First visit to Uganda

Trip Start Jul 11, 2007

Trip End Jul 11, 2009

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Uganda Kampala, Uganda
Monday, August 6, 2007

I arrived in Uganda today. It's like a poor Nairobi. The airport is about 40kms away from the downtown and you drive through areas where they are selling anything and everything that's already been used. Used truck axels, used boat motors, etc.

The downtown area looks like downtown Nairobi as well, but there are maribou storks on every building top. I have no idea why there are so many, buy it's kind of eerie to see these large birds swoop in and land on the building edge.

August 9th
Well, it's been a few more days in Kampala. It's a nice change from Nairobi. It's fairly safe to walk around.

We went for dinner one evening at an Indian restaurant called Khyber Pass

Another angle - Lake Victoria is in the background

. It was quite a nice restaurant and the food was great. The best part was that we could walk there and back to the hotel in the dark without having to worry about being mugged.

Last night we tried to go to an Italian restaurant but it didn't open until 7pm. Instead, we headed around the corner to another place with the same name but they only served pizza. The service was great but the pizzas were even better.

Today was spent driving around the city looking at hotels. We almost trashed poor Boney's (our driver's knickname) car. Through so many pothole and dragging the bottom of the car over speedbumps, I don't think his vehicle has much life left in it.

Tonight we will try to head to a restaurant that serves Ugandan cuisine. They cook the meat inside of banana leaves. It should be quite good.

August 10th
We had a very interesting time getting to the restaurant last evening. It became obvious that our taxi driver didn't really know where he was going

Beware of Killer Mangos

. We ended up causing a traffic jam on a narrow street while he attempted to turn the car around. We ended up with some stranger at the side of the road offering to use his moped to show us where the restaurant was. After finally arriving, we asked about the meat steamed in banana leaves and it turned out that they only offer that for lunch. In the end, we ended up three white guys sitting alone in the middle of a grassy field. The food was good, and the service was outstanding. I would whole-heartedly recommend their goat curry with rice.

After dinner another member of our party showed up while we were having a beer in the hotel restaurant. He suggested we go down to the Rock Bar, as he had gone the previous night and said it was a pretty good place. Well, it was not my kind of place. I no sooner had a beer in my hand than I was being harassed by "working girls". They were very graphic in their offers and became quite angry when I shoo'd them away. The bar could be nice, but it is not my kind of place. As I left and walked back down the road in the inky darkness, there were other "working girls" whistling and trying to catch my attention. When I wouldn't respond I instantly became mzungu.