hauteboy

Nope but can't remember if I put Yemen on the immigration form... I visted Djibouti, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi afterwards and there wasn't room for Yemen

The only time I've been asked extra questions was when coming back from Afghanistan.

FlyIgglesFly

The actual document itself states "list countries visited prior to arrival." As long as I list two I feel I have grammatically satisfied their question. It helps to have a second passport to obfuscate the places your been. Most of my interesting stamps are in my Irish and not my US passport.

I got the full treatment (minus the cavity search) in DTW after I listed Canada, Hong Kong, Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore, and the UK for my RGN mistake fare run. Nice little reinforcement of why usually I never list everything.

PETER01

What a wonderful adventure hauteboy and nice to read something a bit different with a lot of culture too. Lots of excellent narrative and great detail ^

Super photos including the sand dunes, the Rock Palace, Hyeneas amongst many, many others. A fascinating insight into these places and thanks very much for taking the time to post this. I like to read TR's twice just in case there is anything I have missed but I've now read yours 3 times as it was so good!

That is some old taxi there too, the blue one,

usAir

Another way to avoid the questioning is GE/NEXUS. $50 for 5 years without being questioned by USCBP or the Canadian equivalent is quite worth it.

Also, hauteboy, I'm still looking forward to the end of this TR!

hauteboy

Working on it! I need to write my Iran trip too from last year too far behind on blogging.

dls25

Thanks for this report. I loved it. I am planning a trip to Socotra and West Africa next year and this has given me great insight.

Cheers

hauteboy

March 16-17, 2013
Hotel: Sheraton Kampala; Kampala, Uganda; $75+2800pts
My flight arrived 10 minutes early into Entebbe from Addis Ababa. Uganda requires visas for US citizens but luckily they are available on arrival for $50. Immigration only took a few minutes, paying for the visa was quick and they give you a receipt. I found a working ATM and met the driver for the Sheraton. I had arranged a transfer from the hotel, expensive at $60 but I didn't want to haggle with taxis at 1AM! I tried to sleep most of the way to the hotel. One advantage of coming in at night is avoiding the horrible Kampala traffic. It only took ~45 minutes to the hotel in central Kampala. Although it was 2AM there was still a party going on in one of the hotel ballrooms. I requested a quiet room so that I could sleep... I was heading out white water rafting at 7:30AM. I have Starwood Gold status and was upgraded to a club floor room. The bed was super comfy and I was asleep within minutes.

Ethiopian ADD-EBB


Sheraton Kampala, Executive Floor

I only got a few hours sleep before it was time to wake up and head out again. I had booked a full day white water rafting on the Nile with Adrift, luckily they had a shuttle that picks up at the Sheraton at 7:30 every morning. There were already two Canadian girls onboard that had been staying at one of the backpacker places in town. They were working in Tanzania on a medical mission and had come to visit Uganda for a few days.

The drive to Jinja took about 90 minutes and I was able to see the countryside I missed coming in late last night. Uganda was very clean and green compared with Djibouti and Yemen, I saw very little trash strewn about at least along the main road. We passed several sugar and tea plantations. I also noticed many brick kilns, a pyramid shape is built of clay blocks then a fire set underneath to harden the bricks. The town of Jinja is located on the shore of Lake Victoria at the source of the Victoria (White) Nile river. The road crosses the river on top of a hydroelectric dam, pictures are not allowed but I might have snuck in one or two...

The Adrift camp was located a few miles downstream on the eastern shore of the river. There was another group here that was also going rafting for the day. They have quite the setup here with a nice open-air bar overlooking the river. They also have a bunjy jump tower. I've done a bunjy jump years ago in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe so I didn't need to try it again! It took awhile to get the other group organized but soon we were back in the shuttle van and crossing the river to head downstream to the rafting point. There were a few thatched roof picnic huts here and we had breakfast of sausages and a deep fried boiled egg. I then suited up with lifejacket+helmet and slathered up with sunscreen. The two rafting guides were an Aussie and a Kiwi. They recommended everyone leave all sandals, rings, etc with the shuttle. I was probably the oldest person in the group today as most of the others were in their 20s. Definitely the palest one! I had a nice farmer's tan from the previous few weeks travel but my legs were still pasty white!


