Tanzania, July 2016

As Kuwait celebrated some public holidays in July 2016 I visited Tanzania for a long weekend.

Why Tanzania? Well mainly because the flights were cheap and most parts of Asia are not quite worth visiting in summer due to the rainy season. As I had been to Kenya 20 years before I kinda knew what to expect.

I left Kuwait and transited in Ethiopia where I spent a few hours in a bar - enjoying a few beers. I started chatting with an indian businessman and time flew.

Arriving at Kilimanjaro airport, waiting for my luggage I spoke to a girl, who was waiting at the same belt. Her name was Sara (from England) and it turned out that she arrived from Kuwait as well - we even knew the same people! We agreed to share a cab to Arusha and spent the 60 minute drive chatting and looking out of the window.. gathering first impressions. Before splitting up we agreed to meet up for dinner in the evening.

My hotel was pretty far off (why did I even book a place so far away from the city center?), but a nice little place. I checked in, had a short rest and then asked the hotel manager about the best way to get to the city. He told me he could call a cab for me or that I could just wait outside for the DalaDala to pass by. A DalaDala is a local method of transportation: A 10-seater-Minivan that carries up to 25 people. Easy decision! I waited outside and about 10 minutes later the said Minivan stopped when the driver saw me wave. I told him where I wanted to go and that he should please inform me, when to get out.

When I entered the DalaDala it was almost empty but over time it filled up rapidly. By the time we reached the city I was tucked in neatly in between two dozen people, chatting with a guy (the only thing I remember is that he was playing the guitar in a christian rock band). The driver told me to get out at some point, which I happily did - mainly to escape the several scents in the van. The DalaDala left and I stood on the side of a big road, not knowing where the restaurant was that I was supposed to meet Sara at. I asked some guy, let's call him Jimbo, who walked past whether he knew the place and he assured me that he did. I should just follow him. And that is exactly what I did! He seemed to be friendly but not the brightest star on the night sky. And after few minutes he started to be pretty annoying. Looking at my offline-map which I had luckily downloaded earlier I noticed that we were far away from were I expected the place to be. I asked Jimbo whether he was sure where to find the restaurant and he reassured that he knew exactly.

A few more minutes later I made the decision to go back to where I came from and not further follow the dude. I told him thank you and that I'll try finding the place myself. I turned around and walked back - him following me now. After a while I started ignoring him and after about 20 minutes reached the place where the DalaDala had dropped me. I looked around and decided to walk a few meters down the road - just to find the restaurant right there. Not one minute by foot from the exact spot where I started.

I sat down and ordered a beer - Jimbo had followed me all the way and stood right beside me - my best guess is that he expected me to pay him. Haha, yeah. Not gonna happen.

After a while the restaurants security 'politely' asked him to leave, which he then did - just far enough to watch me through the bushes for another few minutes. As Sara had texted me that she'll be late I ordered some food and a few more beers and spent the evening sitting on the restaurants terrace.

In the evening Sara arrived and brought a few friends that joined us for some beer. As it was pretty late already I soon left the party and took a cab back home. I couldn't be bothered to wait for a DalaDala (and who knows whether I would have taken the right one..).

The next day started early, my pickup time was scheduled for 7am. The hotel made a lunchbox for me to take and I stood outside at 6.55am, waiting to be picked up. By the time the cab arrived it was 8.30am - what a great start :) The cab took me to a small village where I met my guide for the day: a young guy, speaking proper english and fun to be around.

We started walking out of the village, straight into the savannah. A few kilometers down we reached our first destination: a tribe of Massai who were building a new hut. My guide explained everything to me and the head of the tribe took me into one of the huts and explained how they are made: Solely out of sticks and shit. Yep, and that's exactly how it smelled.

We walked a little further and met another tribe (or family?). They seemed to be a little scared at first but when my guide spoke to them they calmed down. The kids were very nosy and interested in me. When I asked whether I could take a picture of the woman to whom my guide was speaking she seemed confused. The guide spoke to her for a few minutes and then told me not to take a picture of her. He then told me that he had to explain to the woman, what a camera was, as she didn't know what the little box I was holding was. She didn't like it and left.

The guide told me, I could take pictures of the others and the kids if I wanted, which I did!

We then continued our journey and reached a little market, where I could buy handcrafted souvenirs. I didn't bother to do so but rather watched two guys making a fire, only by using two sticks. As I've watched Bear Grylls a lot I knew how to do it, yet it was interesting to see in real life.

From there we walked back to the village where I first met my guide and then off to a farm, where I was offered a local lunch. The food looked amazing - about a dozen different dishes for me to try! Although I really enjoyed the experience and being with locals at the farm - most of the food was terrible. Just not good for my western taste buds. Most dishes were either tasteless and gooey or kinda bitter. Well, anything would do to get me energy levels back up. Walking through the savannah does drain your energy levels.

