Stephanie dropped us at the Garden City Mall in Kampala and after a tearful goodbye we got our photos developed, had lunch and cabbed to the Scandinavian Bus station for our long trip to Arusha. The bus was packed, had no air-con and was not as luxurious as advertised. African music was eventually replaced by the worst movie this side of Bollywood but the road noise drowned out the worst of it. The roads were pot-holed and dusty an even with earplugs, sleep was nearly impossible.
We crossed into Kenya around 7:00pm and walked across no-man’s land to the border in the dark. Most passengers took boda-bodas for the quarter mile trip but we decided to walk. Somehow we managed to walk past immigration and had to be fetched from the bus to get our transit visas. It was really dark and anyone could have missed it. Honest! A 24 hour transit visa costs $20 while a 90-day tourist visa is $50 – just another way to rip off tourists.
We changed buses in Nairobi around 4:45am to an even less luxurious bus. Our seat was the last row, the worst place for the bumpy four and a half hours to Arusha, Tanzania. All I can report on the little bit of Kenya I saw was they appear to have electricity and the houses are more substantial than bandas. The people still try hard to separate you from your money no matter what currency you carry, a major calling in Africa. As a result of our distrust we still have some Ugandan money we will never use.
We arrived in Arusha a little after 9:00am, tired, filthy and a bit out of sorts and in no mood to be fleeced by cabbies. We negotiated a price to the Outpost Lodge where we had reservations. Hot showers – you’ll have to travel as we do to appreciate their importance – a nap and lunch took up the rest of the day and we are relaxing in the shade.