We walked down stairs to the launch point (ouch.. not used to going barefoot) and hopped in the rafts. We pushed off into the river then did a series of safety drills, testing a flip, climb back in, etc. I never could kick myself into the boat so one of the guides had to haul me back up. There were three rafts, two doing a half day, then my raft of full-day trippers. Our raft had the two Canadian girls, the Aussie and Kiwi guides, and a couple from Kampala. There was also the support raft carrying the lunches and safety guides in kayaks and boogie boards. It wasn't that hot out but the dunk in the river was definitely refreshing! We started the paddle downstream and soon came to our first rapids. There was a waterfall here with a 10' drop, the guides were telling us we needed to paddle hard to make the waterfall properly. The other two rafts were ahead of us and we watched as they went over the waterfall, only to flip as they hit the bottom. As we entered the rapids we sat down in the bottom of the boat as the guide yelled 'PADDLE YOUR ARSES OFF!' We must have done a half-assed job as we missed the waterfall and ended up going backwards down the side channel! But we didn't flip at least.

After the first set of rapids it was a long paddle down to the next set of rapids, along the way we all jumped in the water for a cool-down swim. The Nile rapids are rated Class 3-6 but the flow is so great and rocks are usually not a problem so it is pretty easy to raft. However one set was too extreme for rafting and we had to get out and portage the rafts. My poor feet, I walked tenderly across the rocks and was one of the last ones to get back into the boat. The next set of rapids was pretty intense, entering a narrow defile with a boiling eddy of water called the 'Bad Place', spilling out of the raft is almost guaranteed there! The other rafts went first and both flipped over. We enter the raging water and our raft tips up on one side... I slip in the bottom trying to keep a grip on the side rope without losing a grip on the paddle as well. We paddle furiously and manage to escape the standing wave unscathed and still in our boat!


We paddled a bit longer taking another swim and another small rapids before it was time for lunch. We paddled over to the western bank then climbed up the hill (ouch feet) to the picnic spot. I was pretty knackered at this point, only 5 hrs sleep and travelling hard the past few weeks caught up with me. Lunch was burritos served buffet style, with cold drinks. One of the support boats had been taking photos of our trip and I browsed through the photos and bought a few (expensive at $10 per digital image!).

I decided to wimp out on the 2nd half of the day rafting... I still had a few busy days ahead with the all-day ride to western Uganda and the gorilla trek two days later. I caught the ride back to the Adrift camp then rode back to Kampala on the shuttle, arriving about 5:30PM. I was just in time to go to the Executive Floor lounge at the Sheraton and grab a bit of dinner of hors d'ouevres and check email before the lounge closed. I was very exhausted and fell into bed by 9PM... I had to get up early the next morning for the long bus ride to Kabale.

March 18, 2013
Hotel: Kabale Backpackers; Kabale, Uganda; 25000 UGX ($9.66)
I was up early this morning and had a breakfast from the fruit plate in my room. The Sheraton had been very convenient for the Adrift shuttle.. it was also very convenient to catch the Post Bus to Kabale. The Post Office runs several buses around the country every day but Sunday, supposedly they are the 'safest' of the bus companies in town as they are not racing to reach their destination. The main Post Office was only a few blocks away from the Sheraton and I arrived there just before 7AM. I had heard the bus didn't leave until 8AM but when I asked about tickets they said there was one just about to leave. I quickly bought a ticket and paid 25000 shillings ($9.66) then hopped on the bus. I carried on my backpack as the bus was fairly empty. The seats were pretty tight, arranged in rows of 2+3 but my row was empty and I was able to stash my backpack in the seat next to me. Rushing off yet again, I hadn't had a chance to see any of Kampala except views from the taxi/bus.

