Day 10 - Lake Victoria
Door: Elke
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Elke
21 Oktober 2013 | Kenia, Nakuru
After a night of no sleep and continuous and loud howling of a dog puppy right outside my window, the alarm clock went off at 4.30. I started the day with some Imodium, since my intestine did not seem to be very happy and we had a long day ahead of us. Luckily the Imodium did what it had to do for me that day.
After preparing our lunch, we had our breakfast, where we were practicing the way the ‘cool kids’ greet each other here. One person says ‘mambo’ and the other replies with ‘poa’. Seeing us do this put a smile on the faces of even the most nervous students. Afterwards, we made our way towards the Tanzanian border. Part of the way that still was under construction earlier this year, was finished now, so we progressed relatively quickly, until there was a barrier randomly placed on the road in a village. With all the white people inside, we did not expect anything less than having to pay. After hearing that it was about 1 euro that we had to pay, our driver and guide made a few objections as that is part of the game, but then we quickly moved on.
On our way to the border, we would get a little uneasy by other trucks or bussed with tourists passing us by, as that meant a bigger line in front of us at the border. However, we managed to take care of the paperwork at the border within 1.5 hours, which can be considered as smoothly. At the Kenyan side, we had to stand in line – which I was very glad was in the shade - for a stamp and few formalities and that was it. For Tanzania we were informed that it was possible to get a visa at the border, but that it could take quite a bit more time on a day that would already be long to begin with. Except for our guide who needed her passport, all other group members had therefore gotten their visa in Holland as advised. I did not, since that was a bit more tricky to get in Sweden (the postal services are for sure not always quick and sometimes even a bit unreliable and a lost passport would have been a big hassle to replace from Uppsala). I was nervous about being the one to keep the whole group waiting, but since our guide knows how to get things done and since there was a different line for what the two of us had to do and for what the group had to do, we were done before the rest of them. Although a little panic still struck me, when I found out that here, dollar bills from before 2006 are not accepted (to avoid fraud or something – we were apparently informed about this, but this information had clearly not registered in my brain). Luckily I had gotten a bit more dollars from the ATM at Schiphol than I needed, so despite one 100 dollar bill that was from 2003, I still had enough left to pay my visa and pay the fee at Dar es Salaam airport on my way back.
Our guide also knew ‘a guy’ to exchange our money to Tanzanian shilling. He was a bit more expensive, but he would come in our truck, so that we did not have to waive around our money on the streets. Two things struck me about the Tanzanian shilling: 1: the biggest bill is 10.000 shilling, which is about 5 Euro’s, and 2: the money is really incredibly filthy, especially everything that was worth less than 50 cents.
To avoid corruption, the entrance fees to the national parks in Tanzania have to be paid by making a deposit at a bank. The bank we wanted to go to would close at 4, if we would make it there on time, we could continue to a very nice campsite near Lake Victoria and next to the gate to Serengeti NP. If not, we would have to camp close to the city and go to the bank the next day. We made it there at 3.15, which would make you think we were safe, but that is of course not a given, as there was a line and you never know how much time things take here. Again, the experience of our guide came in handy and she got it done. While waiting for her outside, some of us got to talk to some locals and then we were greeted by a guy about my age with Down syndrome. He could not talk, although Swahili would not have been a big help for us anyway, but that did not matter. He made it perfectly clear that he wanted to be in a picture with all of us, individually or in small groups, with the blonds of course being first on the list. He also wanted to see all the pictures that were taken and then when one of us showed him a picture he had taken of only upper bodies and faces, the guy pointed at his feet and sent our ‘photographer’ back to retake the picture.
On our way to the nice camping, we were greeting by kids and locals again, although here there the number of children and people that would express their displeasure about our presence seemed to be a bit larger than in Kenya. When we approached the campsite it was raining in the Serengeti, which resulted in a beautiful rainbow over the park. I wondered how many people can say they saw a rainbow over Serengeti – probably not too many so I can safely say that this goes on the ‘pretty cool list’. At the campsite it was possible to upgrade again, but not only did I stick with the tent, I even it put up all by myself, as my usual partner did upgrade to a room. Yes, that’s right, I kick ass!
At the campsite we also saw the big, red, German ‘Rotel’ that had passed us in Kenya already and was ahead of us at the border. That is when I realized that camping may not be ideal, but it can always be worse. This truck, has some sleep-units at the back stacked on top of each other. In the evening you get shoved in there and in the morning they roll you out again. It was a pity that I did not get to seen this process myself, as I still find it hard to believe that people would do this. As they group consisted of mostly old people, we were wondering whether they were already practicing for something.
