Driving from Kampala to Jinja, Uganda

Leaving the guest house in Kampala

We have stayed in Kampala, Uganda,  for five nights and seen a lot in this capital city.

 It was time to check out of the Catholic Centre Guest House and head to Jinja, Uganda, our next destination.

Before getting there, we made a couple of stops for some necessary business.

Muhai needed some documents from the Canadian government. but there is no Canadian embassy in Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

A Canadian Visa Application Centre, Kampala, Uganda

However, there is a Canadian Consulate here but they have contracted out to a company handling travels paper and necessary documents.

Waiting around in our rented van in Kampala

We waited for sometime there before continuing our journey. It gave us sometime to rest a little.

A nice modern local mall in Kampala, Uganda

Since we have been in Uganda for almost a week, we needed some cash and went to a bank at a shopping mall.

We found a Barcley Bank and tried to use our credit cards to get some local cash. It was quite a spectacle with a queue of senior Canadian women lining up at the cash machine trying to figure out how to use the machine. In the meantime we were holding up the ATM.





But Ugandans are polite and patient people. No one got mad at us, they just watched us patiently taking our time calculating how much Ugandan shillings we needed to take out.

With cash in hands, we went to shop at some local craft markets. We all bought different things. I bought sandals, pants and a long dress. Jerome was very patient with all of us. He bargained for us in his own language and carrying our things.




The drive to Jinja was a long one as the traffic was slow since this was also a Valentine weekend. Our driver also brought along his wife for a long Valentine long weekend. How romantic was that?

Ugandan men lining up to buy flowers for Valentines at a local mall

We passed by green hills, forests and many roadside vendors. The roads were busy crawling with numerous fast moving trucks.

Lots of trucks carrying supplies from Kenya into Uganda

Since Uganda is a landlocked country, they have no ports. Supplies have to be trucked in from the port in Kenya. These were the trucks coming in from Kenya. Lots of truckers need to buy food and other things creating business for these roadside vendors.

One new thing we did try was buying food from the roadside vendors. As soon as our van stopped, we were swarmed by men and women carrying BBQ chicken wings, cold beverages and fruits etc.
They were trying to sell us their goods through the car windows.

We bought some BBQ chicken wings and drove off. These chicken wings were surprisingly delicious! We enjoyed them so much that we stopped for the second time and bought more from the roadside vendors.

We arrived to Jinja in late evening, had our first dinner at the 2 Friends' dining room which was pretty busy with couples celebrating Valentine and enjoying their dinners.

We called it a night and went to sleep right after dinner. I was sharing a room with Rose and Elaine.

R.T.
Jinja, Uganda
Day 5