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Dinner was served around 12:30 AM. I had "Madagascar Beef", which appeared to be covered with a spicy oily yellow peanut sauce, but it was actually just a bland airline gravy. I also had a Heineken, since beer usually makes me sleepy. When they offered coffee later, I declined, but wanted something. The stewardess suggested a cognac, but I wasn't sure I would like it, and asked her for a red wine. She didn't have any at the time, so I decided to try the cognac, and found that it was good. She later came up with a red wine, and brought that as well, making sure I had plenty of alcohol.
The man next to me, a German who appeared to be in his 50s or 60s, was reading a Swahili textbook. He was planning to visit a friend in Meru. He said the altitude was high, being near Mt. Kenya, so he wouldn't be taking any malaria prophylaxis. He said he took quinine in the old days. He didn't like taking Larium because it is so strong, but would prefer to take it after getting malaria.
I mentioned that I was a physicist, and he didn't know much about that, but when I said I had an internet company, we had an interesting discussion on that and exchanged cards. He was in the coffee business. He said the internet isn't really understood well in Germany yet. In fact, none of Europe has the access to the cheap, high-volume telecommunications capacity that America takes for granted, and been so important to the growth of the internet.
The flight movie was The Ghost and the Darkness, set in Kenya. The German said the train shown in the movie still runs between Kampala and Masai (at 30 miles an hour) and is worth taking if you have the time. I fell asleep quickly, missing the movie, but was not too comfortable and didn't sleep very well.
At breakfast, I took my second Larium. I would be taking one every Thursday. The land below was dry and desolate as we flew over Sudan and into Kenya. Some volcanoes appeared below, and occasional signs of agriculture, though the land was not good. There were mountains as well, and a couple of lakes. We flew into Nairobi over the Nairobi Game Park.
The German said there wasn't much for tourists in Nairobi. The game park is small and zoo-like compared to the others I would see. He mentioned a snake zoo, and he thought the Tuesday coffee market was interesting, since he is in the business. He said Nairobi has been deteriorating steadily since he started coming in '59. He said people in Nairobi don't appreciate beauty and thoughtlessly destroy it, and security is getting worse all the time. It used to be nice to walk in the nearby hills, but now you would be robbed or murdered.
It was in the 70's in Nairobi upon arrival at 9:45 AM. I dropped off a card showing my return flight, which was supposed to confirm it, though they said I should still call when the time came. A helpful KLM representative took care of my bag transfer to the Kenya airlines flight to Entebbe, leaving at 2 PM. I checked in for the flight when the counter opened. Then I bought an orange Fanta for $1 and ate the granola bars I had brought for today's lunch.
The terminal was warm and humid, and slightly decayed looking - like a bus terminal with a lot of duty-free shops. The people I dealt with were generally helpful, with none of the confusion and neglect I experienced in the Delhi airport on the way to Nepal in '94. I had no problem passing my film through security here. The security was friendly and accommodating, unlike in Europe.
The plane boarded at around 1:45. It appeared to be the oldest jet I had ever been on. Some of the overhead compartments were crumbling and would barely stay closed. I hoped the engines were in better shape. The service was excellent. We got a full lunch even though the flight was under an hour.
Uganda was much greener than Kenya as we landed next to Lake Victoria in Entebbe. The Entebbe airport was surprisingly small, considering that it was Uganda's major airport. A plane full of Muslims was going through passport control as I arrived. There was no trouble here, and they did not check my immunizations. (I had got a cholera shot only because Uganda's visa information says this is a requirement. They can be hard to find since there is no valid health reason to get one.)
My luggage was waiting when I got to the conveyor, and there were no questions at customs. Catherine Nabwire of Jumbo Nature Safaris was waiting for me in the lobby, with a driver. I had called Jumbo in December after talking to the Uganda parks service and deciding I could use some assistance in getting a permit for Gorilla tracking. Only a few are issued each day, and they are quickly bought by local safari agents. I also wanted my own car and driver so I could get around quickly, and Jumbo would be providing that. I already sent them $1600 of their $3300 fee, which would cover essentially all my expenses in Uganda.
It was a long ride to Kampala. Entebbe was just a small town on the shore of Lake Victoria. We passed the decaying old Russian-built airport, not far from the new one, which was famous for a highjacking in the '70s. We passed a lot of little houses and shops, mostly similar to the ones I remembered in Nepal, small and sometimes crumbling. But there were also a few very nice houses mingling with the others. There were plenty of fruit stands, and some cattle with huge pointy horns. There was a lot of new construction as well. The traffic was generally much saner than in Nepal, and the ride was not at all scary.
