Another Wild Ride
Thursday, January 8th, 2009Day 283
Finally our last day in Kampala, I mean it has to be. We’ve been here too long and really we’ve seen just about everything we have wanted to. It’s been a good stay and both of us have enjoyed Kampala. We would have been off today if not for the copious amount of Nile Special beer we consumed last night. I was up before Jordana today as I have somehow come up with a way to not feel hung over. I simply put it down to drinking loads of water before bed but who knows.
I sat in the restaurant having breakfast alone as Jordana slept. Did I mention before how good the coffee here is? Well it’s so good it should be stated again, it’s fantastic. I knew today we weren’t going to be getting up to much so I wrote some blogs and drank lots of coffee before Jordana rolled out of bed. “OK, the only thing we need to do today is get tickets for the bus tomorrow.” I laid this very easy task in front of my tired looking wife and before she said a word her look told me she wasn’t leaving the hostel today. “Can’t you just go?” So off I went alone to try and fetch us some advance tickets for the bus tomorrow. I just hoped the guy who sold tickets was at the office today. I walked out of the hostel and down to the main road looking for a minibus. “Sir! Sir! Moto!?” One of the motorcycle taxi guys was yelling at me. They have these taxis all over here and they are cheap but I’m not so sure about the safety of them. He gave me a good price so I figured why not? It be faster than the hot and crowded minibus. I think it was about 10 seconds later that I was missing the stink of sweat from the minibus. Wow! This guy is flyin! OK, just hold on tight and it’ll be alright, it’s only 6km. I wondered how much it would hurt to be tossed off the bike. We flew threw traffic at 50km/ph, weaving so close to cars that my legs brushed up against the sides of them. It felt like forever but soon enough it was over, I asked him to stop short of where I wanted to go. I figured why risk another km when I was safe here, walking never felt so good.
I walked down the main street of Kampala, looking at the newly formed blisters on my hand. Godfrey had mentioned that there was another bus company that ran nice express buses to Kabale so I thought I would check that out first. They left from their own office and not the crazy bus yard so that was a plus. They did have a bus going to Kabale but it left at 3am! The final destination is Kigali, Rwanda so I guess leaving at 3am gets the bus to Kigali at 10am, so the 3am time ruled that option out. I continued on to the post office to try and buy tickets for the post bus. Like yesterday the post office was a classic display of inefficiency. I asked information where to buy a bus ticket, I was sent to the “stamp desk”. There a lady informed me to find the transport desk. I found that and waited, finally I asked for two tickets for tomorrow’s bus. I was informed that advance tickets were not sold at this desk; I had to find the transport office in the building and get them there. So back inside I went and searched for this office. Another woman led me outside, down an alley and to the back of the post office. She pointed me through a door that looked like a delivery door, actually that’s exactly what it was. I climbed over boxes and entered a hall with doors on each side. “Can I help you?” a man asked. I told him I was looking for a ticket for the bus tomorrow. Now I was led into an office, told to take a seat and then proceeded to watch 3 men write up 2 tickets for me. They asked where I was from, told me how nice Kabale and finally I paid and they sent me on my way. All in all it took me 45 minutes at the post office to get tickets and I dealt with at least 10 people. In the end I had two tickets for the 8am bus so I wasn’t complaining.
Returning to the hostel I opted for the safety of the hot and sweaty mini bus, these things really cook in the afternoons when they are full with commuters getting home. It’s always fun to watch people’s reactions when I get in one as well. They look at me with a face of, “You’re white, why don’t you just take a nice taxi?” Actually the “nice” taxis aren’t air conditioned and are about 10 times the cost so really this is a better option. I returned to the hostel with my tickets and found Jordana under the same patch of shade as when I left hours before. We just had dinner at the hostel tonight, tasty veggie burgers again and turned in early to catch our 8am bus out of Kampala. The city has been good but I’m looking forward to small town Uganda and getting away from the noise and filth of the city.
Michael Coroneos