Thurs 26th. Big breakfast. Packed. Farewell to everyone.
Left hotel 09:45. Only 10 min walk to dala dala departures. Left after about 5 mins. Cost 500tsh….instead of around 5,000 if I’d taken a bajaj. Arr 10:20…only 20 mins to airport. Took my time. Waited in the restaurant area. 11:30 checked in. Met Ricki…good conversation to pass the time. Taken to the FlightLink plane. We left exactly on time at 13:00. Great view of road going up the coast to Pagani and beyond. Served chocolate ice cream, cashew health bar and bottle of water. Passed to the west of Korogwe and Mombo. Then Mt Kili…not too close but a good view of the 2 peaks. 9 passengers on a 60+ seater plane. A 1 hour flight, landing at the small Arusha airport. My first domestic flight, and it was brilliant.
I began walking out of the airport towards the main road, not realising how far it was. The guard on the main gate kindly stopped a tourist vehicle for me and I got a ride…. Once on the main road I got a dala dala the 20 mins into the city for 500tsh. From the stage I walked to Meru House Inn, which is now Arusha Tourist Inn, and by 3pm I had checked into my room. All very efficient and cheap.
The rest of the day was spent going to old haunts within the city. I popped into the Hot Plate, which is now Chowpatty, and saw that their menu prices had gone up a lot under the new ownership, so I would never go there again…shame, I used to really enjoy their curries.
Directly across the road is a bar called Cold Pub which opened a couple of years ago when Hot Plate stopped selling alcohol. I topped up my Sim card. I found a restaurant down a side street where I had chips mayai for dinner. Then back to my hotel for a nightcap. Followed by a terrible night’s sleep because of traffic noise from the street and a very loud water pump generator within the hotel.
Fri 27th to Mon 30th. With one exception, I didn’t venture beyond the city centre. I seemed to keep myself quite busy. Friday, I waited by the Clock Tower for an hour and a half for a Steve who is a Tour/Safari organiser. He didn’t turn up, but I went on to discover Fifi’s rest/cafe where they do a good, reasonably priced coffee and have WiFi. After the Cold Pub I went on to Khans BBQ for delicious tandoori chicken with lots of salad and a nan. For 10,000 ( just over £3 ), it was excellent value…and the people there were very friendly.
Saturday. I waited for Steve again for over an hour…to no avail…but at least it was in the comfort of Fifi’s. Had dinner at Khans BBQ again, but after watching English football at Cold Pub and meeting up for a beer with my Tanga childhood friend Edgar. In the meantime I had also checked on other hotel room prices but decided I wasn’t prepared to pay the extra 20,000 or so. At least, after 2 nights of limited sleep, I was moved to room 600 on the 3rd floor and at the back of the hotel so that I managed to get 3 nights of good sleep.
So, Sunday was the exception. I had contacted Mike Pownall and got invited to his house. Mike’s Dad Steve and my Dad were best friends. Steve was ex British SAS and died 3 or 4 years before Dad. I caught the dala dala to Moshono…about 25 mins, and from the railway crossing it was about 5 mins on a boda. I found his house eventually and spent a couple of hours there. I didn’t stay longer, as because of his Parkinsons it was difficult to have a good conversation. But he seems to have it under some sort of control by eating healthily…including things like ginger, turmeric and coconut oil. He was still able to drive to the main road to do some shopping, and from where I caught a dala dala back to town. I got some cash from an ATM and watched some football at Cold Pub. Dinner was a plate of chips at the hotel.
Monday. Met up with Steve finally. A good chat and coffee and catch-up at Shoppers Supermarket. I didn’t realise there was a whole area of cafes/restaurants; they seemed to cater for the better off financially.
He took me to a bus ticket office where I bought my 37,000tsh ticket to Kahama for Tuesday. We went back to the cafe where I tried to resolve my travel blog domain access issue with a Bluehost support agent. Altogether, with initial waiting and messages to and fro, I was on my phone for an hour; the café had good WiFi, but haven’t fixed the problem yet.
I went back to the hotel…washed a shirt…dried it on the roof area…sunbathed a bit…the shirt dried very quickly as I laid it out on the hot corrugated sheets…showered…drew out some money. I went to Cold Pub but it was closed as it was a Monday. Instead I met Edgar in the Black & White bar on the 1st floor of the Metropole building around the corner. Good music and a good spot to chat and have a drink.
He showed me where Chutneys restaurant was. I decided on a Zanzibar Mix so I could make a comparison with the ones on Zanzibar. The Arusha one had no egg or meat (well, it’s a vegetarian restaurant); the quantity was a bit less; but Arusha was much tastier. The other big difference was price…Znz 2,000, while Arusha 6,000.
And back to the hotel. I charged my phone and went through all my messages. I went to my room a bit later than planned, but I knew it was only a ten minute walk to the bus stand. I did some packing then to sleep.
Tues 31st. There was actually some hot water in the shower. !! Walked to the bus stand and took my seat. Marangu coach. Just over 5 hours to Singida. 5 hours to Kahama. With stops, it was 11 hours from Arusha to Kahama. Initially cloudy and very low clouds obscuring the hills. Then a very dry section after Singida. But after Nzega it was relatively green. Very wet with lots of rice planting the last time I passed through..18 months ago
Tz is a huge country, so the journey encompassed huge plains, rolling hills and more hilly/almost volcanic terrain. The huge rocks that are seemingly placed randomly next to/on top of each other, are amazing formations. And the ‘clumps’ are quite spread apart; I must look up their origins again.
Arrived after 5pm. Called Neema who was supposed to meet me. Waited for a while. Gave up and went to the hotel across the road. I checked room prices…25,000 for a fan only and 30,000 for a/c. Eventually Neema came and I booked my ticket to Kigali through her. The cost was 35,000 which seemed reasonable. She and her colleague only wanted a bottle of water. I paid for my room. Got some internet top up.I ordered dinner of vegs and rice for and beans 3,000 (£1).
My late afternoon and evening came to an end. A bit stressful when you’re relying on other people, but it worked out in the end. So the Rwanda adventure is about to begin ….