BootsnAll Travel Network



Pearl of Africa?

Day 279

I don’t know much about Uganda, what do you think of when you hear the name?  I think of Idi Amin, first thought of most people I would guess.  After that I think of the movie; The Last King of Scotland, again about Idi Amin.  I remember reading an article about the Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA (Lords Resistance Army).  They’re a bunch of nutters in the north of Uganda who are fighting for a country based on the 10 commandments.  Of course their version of the 10 commandments includes not riding a bike, and if you do you will have your legs chopped off.  If that isn’t evil enough for you a large part of their army is made up of child soldiers, some as young as 10 years old.  Sadly it’s mostly negatives I know about Uganda, there are tons of positives of course.  Well I think there are and we’ve heard some great things from other travellers. The unknown was something that made Uganda attractive to me, today we would begin to find out first hand what the nation had in store for us.

We were taking the luxury bus to Kampala; we were splashing out for this trip, a grand entrance to Uganda, the so called “pearl of East Africa”.  The station, actually not a station but just a street where the companies office was located, was mayhem.  People were everywhere and buses seemed to be going too just about everywhere.  There were 4 different ones headed to Kampala alone, I pushed and shoved my way through the crowd to find ours while Jordana waited in a quieter spot with the bags.  Canadian politeness has long departed me here in Africa.  If I was in Toronto I’d be saying sorry to other people when they stepped on my toes, and gently making my way through filled with excuse me’s.  Here I had to bounce around like a pinball, pushing people out of my way that were trying to push me out of their way.  It was like a rugby match, and the sight of our bus was like reaching the try line.  Finally I scored, found our bus and we boarded.  Our seats were in the very last row, but the seats were large.  They were about the size of a business class seat on an airplane, only 3 per row!  Unfortunately as soon as we sat down Jordana saw a cockroach on the top of the seat next to mine.  It was luxurious in the space department but far from clean.  Which was fine by me, this was probably the best African bus we’ve been on since South Africa.  It looked like a bus from Argentina, one that they would have used 30 years ago.  Before we even departed a lady came by and handed us a styrofoam plate covered with plastic that contained a piece of roti and a boiled egg.  We were also given a bottle of water.  The luxury bus was proving to be a good choice; anytime you score breakfast before a long trip like this was a huge plus.  I unrolled my roti, peeled the egg and made a nice little wrap, Jordana saved hers for later.  The bus squeezed through the narrow streets and we were finally on our way, safely out of Nairobi.

Not long after leaving the urban sprawl of Nairobi we were back in the beautiful African countryside.  Beautiful, yet very dry in this region, the land looked more desert like than the grass plains that we’d seen in Tanzania.  Along the side of the road we occasionally spotted Zebras, some grazing just off the roadside on the little grass they could find.  Around lunchtime we reached the small city of Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria.  Kisimu may even sound familiar to some; it’s the birthplace of Barack Obama’s grandfather.  You would never believe how many times we have heard about Obama here in East Africa.  I’m pleased the man was elected but the people here have already placed him as the great saviour of Africa, I just hope they aren’t too let down when they realize their lives will probably not change much.  Regardless of what happens it is a nice change to see Osama bin Laden t-shirts replaced with Obama ones that read “Hope” or “Progress”.  I bought some fantastic french fries at our stop here before we were back on our way.

We reached the Ugandan border in the late afternoon; it was bathed in that unmistakable African reddish light.  The hazy sun, red soil and rusted tin roofs created a beautiful light and a great border crossing.  I love crossing borders like this.  People walked over the border carrying their entire lives with them.  It always makes me wonder what their story is.  Were they escaping somewhere?  Merely moving for work?  Or just shopping in Kenya?  It was the same scene at most African borders.  Posted just outside customs was a sign claiming that “Ugandan customs strives to be the best and most efficient customs agency in the world.”  I had to laugh but in reality they may be more efficient than Canadian customs.  The entire area looked as chaotic and unorganized as any African border but somehow it all seemed to work seamlessly.  They even had a guy telling people not to line jump.  Inside we were given a customs card, then paid our $50 visa entry fee and had our entry stamp.  It was all quite speedy and easy.  We boarded the bus again and after a bag search we were off, into Uganda.  Immediately the landscape made a dramatic change.  The brown of Kenya was replaced with lush green and rolling hills.  The road became progressively worse but the landscape was beautiful, very tropical feeling and I instantly had a like for Uganda.  It’s always a good feeling when you enter a country and instantly have a good feeling about it.  I had the same feeling when we arrived in Tanzania, although I had a good feeling entering Malawi and that didn’t turn out so good.  We bumped and bounced along, sitting at the back of the bus we got some serious height off the seats when we hit a large pothole.  As we neared Kampala the road improved.  In Jinja we crossed a bridge over the very source of the world’s longest river, the Nile.  We were planning on returning here in a few days to raft the river.

