Mwanza,
Tanzania
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
So, if you recall, we arrived quite late at the Mwanza train station, get a taxi and tell the driver to take us to the Deluxe Hotel. Or the Hotel Deluxe. I can't remember. We cram into the taxi with all our stuff, exhausted, but highly amused by the Barry White that is coming out of the speakers of the car. However, as we get closer to where we think the hotel is, the Barry White is drown out by this deep base, in what I soon realize is Sean Paul's Temperature. We pull up to the Deluxe Hotel and figure out that the Sean Paul is coming from the bar that our hotel is above. We linger on the sidewalk breifly wondering if this is really where we want to be, but by that time its around midnight and we really didn't want to try to find another hotel at that time of night in a strange city. So we go into the front desk and meet the guy with whom we'd been talking on the phone. He says ok I have four singles. And we say no no, we asked for two doubles. Apparently they didn't have any doubles left and we decided that we would just be fine with the singles. We walk up the concrete staircase, in which the concrete walls are bright blue (though at first I thought they were green because it was kind of dingy lighting). At the first landing we see a poster advertising an energy drink. Not just any energy drink though, one that promotes sexual vitality. This place just keeps getting better and better. I get to my room. I can now feel "Who let the Dogs Out" pulsating through the floor. My room is small but clean, as far as I can tell. The bed is actually long enough and it had a huge mosquito net which made me extremely happy. I can't tell you how annoying a small mosquito net on a small bed is. I put my back pack in the small cabinet and open the door to the bathroom to assess that situation. The light didn't work, so I opened the door wider to see what it had to offer. There was a western style toilet without a toilet seat or toilet paper, but I had brought my own toilet paper, and as long as its not a squat toilet, I'm happy. Occupying the same general area as the toilet was the sink and a shower head, Both of which drained onto the floor. By this time I could feel the techno version of Shania Twain's "I'm keeping you forever and for always.." I climb into bed, tuck the mosquito net under the mattress, and am lulled to sleep by the booming "Hips Don't Lie" coming from below, as well as the rucous laughing and yelling and hacking by the drunk people on the street. I'm pretty sure the Deluxe Hotel is the coolest place I have ever stayed. What luxury you can get for only 4000 Tsh (less than four dollars) per night.
We spent the next day bumming around Mwanza and making sure we had food for our excursion to Rubondo Island the next day. Mwanza is a very clean city, especially compared to Dar. On Monday
