Unbelievable Uganda

Before getting to Uganda, we passed through Burundi and Rwanda. We crossed over into Burundi from Tanzania by the skin of our teeth, what a process! Apparently they only get 3 or 4 travelers PER YEAR that cross the way we did so the customs people were unsure as to procedure or what to do with us. Once we got it straightened out (which seriously took several hours) they walked us to the nearest village where we could catch a bus to the capital city of Bujumbura. After another few hours on a jam-packed bus that bumped its way over more pot-holes than flat concrete, we arrived. Got a pretty decent hotel this time, except for the fact that there were half a dozen condoms in the sink in the bathroom. When I brought the hotel guy to the room and asked him about it, he was visibly embarassed and insisted that he provides the condoms for his guests, not for his own personal use when the room is vacant. uh huh, lol

Burundi, despite the fact that it has had much civil unrest recently and Lonely Planet advises against going there, is quite pleasant. It is surprisingly Western and, due to a large UN base there, has quite a few Western (aka white) people. Rwanda is almost exactly the same and it's fairly easy to find people that speak English (which was quite difficult in Tanzania). The border into Rwanda also had its difficulties for us - at least for Lars (the Danish gentleman I was traveling with for most of the trip). It seems that Rwanda has a law forbidding plastic bags, ie. you can't even bring them into the country. Yep, those basic plastic bags you get at Walmart - they're illegal in Rwanda. I'm thinking it's because the government is worried that people will litter them or something. Anyhow, as luck would have it I was busy changing money and talking to some locals, so when the customs guy came around checking the bus I was nowhere to be found. Lars was not so lucky. The customs official got him to dump out all his luggage (of which he had a LOT!) and take out all the bags. Of course he had all his stuff organized in different bags, for example clean laundry, toiletries, etc. So the customs guy took all his bags away and scattered all his belongings and Lars was just fuming. I walked back over near the end of all this in time to witness Lars' red-faced tantrum in front of a bus full of bewildered locals, hahaha :)

So we get to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and get this - I go off to do my own thing, check out the genocide museum (which was incredibly moving) and see the Hotel des Mille Collines (the actual hotel that the movie Hotel Rwanda was based on). So I figure I can't just look at the hotel, I need to go in. So I go and sit by the pool and have a bite to eat. While reading my magazine, I look over my shoulder toward the hotel bar and see this dude that I used to date last year here in Calgary! Like seriously, what are the odds?!? Either this world is getting drastically smaller or I date wayyyyy too much, lol :)

Both Burundi and Rwanda are small countries with only one major city each, so we blew through them in no time. Next on the agenda was Uganda. Spent a few days in the capital city of Kampala (where I shopped at this craft market for so long that it actually closed while I was inside, I was there for like 6 hours or something) and also got a tattoo (hopefully without an AIDS infection attached, haha). Hit Entebbe, a nearby city that lies directly on the equator, and then Jinja to do some white water rafting on the Nile River. One other highlight in Uganda was this amazing hip-hop concert that we stumbled across on Friday night. It was basically like a karaoke concert or something, where a bunch of people would take turns getting on stage and rapping in Swahili and dancing. I'm huge into that kind of music so watching the origins of that culture and genre of music was incredible for me, after all Africa is where that all began. Not to mention the hot sweaty men groovin' on stage... I tell ya, white guys can't move like that!!

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Uganda
• africa
• nile
• river
• whitewater
• rafting
• entebbe
• safari
• jinja
• kampala

[bcdeaton777]

Crazy Americans Love to go to the continent and death and destruction.

[BwanaTarzan]

This video brings back good memories of my very brief time in Kampala when I was 10 yrs old! I lived there with my family in Mar 1972 - Jan 1973. We had to get out in a hurry during Amin's reign! I hope some day to be able to bring my family to Uganda!

[wilelmore]

bubble gum milk ??how does that taste??

[polombapo]

Thanks for the promotion Video for Uganda. I hope to revisit in January

[muzahura]

nice words for my country, next time u think of coming to Uganda, call me up, will show u a real party, lol 

[angeleyes1099]

Dats pumba n' family, LOL!!!

[dsouzand]

cool adventure