Kampala

We left right on time but it took nearly an hour just to get out of town, between traffic and the bus stopping every few hundred meters to pickup more passengers. Finally after 8AM we are out of Kampala and heading west for the 400km ride to Kabale. The book mentioned it was about an 7-8 hr trip. The road crossed the equator about 1/3 the way through the trip.. I had only crossed the equator overland once before in Ecuador. We kept picking up passengers along the way and I hoped that we could stop at the Equator monument long enough for me to snap a photo. I didn't ask the driver though and the equator monument was probably the only place we didn't stop the whole trip.... The road was in pretty bad shape/under construction at points and it was also starting to rain. At every town the bus would stop and vendors would sell food through the bus windows, drinks, grilled meat, bread, etc. Eventually the bus filled up and I had to carry my backpack squeezed in my lap for the remainder of the trip, it made for a very uncomfortable journey.

Just past the Equator monument...

The last 50kms seemed to take forever, the land here was more mountainous and the road twisted and turned. Eventually we reach Kabale around 4PM, 9 cramped hours after leaving Kampala! I hadn't eaten much today other than the fruit for breakfast and a power bar for lunch. Then the bus dropped me off at the wrong end of town and I had to hike the last mile through the light drizzle to the Kabale Backpackers. The reception area was dark (power out?) but they were expecting me and I dropped my bag off in my room which was basic but clean with mosquito net and ensuite bathroom.

I met Robert, the owner of Engagi Safaris which has their office in the Lodge and discussed the gorilla trek for tomorrow. I would have to wake up at 5AM to make the 8:30 start of the trek! There wasn't really anything to do in Kabale town so I sat and chilled at the hostel reading a book and drinking a Nile Beer out in the courtyard. There were a couple of guys from Switzerland staying at the hostel and trying to help the business. They were working on building a new lounge/patio area. The hostel has a restaurant and I ordered samosas and spaghetti bolognese. It took quite some time to prepare but it was very good. I also arranged a packed lunch for tomorrow's hike and dropped off some clothes for laundry.

I wasn't yet sure what my plans were going to be for tomorrow afternoon. Depending on how long the gorilla trek took, how tired I was, etc. If the trek finished quickly I wanted to continue onto Rwanda, going to Kigali or western Rwanda town of Gisenyi on the border with DR Congo. The other option was coming back to Kabale for the night.

FlyIgglesFly

Quitter.

Thanks for giving an exciting idea of how to burn a day or two in and around Kampala. ^

hauteboy

March 19, 2013
Hotel: Kabale Backpackers; Kabale, Uganda; 25000 UGX ($9.66)
Too early out of bed this morning.. after the past few days I just wanted to stay in bed. I was up at 5AM for breakfast of rolex and guava juice. An rolex (roll of eggs) is an Ugandan breakfast taco, fried egg wrapped up in a chapati. I got my laundry (still slightly wet) and packed up as I still didn't know what my plans would be. We set off around 5:30 in the 4WD for the two hour drive to the entrance of the park. The road was paved part of the way until the turnoff to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, the road from here was dark red dirt. I dozed most of the way there but woke up as it started getting light. Uganda has a very dense rural population, made even more so by the locals being forced to move out of the park. Every hillside was covered with terraces for farming.

Ugandan countryside

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (UNESCO World Heritage site) is one of the few places where you can still see mountain gorillas in the wild. Several families have now been habituated to human contact, tourist groups are limited to 8 per family and only get to spend one hour with the gorillas. There are several entrances to the park, named after the families that are near there. I was going to trek to the Nshongi group. The altitude ranges from 6000-8000 feet or so. I'm not in the best shape and don't do well at altitude... even after training at the gym for a few months before my trip I was still a bit out of breath just walking to the briefing hut! Didn't bode well for the actual hike.

At the briefing hut we had a wait before the rest of the members of the group showed up. There were two groups hiking today, 7+8 going to different families. In my group there was a couple from New York, a Greek couple, a young couple from Seattle and myself. The rangers laid out the rules for visiting the gorillas, if you had a respiratory illness or diarrhea they will not let you visit the gorillas as they can get sick too. We set off about 8:30, the first part of the hike was an easy half-hour on a wide trail. The gorilla families move during the night and must be located by the trackers that set off very early each morning. We eventually reach a narrow side trail and start going up, up the side of the mountain. The trail was tough going, slippery, muddy and narrow, the path lined with stinging nettles. The Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is a rainforest and gets up to 1900mm rain every year which means everything grows like crazy. Luckily this morning the weather was great.


