Sorry, we're full
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Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Getting a "Sorry, we're full," from a hotel is usually a small annoyance, but nothing more. Getting a "Sorry, we're full," from the only six budget hotels you know of in a giant city is...incredibly stressful. This is what happened when we came to Dar, and fortunately for us it was mid-afternoon. As we were eating dinner we saw others wandering around with packs on in the dark, and Travis has often stated that there's really nothing worse than getting into a strange city to look for accomodation in the dark. Probably there are worse things, but it's really not fun to do this, and we usually avoid it now that we're seasoned travellers and all.
The bus station in Dar es Salaam is a mazillion (8) kilometers away from anywhere anyone wants to be, and trying to figure out public transport to somewhere in the middle of a large city is a bit of a crap shoot. Ergo, we needed a taxi (those most dreaded of all conveyances), and we would really prefer to share it. Unfortunately for us, another American snagged the two Japanese on our bus before we could, so we were left with a very expensive taxi ride. Another bus came in, and Travis pointed with glee, "White people!" We scurried. You can't go a lot faster when you're surrounded by taxi drivers and wearing two packs each. Yes, they would love to share a taxi, and after the rigamarole of driving down prices we piled in.
Our driver dropped us at the Jambo Inn. It was not Trav's and my first choice, but our German friends had newer information, so we decided to go with it. Full. Try the Safari Inn. Full. Try Econolodge. But Econolodge was a bit too expensive for us all, so we tried calling everywhere else we could think of. I'm immensely grateful to our German friends for having a phone, because these calls saved us piles of tromping through the city with all our stuff. YMCA? Full. Some random place starting with a K? Full. YWCA? (For the Germans this was almost last ditch, as their guidebook clearly stated that it was overpriced and otherwise crappy.) Full. We trudged to the Econolodge. Full.
The guy at the desk at Econolodge told us to try all the places we'd already contacted, and we informed him that they were all full, so he suggested someplace else - Sleep Inn. As we left the building we were told by a mildly scruffy looking man that he was sure we could find a cheap room at "Poppy." In fact, we miss-heard, and we were looking for "Pop Inn," but this didn't cause too many problems. We walked through a slightly questionable alley, found a fruit and veg market, and ended up at Bibi Titi Mohammed St. This main thoroughfare is very useful, but only for what branches off of it, except way down the road next to the Scandinavian Bus terminal there's a Shoprite with just about anything your heart could desire.
Trudging onward we came to the next intersection, still absolutely clueless. I hopped forward and asked a man if he knew where "Poppy" was. He hopped up and took it upon himself to take us there. As we progressed we gathered to us two more hotel touts, so we knew we must be getting close. Just when I thought we really couldn't go much farther from anyplace useful, we arrived at Pop Inn.
I'm pretty sure this place is for locals and foreigners unlucky enough to travel here during high season. But we've been in scummier places by far, so Travis and I were quite happy with finding a place. I don't know if the Germans appreciated it; possibly they were so relieved to find a place, a cheap place, that they collapsed with joy. All I have to say is this: don't come to Tanzania during high season.
The only place we could discover for dinner was the Jambo Inn, which had rejected us for housing but still wanted us for feeding. At this point Travis and I discovered the unhappy fact that food in Tanzania is not cheap, and after months and months of either really cheap food or accessible cheap street food, meals became a regular shocker. Never thought I'd say I wanted a bag of Nairobi chicken 'n' chips again. But the food certainly isn't bad, and if you are accustomed to paying $4 or more for a meal then probably you will not have our problems. The Germans didn't seem to.
For our second day in Dar, we wandered up to the National Museum to see the Olduvai Gorge fossils. The Germans made a run for Zanzibar. We thought, why rush things?
The museum was...a museum. The national history section contains many artefacts, but none so spectacular as the stuffed lion delivered to Nyerere upon his resignation from the Presidency. Honestly, what is a person supposed to do with a stuffed lion? Lions are really big animals. Also we found the propellor from the first commercial flight possibly in history, but certainly in Africa. It was meant to go from Cairo to Cape Town but crashed. Bummer.
At long last we found the fossils. They were a bit fewer in number than I anticipated. That is to say, they were singular, but still it was a neat exhibit. On the ground along the wall was the fossil, footprints of hominids dating back 3,600,000 years (woot!). They really did look like human footprints, except that one set was really big and another was really small. Not a great deal of explanation. On the wall itself was a tree depicting the evolution of humanity, but the cool thing about this tree was that in addition to the sketched images of the hominids, there were skulls. Sweet!
Most entertaining, however, were the school kids. One of the little girls, Antonia, really liked us foreigners, and introduced her friends to us and took me to one room to show me some snakes. Kids are great, and it's always fun to say hello and play a while if you have a minute.
Our experience with Dar was, therefore, not terribly exciting. And I have no idea why all the hotels are full when it seems no one comes here to do much but catch a ferry to Zanzibar. High season. I'm glad we avoided it everywhere else, cause it's a killer.
Erin
