Traveling to Tanzania with Tweedledee and Tweedledum
My last destination in Mozambique was Mocimboa da Praia, and the bus ride there was fabulous. I made friends with the fare collector, who shared a coconut with me. He also pointed out all the historical sites to me – places where battles started, sparking the independence fight against the Portuguese. It was a nice little tour from the bus seat and a good finale for Mozambique.I threw my stuff down in the hotel and walked around a short while to check out the town. The coast was beautiful, with dark water filling a little bay. It was dark by the time I got home, and, while I had been looking forward to a bed, a shower, and electricity (I had been camping for a few weeks’ time now, doing only bucket showers, and hadn’t seen electricity for some time) I soon came to accept 1 out of 3 as not too bad. I took a picture of my bed, but I can’t particularly remember if it was because it was such a long time since I had slept in a bed or because it was my last bed in Mozambique (I was indeed getting a big nostalgic preparing to leave.) The shower didn’t work, so it was another bucket effort, and the electricity, well…it was just plain off for the whole city at the beginning of the night. After it came on, I learned that the switch was broken in my room, so I wouldn’t be getting any at all. Oh well…so long without it, why worry about it now?
After cleaning myself up, I went to talk to the hotel staff about transport to the border the next morning. The hotel manager (owner?) was nice enough to begin with, but as soon as he found out I was American, he started digging into me, and was very rude and inappropriate. I was asking him prices for the transport, and he told me I have to pay more because I’m American. This all took place while he sat and enjoyed dinner with two other tourists – one from Australia and one from Italy. For some reason he chose to pick on me. Soon I found out I was paying more for my room than these guys (Tweedledee and Tweedledum) – and they had a functioning shower and electricity! This caused more friction, although the guy admitted that he had a problem with his staff member, who pocketed the money for himself, so he gave me the difference back…although he was especially rude about it all. In the end, because the guy was so awful, when I left the next morning I locked the door to the hotel room and kept the key. (I actually saw a sign that said if the guest does not return the key when they leave they have to pay to replace the key…I’d like to see the guy collect his money.)
Pick-up departure was 3am, although someone banged on our doors at midnight to gather us to go. “I’m sleeping! I go at 3! Go away!” At the dreaded hour, though, we piled onto the truck, me sitting at the back corner with my leg dangling over the edge, collecting lots of dust on the way. After a few hours the sun rose and I could actually see my fellow passengers, but it took me twice as long to realize that the metal rod propped between my neighbor’s legs was not just a rod, but the ubiquitous AK47. After some discussion with Tweedledee, we determined that he and his equally-armed bad-ass-looking partner were deporting the bunch of Indian guys who shared the ride with us.
It just wasn’t a good day…the truck ride was the most expensive I had paid in Mozambique – they were surely ripping me off. The border patrol made me pay some sort of tax that I had only paid on arrival to Mozambique up to that point, so I figured he just wanted something for himself. Tweedledum picked up some money-changer guy and proceeded to annoyingly negotiate with him in a bad dialect of Por-talian over a inconsequential sum of money for the next two hours. We finally got to the river, where the boat captains’ eyes widened as they saw three white people arrive. As I talked with some locals to figure out the real price of the boat (and defended the quality of my Portuguese to the money-changer guy who was rude to me because I wouldn’t change my money with him), Tweedledee and Tweedledum negotiated a price for the boat that I was then forced to pay, as if they had negotiated for me too – guilty by associated skin color.
Across the river we were attacked by more money changers and transport operators to get us into town. Again I was at the mercy of Tweedledee and Tweedledum’s negotiating skills, helpless in the company of men. After it all, I just hopped on the truck, which took us to get stamped into Tanzania, which I was not particularly excited about (bye bye beloved Mozambique). To add to the series of rip offs, I had to pay an extra $50 to enter Tanzania because my visa had expired – I now paid $100 to go to this country that I didn’t even care to go to (I merely had to for transit). Finally, I had to change all of my Mozambican currency at the border (currency exchanges would have been closed by the time we got to town), so I lost even more money in that transaction. By this point I was fuming.