Bwindi Impenetrable Park

Along the trail in places I noticed elephant dung.. there are forest elephants in the park as well but we did not see any. Though elephants can move quietly when they want to.. I remember when I was in Zambia a few years ago and came nearly face to face with an elephant while walking along the bank of the Zambezi River... I backed up behind two trees waiting for the elephant to go away. It did without a sound.

Finally around 10:00AM we heard calls from the trackers that they had located the gorillas, still about an hour hike away. The trail kept getting narrower and muddier, the guards slicing a trail through with machetes. I still kept having to take breaks going uphill, panting from exertion. But I made it, finally reaching the gorillas about 11:15. At first we saw 3 gorillas way up in the trees. I hadn't realized that they could climb so high. My camera lens was fogged from condensation so my first few photos did not come out very well. The gorillas moved off a ways into the undergrowth and the guards hacked out a trail to where we could all sit and watch the gorillas eat. Really quite amazing.. we were all sitting barely 10 feet away and the gorilla was just sitting there munching on vines and barely noticing us. We sat around for a few minutes before moving onto the next gorilla up the hill. The first two gorillas were female and juvenile males.. and were smaller than I expected. We located one more gorilla munching away before spying the silverback through the undergrowth. The guards were reluctant to hack thrI spent awhile talking with some of the workers at the hotel, Ugandans are very friendly and love to chitchat.ough to get any closer!






It was already past noon by this point and our allotted hour with the gorillas was over. We sat down to have a bit of lunch.. I wasn't impressed with the packed lunch and only ate the banana. The cheese sandwich was too dry/squished by this point. We set off on the hike back to the entry hut.. this time taking a different route (I had my GPS maps loaded) and at this point the skies just opened up and it started pouring and thundering. I had brought my rain jacket but soon it wasn't even helping and everything I had was getting soaked through. To add insult it started to hail! I was glad though that it was only raining on the way out.. if it had rained on the hike up I would truly have been miserable and may not have made it up. The way back though was much easier, a main trail so no hacking or wading through nettles was needed. The trail was longer though as it wound around the other side of the mountain, and soon the trail was a rushing torrent. I could feel water sloshing around in my boots but there wasn't anywhere dry to stop to empty them so I kept trudging along. Even wet and miserable at this point it was still a great experience!

Finally get back to the hut around 2PM, totally drenched. I sat down and poured several cups of water out of my boots.. then wrung out my socks. My toes looked like a corpse all white and wrinkled. Everything in my bag is soaked, including some of my papers. I decided to head back to Kabale as it probably would have been another 4-5 hours to get to Gisenyi or Kigali. Got back to the Kabale about 4:30 and chatted with the Swiss guys a bit. The power was out again and would be all evening. I ordered dinner, dropped off my wet clothes for laundry and had a celebratory beer. I spent awhile talking with some of the workers at the hotel, Ugandans are very friendly and love to chitchat.

hauteboy

March 20, 2013
Hotel: Hotel des Milles Collines; Kigali, Rwanda; $215
Had a great sleep last night finally. No rushing off this morning though I did want to head to Kigali as soon as possible. I had another rolex for breakfast.. though today it was pretty dry. I'd asked about a bus to Kigali but the hotel didn't know anything about one. They said they could arrange a 'special hire' taxi for 30000 UGX ($11.61) for the 100kms ride to Kigali. I only had 26000 shillings left so hoped the driver would accept dollars or Rwandan franc. Special hire is the word though for "share taxi" so I ended up sharing the ride with 3 other passengers, after stopping to pick up newspapers, get gas, air in the tires, etc we were finally off around 8:45. It was still looking like rain with dark clouds overhead.

The drive to the border was quick, only 23 kms from Kabale and we arrived there around 9:30. Getting stamped out of Uganda was quick and we drove the short distance to the Rwanda border post. Rwanda is an hour behind Uganda so I gained an hour.. but ended up losing most of it as there was supposedly a 'problem with my passport'. I'd never been to Rwanda before and US citizens do not need a visa so I'm not sure what the problem was. Several calls were made to Kigali and it was eventually sorted out but we were sitting there quite awhile. My driver kept coming by to check up on me, I just kept shrugging not knowing what was going on.