After preparing our lunch, we had our breakfast, where we were practicing the way the ‘cool kids’ greet each other here. One person says ‘mambo’ and the other replies with ‘poa’. Seeing us do this put a smile on the faces of even the most nervous students. Afterwards, we made our way towards the Tanzanian border. Part of the way that still was under construction earlier this year, was finished now, so we progressed relatively quickly, until there was a barrier randomly placed on the road in a village. With all the white people inside, we did not expect anything less than having to pay. After hearing that it was about 1 euro that we had to pay, our driver and guide made a few objections as that is part of the game, but then we quickly moved on.
On our way to the border, we would get a little uneasy by other trucks or bussed with tourists passing us by, as that meant a bigger line in front of us at the border. However, we managed to take care of the paperwork at the border within 1.5 hours, which can be considered as smoothly. At the Kenyan side, we had to stand in line – which I was very glad was in the shade - for a stamp and few formalities and that was it. For Tanzania we were informed that it was possible to get a visa at the border, but that it could take quite a bit more time on a day that would already be long to begin with. Except for our guide who needed her passport, all other group members had therefore gotten their visa in Holland as advised. I did not, since that was a bit more tricky to get in Sweden (the postal services are for sure not always quick and sometimes even a bit unreliable and a lost passport would have been a big hassle to replace from Uppsala). I was nervous about being the one to keep the whole group waiting, but since our guide knows how to get things done and since there was a different line for what the two of us had to do and for what the group had to do, we were done before the rest of them. Although a little panic still struck me, when I found out that here, dollar bills from before 2006 are not accepted (to avoid fraud or something – we were apparently informed about this, but this information had clearly not registered in my brain). Luckily I had gotten a bit more dollars from the ATM at Schiphol than I needed, so despite one 100 dollar bill that was from 2003, I still had enough left to pay my visa and pay the fee at Dar es Salaam airport on my way back.
Our guide also knew ‘a guy’ to exchange our money to Tanzanian shilling. He was a bit more expensive, but he would come in our truck, so that we did not have to waive around our money on the streets. Two things struck me about the Tanzanian shilling: 1: the biggest bill is 10.000 shilling, which is about 5 Euro’s, and 2: the money is really incredibly filthy, especially everything that was worth less than 50 cents.
To avoid corruption, the entrance fees to the national parks in Tanzania have to be paid by making a deposit at a bank. The bank we wanted to go to would close at 4, if we would make it there on time, we could continue to a very nice campsite near Lake Victoria and next to the gate to Serengeti NP. If not, we would have to camp close to the city and go to the bank the next day. We made it there at 3.15, which would make you think we were safe, but that is of course not a given, as there was a line and you never know how much time things take here. Again, the experience of our guide came in handy and she got it done. While waiting for her outside, some of us got to talk to some locals and then we were greeted by a guy about my age with Down syndrome. He could not talk, although Swahili would not have been a big help for us anyway, but that did not matter. He made it perfectly clear that he wanted to be in a picture with all of us, individually or in small groups, with the blonds of course being first on the list. He also wanted to see all the pictures that were taken and then when one of us showed him a picture he had taken of only upper bodies and faces, the guy pointed at his feet and sent our ‘photographer’ back to retake the picture.
On our way to the nice camping, we were greeting by kids and locals again, although here there the number of children and people that would express their displeasure about our presence seemed to be a bit larger than in Kenya. When we approached the campsite it was raining in the Serengeti, which resulted in a beautiful rainbow over the park. I wondered how many people can say they saw a rainbow over Serengeti – probably not too many so I can safely say that this goes on the ‘pretty cool list’. At the campsite it was possible to upgrade again, but not only did I stick with the tent, I even it put up all by myself, as my usual partner did upgrade to a room. Yes, that’s right, I kick ass!
At the campsite we also saw the big, red, German ‘Rotel’ that had passed us in Kenya already and was ahead of us at the border. That is when I realized that camping may not be ideal, but it can always be worse. This truck, has some sleep-units at the back stacked on top of each other. In the evening you get shoved in there and in the morning they roll you out again. It was a pity that I did not get to seen this process myself, as I still find it hard to believe that people would do this. As they group consisted of mostly old people, we were wondering whether they were already practicing for something.
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
