Big Brother's African Brother #10: Kampala, Uganda

Day 8: 5 August 2002 10:00 pm


Most of the group leave on an excursion to the Chimpanzee Sanctuary but a splinter group decides to explore Kampala.

At last a free day and it was our best day yet. Most of the group went on a
visit to the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Lake Victoria, but we
chose to stay and spend the day exploring Kampala.

Kampala is a great city - laid back, vibrant, no hassle from anyone, people
are friendly and it feels safe. We were advised to walk in as a group and
carry our backpacks on our front. I think our tour leader has to say this
to cover all bases, so we can't turn round and blame our tour leader if we
get mugged. This is fair enough.

First we changed money, but they would not take a pre-1990 dollar bill.
Make sure you take bills printed after 1990 to East Africa to avoid
problems. We wandered around the craft market behind the National Theatre
and bought a batik painting depicting everyday Ugandan life. Tom has
gone all native and bought two necklaces - one with wooden elephants, lions
and giraffe and the other is in the shape of Africa. The Lariam must be
warping his brain.

We often saw men holding hands as they were walking around the city. This
is socially acceptable among male friends. We had lunch in a bakery and
Tom purchased a pair of Ugandan "Power" trainers for Ush 25,000 as he
wants to do some running.

It was great to wander around on our own and we met a few independent
travellers who had already seen the gorillas in Bwindi. To get back to the
camp site, we managed to squeeze seven of us into a taxi. As soon as we had
piled in, the taxi pulled over into a petrol station. Ugandan taxis are
notorious for running out of petrol as they only fill up if they get a fare
so that if they are stolen, the car won't go far.

I can now share my top five essentials to bring to East Africa:

1. Life Venture Trek Towel
   
   They dry in a matter of minutes not hours.
   

   
   
   

2. Head Torch
   
   Nights are pitch black in Africa, there is very little light pollution.
   

   
   

3. Convertible Trousers
   
   Don't bring shorts separately. Trousers always need to be worn in the evening.
   

   
   

4. Scrubbing Brush
   
   You'd be amazed at how dirty you get just wandering around town. Scrub those finger nails and your feet.
   

   
   

5. Dry Savlon
   
   Spray on antiseptic that dries in seconds. Cream leaves bites and cuts too moist.
   

Positives: Our best day yet - we pottered round Kampala, savouring the delights of the craft market.

Negatives: Worrying that our best day was one spent on our own. Received bad news about the gorilla permits and I have a strange rash on my arm.