Just outside of Kampala we stopped at a fruit stand just as the sun set.  I decided to go outside and check out the scene, I was crowded by people selling fruit, water, chicken and whole fish on a stick.  You could buy just about anything here, mostly on a stick.  It sure beat a Tim Horton’s reststop on the 401.  “Chicken!  Muzungu, muzungu! Chicken?”  One guy didn’t seem to get I did not want his chicken, so I told him it wasn’t his chicken that was the issue it’s that I’m a vegetarian.  He couldn’t understand that and asked why?  I wasn’t looking to buy anything and after the food vendors realized that they just wanted to talk.  One young boy, about 15 years old was really interested in Canada.  It’s common that people are interested to hear about life in the far off land we come from but the fact he knew about Canada was rare.  You would not believe how many times on this trip we’ve told someone we are from Canada and we get a blank look in return.  He was trying to understand how large Canada was in comparison with Africa.  Did we have snow?  Were there Africans in Canada?  Were there many farmers?  He knew that we grew a lot of wheat, said he’d learnt that in school.  I found it amusing that the one thing this kid learnt about Canada was that we grew a lot of wheat and I think he found it odd that I didn’t know more about our famed wheat production.  The driver honked the horn, just before I said goodbye the boy wanted to know if I liked Uganda.  “It’s beautiful so far.”  The young boy and I said our goodbyes and I was back on the bus for the final stretch to Kampala.

Arriving in any city is not as pleasant during the night, arriving in an African capital at night is something we have always tried to avoid.  Tonight there was no way to avoid it as we finished our journey in a very quiet bus yard in a very dark and quiet part of Kampala.  I walked off the bus and looked around, there seemed to be a lack of taxi’s around.  Some people quickly got into one and were off.  Out on the street there were 2 cars, not taxi’s but the guys hanging outside them said they would drive us where we wanted to go.  This is the exact situation you try to stay away from while travelling but what option did we have?  It was either take a ride with one of these guys or walk the deserted, dark streets looking for a taxi.  I asked one of the men how much to the Red Chilli Hostel.  He told me some exorbitant fare and laughed when I tired to bargain.  His response was to take a motorcycle taxi.  Thanks buddy.   I asked the bus driver if he could call us a taxi.  The driver was a helpful guy, he told us to stay away from the men on the road and soon a car roared into the now empty bus yard.  It too wasn’t a taxi but the driver said we could trust this man and at this point that was good enough for me.  He agreed to a decent fare and we were off, only to stop 1km later to fill up on petrol.  Apparently the taxi drivers keep their cars near empty so if they get stolen then the thieves won’t get far.

We finally arrived at the Red Chilli Hideaway, the first proper hostel we’ve seen since Zambia.  We were just in time for the Sunday bbq, which got us a veggie burger, salads and a beer.  What a fabulous start to Kampala, the hostel is on the outskirts of town spread over a large grassy area.  It felt like we were at a summer bbq back home.  We ate, showered and passed out.  All in all another long bus day in Africa, but it really was one of our easier trips and the scenery was beautiful.  I’m excited about Uganda; I’ve been saying it will be like the Colombia of Africa.  A country that isn’t on the top of everyone’s East Africa itinerary,  the majority of tourists head straight for Tanzania or Kenya.  Just like most people head straight for Peru or Ecuador in South America.  Yet just as Colombia, everyone we’ve met that has been to Uganda tells us it’s one of the most enjoyable East African countries.  It’ll be interesting to see if Uganda proves to be the Pearl of Africa or the war ravaged country we’ve seen in the movies and read about in the papers.



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