Tanzania - here we come...

I know, I know... you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, or make a judgment based on the shortest of first impressions.

But for Tanzania, I'm going to do that anyways. So there.

 

I caught a shuttle bus down from Nairobi to Arusha – the center for most of the tourist activities in the country. The plan was to meet up with the rest of our GAP Adventures safari group – and then head out on our first day.

Even the ride down was interesting – as the one main road wound down towards the Tanzania border, there was a huge variety of sights that kept mentally poking me, saying “dude, you ain't in Kansas (or London) any more!”

And then there was the road...

First – a warning...for all you order-minded civil engineers out there (Yes, that means you, Dave), you would probably freak out after the first mile.

Remember... this is the major road connecting Kenya and northwestern Tanzania. Multi-lane highway? Nope. Traffic signals – riiiiight. Heck, even asphalt was a irregular luxury at best.

But, bumps aside, since it definitely slowed us down, we were able to take in interesting bits of the country.

There were Masai tribesmen gathering for the local one day market, bartering their distinct variety of skinny cattle and goats. Tall and super rangy, these guys looked like they could run or walk for days at a time on their local versions of Nike cross trainers. Only, in your mind, substitute improvised sandles – literally soled with chunks of recycled tires. Take that, $80 Tevas!



We ended up rolling into Arusha around 3pm, and met the rest of the group. There were five of us all told – including Fiona who habitually gets to travel to Antartica as a photographer/writer, and Russell, who came from Santa Cruz. It was to be a constant source of the mildly unreal to be able to talk about the best places to grab sushi in SF, while in the midst of the Serengetti (check spelling).

A quick trip to the tourist market was interesting – with 100 stalls in a tightly packed square, all selling the same varieties of arts and crafts you'll see everywhere from Ethiopia to South Africa, let's just say they've mastered the high pressure sell.

And it all starts with the slightest eye contact or even coming with a magical 5 meter circle of their shop...

Them: Hi (Hujambo)
Me: Hi. (Sijambo)
Them: Please my friend (or my sister if you were a girl)... just one look in my shop.
Me: No thanks, just looking.
Them: Ah, but looking is free, touching is free. (Sounds a bit like a poor business model for the local strip club)
Me: No, thank you. (Hapana, asante)
… and so on and so on for each and every one of 100 stalls!

Coming out after each row of shops, there was only time for a quick breath, before starting the process all over again...

The evening was much less crazy – getting to know the group over some very cold Castle and Kilimanjaro lagers.

On the plus side, beer at about a pound a bottle is growing very easy to get used to!