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I spent a day chilling in Arusha, then took the plane from Kilimanjaro airport to Kigali in Rwanda. The rest of the afternoon I spent in the bank of Kigali trying to obtain some money for my gorilla trek.

Kigali is very expensive and unremarkeable I was planning on staying for 2 nights but bailed out early and headed off to Musanze for the Gorrila Trek. There are not many whiteys in Kigali and during all my bus journeys so far I have been the only one!!

Everybody in Rwanda refers to me and other whiteys as Muzungu, which is good cos at least you know when they are talking about you.

However, before leaving I had to visit the Rwanda Genocide museum. During the genocide nearly 1 million Tutsi's and moderate Hutus were killed in the most barbaric way. Many of the victims suffering a lingering death as the weapon of choice was a machete. I won't go into detail as it is very depressing what happened but there is a wealth of information on the internet about this. The museum also covered all the other recent genocides including Albania, Cambodia, Bosnia and of course the holocaust - I left the museum feeling very down that this was still happening in the world on a regular basis.

I then popped into the hotel des Mille Collines on which the film Hotel Rwanda is based.

I travelled round Kigali on the back of a motorcycle taxi (called boda-bodas) which was an interesting if slightly scary way to travel.

I then caught the bus to Musanze to get my Gorilla permit from Amohoro tours, it was difficult to get one on my own as the day I wanted to go was a baby gorilla naming ceremony which the president of Rwanda was presiding over. Don Cheedle who was the protagonist in Hotel Rwanda was also at the ceremony. The President's entourage of around 10 security vehicles passed me in Kigali, he could have given me a lift. As several of the previous presidents had been assassinated I guess he can't be too careful.

I met a couple of fellow travellers from the UK and shared a beer with them for the rest of the night.


Boring bits
Took the minibus from Kigali Airport for 300 RWF, the stop is outside the gate, over the road.
Stayed at the Auberge La Caverne for US$S20 a night, there was a club next day with afro beat blaring til 04:00 but I was so tired it didn't interrupt my sleep.
The OPRT office was closed as it was a holiday so I paid Amahoro tours to source me a ticket and they charged US$30.
Travelled to Musanze with Virunga Express from the mini bus park

I went to the main bus station to get the times from Kigali to Kampala, they are as follows:

Jaguar - 04:30, 05:00, 05:30, 06:00 and 09:00 - this was the executive coach at 8000 RWF, the rest were 6000RWF.

Onatacrom - 06:00, 08:00, 17:00

Kampala - 05:45, 12:30 06:00

Horizon - 05:00, 11:30, 16:30

Most of them were the same prices, but I am planning on going with Jaguar or Kampala.

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