As we landed at Kilimanjaro airport (Arusha) the crisp air laden with the smell of the wet earth, hints of petrol fumes and agarbati reminded me of Kolkata. With the majestic Mount Kilimanjaro presiding over the horizon, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. A 14 hour fkighys from DC to Ethiopia and then a couple of more hours on another flight had brought us to Arusha late in the afternoon. This was our rest stop before the safari.

After an hour long trip through dusty roads that looked like the Andul Howrah stretch of road, with tin roof house, small stalls selling shoes, houseswares and fruits and children playing soccer - we arrived at our hotel. A beautiful stucco building with a turquoise swimming pool and beautiful suites that invited us to rest our weary bodies.

But rest is, ofcourse, for those who dont shop! The Arusha Masai market, only 5 minutes from the hotel beckoned us like the Sirens of Greek mythology - singing the songs of carved wooden bowls, addictive lyrics colorful jewelery, vibrant fabrics, paintings and handmade batiks. Odysseus had his sailots tie him to the ships mast to avoid the lure of the Sirens- bit ni such luck here!

Armed with the mental gymnastic ability of constantly converting 2500 shillings to 1 dollar and our well honed bargaining skills, we made our way to the market. Part Santiniketan's Bhubandangar math, part New Market footpath stalls - it was a place to surrender your wallets and any spending restraint. Wooden carved statues, cow-hide shields of masai warriors, shining arrow tips. beaded tinkling earrings and stone carved bowls were enough to weaken even the most strong willed!

As dusk fell, and the shopkeepers were winding down for the day, we emerged triumphantly with our spoils of delicately carved and painted wares that will remind us of this evening for years to come. Later, unwinding beside the pool over a bottle of Konyagi (a sugarcane based liquor and Tanzanian version of moonshine), deliciously aromatic coffee and a delicate coconut cake, we gossiped and hotly debated politics, films, theater, the chance of eating exotic meat and getting attacked by wild animals on the safari bio-breaks!