Moshi
Fri 14th Mar
I took some final things (broom, mop, big wash bowl, toilet paper) from my room over to Mercy. I changed Ksh into Tsh, leaving enough for the boda to the border and a 1,000bob note for my wallet. We had tea as usual, then around 10:00 I left for Tz.
No problems passing through immigration/customs, including getting a new 50Usd visa as mine had expired on the 10th. I walked up to stage and into a dala, but we didn’t leave for another hour as we waited for it to fill up. The journey itself to Moshi was very slow…over 2 hours.
I went straight to Kindoroko and was given room 204 on the main road. I didn’t even change but went to the Airtel shop to reregister with my new visa details. At which point it was about 3pm and time to meet Catherine at the Police Mess. The back of the bar area has really been opened up and is much nicer.
There was only one place to go after that…Kaka’s. It was very crowded on the top balcony; more people than ever before. I left them smoking their mint and went down for my totally delicious chicken tandoori with rice. I had one drink at Arawa just around the corner from Kindoroko, and then went to bed.
Sat 15th Mar
I had quite a good night’s sleep. Breakfast was cereals and toast..surprise, surprise..!! I went to Aroma for African tea and wifi. I bumped into Jimmy Carter, and for the first time in about 15 years I gave him a little something…2,000 only…but he was very pleased..!!
I drew money from DTB. I sunbathed on the Kindoroko roof. I relaxed for once, before going to the Mess and onto Kaka’s. I went with naan bread this time, but didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the rice. The timing was wrong for the football, although I was able to watch some at Arawa. Then to my room…
Sun 16th Mar
Breakfast of cereals and toast..!!
Walked in the opposite direction of the town centre, where the street markets are. It was a bit quiet as it was Sunday. I bought a new day pack as mine was getting quite torn/ripped. He wanted 15 but we settled on 8,000. I checked a hotel next to Kibo Palace for views, but not any good. I kept going to Aroma; I lingered over a pot of tea as usual.
I went to the Mess a bit earlier than usual as I wanted to get to Kaka’s by 16:30 for the English football. At the Mess I took a selfie of the beer bottle sign protruding from my head instead of balancing on my head like I usually do.
I left Catherine for the last time and went to Kaka’s. The tandoori was even better than usual…for some reason it had the extra saucer of sauce. Eating the chicken whilst watching football was a great combination.
As it was still light I went to the Kibo Palace hotel for a change and watched some football there. A small bottle of beer was 5,000, whereas a big bottle is 3,000 at Kaka’s and better still at the Mess..2,000. No sign of Kili. It began to rain so we had to vacate the balcony.
The rain didn’t last too long, and by the time I finished my beer I could walk the 5 minutes to Kindoroko in the dry. I packed in preparation for going to Arusha the following morning. As it’s not far, I was in no particular hurry to leave in the morning.
Arusha
Mon 17th Mar
I had quite a good sleep. The shower was a bit on the cool side in the morning; by afternoon the water tanks have heated up from the sun..!!! Well, the usual breakfast …but it’s enough really. A quick chat with the Belgian couple who were considering going to Amani Nature Reserve …and of course I highly recommended it.
I got straight onto the Arusha bus for 5,000Tsh. Very slow overall..2 and three quarter hours, when it should be an hour and a half maximum. It didn’t help that there was a police checkpoint just before KIA, and the thorough search lasted at least 20 minutes.
From the bus stand I went to check out hotels Williams and MidWay, but didn’t like any of the rooms for 30-35,000…and in fact Williams was 25,000 but the wifi wasn’t working. Down the road was Miami Beach (quite good), but I settled on Ivory Lodge at 30,000…it seemed ok.
I didn’t change out of my jeans, but went straight to Msumbis. Steve arrived afer a short time and we just chatted. I went for African tea at Shoppers. And, as I was running out of sun tan lotion, I noted that the price was 34,000. Later I stopped at a pharmacy on Sokoine, and their price for the same Nivea factor 30 was 55,000.
I had a little wander, just before the arranged time of 2pm to meet up with Edgar at McEllys. Of course he was about 45 minutes late, but I sipped my beer very slowly and played on my phone. Anyway, it was good too see him and we had about a 2 hour catch-up.
