with the driver, meanwhile a couple of the passengers (usually young men, who have been hanging on at the back,) sneak around the police stop to jump back on some hundred meters beyond and some money changes hands and off we go again...
Now another thing is where to get on and off these buses. There are three main stands in Stone Town and the buses are numbered (the system of numbering makes no sense whatsoever though) and they are marked with their final destination. All you have to do is find out which bus passes the point where you want to get out (thank you 'Rough Guide' for providing that information), you get on the bus and tell the conductor (yep, there's always one of these on the bus, too, taking up space, and he'll hopefully let you know when it is time for you to get out (so far it has worked quite well). This is far easier than it was in the Middle East, because the signs on the buses there made no sense to me whatsoever (first of all, it takes a little longer for me to make out the Arabic script, and then did those names or places mean nothing to me). So I had to ask around a lot to find the right bus. And often I would find myself chucked out still pretty far away from those places I wanted to go to. So here in Zanzibar it is not so hard to get to those places, and to get back is pretty easy. You just stand on the side of the road and flag those buses down, you might have to let some pass, because there is absolutely no room for one more but eventually one will stop and squeeze you in...

As for the piece of Antiquarian Knowledge:

You can find these minibuses all over the world. In Turkey they are called dolmus, in Lebanon Service and in Tanzania Dala-Dala. The name apparently derives from the amou nt of money one used to pay for them...