Adia's Place - Holiday accomodation in Arusha, Tanzania.

An enjoyable holiday experience in Arusha, at a rock-bottom price

The Concept Adia's place provides holiday or business accommodation for those who want to be out of the hustle and bustle of the city, close to African village life, but at the same time close enough that they can easily access the city's facilities, nightlife, etc. We are about 20 minutes from the Clock Tower, but at the same time we are right on the edge of rural Africa. When you wake in the morning here it is to the sound of cows mooing, and cocks crowing. A ten minute walk around our village will show you a microcosm of the way that average Tanzanians live. It's also for those who enjoy a place with style and character, and don't want to pay with an arm and a leg.
Special Introductory Offer!!! Since our place is still under construction, and we need practice, for the next three months you can stay in one of our rooms for $20 a night - bed and breakfast, and if your tour company doesn't do so we'll run you into town and back free. Volunteers and other longer term visitors can get a monthly rate.
One of the smaller bedrooms - next	Our Facilities. As a beginning Adia's Place will be very small, and it will probably never be large - that would in some ways contradict the nature of the place. In its initial state it will comprise four rooms, and the small house that we lived in while the main house was under construction. Another small house is currently being built. Later, if we are at all successful, we will expand onto the plot next door. The current rooms are as follows: Two 'small' rooms. These are 3.5m square rooms with an additional space for storage of your stuff, and with a pleasant western style en-suite bathroom. The 'Honeymoon Room' - a larger room set up with a couple in mind. The 'Gang Room' - a larger room set up with bunk beds to accommodate four guys or girls travelling together and trying to keep costs down. The small house - a somewhat rustic, cottage-style house with bedroom, bathroom, living, and cooking areas that can be set up for a couple or for a gang. (This is currently occupied, and won't be available until at least November 2009). Any of the rooms can be fitted out with either a double bed or two singles.
Food. Other than the small house - which is self-catering (though we'll give you breakfast for a small charge), our rooms come with breakfast. In all cases, we can also feed you in the evening if you like. Our breakfast menu is typically (all this is subject to availability): Fruit Juice Tea or coffee Choice of: Eggs (2 or 3 depending on size) - fried, boiled, poached, scrambled, or mini-omelette. Fried tomatoes and hot-dog style sausage (the tomatoes here seem to be particularly tasty). Cheddar cheese on toast. Adia's beans* on toast Cheese soup - All the above with toast. Corned beef hash Toast and spreads - cheese spread, African honey, Nutella, local peanut butter, jam, and marmalade. Muesli with milk, and seasonal fresh fruit as a side dish. If you want to eat with us in the evening, barring some special agreement, you will get the set meal of the day. This could be African, Euro, or Transatlantic - pot luck. Typical meals are: Grilled fish (lake Tilapia, or sea red snapper) with rice or potatoes and seasonable vegetable. Corned beef hash with a side salad. Chips mayai (an omelette made with chips/french fries) with pili-pili (hot sauce) and a side salad. Ugali with beef in gravy with seasonal vegetable. Beef skewers with garlic mashed potatoes and chutney. Spaghetti Bolognese. Rice and Beans with seasonable vegetable (vegetarian). Tuna mayonnaise with salad, lettuce, and red potatoes boiled in their skins. Beef burger and chips with Adia's beans. Spicy goat casserole. - Adia's beans are to die for! - Vegetables are often from our own garden. * - Salad is typically a mix of tomato, cucumber, and avocado, with olive oil and lemon juice dressing. Drink. We're not a pub, but you can get basic drinks - beer, wine, sodas, and the local hooches - on the premises. Within minutes there are two African village style pubs that we can introduce you to. We're also close to popular pubs and restaurants at Nane Nane, on Njiro Road Communications. If you have your laptop with you, there's wireless Internet on the hotel compound. Alternatively you can use a desktop machine to access your email etc. If you don't have a Tanzanian phone, We'll give you a cheapo local prepaid phone as your room key ring when you arrive so you can communicate with us and to avoid roaming charges on your own mobile. For this we'll need you to pay a deposit of around $30. You'll use the phone to book dinner, when you plan to be out late, or when you need a lift. Transport. In most cases the tour company that's organizing your itinerary will get you to us and to your other destinations. However, if you are doing it yourself we can take you into town and pick you up for a small extra charge (Free during introductory offer). Alternatively we can get you from or take you to the main road FOC, and you can sample the joys of African public transport - the Dala Dala.
Mouse over for a description - next	The Locality. Kikokwaru is the area to the west of Njiro 'B' block. Suburbia is creeping closer - Adia's Place for instance, but it is still at the edge of a rural area. Here's our location on Google Maps. Unfortunately Google's satellite views and maps of Tanzania leave quite a lot to be desired. The people of the village keep cows and hens and goats, and grow vegetables, beans, corn, and fruit trees for sale or consumption. To the west there's a steep sided valley through which flows a river that flows south from Mt Meru. Sadly it goes nowhere. Further south it runs into the dry plain where it just dries up. Fortunately the village has an irrigation system along the ridge that I believe is fed from the outflow from the settling ponds of the Arusha sewage system. Most of the buildings in the area behind Adia's Place are the traditional woven wood and mud structures with no glass in the windows and only the occasional door. On the village main street the houses are mostly new ones that have replaced wood and mud with concrete blocks. You'll see the scenes to the left as you take a micro safari around the village.

History

Why Adia's Place, What's the idea? Well there's a chronic shortage of decent jobs in Tanzania, and the best bet, if you can get started, is to build a business of your own. So Adia, despite her training as a lawyer is currently putting her efforts into the tourism and hospitality arena.

Now Arusha has lots of hotels and guest houses, but the majority of them are in the city, and we figured that not everyone who visits Tanzania wants to stay in town. However it's also the case that from the point of view of accessing the tourist facilities, night life facilities, etc, that are there, visitors won't want to be too far away either.

So we thought we'd try to cater to this group of visitors, and at the same time provide a better that average accommodation experience at a lower than average price.

Since I have the web site that hosts my existing blog, that has some reach into Europe, the USA, and India, we've decided to promote it there.

What is Brits Eye View?

Brits Eye View is an Englishman's five-year personal blog about life in Arusha, Tanzania, and previously in Bangalore, Manhattan, and the Bronx. It deals with life in general, building a house, food and drink, computer programming, opinion on current affairs, 20th century history, and so on. It may give you some insight into what life is like in 'the third world', or encourage you to visit Tanzania.