Typed up: at Kindoroko Hotel in Moshi Posted from: Internet cafe in
Lushoto
Our safari
was really over when Walter and Peter dropped us off on Sunday, August
10, at Sakina Campsite. No vehicle breakdown could avoid that. The
campsite is more of a hotel which allows camping on the lawn. It’s a
clean, nice looking building with a small restaurant and comfy seating
area. When we got there, and indeed for our entire stay until the 13th,
we were the only guests.
We spent a fair amount of time talking to the staff, which was fun to
get some local perspective on the world, as well as some more local
info. Specifically, the Masai are allowed to live in Ngorongoro because
they don’t farm, and thus don’t really modify the landscape much. We
also learned a bit about local farm life, as well as of the history of
the Iraqw people. Thanks, Elli! Zapporah, the owner of the hotel, also
gave us some good information about travelling through Kenya. Our short
term plan was now to visit the Usambara mountain region in Tanzania, go
north to Mombasa in Kenya, then head west to Nairobi, and hopefully
catch a bit of the wildebeest migration before flying to Egypt.
While a safari is physically pretty easy (sleep, eat, sit, eat, sit,
eat, repeat) it does take quite a bit out of you just processing all the
new stuff you see. So we’d decided to relax for a few days in Arusha
before continuing on. In addition, we had some more things to buy. And
of course we wanted to upload pictures and keep you guys informed about
what we’ve been up to.
The first
thing we had to do is to figure out how to use the dala-dala minibus
that went from our hotel, which is a bit outside of Arusha, to the town
itself. It’s actually really easy. Just wave at one as it passes by, get
in, and then get out at the main bus stop. We paid 300 shillings each.
Dala-dala rates are set by the government or something, so there’s no
special foreigner-price. A dala-dala is basically a minivan with 5 rows
of cramped seating. 4 people can fit on each of the back 2 rows, and 3
on each of the front ones. So you can seat 17 people, plus the driver.
In addition there’s a guy standing in the doorway, looking out for more
people who could get in. The fullest dala-dala we travelled in had 21
people, with 4 people (including us) standing.
Each
dala-dala is brightly decorated. They all have some slogan on the front.
Many are religious, either Christian or Muslim. Some seem totally
random, like the Kobe (with basketballs instead of the o) one we saw. My
favorite is the one that read “100% pure pain.” We did not get on that
one. In general there are is a lot of western cultural imagery around,
and I don’t know if the Africans know what it means. Like the guy
wearing a Brian Urlacher jersey, or a random man wearing a Curves shirt.
Similarly, some common phrases pop up but don’t seem used the way you’d
expect. “House of Lubrications” stores are common, and I also saw a
“House of Bikini.” You also see a lot of “Bolts and Nuts” stores.
I still don’t feel sure about taking pictures of all this, so there are
very few. I’m worried about accidentally upsetting somebody, although
this has not happened so far. Maybe by the end of this trip I’ll get
over this, but for now this is the way it is. Generally people tell me
that pictures of large scenes are fine, and pictures of individuals are
fine as long as you ask. Some refuse, some ask for money, and some
accept.
Over the
course of a few days we learned our way around Arusha. We had a good map
from the tourist information office, but unfortunately most streets do
not have street names posted. Most of our navigation was based on which
hotels we could see. One day we bought a blanket, in hindsight for no
really good reason. It just felt like we might need one again, so now
we’re lugging around this heavy blanket in a separate container. It’s
not coming with us to Egypt, if it even makes it to Nairobi. We also
purchased a cell phone for about \$70, a sim card for \$1.70 (we’re
+255-787-543-992), and \$8.50 worth of minutes. This is the way cell
phones ought to work. No monthly plans with limits and overage charges.
Just buy some scratch cards for minutes (available at several places
every block) and fill up your phone. Changing carriers is cheap and
easy, although you do lose your phone number.
We also
revisited the Shoprite to get toilet paper, shampoo, and conditioner. A
short while later we had all that stolen from us when we were at a
touristy bakery with wireless Internet. Danielle had gone to use the
rest rooms, and I was not paying attention to the bags that were hanging
on her chair. When she got back, our shopping bag was gone. Luckily
that’s all it was, and her purse was still there. Usually we’ve been
more careful with our bags, but this place felt very safe. Now we’re
properly paranoid. Bags go between the legs, and not on the backs of
chairs. It was a cheap lesson. We replaced the stuff at a corner store
for less money than it cost at Shoprite.
I did my
first haggling in Arusha when I bought a tinga-tinga painting. The
asking price was \$50, and I mentioned that \$30 might be more
appropriate, and this was accepted. (Maybe I should’ve tried for \$20,
but baby steps…) At produce stands where we buy fruit, we still pretty
much pay the mzungu (foreigner) price. It seems silly to complain that
your 3 oranges cost 42 cents when you know they should cost less than
half that because, after all, it’s just 42 cents.
When walking through the touristy part of Arusha (a few blocks around
down town) we were constantly harassed by people trying to sell us
safaris, tanzanite, tinga-tinga paintings, batik, taxis, and anything
else people thing we might have bought. But as soon as we got outside
that zone, the problem was virtually non-existent. We generally stayed
away from the tourist area.
Another general observation, is that most people have their work shops
on the street. Cell phone repair, sewing, painting, welding, it all
happens in front of the store on the street. If you need to buy a stock
item, you can walk into the store (or just talk to the person doing the
work). At night everything is packed up inside the store when it is
closed.
On our final night in Arusha we used our new cell phone to book 2 nights
stay in Moshi. The next day we took the dala-dala to town, and walked to
the main bus station. Finding the bus you need is easy. You just walk up
to anybody (or they walk up to you) and you tell them where you’re
going: “Moshi.” They’ll then walk you to the bus, or point you in the
right direction. On our way to our bus we saw several soldiers (I think)
carry a subconscious man off a bus and onto a pick up truck whose bed
was already full of people. Apparently the crowd of onlookers got too
close, because somebody got kicked in the legs, which created a lot of
space for the soldiers. I have no idea what happened, but I was not
unhappy when our temporary guide led us on to our bus.
We finally squeezed in a workout. AMRAP in 12 minutes of: 5 pull ups (on
the bar holding up the clothes lines) 10 push ups run to concrete pad
and front gate and back (300m?) Wow I’m out of shape. Did 5 rounds plus
7 push ups, and the last 2 rounds I had to go really slow on the pull
ups to not throw up.