Rwandan countryside

Finally we are off again, taking another 90 minutes to Kigali. The road alternated between paved and graded dirt road but in good condition. We passed by row after row of tea and coffee plantations. I had the driver take me by an ATM to get out some local currency, then told him to drop me at the Hotel des Milles Collines (thousand hills), the infamous Hotel Rwanda. The weather had cleared up by this point. The hotel was in the center of town on top of a hill with a great view out over the city below. I hadn't made a reservation but had priced out $250/night rates on Expedia. They had a walkup rate of $215 so I said sure, time to splurge. I had to wait a bit before the room was ready but sat in the lobby with a welcome drink and using the wifi internet. I was pretty hungry too and had lunch at the hotel, paying 5800 ($9) for a bunless 'burger' with peas.



Hotel des Milles Collines

The Hotel des Milles Collines became famous during the Rwandan genocide when Paul Rusesabagina provided shelter and protection to over 1200 refugees by bribing the Interahamwe militia with money and alcohol. This was the true story behind the movie Hotel Rwanda. Somewhere between 500,000 and a million people were killed during just a few short months in 1994, millions more were displaced. I planned to visit the Kigali Memorial Centre (Genocide Memorial) which was a few kms from the center of town. I walked out of the hotel gates and was immediately beset upon by magazine sellers. I waved them off and flagged down a taxi to the memorial center, 4000 frs and we were off.

The Memorial Centre was an amazingly sober experience. At the entry are gardens dedicated to children killed in the massacre. Just beyond are the mass graves containing over 250,000 bodies... the vast majority remain unidentified. That's just a staggering number to imagine and I spent a few minutes there reflecting over the horrors that had occurred. There is a museum on site, free for entry but $20 to take photos and $15 for a somewhat OK audio guide. The museum has two levels, the bottom floor described the tensions since colonial times that led up to the genocide between the minority Tutsi and majority Hutu. Exhibits described the media propaganda that helped incite the horrors and gruesome videos showed the resulting carnage that occurred. People were horribly mutilated, raped and tortured before being hacked to death by machetes. The upper floor described other genocides that have occurred.. the well known Nazi and Balkan conflicts but also lesser known ones in Namibia. There was also a childrens room that had pictures of children, listing their favorite activity or food, juxtaposed by the horrible way in which they were killed. 'Smashed up against a wall', etc. Tears were flowing by this point.



Kigali Memorial Center

I needed something else to focus on at this point and bought a postcard to send to my daughter, spent a few minutes at the cafe drinking a coke and filling out the card. Then caught a motorcycle-taxi (500 Frs) back to the hotel. Moto-taxis (boda-bodas) are identified by the drivers that wear a vest, they also have green helmets to wear for the driver and passenger. I chilled at the hotel for a bit, uploading photos and working on my blog and napping. For dinner there was a band playing out by the pool bar. I had the osso bucco which was pretty good and a large Primus beer.

Primus beer

hauteboy

March 21, 2013
Hotel: Hotel de l'Amite; Bujumbura, Burundi; $40
I wasn't sure what my plans were going to be for the day. I could either spend another day in Rwanda or make a push towards Burundi. Options of getting there are either flying a 1hr flight or taking a 7-hr bus ride. The flight times weren't the most convenient though and I do prefer to travel overland when possible. The buses only left at (I thought) 8AM and 10AM. The post office opened at 7AM so I walked down there from the hotel and mailed off my postcard for 500 Frs. I was up early enough so decided to try for the 8AM bus. After checking out of the hotel and catching a taxi (4000) I arrived at 7:45 only to find out the times were 7AM and 10AM! Oops... so that meant waiting around in the bus station for over 2hrs. I bought the ticket for Belvedere lines (6000). I sat down in the shade of a building to wait. Not too much hassle other than magazine sellers constantly coming by pushing the Independent, Economist and Newsweek magazines. Though for a bus station it was quite mellow and seemed safe overall.