The customs office offered the only glimmer of decency…it was in a lady’s home, and she greeted me with a big smile, a calm demeanor, and an almost-spiritual aura (100% opposite of the rage burning inside me at that moment). She instructed me to place my backpack on the table, on which sat a bible open to a page of the gospel. She looked at my passport. “Oh! Mr. Bush!” she said. “Hmmph,” I mumbled, giving her the thumbs down and a look that said “Yeah, yeah, I know…I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do about him”. She proceeded to explain to me that he’s doing great things and I should acknowledge it; her words came out almost saint-ly. While I couldn’t necessarily agree with her, I appreciated her optimism, grabbed my bag, and walked toward the truck – all the people glaring at me for taking so long. I sat on the pile of bags, staring at the knees of the people standing around me, and I cried a little out of the frustration of the day.
We got to the main town (the name of I surely can’t remember right now) and I was eager to continue on toward Dar es Salaam, getting a head start on another long day of travel the following day and finding relief from Tweedledum and Tweedledum-dum. (Really, they weren’t too bad, but I wasn’t allowing myself to give them a slice of credibility.) I went to the bus station, loaded on a bus, trying to negotiate prices without any reference to country prices or practices (do I pay extra for my bag? etc.) The bus station was just a crowded and cacophonous as any other bus station I had been to, but seemed moreso since the language was now new and unfamiliar.
The bus left and I made it to another town that I can’t remember the name of. A nice man on the bus took me to a hotel and assured I had my ticket for the morning journey to Dar es Salaam. I hit the hotel trifecta with a bed with mosquito net, electricity, and a hot shower (though it was a mere trickle). A bonus was a pair of flip-flops, provided by the hotel to be used in the shower – what has now become the norm in African hotels.
A few things I noticed immediately in Tanzania – Pepsi! (Mozambique is definitely a Coca-Cola country.) Other brands, such as Tigo, which I believe is a cell phone company. The land was lush green – Mozambique was brown and mostly on fire all the time due to people burning land to clear for farming. In fairness, though, it was dry season there (I’m sure it’s lush and green these days, with all the rain and floods they’ve had – poor Mozambique!) Moving north to Tanzania brought me to a different climate region, and it was indeed the start of the short rainy season.
Alright…so welcome to Tanzania…let’s see how this goes.
Tags: Mozambique, Tanzania, Tag Index
Tania
March 30th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Hi
I’ve been catching up on your travels.
See you’ve pressed trhu Tanzania.
Heading there in July to stay with a local there for a couple of weeks around Moshi town did you get that far inland. also I don’t see any reference to your roller skates there. not to usefull in the ol back pack. You could use them at aksys now.
Tommy
March 30th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Hello, I am a Tanzania, and I was just surfing the internet when I came across your posting. I’m in the USA (for now) will be back to Tanzania sometimes later….
I have been to Maputo and Beira in Mozambique, so I understand your frustrations, but bear with us, things are just the way they are and a few are trying to change while a lot are ripping everything off for their own greedy. I hope you will have a good time in my country, Tanzania. I grew up in Moshi and Dar! Have a safe stay!
I will keep on reading your stuff here….
May 8th, 2007 at 5:26 am
hi:-)
…stumbled upon your blog while surfing.. This is the first post i came across, so i’m not entirely sure if i’m completely up to speed but anyways..
I’m Tanzanian, grew up here, leaving soon for uni but will hopefully come back.. It’s a nice place (really).. Friendly locals, lots to visit do and see… hopefully your first impression has been/will be changed..
Thumbs up for the backpacking, it’s something i’d be too chicken to try… Hope the rest of your adventures go well… 🙂
kwaheri.
(n by the way Tz is a coke country, there’s just a lot of pepsi ads, n its the cheaper brand..)