Uganda, The Pearl of Africa

I recently went to Kampala, Uganda for a quick business trip.  In terms of African destinations, Uganda has been on my list for quite a while, especially since I read the Uganda issue of TRVL profiling the families of mountain gorillas that thousands of tourists go to see each year.  

Unfortunately, my trip was only 9 days, including my travel days (about 1 1/2 full days each way), so there wasn't any gorilla tracking this time.  But, I was able to get out and snap some pictures and see some cool stuff.

Some City Views

Just a few views of Kampala City.  It's a pretty congested downtown area.

Some Statues in Kampala

Right: “The Stride”, a 19-foot high family group statue that stands at the parliamentary gardens. It is made out of pure copper.  The statue is made up of a family with three striding human figures swathed in draperies marching forward under the banner of the flag while the child touched by the mother is walking securely in the midst holding onto her with the left hand and carrying a book close to the body in its right hand.

Left: Independence Monument, commemorating Uganda's independence from Great Britain in 1962.

Statue bios courtesy of InKampala

Garden City Mall

After running around Kampala on the one Saturday afternoon I had snapping pics of all the sites, and being unimpressed with the markets, I decided to duck in to this shopping mall that my boss had told me about.  It was rumored to have good shopping/gifts and a decent food court.  

Top Left: Picked up a few local crafts at Banana Boat.  This is a really cool store that basically has all of the local handmade arts and crafts that most would want to purchase in the outdoor markets.  I found that a lot of the outdoor markets in Kampala were not very authentic and actually seemed to have most of the goods imported (as most bracelets and artwork were in commercial wrapping).  Supporting this store is a great because they do micro-loans to local artisans, support women's groups, fair trade practices, pretty much everything that makes you feel good, and its a storefront, so none of that stressful haggling.  

Though haggling can be a fun challenge, after living in China, and multiple trips to Africa, I think my days are numbered with that pastime.  

Top Right: My lunch of hand rolled traditional Northen Chinese pork dumplings.  These puppies were served up piping hot out of the bamboo steamer at Element Cafe (newest addition to Garden City, so no website yet), on the first floor.  I was a little skeptical at first since the menu of the hectic coffee shop and cafe had burgers, African dishes, Thai spring rolls, and dumplings.  I was expecting nothing better than some frozen pot stickers because the "open-air" kitchen only consisted of a than a four-burner stove, rice maker and maybe a counter top deep fryer.  

The cafe owner's daughter (Element is owned by a Chinese family) came up to me while I was eating and asked how I liked them.  I told her how delicious they were and she smiled and thanked me, telling me her mother had made them this morning in their house and I was the first person to have ever ordered them, since they had only been open a few days.  Cut to her mother waving and smiling to me from behind the counter.  

Bottom: Having felt like I had a very socially responsible afternoon, I headed out of Garden City back my hotel, and was saluted by this guy on my way out.  Thought it was a nice piece of art for a mall courtyard.  

The River Nile

Having not found a TON to stuff to do in Kampala, I was interested in trying to plan a day trip out of the city.  I had heard of a town about two hours away, Jinja, that was supposed to be nice for hiking and viewing the supposed source of the Nile River.  The concept of the Nile River's true source is a contentious topic between Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi and Ethiopia which all have major tributaries. 

I had also heard of white rafting on the Nile as another attraction of Jinja.  I had never done it before, and initially wasn't feeling inclined, but serendipitously, while I was in my hotel room on Friday evening trying to plan my day trip, I got an email and text from two different former colleagues both encouraging me to go rafting on the Nile, so I booked it.  

I would definitely recommend going with Adrift Adventure.  The website is great, you can book online, and they have hotel pickup.  Very reasonably priced for a full day of rafting, lunch, (a boozey lunch, which was well needed after the rapids), gear, guide and roundtrip transport from Kampala.  

Adrift also offers other adventure sports, like bungie jumping over the river, something like this:

NO, Lois, I did not do this, I just shot the pictures of it.  That was exhilarating enough to watch.  

Here, is how I experienced the Nile...

 But before all that peaceful tranquility, there was this-

This was a class 5 rapid, and the only one of the five rapids of the day that tossed me out of the boat.  That's me, in the back, yellow helmet, holding on for dear life.  Rafting was such a great time.  I'm not sure I could do it anywhere else but the Nile (not to sound snobby) because there are no rocks on these rapids.  That means getting thrown out of the boat warrants no fear of a cracked skull on the rapid rocks.  I wish I had more pictures of the experience, but the very business savvy tour company that had other guides on the river taking all the play-by-play shots of the whole day charged by the photo upload, so I decided to commemorate the experience with one lone photo.