Last day in Uganda and a summmary

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Uganda Day 11
The last day in Uganda and a summary

If you were a taxi driver in London and someone asked you to take them to Buckingham Palace you’d at least of heard of it wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t need a photo of it and still not be able to find it would you?
Things are different in Kampala……
We got up early and, after a buffet breakfast, caught an Uber down to the start of a walking tour we had booked last night. We were early of course and had a quick walk up to the Independnce Monument while we waited. The tour was due to start at 9:30 and the lady said she was on her way. A different lady arrived at 9:45 and didn’t apologise for being late. She was really nice though and, as it was just us for a private tour, we forgave her and decided not to mention she was FIFTEEN MINUTES LATE!!
Our tour started at a statue of the first president before moving on to the Independence Monument. Our guide’s English was very good and she gave us lots of interesting information as we went. Next to the independence monument there was a sign where a picture of Idi Amin had been smashed out.
Next was the war memorial where some maribou storks were hanging around. Damn they’re big and it’s odd seeing such huge birds just hanging around town.
And then we hit the markets. Or they hit us. In one there are about 2000 vendors selling a wide variety of things in a state of organised chaos that veers more towards the latter. From fruit and veg to spices, clothes, shoes and dried fish to almost dead chickens stacked up while tney expired, it wasn’t the greatest time ever. The smell never reached anything resembling pleasant and the piles of meat and fish stacked up unrefridgerated was far from hygienic. It was an experience but not one I’d want to repeat in a hurry….make that….at all.
It was very busy in there too with not much room to manoeuvre but somehow we didn’t lose each other and managed to find our way out. The amount of times I heard the word wuzungu (whitey) too…..
We also visited a taxi rank. A bit different from one in England, this is a large area where there are more mutatus than you can count all going to different places (when full and not before) all over Uganda. People are crammed in and then they have to get the vehicle around lots of other vehicles to finally make it out onto the road. It was really good for photos but I’m glad I wasn’t trying to get somewhere as the various signs and people shouting destinations seemed more than confusing.
As we were walking round we had to cross a number of roads and our guide told us that we were safer than most as drivers (particularly boda-boda drivers (motorcycle taxis)), would particularly avoid whiteys as they knew they would be in trouble if they hit one. If they hit a Ugandan they would just ride away…. Some even stopped to wave us across so it must be true.
We visited a Hindu temple which was quite nice inside and smelt 457,227 times better than the market before reaching our final stop which was the National Mosque. This was started by Idi Amin and then finished by Colonel Gadaffi so not a great history. It was also a fiver each to get in.
I mean, it was okay but nothing special. The climb to the top of the minaret was the best bit, well the view, not the over 270 steps to get there, they were hard work in the heat. Our guide sometimes climbs up there four times a day but still seemed to be struggling on her first climb of the day. We enjoyed the view and got some more information about Kampala before going back down where our tour ended. It had been an interesting tour and I’m glad we did it but I’m not that sold on Kampala.
Claire has a work colleague who spends half a year there and loves it but I can’t see the appeal. It’s over-busy, dirty, very noisy and there’s very little to see. There is more than we’d seen of course but not much.
We decided to head to one of those places, Kabake’s Palace and started off walking towards it. There was a lot of construction and confusion going on meaning at one point we were walking across a construction site. We weren’t the only ones though and no-one demanded we wear a hard hat.
After a while we decided to bite the bullet and get boda-bodas but first we needed to get across where we wanted to go. There must be a few hundred palaces here that not only look the same but are also called the same as well because our drivers were very confused. I showed them and told them the name and showed them pictures of where we wanted to go and still they seemed confused. Buckingham Palace mate? Which one? We have loads.
Claire had found something on Google maps but it turned out not to be the right place as we ended up at someone’s house, further away than when we’d started. The ride had been okay actually and not as scary as I thought it would be, but we were in a quieter part of the city.
When we arrived at someone’s house we gave up, gave the two riders 2000 more shillings than they’d originally asked for because we’d gone for longer….the wrong way….but they’d followed Claire’s Googley maps so what can you do? To be fair it was only an extra 40p….
As we were now further away from the palace than before and it closed soonish we decided to give up on going, saying we’d had an adventure instead. We could have got another boda-boda but who knows where we’d have ended up??
The aforementioned work colleague of Claire’s had recommended an Ethiopian restaurant so we decided to head there instead. But where were we? Pretty much in the slums really, so hardly palatial. Strangely we didn’t get stared at or bothered here despite it being a very poor area where I imagine not many whiteys visit. We felt safe too which was good. We had put our cameras back in our bags soon after the tour ended as we don’t want to flaunt expensive things when there is such abject poverty abound.
We found yet another busy section of Kampala and also an ATM to get some money out before finding Dukem, the aforementioned Ethiopian restaurant. But it looked closed from the front, oh no! Luckily the entrance was around tne side and the place was packed. We sat down and did the typical thing of looking lost but soon a very friendly waitress with good English came to help us and we ordered two halves of a mixed vegetables meal.
Eithiopian food is served on a large pancake shaped thing that I’ve forgotten the name of that you use to scoop up all your food. You get a few little piles of different stuff piled on top and then you dive in with your fingers. It was really, really good and we stayed a while just chilling and enjoying the atmosphere. Nobody stared at us or seemed bothered that we were there despite it being far from touristy. So we had two big meals, Claire had two beers, I had a coke and a pot of Ugandan tea and it came to less than £7 so defintely not touristy.
Now we needed to get back to our accommodation….. It was no use trying to get boda-bodas if tney can’t find a *#@%’* palace!! So I booked an Uber who pulled up behind us but had a different number plate than we had been expecting. He phoned me to say he was behind me so we got in anyway and headed out into the traffic. And what traffic.
With boda-bodas you can dodge in and out but in the wrong direction of course. With cars you’re pretty much stuck, so our 2 mile drive took about 75 minutes…. It wasn’t expensive but was quite possibly the worst taxi journey ever. Oh and we saw an accident on the way, albeit a minor one. Forgot to say that we saw someone fall off a boda-boda yesterday. Good job my Mum hadn’t heard about that before we got on them today….
And so we finally arrived back at our accommodation where I thought it would be a good idea to get some sleep as Zed is picking us up at 2am. I lay in bed downstairs as I’d packed in a couple of minutes and then Claire took every item she’d brought, threw it on the wooden floor above and then dragged it across the floor for a while. Or at least that’s what it sounded like. I gave up and joined her upstairs after it had gone quiet ane had returned from the bar. When she went downstairs to try and sleep I tried replicating the noises she had made but not a murmer from downstairs!!
The Summary
We have had a great time and have loved most of Uganda. We have been incredibly lucky with tne weather and with animals we have set out to see. The people have mostly been friendly and helpful and I would definitely recommend Mambo and our guide, Zedius. Okay so the car kept breaking down but that’s just added to the experience and this is Africa after all.
Would I come back? Definitely. Will I have chance? Who knows. I’d only come back to Kampala to visit Dukem restaurant, and maybe the palace, if it actually exists. One of tne worst capital cities I’ve ever been to in one of tne best countries.
I iffed and arred about coming here due to the hate-filled, homophobic scum of a government as I don’t want to be seen to be supporting such abhorrent prejudice. But how else do you support the local people? How else do you see gorillas in the wild and give money to help protect them? It’s not like our cabal of thieves government are any less hate-filled, they’re just more subtle and have the MSM to support their corruption.
The highlight was of course seeing the gorillas but seeing chimpanzees and golden monkeys in tne wild was very special too. Then there was bump-starting the car when there was a leopard nearby, the boat trip to actually see a shoebill, the friendly people, the Batwa performance and most of tne food. The latter may be a tad heavy on carbs but I’ve enjoyed it none-the-less. I suspect though that I may have put some weight on….on holiday!! Weird! We’ll see though…
I know this is risky but I’m going to point out that I haven’t been ill although I am covered in bites. Whether this lack of toilet troubles is down to being vegan, being careful, the probiotics or that everything has been cooked safely is open for debate. Looking at the hygiene for the dead animals I’m pretty certain I’d be in hospital now if I’d been eating that. You have been warned carnivores!
All in all a wonderful holiday and yet another once in a lifetime trip.
Now where shall we go next year?



