Far from the Madding Crowd

Back to the land of white egg yolks and mild domestic honey, otherwise known as tropical paradise. My last day in Arusha was actually rather nice. People were friendly, some would say Hi but I didn't feel bombarded with attention, and could even smile at a few people without being harassed. There are two phrases I've been hearing a lot here: poli poli, something like 'easy easy', and hakuna matata which of course everyone knows but people here tend to be very proud of having as a catch phrase. No worries. But there's one place where neither of these seems to be in the vocabulary, and that's at the Arusha bus station. I went to look for a ticket and one guy on the street started quoting me prices. As we walked toward the ticket counter other people tried to sell me tickets, and let's just say it wasn't a pretty sight. One guy reached out to shake my hand, so I reached out in return to be polite, and suddenly everyone was yelling at each other. This is also the only place so far where I've litterally had bunches of people grabbing at me to try and get business. Moving away from the crowd I decided to follow the first guy since he had the best price, and was first after all; he'd apparently decided the same thing as he grabbed my arm and started pulling me along. Of course this wasn't going to do, so I promptly removed it but kept following to the counter, where I ended up with a ticket on the same busline as I'd taken northbound but for 30% less. Drama averted, mission accomplished.

 

It was an early departure, as they all are, and as I walked to the station in the still-dark morning the most noticeable sound was the haunting morning song being projected from the nearby mosque. It was another taste of chaos at the station, but I was fortunate to watch most of it from the bus window as other people got caught up in it, occasionally yelling or even pushing each other, though it was mostly mild. I did notice on the trip that even locals at various stations were being taken by the arm or persistenly lured by ticket sellers and vendors, which was some relief that it wasn't just us obvious foreign types.

 

I managed to successfully avoid all forms of taxi on my way back into town, opting for the much cheaper mini-bus service to and from the ferry, a total cost of about a dollar (vs about 30 for a taxi!). I wasn't sure if they'd let me on a mini-bus with my pack, but not only did they take me, people were friendly and helpful. It's almost always a better idea to travel with the locals.

 

Well as they say ['they' being me and whoever decides to agree with me] Good Travel Takes Time. Today is the one-year anniversary of the start of my trip. I can't believe it!

 

I've had a few more days in tropical paradise, plus trying once again to do some travel planning and get some business done in the city. Somebody I met in town last time and ran into again on my way back, knew somebody whom I subsequently met at the campsite, who knew somebody else whom I subsequently met at the campsite too, Person #2 being quite dodgy as far as I can tell, but Person #3 being a really nice Italian-speaking Swiss guy, who lent me his guide book for a couple of days. Having a guidebook in this corner of the globe after travelling without one for some time is like opening your eyes for the first time in weeks. I was able to read up on all the surrounding countries, what to see, where to stay and how to get around them. I've been enjoying doing sections of the trip without any guidebook, but this is not one of those sections. So I came up with two killer itineraries, one with P3's help and one on my own, to get to Cape Town, but then realized as I counted the days that with limited services (some buses buses 2x or 3x/week, or the lake ferry only once/week) that I couldn't get there in time. SO... Now I've got somewhat of an idea of a possible way to go, but the internet place I'm at has a bad connection and I don't know if I'll actually get to any research today. If you're reading this it means I was able to reconnect and send without losing everything, for which I'll be grateful!

 

Ooh, connection just came back! Is that timing or what. A few last thoughts before I go...

 

1. They say when you go on a safari that everyone has to see the Big 5: lion, leopard, buffalo, black rhino and elephant. What I want to know is, what about the white rhino? What about the giraffe?! And how could a buffalo be cooler than a zebra? Is it just because it's bigger? Hippos are big too, and they're not on the list! Who comes up with this stuff?

 

2. Has anyone else noticed that you can't call a sea an ocean, but you can call an ocean a sea? Is that right?
 

3. If by some rare chance anyone happens to be reading this that gave me their email address in the last couple of months and hasn't heard from me, I lost my red notebook recently where I had a few addresses that didn't make it into my address book yet. So you're not being ignored!

 

That's all folks, back to your own lives now...