Road to Kampala/Rail to Mombasa

Oooowwweeeee! Been a crazy few weeks! We thought it'd be cool to go to Uganda, just to say we did and see the equator. We expected Kampala to be a real shithole, but it was actually super cool. Kampala is the capital of Uganda, and there's all kinds of UN stuff going on there. We booked a bus through Akamba, which is supposedly the best line in terms of comfort and reliability. About 1am, I had a splitting headache, with no idea why. I smelled a faint scent of what reminded me of when somebody doesn't know how to drive stick and there burning the clutch. It was pitch black in the bus. We were driving through a section of Kenya that has no elctricity. When the bus pulled over and turned the inside lights on, we then saw that the bus was full of smoke! That explains my headache! Silly Africans! The bus broke down, so we had to wait on the side of the pitch black highway for another bus, which had about half as much legroom. Waa waa. We left Nairobi at 7pm. It was supposed to be about twelve hours to Kampala, but it somehow turned into TWENTY! As soon as we left the bus station in Uganda, we found that there's some ridiculously huge stork/vulture/pelican that hangs out on trees smack in the middle of downtown all around the Parliament buildings. Crazy shit! Kristin------->so that was our awesome adventure there but it turns out uganda is super cool. we went to the equator in a matatu and took some pictures. then we stayed in galaxy hotel for a few nights where we saw how crazy the city gets at night. the streets are filled with people and it feels like mardi gras. brooke you asked about the food. hmm there is coke everywhere they are making a fortune off of kenya. everything comes in a glass bottle which you have to return because they reuse them. everything comes with chapati its like a flour pancake bread thing. ugali is what looks like a white brick that is made of maize... its a corn type concoction we havent felt the need to try yet. the passion fruit is kick ass best juice ever. o yea and the main course is usually BBQ goat, havent tried it yet but will let you know how it is. Sean ------> The matatus here are CRAZY! It's more or less East Africa's version of public transportation. If you're white (which myself and Kristin happen to be), you wanna try to agree on some kind of price for the ride when you get in, otherwise, they'll charge you quadruple. What exactly is a matatu, you ask? Picture this: It's like a Nissan version of the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine/Volkswagon rectangle bus/van that has fourteen seats and normally about twenty people crammed inside (not counting the driver or the "conductor" who is basically sitting on someone's lap hanging fully out the window screaming at people on the street in Swahili trying to get more people in.) Tha's a matatu. So far we've spent some two and three hour rides on those. FUN! The equator was super cool. In a little town called Kayabwe. Long story short, Uganda was surprisingly badass. We super considered going to Congo, because I want that passport stamp so bad, but everything we read and heard said it was a super bad idea. Oh well. In Kampala, there's shitloads of little kids that surround you if you're white and they beg you for money. It's crazy. They say God bless you a lot too. Don't think about giving one money unless you have the same amount to give to the other five. Kristin's teacher suggested an awesome idea which worked great. We carried a lot of pens with cool designs on them, and the kids were super happy with them. Some tried to get more! They're even at the border. I've got a feeling we'll see a lot more once we go South into Mozambique and Malawi. Doesn't seem to be too many in Kenya though. When we got back to Nairobi, we were exhausted, because the overnight bus we took was almost entirely on a bumpy dirt road. We slept a few hours in a hotel, and then we went to go see the Jopmo Kenyatta mausoleum. He's a former President with every other street named after him and on almost all of their currency. The guards wouldn't let us to the grave (which is in the Parliamnet grounds), but as we left to cross the street, a guy told us that we had to wait because the President was coming! We saw the whole motorcade! Mwai Kibeki and his whole entourage passed right in fromt of us. Super cool. Then we took a BADASS overnight train to Mombasa which is on the coast. Mombasa turned out to be the exact opposite of Kampala. It used to be the capital before Nairobi, it supposedly has some cool history, and it's right on the beach. We were excited to see it, but it actually turned out to be a real shithole. We took a ferry over the harbor, walked forever in the blistering sun, and caught a matatu to Tiwi Beach. Our hotel was right on the beach and we spent all day in the Indian Ocean! Badass! The water was piss warm! It was great! Just like swimming in an entire ocean of beautiful blue, crystal clear warm urine! There's a phenomenom here called beach boys. Local guys that walk up and down the beach offering to sell you stuff, open coconuts for you, sell you weed, etc... Some were cool, others shady. Yesterday we left, and headed north. Now we're in Malindi. About the middle of the Kenyan coast (halfway between Tanzania and Somalia). Vasco de Gama put a pillar here, I guess. We were thinking about continuing north to Lamu, but we got a great deal on a hotel. For just over twelve bucks a night, we got a double bed, with a balcony right SMACK on the Indian Ocean! Our balcony overlooks the beach. The bar downstairs is open twenty-four hours, and the beer is cheaper than anywhere we've seen in Africa so far. It's cheaper than a bottle of water! There's no hot water or a/c, which is normal. But it definitely works. We chewed on miraa on the way to this internet cafe. It's like an African version of chewing on coca leaves. When low tide is out, the water goes out so far. We walked out today about a mile onto this coral reef, where we saw zebrafish, starfish, and lots of shells. Blah blah blah. Kristin says I rambled! We're gonna go eat something dirt cheap. Hopefully goat or fried monkey brains. Woo hoo!