After lunch my guide offered to 'have a break and drink a local beer'. Yeah man, cool! Always up for a cold brewski. What I did not expect was what really happened. We sat on broken plastic chairs in a shed made from palm tree branches with three old guys accompanying us. The 'beer' I got was a huge mug full to the top, must have been more than a liter. Before I was allowed to drink my guide explained that this is the locally brewed banana beer.

Then I was allowed to drink. Well I thought the food was bad before. This was utterly disgusting. The taste had literally nothing to do with beer or bananas. The only taste was yeast. There was no sign of alcohol either - according to my guide banana beer reaches up to 0.5% alcohol. In Germany we call that 'alkoholfrei' - alcohol-free. My guide laughed when I noticed that I didn't like the beer and told me that he knew I wouldn't like it.. but wanted me to try. Which was cool. We then had a chat with the three old guys in the hut, I believe the total amount of teeth between the three of them was approximately 7. They were very interested in me, where I was from, what I do and all such things. Before leaving I covered the bill for all of us, which made the old guys cheer.. how cool is that!

My guide and I then went to a huge Massai market by tuktuk, everyone was covered in colorful cloth and all kinds of animals were up for sale. We walked across the market and my guide bought a new belt. The most interesting item for sale were parts of motorbike tires. Literally about 1/8th of a tire. When I asked my guide what they are used for he told me to look down.

Wow. almost everyone was wearing sandals made from tires. they simply cut off a part of the tire, tied a string to it and voila: Shoes. Didn't look to comfy but that level of ingenuity impressed me.

From the marked we caught a tuktuk that took us to a lodge outside the city. My place for the night. I spent the rest of the afternoon in my hammock, reading and relaxing my sore legs. After dinner I went straight to bed as the next day was gonna start early again.

I did get up early and tried enjoying my breakfast - hardly possible. After that I received my lunchbox and was supposed to be picked up at 7am to go on a safari through the Ngorongoro crater.

It was past 8am when the car arrived - another great start into the day. With me in the car were a guy from South Korea who was sleeping most of the time and an Israeli couple. The driver took us to the entrance of the National Park where we waited for about three hours for him to get the tickets. At some point he told us he needed more money as he didn't bring enough - and he needed the exact amount as the cash desk wouldn't have change. Great.

The Israeli couple managed to get the problem solved and at about 1pm we entered the National Park. The safari was amazing, we saw all kinds of animals, the only one we missed was a cheetah - unfortunate as I missed that one on my safari in Sri Lanka as well! We saw thousands of water buffalos and zebras, Elephants, Hippos and even some Rhinos in the far distance. Ostriches, Hyenas, Gazelles and jackals.

At 4.30 pm we left the park as it closes at 5pm. Although I felt a little betrayed as my 'full day safari' lasted 3,5 hours I was pretty happy about the experience.

On the way back to Arusha I slept most of the time. We arrived in the evening and the organizer greeted us back. When I told him about how I felt about the safari he gave me some money back - a nice gesture but didn't quite do the trick for me.

Anyhow - I got taken to my new hotel and checked in. I stayed in a beautiful little bungalow and the hotel was very well maintained. I sat down in the restaurant and ordered dinner - finally some decent food! After I finished I found a comfy spot in a corner and started reading for a bit, when suddenly a girl approached me and sat next to me. She was half Japanese, half American and introduced herself as Sanae Matsuki (which literally translates to 'precious little pine tree tree'. Yes. Two trees.) She told me that her friend was on the phone and she felt like chatting. And yes, she was chatty. But a really nice girl, fun to be around. A little crazy. Very sympathetic. I spent the rest of the evening talking to her and then went off to bed.

The next day a new guide picked me up at the hotel and we took a bus to the east. The drive took about 90 minutes and was not too pleasant as the bus was old and pretty packed. After exiting the bus we caught a tuktuk which was supposed to take us to our final destination - some hot springs. In the middle of nowhere (there was hardly a road visible) the front tire burst and we had to stop. Our driver caught a ride with someone back to the village to organize a new wheel after a few minutes and we waited there. It took him about half an hour to get back, we changed the wheel and continued our journey. Just about 15 minutes later the tuktuk broke down again. Something was wrong with the engine. The driver managed to fix it somehow and we went on - the same problem appeared again just few minutes later. And he fixed it again.

So we finally arrived at the hot springs: Crystal clear blue water and a bunch of white people. I went for a swim - the water was pretty cold for a hot spring.. but refreshing. After swimming and swinging from a rope I put up my hammock and had a rest. A nearby kiosk sold omelettes and beer - perfect! A great spot to chill!

After a few hours and another swim I packed my stuff and we went back to Arusha - without any incidents this time.

I met Sanae and her friend again in the restaurant and we had a nice conversation again. Off to bed!

My last morning had come and after breakfast I got picked up by a cab driver who took me to the airport. The flight via Ethiopia was easy going and I got back to Kuwait safely.

All in all an amazing vacation, nice people and an awesome experience. Looking back I only remember all the good things and that's what counts. Tanzania: Worth visiting, although it is a lot more expensive than most (Asian) countries I usually visit.