Addendum

I lost 4lbs but, for a change, not from being ill.

But...

We have booked to go to India next year though and the last time I went there I lost a stone in two weeks.....

The journey home was....hectic to say the least. Zed had said he would come and pick us up and would be there at 2am. He wasn't. So we waited, and started panicking. He replied to a Whatsapp saying he was on his way then he sent a voice message saying the car wouldn't start so he had got a different one.... A Nepalese guy who was security on the gate got involved and spoke to Zed on the phone but his location was vague and then he was quite close but then somehow further away the next time. This was nuts so we jumped in a taxi that just happened to be parked up on the road. Why didn't Zed let us know when the car wouldn't start?? Our flight was in less than two hours now and we had only just set off.

Luckily the taxi driver was aware of our urgency and broke a few speed limits to get us there with just over an hour to go, so he got a few shillings extra. In the airport the stairs to Departures were taped off so we had to run up a road instead but finally made it in time to check in. The flight was late taking off of course, it was Turkish Airlines after all, which meant we would have more problems in Istanbul.

I have never known any other airport that sends you through security scans again when you are in transit, it's madness! They didn't do it on the way to Uganda so why do it now? And it's busy and everyone is frantic and it's incredibly pointless. We had walked past our gate ages ago but on a different level and now had to run back the way we had come, but thankfully made it just in time for our last flight home, which almost left on time. Go Turkish! I did once miss a connecting flight thanks to the silly procedures in Istanbul and I can't be the only one so....why??

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