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Published: December 14th 2012
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Kigali City Center
As seen from the Memorial The past two days have definitely been less than stellar - especially when compared to the amazing time we had tracking the gorillas.
Yesterday started off decently enough with a two hour drive back to Kigali from Musanze. Since half of the drive was done in the dark on Monday, we definitely got a better look at the amazing landscapes Rwanda has to offer. The efficient use of space demonstrated by the locals rivals that of the Japanese and definitely puts Canadian urban planners to shame. After returning to the city we were given a brief tour, showcasing the under-construction downtown and some of the hotels being built to handle the new tourism industry.
The tour ended with a stop at the Rwandan genocide memorial which I was both interested in seeing and dreading. I found it very tastefully done (with the exception of the two souvenir shops) and very effective at conveying the mood of panic during those months in 1994. Anything further I say on the topic would be inadequate and a disservice, but there was one display that brought the whole event much closer to home than I anticipated. One of the final 'stops' of the
Our room in Nairobi
We were definitely spoiled by Rwandan hotels memorial, displayed actual clothing/personal effects found on some of the victims and one of the children had been wearing a shirt from Ottawa Canada with a big maple leaf on it.
Following the sobering experience of the memorial, we were dropped off 'downtown' to do some window shopping and experience Kigali. Mother nature had other plans however as we were constantly inundated with rain which really brought a halt to our walking tour. In between torrential downpours, we scurried from side-road to side-road looking for TripAdvisors #2 restaurant in Kigali, and finally found it in a particularly bad bout of rain after about 2 hours of walking. Unfortunately economics conspired against us and the restaurant didn't open for another hour. I finally snapped, told Anne we're going back to the hotel and stormed off toward what I thought was the downtown area. It wasn't but we were 'fortunate' enough to get a taxi back to our hotel where I gave up for the day.
Today we packed our bags to head to Nairobi, which was a city I really wanted to visit, however the reason now eludes me. The flight was quite smooth and short, leaving us with what we thought would be lots of time to arrange dinner at a meat buffet restaurant that is a must when in Nairobi. Much like the weather yesterday, traffic was the antagonist today, as we sat in rush-hour Nairobi traffic for 2+ hours (more than double our flight time) to go the 10 KM from the airport to the hotel. Oh we were also forgotten by the hotel, who were supposed to send a driver for us - we instead had to pay for the trip ourselves.
I wish I could say the hotel we were taken to was worth the effort but that would be a severe understatement. Between the numerous guards with metal detectors at the hotel entrance, the paper thin walls, our amazing view of the emergency exit stairwell and the lack of hot water, this hotel definitely has a certain charm. It's safe to say Rwanda spoiled our expectations of African hotels.
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Sheena
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Too bad for all the unfortunate happenings, but at least you can look forward to hot water at the next place! Kigali looks really pretty - different than I expected! Hope everything is lacking in rush hour traffic and goes smoothly from here on out. Look forward to your next posts!