Kampala turned out to be quite a large city, with lots of big, new buildings. We went to the Fairway Hotel, which appeared to be a very ambitious hotel which had a lot of trouble meeting its ambitions. The architecture was nicely designed, but the implementation a bit shoddy. It was not a cheap hotel, one of the higher-end places in Kampala in fact. It was also a bit outside the center of town, in an attractive, upscale green neighborhood near the golf course. When I arrived in my room, eager to get cleaned up after two days of sleeping on planes, there was no cold water, and the hot water was cold. Catherine said she would let me rest a while and return.
I showered in spite of the cold water. The air was warm and muggy, so it was not too bad. The room was clean but the floor was wet for some reason. There was a phone, TV and refrigerator. The door to the second-floor balcony had no lock. My eyes were bothering me more now than in Amsterdam. I put some eye-drops in and lied down to rest. I still had the antibiotic eye-drops I bought for Nepal, which were now just past their expiration, and I thought I might wish I had more.
Catherine returned at 6:30 and explained my itinerary, which we had arranged by fax according to my specifications. I normally don't like to arrange things so much in advance, but I had a rather ambitious schedule for my 16 days in Uganda, including tracking the mountain gorillas, and I wanted some help making the connections quickly and getting gorilla permits (which is not at all easy, since only a few are issued each day). Jumbo would be providing a car and driver, arranging my accommodations, helping to set up my Rwenzori Mountain trek (through Rwenzori Mountaineering in Kasese) and attempting to get me a gorilla permit.
Catherine managed to get me a confirmed gorilla permit for Mgahinga National Park. This was news, since last I heard, the best she could offer was a "standby permit" for Bwindi. I wasn't sure what this meant, since officially there is no such thing as a standby permit. Mgahinga permits are not always issued because this is on the Rwanda and Zaire borders, and the gorillas often cross to the other side. I would keep my "standby permit" for the 17th, since Bwindi is more accessible. However, Catherine said one of the Bwindi gorillas died, leaving only three in one of the two groups there, while there are nine gorillas in the Mgahinga group.
Jumbo tours would pay the extra costs of getting to Mgahinga, but I would pay $54 for one night at the Whitehorse Hotel afterward. There were some security issues as well, since Mgahinga is on the Rwanda and Zaire borders. There were still many refugees in the area due to recent genocides in Rwanda, and an ongoing civil war was active just across the border in Zaire. Catherine said driving at night would be dangerous, and I would have to take care to make the long connections before dark.
Catherine also asked what kind of food I would like on my Rwenzori Mountain trek. She would be doing the shopping for me. I wasn't sure what was available. She said meat could be brought in coolers, but I recommended a starchy vegetarian diet, to be safe. I suggested lots of spaghetti and macaroni, plus fruits and sweets. I paid the $1700 balance due for Jumbo's services. There may or may not be an extra day at the end, which I could spend at Queen Elizabeth National Park or in Kampala. This would depend on whether I got in to see the gorillas at Bwindi, or had to drive all the way to Mgahinga in the southwest corner of Uganda. I left open the possibility of whether I would return to Kampala with Jumbo or on my own. If I wanted to go with them , it was included.
We arranged to meet again after lunch tomorrow. I could cash travelers' checks then as well. The hotel rate is not so favorable. The approximate exchange rate is 1000 shillings for $1 US. After Catherine left, I changed a $20 check to have some money for tonight, since I pay for the drinks while Jumbo covers the meal costs. I walked around the hotel grounds, which were rather spacious and green. There was an Indian tandoor-style grill on the patio, and a private party was being held there today. I ate in the upstairs dining room, where I ordered a dish from the Ugandan menu - smoked beef with groundnut sauce and katooshe (mashed bananas, a staple of the local diet). The meal was not at all spicy.
After dinner, I found my room's floor to be wetter than before. The cold water had returned and the toilet tank had a leak. I found a crack around the inlet pipe, and adjusted the float so it wouldn't fill so far. I repacked my bags in a more practical manner, reflecting how I would be using it during the trip, rather than the very compact form I used for the flights. I went to bed around 1:30 AM, though I still didn't feel that this was a proper time to be sleeping. It was only 5:30 PM at home. I should have been tired after the little sleep I got on the plane, but actually I had been sleepier in the afternoon.
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