I got back to Kampala from Johannesburg at around 7pm. My best friend, Erin, was due in on a flight from Amsterdam at 10:15pm, so I just decided to wait in the airport for her. It was a pretty boring couple of hours -- I read some, I ate some, I watched some football. I actually ended up missing her arrival, because her flight actually landed at 9:30pm, and I wasn't paying attention yet. At around 10:10, I went over to the waiting area and saw that the flight had landed, and I sort of flipped out. She came sauntering back in after about 10 minutes, and had apparently been wandering around outside looking for me. Okay, so a rough start.
On her first day, Sunday, we woke up late-ish and did touristy stuff. We called Sam, even though it was his day off (he insisted he wanted to see me), and we all went to Gaddafi National Mosque. I had been there before with Ben, but it's the only true tourist attraction in Kampala, so I thought we would start there. We climbed to the top of the minnaret this time, which afforded some pretty nice views of the city. And sadly, I learned that this mosque is actually the third largest in Africa; Idi Amin had plans to build the biggest one, but the beginning of the foundation lay untouched for 40+ years, and when the Libyan architects came in, they tore it all down and built it a bit smaller. Ah, well.
We spent some time inside the mosque and learned more about the history and its upkeep. Apparently, it's so huge and so expensive that Gaddafi promised to pay for it for the first 25 years of its existence. The guy who was showing us around told us about how huge some of the bills are, and there's no way Uganda could pay for it -- or maybe they could, but Museveni isn't a Muslim, so he wouldn't. I asked the guy what would happen if Gaddafi were removed from power, and his answer was, "We will pray to God." Not the most practical plan in my opinion, but there you go.
After the mosque, we went to the Kasubi tombs. This was a risk from the outset, because I knew they were really damaged by a fire in March 2010 and I wasn't sure how much there really was to see. Four kabakas ago (the kabaka is the king of the Buganda kingdom) decreed that all kabakas should be buried in one place, the Kasubi tombs. So the site holds the remains of the last four kabakas, although the big building and the tombs themselves were basically destroyed in the fire. They walked us around the compound and showed us where all the princes and princesses are buried, and the widows of the kabakas, but there was really not very much left to look at. They're furiously rebuilding, because the current kabaka is also supposed to be buried there -- but right now, there's no there there. I left a small donation to help with the rebuilding.
The next day, we decided to take a look at the "other" Kampala; the places where all the normal Ugandans spend their time. We went to the old taxi park, which is this giant bowl in the city where all the matatus (the shared taxis) begin and end their journeys. I had read in the guidebook that there was one particular restaurant with a good view over the taxi park, so we climbed up and down buildings trying to find it. We eventually decided that it must not exist anymore, but we found a pretty good view anyway.
You can almost make out some method of the madness. We went down into the park itself, where there are actually signs indicating where all the taxis in a certain area of the park are going. Erin and I were planning to go to Jinja the next day, so we found the ones going to Jinja and asked about prices -- Sam helped a lot. We would never have been able to navigate without him.
After the taxi park, we went on foot to Owino market, which is this huge multipurpose market where Ugandans basically buy everything. They sell clothes and shoes and food and spices and everything you can imagine. It's labyrinthine, and again Sam was indispensable. The photos (from Erin) don't adequately capture the utter and complete chaos, but maybe you get the point.
After Owino, we went back to the apartment. We went out for dinner, and then went to bed early, because we had to be up early the next day to go to Jinja.
Jinja is the source of the Nile, about two hours east of Kampala. Diane and Bruno's brother, Michael, drove us along with Ben. The day was actually sort of a failure -- Jinja is known as the adrenaline capital of East Africa, and Erin and Ben both wanted to go bungee jumping, but Michael mostly just drove us around. We went to Bujagali Falls, which is mostly just a set of rapids, then we drove to the source of the Nile -- which is conveniently located behind a man-made island, and they charge you 20,000 UGX per person to go out and see the actual bubbles coming up from the ground. We passed.
We got back to Kampala late-ish and called it a day. Sort of lame that we wasted a whole day on a failed trip to Jinja, but c'est la vie.
On her first day, Sunday, we woke up late-ish and did touristy stuff. We called Sam, even though it was his day off (he insisted he wanted to see me), and we all went to Gaddafi National Mosque. I had been there before with Ben, but it's the only true tourist attraction in Kampala, so I thought we would start there. We climbed to the top of the minnaret this time, which afforded some pretty nice views of the city. And sadly, I learned that this mosque is actually the third largest in Africa; Idi Amin had plans to build the biggest one, but the beginning of the foundation lay untouched for 40+ years, and when the Libyan architects came in, they tore it all down and built it a bit smaller. Ah, well.
After the mosque, we went to the Kasubi tombs. This was a risk from the outset, because I knew they were really damaged by a fire in March 2010 and I wasn't sure how much there really was to see. Four kabakas ago (the kabaka is the king of the Buganda kingdom) decreed that all kabakas should be buried in one place, the Kasubi tombs. So the site holds the remains of the last four kabakas, although the big building and the tombs themselves were basically destroyed in the fire. They walked us around the compound and showed us where all the princes and princesses are buried, and the widows of the kabakas, but there was really not very much left to look at. They're furiously rebuilding, because the current kabaka is also supposed to be buried there -- but right now, there's no there there. I left a small donation to help with the rebuilding.
The next day, we decided to take a look at the "other" Kampala; the places where all the normal Ugandans spend their time. We went to the old taxi park, which is this giant bowl in the city where all the matatus (the shared taxis) begin and end their journeys. I had read in the guidebook that there was one particular restaurant with a good view over the taxi park, so we climbed up and down buildings trying to find it. We eventually decided that it must not exist anymore, but we found a pretty good view anyway.
You can almost make out some method of the madness. We went down into the park itself, where there are actually signs indicating where all the taxis in a certain area of the park are going. Erin and I were planning to go to Jinja the next day, so we found the ones going to Jinja and asked about prices -- Sam helped a lot. We would never have been able to navigate without him.
After the taxi park, we went on foot to Owino market, which is this huge multipurpose market where Ugandans basically buy everything. They sell clothes and shoes and food and spices and everything you can imagine. It's labyrinthine, and again Sam was indispensable. The photos (from Erin) don't adequately capture the utter and complete chaos, but maybe you get the point.
After Owino, we went back to the apartment. We went out for dinner, and then went to bed early, because we had to be up early the next day to go to Jinja.
Jinja is the source of the Nile, about two hours east of Kampala. Diane and Bruno's brother, Michael, drove us along with Ben. The day was actually sort of a failure -- Jinja is known as the adrenaline capital of East Africa, and Erin and Ben both wanted to go bungee jumping, but Michael mostly just drove us around. We went to Bujagali Falls, which is mostly just a set of rapids, then we drove to the source of the Nile -- which is conveniently located behind a man-made island, and they charge you 20,000 UGX per person to go out and see the actual bubbles coming up from the ground. We passed.
We got back to Kampala late-ish and called it a day. Sort of lame that we wasted a whole day on a failed trip to Jinja, but c'est la vie.
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