Kigali bus station

I bought some water and a soda and eventually a helper found me and I was able to board the bus around 9:20. The seats were pretty tight and there was already cargo on board.. under the seat in front of me was a huge lead battery. We setoff right on time and I slept most of the way, surprised when we were already at the border by 11:30. This was one of the most efficient border posts I'd been to. The Rwanda and Burundi officials were at windows right next to each other. US citizens (and most others) need a visa for Burundi but it is possible to get a 3-day transit visa at the border for $40 or a 1-month visa for $90. I opted for the 3-day visa (technically 72 hrs) as I would be heading home on Saturday. The officials processed all of our bus in 30 minutes, most of that was just waiting on them to find change for my $100! I changed my remaining Rwandan francs to Burundi francs at a moneychanger across the road. and we were off again.

Rwanda (and Burundi) had originally been part of German East Africa colony but were given to Belgium at the end of WWI. Officially French and English were languages of Rwanda, and I had been able to get by fine speaking only English there. However once entering Burundi all signs were in French only. There are two routes from Kigali to Bujumbura, east and west.. we were on the eastern road which went mostly through Burundi.. we still had a long way to go to Bujumbura. Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world and I could tell by the houses here. In Rwanda most were concrete/brick while here they were mainly mud huts. There was also a smaller Hutu/Tutsi genocide at the same time as Rwanda but it did not make the news as much as in Rwanda. Rwanda and Burundi were very clean countries. On Saturday mornings there is a virtual shutdown of the country for a few hours as people engage in community service to cleanup roadsides, etc.

The paved road passed by small villages, deep red mud soil and lush green banana trees and rice paddies. About 2PM we stopped at the town of Ngozi for lunch. For 4500 Frs ($3) I had buffet-style, rice, chicken and potatoes. Just past town there was an accident blocking the road with backed up traffic but luckily it was cleared and we continued on. It was still 120kms to Buja and we'd only been making 40kms/hr or so. The road was in good condition but twisty and turny as Burundi is quite hilly. Eventually we started descending the hills towards the Rift Valley... from my GPS we dropped over 3000' by the time we'd reached the valley floor. The huge Lake Tanganyika was spread out below the town and I could see the mountains on the other side of the valley in the DR Congo.


Burundi

The bus station is on the northwestern part of town and it took awhile to negotiate a taxi down to 5000 Frs into town. I'm sure I still paid too much. It was nearly 5PM by this point... making it a 7 hrs trip from Kigali. I checked into the Hotel de l'Amite in downtown Buja. Room was OK enough with a fan and bathroom and free wifi (when it was working). I wandered around town for a bit before it got dark. Buja I'd heard can be a bit dangerous esp at night and is advised to take taxis (mainly because it is very dark). I found a nearby ATM but it did not work. I caught a taxi to a forex bureau (luckily one was still open as it was after 6PM) and headed to Chez Andre for dinner. I was either early or the only diner.. I ended up sitting outside as the weather was nice. I ordered a cucumber salad and fish meurniere and a huge Primus beer. It took forever though for dinner to arrive so the only eating ones were the mosquitos. Eventually the fish arrived, though it was horribly overcooked, oops. The salad though was good and the pickles the served were delicious as well. As I walked out the gate of the hotel to flag down a taxi, a guy offered me a ride right as a taxi was pulling up. It was another 5000 Frs back to the hotel.

Ahuch

Fantastic TR so far! One of the most off-putting things about many African countries for me has always been the lack of transparency with regards to visas and immigration procedures. It doesn't really sound that bad minus a few surprises here and there.

hauteboy

Luckily most Eastern/Southern African countries are actually very easy when it comes to visas.. For US/UK citizens most are either available on arrival (Ethiopia, Burundi, Uganda) or don't need them (Rwanda, Namibia, Botswana, Malawi, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_re...ates_nationals

Ahuch

It's similar for Canadians: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...daVisaFree.PNG

I've just always heard all the stories of immigration officers demanding bribes to be let into the country, etc. I wasn't sure how prevalent that really was.

hauteboy

Sounds more like Central Africa. I've never had to pay anything to get into a country, except Somaliland... we had an e-visa which they wouldn't accept and we had to pay another $30 for a visa. Got it refunded though from the Somaliland mission in Washington.