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Published: September 28th 2006
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Trendy Tiger
Winner of the Arusha Masai fashions comp 2006 Amongst the hordes of touts and commission seekers that had us surrounded from the moment we arrived in Arusha, all the while shouting at us that their guesti house was the closest and cheapest, or pulling us by our backpacks, or holding onto our arms, Jack casually said that his Fathers Guesti was just around the corner and he'd be happy to show it to us if we wanted. If not, "hakuna matata, salama safari" (no worries, safe journey.) So taken aback were we that we had to ask him to repeat himself and sure enough, he had said what we thought he said. The touts followed us around the corner to Jacks Fathers place, Masheles Bar and G house, still holding on and shouting that if we didn't like Masheles, their place was still the cheapest and closest. After a little bargaining we got a self contained double room with a mosquito net, a fan and two sets of odd bathroom thongs for just 10000TSh. $10Aus. Once our business was secure and in the same nonchalant manner that had already proven successful, Jack told us that his Brother had a safari company and if we wanted, yada yada, hakuna matata...
Youngest shopkeeper
Little sod even charged me 100TSh to take his photo! We told him of our harrowing journey from Mtwara and that all we wanted to do for now was relax and explore and that tomorrow we would talk safari. When an hour or so later we emerged showered and packless, the touts who were still waiting for us like faithful puppies were now all working for various safari companies. We lied through through our teeth and told them that we weren't interested in a safari or in climbing Kilimanjaro and this afforded us some time to wander around town for a little while and more importantly, find some cheap local food. Although the word quickly spread along the tout grapevine that the two new Aussie arrivals weren't interested in a safari, it still didn't stop many of them approaching us, telling us to remember their name and giving us a business card (usually handwritten on a scrap of paper) and also directions to the office. The next morning, armed with a few proper business cards of possible candidates, we allowed Jack to take us to the office of his Brothers safari company. Like an excited primary school teacher Jacks Brother used a pointing stick to demonstrate where on the wall
Arusha fire escape
Even conforms to African OH & S regulations! map his safaris went and also which animals we were likely to see. The animals, like the map, looked as though they'd been drawn on by primary school kids. We told him what we were looking for, but every time we would ask for the price he would avoid the question by again telling us what was and wasn't included and why his company was the sensible choice, not forgetting of course that he had a group waiting for two more people to join them so they could leave tomorrow. Finally we got it out of him. $125 US per person per day. Whoa mama. Ghali sana! (very expensive) This was more than we had anticipated so we told him that as he was the first person we'd spoken to (Jack confirmed this) that we wanted to shop around before making a decision. Just as we were on our way out a Canadian girl walked in who was looking for a similar package to ours. This increased our bargaining power and we were able to quickly reduce the price to $115 p/p plus a nights accomodation before or after the safari. We still wanted to shop around. Even though there
Ingenious idea
Leg powered grinding wheel was no commission in it for him Jack was happy to direct us towards another of the companies we had selected, but before we went in the three of us stopped at a coffee shop to talk tactics. With the unwanted help of about a dozen touts we found Victoria Safaris and not only did they give us they same spiel as Jacks Brother, they offered us pretty much the same deal. Surprise surprise they had a group waiting for three people to join them so they could leave on the morrow. In the end we settled for $115 p/p, a nights accomodation before and after the safari and a lift to and from the Barclays Bank which was a little out of town. It was much of a muchness between the two companies, but in the end we chose Victoria as they just seemed a little more professinal. When later we saw Jack and broke the news to him, his response was predictable "hakuna matata, salama safari." Choosing a safari company took up half of our day, but now that was done we had more important matters to attend to. Later that evening Australia was playing Brazil in the
Kombe la Dunia and we had to find a happening hoteli to watch it. During our brief time in Tanzania we'd so far learnt enough Swahili to know that a hoteli was a place for drinking, whereas a guesti or g house was for accomodation. Many words in Swahili are just the English word with an "i" added to the end of it, but funny enough, words that already contain an "i" sounding suffix eg twenty, coffee, taxi become twent, coff and tax. We'd also learnt that everyones Father, Brother, Uncle etc ran a business that provided the service you were looking for, so although we didn't say so to his face, Jacks family didn't seem as entreprenerial as we'd first thought. In preparation for the Australia match I embellished my green and canary yellow football shirt with a green marker pen as everyone was mistaking me for one of the multitude of Brazilian supporters, none of whom were even Brazilian! Although the result was disappointing, a lucky 2-0 victory to Brazil, we had a great night out. The word had gotten around where we were watching the game and most of the touts we'd met and fobbed off during
the day turned up to drink beer and watch it with us. They then took us around town to some of the livelier late night spots for a post match boogie. Needless to say when our safari driver came early the next morning to collect us we were a little worse for wear. Although the touts in Arusha were annoyingly persistent and seemed to appear from between the cracks in the pavement (there are many of them in Africa!) we enjoyed and appreciated that once they knew we weren't interested in what they were flogging they were happy to have a laugh and a chat, especially about the Kombe la Dunia which was proving to be a great ice breaker. We returned from our safari after two days to a heroes welcome. People greeted us from everywhere "jambo Aussies," "habari D&D" "karibuni Socceroos!" The locals became histerical when Danielle bought and proudly wore a Mzungu t shirt. "Hey Mzungu!" they would call out to her "we would never have known!" Contrary to what we had heard and expected, Arusha was unbelievably cheap - apart from the safari. Our hotel room was cheap as chipsi, we ate what we called TV
Masai guardsmen
many people are spooked by the Masai people, so they make good security guards. dinners for less than a dollar (sectioned plates containing Ugali - a maize meali staple, goati, greens and beans) beer was even cheaper. Even on our final night when we lashed out and had delicious pizzas, wine and dessert at the restaurant across the road from Masheles, PizzArusha, we still spent next to nothing. We felt priviliged that we were able to make some genuine local friends and thus get to see and experience the real Arusha, not just the Arusha that most people see when they breeze in and out before and after their safaris. We inturn felt that our new friends appreciated the fact that we were not only travelling at ground level as we call it, but were prepared to make time for and enjoy the company of the locals on their turf. Hakuna matata, salama safari.
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Roel Stolper
non-member comment
Enjoyment
Hi Dean and Danielle, I followed your story from CapeTown to Arusha and really enjoyed every sentence and hope that you are still alive and are surviving as it is now today already 16 days back that I heard anything about your further travel. All the best and looking forward to yuor next series of travel stories. Best regards Roel Stolper, rstolper@csir.co.za