Uganda - Entebbe to Lake Bunyonyi

We flew from Johannesburg to Entebbe, Uganda - arriving in the Pearl of Africa around 7pm, we exited the plane to the beautiful sight of Lake Victoria and a hot rush of equatorial damp air (Entebbe is located right at the north of Lake Victoria). No problem getting into the country, everyone paid $50 per person entrance fee, so everyone was in the big passport line clutching $100 US bills in their hands, the border guys took them and threw them into a drawer and provided us an entrance receipt (it says Robert Scott Lyons and wife, hhehe, pre-honeymoon).

Entebbe
Entebbe is a smallish town, we stayed in a pretty nice place for two nights (see picture of garden dinner, with their pet turkey who hung out with us during our stay), resting up a bit - We went on one long walk to town to see their main attraction , a zoo which features rescued chimps - On our walk their, two dudes adopted us for part of the walk, during our chat, their first reply to learning that we are Americans is "Ahh, Barack Obama" (this has been the uniform response since that time, with one guy actaully wearing a Barack Obama's face t-shirt and noting that he was considering changing his name to Obamna). We also learned that school in Entebbe costs 300,000 Uganada shillings per year (for room and board) a little more than $300, we were not sure if that was private school, but he said he had dropped out because of "troubles" but that he was interested in studying tourism, then he asked if we wanted a tour guide, hahah. We politely declined and we went amicably on our way.


Big camel and little camel at the Entebbe Zoo, in front of Lake Victoria.

Travel Entebbe to Kabale - The Long Day
The distance from Entebbe to Lake Bunyonyi (in the very south of Uganda, near the Rwanda border) is about 500 km or 300 miles. Knowing this would be a long travel day, we got up around 6am and hit the road at 7am. We wandered around the town a bit before finding a matatu (mini-bus, with 4 rows of seats 3-4 people each row) that would go to Kampala, Uganda's capital and the place where we could find all of the big, long distance buses. Matatu found, success!, we were on our way. About 5km outside of Kampala, huge traffic jam, all filled with matatus, boda bodas (motorcycle-taxis), bicycle taxis, people streaming into the city on foot and private cars. We finally reached the bus station after about 1 hour in traffic. When Scott and I got off, we were somewhat swamped by people wanting to help us find our way to the big bus station - This was the hardest walking we had done yet, because we were making our way through a giant crowd trying to not lose one another with our giant backpacks on, with a vague idea of where to go, with a bunch of dudes trying to figure out what we wanted so they could help us and maybe get a tip. Luckily, the bus station was very near and one of our self-appointed guides found our bus
immediately.

9:00am and the bus was leaving at 10:00am, what luck! We got on the big bus, it had two tiny seats on one side and three on the other, so we smushed in next to each other, preparing for the 7 hour bus ride. A stream of vendors get on the bus - water, soda, fruit plates, soaks, headbands, underwear, soap, watches, cell phone chargers.. 10am comes and goes. The bus is filling up. It is geting hot in there! 11am... the bus is full..The bus starts! Then, the engine is turned off.. The vendors keep coming, meat on a stick, chapatti bread, Becca is getting angry..!! We are the only foreigners on the bus, so I look around to see if anyone else looks like they are about to raise hell. No one. Looking around the bus station (just a big dirt parking lot, teeming with travelers, vendors, people bringing their goods to send in the undercarriage of the buses) - I have a feeling of being very insignificant and realize the futility of my annoyance, nothing is going to get this bus going before it is completely full.

12:30pm, we finally get on our way! Into, a HORRENDOUS traffic jam. We probably are out of the city around 1:30 and then we are moving. We are moving quickly, we do not stop for much of anything other than to quickly let people on and off. There is a brief break at a gas station when mostly the men get off for the bathroom. When we go through towns, we slow down and vendors on the side of the road shout out their prepared food, meat on a stick, chapatti bread, I am intrigued by the grilled plantains and buy one through the window, I just make the purchase and my plantain salesmen has to jog to catch my 200 Uganda shillings ($0.12). We have not eaten much at this point in anticipation of the long bus ride, so even though it was not ripe, it was some much needed fuel!

Maybe 2 hours from our destination, a loud BANG. The back left tire has blown out. Very, very unfortunate. We all get off the bus to watch the driver and helper change the giant bus tire. We are shocked when 30 minutes later, we are back on the road. Next bit bad fortune, it is getting dark. It is not good to get to a new town, with few if any streetlight, where you don't know your way around and have not decided on a place to stay, in the dark. And my internal clock is on "very tired" when the sun goes down, so I am not at my best. It is completely dark when we arrive at the town, Kabale which is kind of a way station for Lake Bunyonyi and other excusions. This time, our taxi "helpers" get on the bus before we get off to inquire about where we are going, if we need a taxi, etc. This crush of people hangs out with us while we are waiting for our taxi - I am still a bit too nervous to ride the boda boda (motorbike, with a little seat in the back) with my backpack, I feel like I will fall off, so we decide take a car-taxi. We pick one guy from the throng and go over to his taxi to haggle - He offers 5,000 Uganda shillings ($12) to go just 3 km.
We are outraged. Scott haggles, we want to pay 2,000. He is firm at 4,000 and we walk away. We are surprised that he lets us go, but we find another man and get him down to 2,500. A victory!

It is now about 9pm and we have been traveling since 7am and have eaten very little and I, for one, have not gone to the bathroom all day . (I have not succombed to going on the side of the road which Scott finds amusing. He is waiting for me to break!) We go to a couple of the lodging places which are recommended in the Lonely Planet -Shocking, the first place only has dorm beds in 6 people per room. We are too good for that. We move on to place number two, completely booked! Like the first place, this proprietor of this place is very friendly. He takes us across the road to a third place which is probably the least nice of them all and we agree on a price and a room there. Phew!

Kabale - Dinner with the Brits
We follow him back to his place, which has a restaurant still open, for a very late dinner. As soon as we sit down, the only other diners in the place - a British couple in their 50s - ask us if we found accomodations. We strike up a conversation. They are very chatty, they are VSO (Britain's Peace Corps) volunteers doing what they always intended to do, volunteer work in East Africa. They have been in the country for about 6 months and sound like they are on the verge of going home! Not due to cultural/comfort reasons - the man grew up in Tanzania and they are accustomed to east Africa travel - but because of their witnessing of very very discouraging corruption.

They both were in education, the man working with disabled adults, many of whom had diseases like polio or measles, which had left them unable to walk or blind. He actually sounded like he was doing ok, but the poor woman told her superiors about an education ministry employee who stole donated money and was denounced publiclly for her actions and nearly fired. The VSO intervened and she still works in the education ministry but she said that no other employees talk to her.


The destination we (finally!) made it to the date after this post, Lake Bunyonyi.

After our fun evening conversation, we finally went off to bed and
thus concluded the very long day.

-Becca