I went from there to Slope where I had a chips mayai and a couple of beers and bought myself a small KVant from across the road to take back to my room. I recognised some of the ‘sex worker’ ladies from before…not to say hello to or anything..!!!
Tues 18th Mar
I had a very good sleep; the bed was very comfortable. I had to put a sheet/blanket over me as Arusha is cooler than I am used to. The breakfast was very basic…an omelette and two pieces of bread.
I went to Msumbis but Steve was on his way to Moshi with guests. He kindly asked the ladies to give me a coffee for which he would pay the next day. On the way back, as the railway station was very close I decided to confirm some basic facts for Robyn regarding departure days/times. Plus it was my first visit to the Arusha train station, which to be honest wasn’t very striking/inspiring.
I walked to the Clocktower and saw that it was getting the same face-lift as the Moshi Clocktower…i.e. coke advertising. I continued and called into a small supermarket and found the same Nivea factor 30 selling for 28,000. So, the range went from 34 to 55 to 28,000Tsh. I just needed to check if I was really running low.
Next door was the Ethiopian Airlines agent’s office. I explained how I’d received an email which I didn’t fully understand. She took my booking reference and explained that my May 22nd flight had been cancelled and I was rescheduled on May 24th. I said that was absolutely fine as time wasn’t an issue for me.
Then I had a meet up at 13:30 with James the brother of my friend Emil, at Fifis. He came up from Tengere ( near L Duluti), and we had a great chat for a couple of hours. Crazy coincidence….a few days earlier I was reading about a retired Colonel/senior pilot who flew presidents Moi and Kibaki, who died in an accident on the Msa-Nbi highway. It transpired that James was a friend of the Colonel and went to the funeral in Machakos, Kenya about a week previously.
After which I went walkabout and noticed an entrance to the city cemetary. I went in as I had never been there before. Not that I was looking specifically for Greek graves, but I found 2 of them. One was for a lady who died in 1950; of course in those days there was a very large Greek population.
I walked around to the Cold Pub for a beer. Just around the corner is the Metropole where I decided to have a kiti moto dinner…very good actually.
From there I went to Mrina, which is in the same area as Slope and Picnic. I immediately got fed up with an argument taking place right next to me between the waitress and 2 customers. I shouted that they should finish off, shut up, and move away. They were very surprised, and dispersed. The upshot of it was that the manageress came over and apolgised and seved me personally.
Off to Ivory after that, and my comfortable room. I had one more day to look forward to in Arusha.
Wed 19th May
It rained in the early hours. After breakfast I went to see ‘teacher’ to book my bus to Iringa for Thursday. He was expecting me, as Steve had warned him I was on my way. I got a front row aisle seat as I knew the journey would be about 12 hours and I would need to constantly flex my knees.
I met up with Steve at Msumbis and had a tea. I had decided to go see the Greek Church which was only a few kms away. I was standing in the wrong place initially and had to go to the dala stage which was incredibly muddy…And I was wearing flip flops…!!!
The Church was only 15 minutes away. The priest was away and the Church (smartly painted a sort of red colour) was locked, but I was very glad I made the effort.
There didn’t seem to be any dalas coming so I hopped on a boda which, despite the extra cost (cost me 3,500 compared to the 700 dala fare), I knew would get me back much quicker.
I went up Sokoine Rd and had a little wander around the Clocktower area. Then I went and bought the sun tan lotion for 28,000 (£9). Another sunny day was a constant reminder that I needed it.
I went back to my room and took in the shirt I had washed earlier. I went to Cold Pub for one beer. I met Edgar…at McEllys, but we only had an hour together; he suddenly remembered he had a bible reading to go to.
I went to my room and changed. Then, I had decided to go just up the road…passed Williams hotel …and try the Betty kiti moto. I had kavu..no sauce..with just one banana, and it was really delicious. Had I stayed another day I would definitely have gone back there for dinner.
Then I went to Mrina for a nightcap. The manageress served me again, and I thanked her for ‘looking after me ‘ !!
I returned to my room and packed, ready for a relatively early start…05:30 reporting time at the bus stand.
I had 3 very productive days in Arusha. Having had some rain in a couple of the mornings, made the temperature very comfortable.