Provisioning

Sunday, 12 July 2020

Water

Available at the club for free, included as part of your membership.

Supermarkets

Mkwabi: Situated on the right hand side as soon as you arrive in town, opposite Exim bank. Sells bread and has a lot of marmite which the Brits will appreciate.

SD supermarket: Opposite the fresh produce market is a cavernous supermarket that sells basically everything, including booze.

Central Bakery: Don’t let the name, or its size, deceive you. Its shelves are teeming with food and household items. Additionally there’s a warm food counter which has all sorts of breads, pastries, samosas, sausage rolls even. It sells the best bread.

Produce Markets

Just ask the bejaji (tuk tuk) or boda boda (motorbike) to take you to the “sarconi” (market) and they’ll drop at the closest fresh produce market, known affectionately as the “muzungu market”, right in the centre of town. The deliveries of food for this market seem to be on Tuesday evenings so Wednesday is the best day to go when everything is freshest. It’s a fabulous market with vegetables, fruit, dried beans, rice, eggs, spices, cooking oils, sugar, flour, as well as many household items and even gifts, clothes, sandals and fridge magnets. There are several good quality butchers there too.

There is a second market located slightly further away, on the other side of the large clothes market “tanga mano”. Locals tend to favour this one more as prices are more affordable, although as a “muzungu” it’s hard to say whether this would apply.

Fish Market: There’s an excellent fish market where you can buy, inexpensively, all your seafood.

Clothes / everything else market

This is called Tanga Mano and it’s huge. It’s where you go for your clothes, flip flops, bags, hats … all the stuff you need to keep replacing because the sun has worn it out. Interestingly, you might find yourself buying a t-shirt that you donated to Oxfam once upon a time - because this is where all those donations come, in giant bales.

Fuel

Petrol and Diesel: Several petrol stations in town with diesel. Kerosene is also available at some (but not all).

LPG: No refills but exchange bottles readily available. Probably need to buy a regulator and connect it yourself.

Money

ATMs: There are many banks with ATMs scattered around town, accessing money is easy.

Credit Cards: All major credit cards are accepted in places like supermarkets and hotels but for markets etc, it’s cash only.

Currency Exchange: You can exchange money at banks like Exim without needing an account there, and it’s an easy process.

Exchange Rate: As at July 2020 10,000 Tsh is roughly 4.30 USD / 73.30 ZAR / 6.20 AUD / 3.80 EUR / 3.40 GBP

Phones / SIM Cards

Tigo and Vodafone are the main internet and phone providers. It is, sadly, becoming harder for non-residents to purchase sim cards. At the very least you will need a passport to purchase one.

With Tigo, assuming you have a smartphone and credit on your account, you can top up your phone and / or dongle using their app, without having to go ashore.

Transport

Getting into Tanga from the yacht club is easy. It’s close enough to walk, 20 minutes or so, or a couple of hundred meters up from the club it’s possible to grab a boda boda (motorbike) for approximately 2000 Tsh or a dula dula (small bus) for 400 Tsh. You may wish to come back from town with all your shopping in a bejaji (tuk tuk) which will cost around 4000 Tsh. There are also taxis available.

A list of bejahi, taxi and boda boda drivers are pinned up on the notice board in the yacht club if you want to be collected from the club.

Medical

The main public hospital in Tanga is called Bombo hospital but most cruisers prefer to go to the Aga Khan hospital which is a private facility and recently built. Here you can get on the spot malaria testing. There is another private hospital called Safi, situated almost directly opposite Bombo, plus a handful of other private clinics in town. There are some specialists in Tanga, including an orthopaedic surgeon, but for other specialist care it may be necessary to go to Dar es Salaam.

There is a pharmacy located on the right-hand side on the way into town, there is another well-stocked pharmacy in town called International Pharmacy and a third close to SD supermarket called Central Pharmacy.