Lazy few weeks in Kampala

7.12.Thursday

After that one final safari, our African journey continues towards west and Kampala. It would take us a whole day even if the distance is not in our northern standards a long, only 500 kilometers.

Dan took us to border where we said goodbye to him and found his colleague waiting for us with his friend, he would take us the rest of the way. In the border we were stopped and told that the car-scanner weren’t working so we would need to carry our bags to the scanner that pedestrian-crossers are using.

I don’t know if I look suspicious or what, but every time I go to the airport I am taken to random inspection and random drug swipe are always done to me (I have never tried drugs nor trying to take anything illegal to plane) so I wasn’t surprised when, here too, I was told that I needed to open my bag. There was a tiny language barrier, first they asked that where my phone is, I pointed one of my bags (I had a two bags and a handbag), then they asked me to open it.
I lifted my phone and Kindle from the bag but he wasn’t interested in them. This was a bit confusing but apparently my binoculars was the suspicious item. Satisfied that it wasn’t anything prohibited we were let proceed to passport checkpoint.

This was a bit confusing too. If I were there alone, I probably would have walked past it, the office wasn’t very clearly marked and inside first they were checking the vaccination cards. Directly after that there were one counter were was a line. We went there and after some waiting, I noticed the sign above the counter. (There were one counter just after vaccination checkpoint, beside that was long corridor going forward and on the right side of the corridor there was another counter) In the sign was reading Kenya. And above the other counter, which had been vacant just before, read Uganda . So the line we were waiting in was for the people entering to Kenya! And to the another line we go..And now there was a line. It was confusing that after the checkpoints from the both lines you went to the same corridor and only when you get outside the building you started either east or west. Confusing..And we needed to backtrack a little to get back to our car too. But we were granted enter to Uganda and off we went.

After driving couple of kilometers our driver stopped and Dan’s colleague hopped out from the car and said that his friend would take us the rest of the way. His friend didn’t speak English well but we didn’t have much options so the journey continued with him.

17 kilometers from the no-mans land there were another border check-point. Situation was made a little unnerving by our drivers lack of English. When asked (in English), where we were coming from our driver said Kampala. They talked some more in English when the guard started questioning us and, understandably he was confused when we told us that we were coming from Nakuru National Park (not Kampala) but he was satisfied when we showed him our passports and had appropriate stamps off border-crossing and explained that we were going to Kampala (not coming from there).

The nearer we got Kampala, the crazier the traffic got. More and more cars and the slower we went. Last 50 kilometers or so took us more than 2 hours! Later we were told that even if there were new good highway, there weren’t enough intersections to and from it, so it blocked the existing intersections. And final 15 kilometers near the city was something out of dystopia or maybe sci-fi movie! It was getting dark and the fog from all the exhausts was unbelievable, you couldn’t see more than few meters ahead of you and there were taillight after taillight ahead of us. Even the bodabodas moved at the snailpace and the pedestrians were freely walking among the cars.

When reaching the city Toni spotted that we missed our intersection (he had uploaded maps to his phone so we were able to monitor our journey). Even when we said that we had a map and we know where we were going the driver insisted stopping and asking directions. That wouldn’t have been a problem if the hotel he got directions to would have been right. Our reservation was in Speke Hotel, but the hotel he took us was Speke Apartments. And even, then he wouldn’t believe us that this was wrong place. After asking some more directions we were on our way again. In the end we told him turn by turn were to go and reached our destination.

It had been a long day! We left 6:30 AM from Nakuru and it was 21:00PM when we checked in to our room. I think no need for saying that we were happy that the hotel had a restaurant. I was in a dire need of an shower but the restaurant was only open until 22:00PM so we just dropped our bags in to our room and went straight to dinner. The food was amazing and at the table next to us girl was having an graduation party and she offered us cake too!

Next couple of days..

…We spent just recovering from our long car drive and enjoying the weather. In here we weren’t as high as Nairobi (1 795m above sea level) or Nakuru (1 850 m above sea level) so it was noticeably warmer. Kampala’s elevation is “only” 1 200 m and while in Lake Nakuru you needed long pants and at least hoodie during mornings and nights, in here I was comfortable only in sleeveless dresses or shorts and tops. Bliss for someone who comes from the land of ice and snow.

10.12. Sunday

After breakfast we headed to Acacia Mall to get local telephone subscription which we would need to be able to order a Über. Being without weren’t a problem leaving the hotel, we just used hotels wi-fi but to get back were another thing. On our first day here, we tried to get one near our hotel, but the place we thought would sell those just told us no and that we would also need our passport when purchasing it. So, today in the Mall, we finally found operator and were able to get one. Neither one of us is a huge shopper so after our phone operator dealings we just visited book store (my favorite kind of shop!) and a cafeteria. I just love that it is warm enough here that you can sit outside while enjoying your beverage!

Now that we got “wheels” we ordered another Über to take us to Royal Tombs. It was really interesting place. Back in the days old king lived there with his 84 wives and children. After he died he was buried there and after that all the kings lived there. And their wives. And their children.. It was quite a big place and people are still living here.

Decade ago, there was a fire and they are still fixing the place. It has been taking this long because they are honoring the old customs which states the order of how thing are done. If you are born in a family that makes foundations to houses then you are going to do foundations too. If your father are making roofs then you are going to make roofs. And when you are making a house, things are done in set order, and only when one is thing completely done can next step start.

11.12. Monday

Our excursion today took us to Uganda Museum. It was full of things but honestly I felt it missed the common thread. Only joining matter that was visible to me was Uganda itself. There were items and illustrations about Uganda, beginning from tribal times, history of Ugandan money, wildlife, sports, cars..See what I mean?

