Hey Mzungu, hello!

---

When a traveller jumps on the back of a boda boda for a ride through central Kampala, he or she is taking life into one's own hands, pure and simple. The centre of town features a chaotic meeting point of vehicles, all jostling for an inch of space, and all equally determined to arrive at their destination before the next guy manages to squeeze in. The city centre is packed with a riotous jumble of taxi vans, motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians and potholes. Here in the capital of Uganda a driver's margin for error is razor thin; where knees and feet, elbows and shoulders come within inches of a potential impact with other vehicles. This is due to each guy accelerating for that fraction of available space at the same time. However, there's a fair degree of skill on display amidst the seeming mayhem, and chances are travellers will get to their destination unscathed.

The journal continues, dear reader, from where we left off in Nairobi, at the conclusion of an excellent safari. I booked a morning bus for the day's commute with a Canadian friend, who was heading in the same direction. Once we sighted the bus it was clear the vehicle bore no resemblance to the luxury coach in the advertisement, and a broken seat caused twelve hours of annoyance to myself, and particularly the African man behind me. He thought I was reclining the seat when actually the latch holding it up was constantly giving way. The bus was hot, the air conditioning non-existent, and tempers were slightly frayed by the time we arrived in Kampala. We then had to try at least five ATMs before being able to get hold of some cold hard stuff, and after finally getting sorted for cash we jumped on a couple of boda bodas with our packs, for the ride out to our hostel situated a few kilometres out of town.

The Backpackers hostel has everything a traveller could ask for, set in nice grounds with friendly staff, a bar, and a restaurant. However, it's always the travellers within an establishment that make any travel destination memorable. I ain't the one to judge, but the dynamic from the guests at the hostel this past week can only be described as strange. My first evening here saw me out and about with the hostel regulars for an epic night out, actually it was bordering on biblical! After this monster performance I can safely say Kampala is a full on party town, and it quickly became apparent the volunteers and long term travellers at the hostel are here just to go ballistic ... all the time! That first night was a sufficient dose of the crazies for me, and in fact my Canadian mate had enough of the hostel after a few days and decided to take off. The young guys staying long term at the hostel have been living on the edge, getting close to straight out reckless in my humble opinion. I just shake my head each morning, as they recount ever more ridiculous antics from their latest night of alcohol fuelled shenanigans. However, in life you do get to choose your friends, and I've been able to sift through the wild ones to form a strong bond with a group of quality African travellers, as you would expect in this part of the world.

A week has flown by and still I don't feel settled at the hostel. We've been playing soccer games daily, but without the locals after the first evening as their tackling is far too dangerous. Perhaps feeling slightly weirded out has served as a premonition of sorts, because just this morning Kampala exploded into violent riots. The violence is in response to the opposition leader being tear gassed in his own car yesterday. There are live rounds and tear gas canisters being fired in the city centre as I write. We've heard reports of fatalities and scores of shooting injuries on the streets today, and the situation seems to be escalating dangerously. There are constant explosions from the tear gas, however information is limited so I hope the reports I'm hearing are not independently verified. At this stage all the guests remain holed up in the hostel with armed protection at the gate provided by the police. The long term guests are accustomed to thursday work to rule protests leading to limited clashes between police and protestors, but the situation in Kampala today is a different and far more worrying state of affairs.

Kampala is generally considered one of the safer capital cities in East Africa, and this sudden flare up of violence could have occurred anywhere. I was just starting to get into the swing of visiting this intriguing country, and hope the trouble is resolved shortly for the wonderful people of Uganda. As soon as this occurs Uganda will be at the top of my list of countries I'm hoping to revisit at the earliest opportunity. Then I'll be able to say with confidence, basically all of you should be here now!

The world was orderly. The sun rose every day, the moon went through it's phases regularly, the seasons followed each other the same way every year." Jean Auel

As I continue my travels, until next time it's signing off for now

Tom

Note: Feel free to post comments on this site, or click on the subscribe button for notification of upcoming travel journals

---

Photos

Central Kampala
The day before deadly riots erupted.

Gaddafi Mosque
The arch above the mosque entrance.

Comments

[Lisa]

stay safe!
Your safari adventures sounded truely wonderful! But, now you need to be careful in this volatile world we live in. Stay safe!

[Colin Lynch]

Danger
Hi Tom, take it carefully over there, mate. Seems like it is a bit more lively than anyone anticipated. The media are variously describing it as either "a reaction to Besigye's violent arrest" or "food riots". Either way, take care of yourself - you've still another 175 countries and territories to report on!