Kampala

What an amazing few days...where to start? When last I blogged we were in Mwanza awaiting the overnight ferry across Lake Victoria. It may well be my favourite experience thus far. It was like a scene out of an Agatha Christie novel...only without murders. I bunked with a lawyer from Mwanza who was very interesting, we spent the night in the bar together debating politics, education, football and all manner of things. He had climbed Kilimanjaro twice so we reminisced together. It was the kind of night you hope to have when travelling and to wake up to sunrise over the world's second largest freshwater lake is quite something. The girls enjoyed it also, and I believe it was a cracking start to Tash's birthday. After such a good start, it was unfortunate that a 7hour journey/border crossing lay ahead.  But it was a far superior journey to our previous coach ride and we were in Kampala before we knew it! So...Kampala. It is the craziest city I have ever visited. New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Kampala has to sleep because the pace of life is so astonishingly fast. Just walking somewhere takes complete concentration to be jumping over the pavements, avoiding the motorcycle taxis (boda-bodas) and cars and minibuses, and people with things on their heads, and just people....people everywhere. No one knows where anything is - you get on a boda boda and find that he has no idea where he is going and is asking everyone else (it took nine different directions to find the hotel). The maps have no correlation to real life and we have been leaving everywhere early to make sure we have time to get lost. Astonishing City Tash chose Fez Brasserie for her birthday dinner. After a month of chicken and rice this was a luxury none of us can quite find the words to explain. I had a Ugandan beef fillet with a beautiful onion sauce, Lisa the chicken with parma ham and gorgonzola and Tash the pan-fried Tilapia (fish found only in Lake Victoria). Each dish was exquisite. And we all fell in love with the chocolate cheesecake with mango and cashew nuts for desert. The house wine was  Rioja, which is always my favourite! You would pay upwards of 50pounds for this meal at home, we paid about 20...and it was amazing. I hope Tash enjoyed her meal...we certainly turned up in style, two white girls in dresses on the back of boda boda was something the locals found quite a sight! Our dinner last night was the antithesis of this high class  dining. We sat on the side of the street with kebabs, samosas and chipattis from street stalls (about a pound each) and loved it. All completely stuffed we moved on to the Red Chilli Hideaway.,.a backpackers retreat outside of Kampala. I can't say I'm a big fan, I go on holiday and travel to get away from Britain. Still, its cheap, and the people we meet are friendly. They also do laundry which is a nice treat. We are currently in Entebbe having visited the local wildlife centre. Tomorrow Tash departs for home and Lisa and I will go bungee jumping and horseriding at the source of the Nile. This should be amazing. Hope you are all keeping well. Love you Nick