12.12. Tuesday

Today finally we met with my sister! She was ill when we arrived and it took her few days to get better.

It was quite a traffic jam in front of our hotel so it took some waiting before our Über could pick us up, the driver even called and told us that he is really coming. But we weren’t worried and we had good vantage point to observe traffic going by, or in this case, not going by, hah. It was still crazy, boda-bodas even drove across the traffic divider and continued their journey via lane that should have been for oncoming traffic.
In the end, we were on my sister’s accommodation which was spacious house with their own private yard and housekeeper. They even had a guard who’s only job was to keep unwanted guests out of the property!

After having coffee, Jasmi (my sister) took us to have lunch a nice place near their house.

13.12. Wednesday

I was so excited about todays “excursion” to the African Crafts Village. Toni wasn’t interested to go so me and Jasmi met outside our hotel and set off there walking. Unfortunately, both of us have herited, our mothers sense of direction and it didn’t take us long to fed up with navigating and decide just to take a boda boda instead. Jasmi had used them several times since she had been here almost 3 months already and they are cheap. For me it was a first time. I had been on a motorbike before but nothing like this. The traffic is still crazy and now there weren’t anything between me and the cars going by. But it was crazy kind of rush, at least after the ride were over.

The Crafts Village was nice, there was all kinds of items to look, I was most interested in paintings since I wanted to buy one for home, Jasmi looked in to wooden baskets. I also bought a scarf as a souvenir to our mom and postcard to grams. In one stall the seller told me that they are sending people to expo in Helsinki and I warned her that they should bring really warm clothes since the expo is in January and it could be over 40 degrees colder there than in Uganda.

I didn’t find a painting to my liking and we set on foot to look for another Crafts Village and stopped to have lunch in a café on our way. It was nice walking around even when the traffic were still crazy and there was a lots of people around. I think that was part of the appeal though, feeling being part of the crowd and seeing people going on about their business.
In the end, big surprise there, we didn’t find the another Crafts Village and just took another boda boda to our hotel.

14.12. Thursday

Yet another lazy day. We tried to get tickets to sightseeing bus but the company never answered to our inquiry so we ended up doing a little walk to a nearby restaurant where we had lunch. I am still loving that it is warm enough to go outside wearing a dress!
At this evening, we had a date with my sister nearby their house, at the same restaurant we had a lunch the other day. One of her roommates came with her and we had nice evening having beers and listening live-music.

15.12. Friday

Today we did find, the another Crafts Village. I was again with my sister. I liked, the another market better, in there you could stroll around almost in peace but in here the sellers were more aggressive about it. Not in come-in-to-your-face-kind of way but every single one of them gave us the same speech, come here, it is cheap, we can also take the paintings off from their frames…..After a while it became quite tiring. But in the end, I found 3 small paintings to buy. I was going to buy one big one but couldn’t decide which one so I made a compromise. Only one big one came near what I was looking for, was a portrait of a women who had big sunglasses and in the sunglasses reflected sunset and animals. But I am very happy of my 3 small paintings.

16.12. Saturday

Little bit longer excursion today. We ordered a Über to take us in Entebbe, town nearby. It was 45 kilometers to there but the driver hadn’t look where he is to take us when he accepted our drive and didn’t have enough gas to get there so we did a bit manouvering with the money and gave him cash upfront (so he could fill the tank) and we stopped the drive in über-application before we got there so it took us less money through the app..But in the end we made it to Entebbe and Botanical Gardens.

We also opted to pay for a guide to tell us about the gardens which I recommend if you visit the park. No way we wouldn’t have gotten so much out of our visit if the guide wouldn’t have been with us. He told us about the plants and animals that lived there and pointed out them as we walked by.

We crossed paths with local youths who wanted to take a photo with us, it felt little like celebrities must feel like.
In the park were also section where old Tarzan movie have been filmed.

After the park we took a walk to the beach. After being in the city for so long it was nice and tranquil to sit in the beach bar and have a cold beer. It was too windy to play cards so we spent the time looking birds fishing.

17.12. Sunday

Lots of waiting today…First we waited for Jasmi to come. She had forgotten her wallet to her friends place the previous night and she had to wait for them to bring it to her. It took longer than she anticipated so in the end she texted that we could go without her. Then it started to rain and we waited for it to stop. When it started to look that the rain won’t stop Toni lost interest to go at all and yet again, I started to wait for Jasmi.

When she got her wallet back, we set to visit the Baha’i Temple. It was quite far away and when we got there, they told us that it would close in 15 minutes (their websites said that it was still one hour open but what you can do). There weren’t admission fee so we went to take a quick look anyway. The place was really peaceful but the peace was little disturbed by our need to hurry.

Bahai'i religion is spread through the world and it's origins are in Middle East. Core of the religion is unity of all human and they aim unified world order in which prosperity of all are secured. Quite hefty goal!

Then we waited for our ride to get there.
Even this being our last evening in here, after all the waiting I had done today I was exhausted and when Toni said that he don’t ,feel like going out for dinner tonight, I didn’t have the energy to debate about it so our last outing were to the hotels restaurant. Lucky for me their food was very good!

Summasummarum, hmm, maybe next trip to more exotic location, just go outside and start walking? That way at least you won’t do so much waiting and see little more than your hotel. Oh, and pick your hotel a bit better. I liked our hotel, specially the “rooftop living room” but the location might have been a bit better. Or maybe it was just the city, more rural next time 😉