Moving on to... Uganda!

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From Nairobi I took a night bus to Kampala, Uganda, and let me tell you… I’m not in Tanzania anymore! And it felt so good! Busses are decent! they are not blasting music or have neon lights in them.

In the middle of the night I got woken up to cross the border but it was all very easy. The kenyan office on the left, the Ugandan on the right, easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Early in the morning I arrived in Kampala and of course as soon as I got out of the bus the boda boda (motorcycle) guys were on top of me asking me if I needed a ride. I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t even know where I was going, and I didn’t have any money so I said no and walked away.

Finding an ATM was a little challenging as many of the banks didn’t have one or they didn’t work. I walked for a bit until I finally found one, withdrew money, and figured out which hostel I was staying at, and asked the bank guards how to get there.

Since I like to save money (and travel like a local) I decided to take the “taxi” (aka regular bus) for 1/3 of the price of the boda boda and was impressed as how easy it was to move around!

I arrived at the Fat Cat Hostel and the guy managing it quickly gave me a guide on what to do in Kampala so off I went to explore!

My first stop… getting a ROLEX!

No, not a watch! But one of the traditional dishes of Uganda! It’s pretty much an egg omelette rolled in a chapati! Good but not very healthy.

Then I took a boda boda to Baha’i temple. I had no idea what Baha’i was but it turned out to be a religion with a super boring temple! Not recommended for the 10,000 boda boda!

The temple

View of Kampala from Bahai' Temple

From the temple the boda boda took me back to the hostel and I switched back to the bus to go back to the center of town.

One word to describe kampala: MESSY!

Walking the streets ok Kampala reminded me of India and Yangon! There were thousands of people, crazy traffic, shops everywhere! It was so much fun walking around in the middle of the craziness!

As I was walking it started raining and I had noticed that most of the buildings has many floors with terraces overlooking the street so I went up a couple of floors and observed Kampala being Kampala from up high. The traffic was crazy but what was crazier was all the ladies with plastic bags on their heads in order not to get their hair wet!

From there I walked up the hill and visited Khadaffi Mosque, the oldest mosque in town. To be honest nothing really special about the mosque but in order to visit it I had to pay $5, get a private tour, put on hijab and cover my pants.

Going up the stairs in Khadaffi Mosque

My guide showed me around the mosque and told me that the carvings were from Morocco, the carpet from Lybia, the chandeliers from Egypt, the glass from Italy, and the woodwork from Congo… A very international mosque, if you ask me!

I have seen many mosques so whatever but the coolest part was walking up the tower and seeing the whole of Kampala from the top! From up there I could see that most of the main streets in Kampala sort of lead to the mosque and then my guide said that the mosque was where the old city started. Also, he said that back in day all of Kampala was grass and wild and full of Impalas and that’s where the name Kampala originated (from mispronunciation!)

Look at all the craziness!

I then walked down the many streets and ended up in Owino Market!

This market has, hands down THE biggest used clothes market I have ever seen! It was huuuuuge! rows and rows of used clothes! I didn't take nay pictures because I didn’t want to be the mzungu who takes photos and doesn’t buy!

From there I finally arrived to the produce part and oh my! they had every single fruit and veggie that you can find in this part of the world!

Nice way to carry baskets

Carrying chickens!

I kept walking and once again found a building with a second floor perfect for taking sneaky pictures and with a great view of the market below!

Craziness below

The typical stands

These ladies spend all the day polishing shoes!

At one point the garbage truck came and the shoe polishing ladies moved a little to make space and then sat back down.

Another side of the market

My favorite was finding all natural peanut butter, fresh from the grinding machine!!! yum! For months I have been looking for natural peanut butter or at least peanut butter without any added sugar with no luck… until Owino Market! Yeay!

From Owino market I went out to the street it is was just an extension of the market just as messy as the inside!

Looks a little bit like Yangon!

Boda bodas everywhere!!

Scary! Did you know he is carrying about 1,000+ eggs!!!! WWWHHAAAT!!!

I had read a blog that the Old taxi park was a must see in Kampala so I headed over there and was impressed by the number of “taxis” found at the station!

I really have no idea how someone can find the bus he or she is looking for, it was such a mess! But I bet there is some sort of system in place!

For me the craziest thing was that at times the taxis were so close to each other that a person couldn’t walk in between the two taxis! As if leaving a 50inch gap for people to pass by would make a big difference! Taxis honk, they all want to get ahead, for what? Is not like they won’t be stuck there for hours!!!

From the taxi park I called it a day, got on a taxi up the hill going to Kambocha and made it back to my hostel and rested after my overnight bus and a very busy day in Kampala.

On my second day I decided to skip the taxi and walk to town on my own. The walk wasn’t all that nice, pretty much walked through ex-pat neighborhoods and a huge golf course until I reached the Independent monument that turned out to be not exciting. This monument is in one of the Ugandan notes so I thought it must be important so I googled it and it's actually one of the most important pieces of Ugandan heritage!

From google: "Depicting a man unwrapping his child and raising it to touch the sky, the towering sculpture signifies a new born country let free from the bondages of colonization."

From there I walked to the craft village, a market for souvenirs and more Masai trinkets that I don’t need but are fun to walk around and see what they sell.

I kept walking with no direction and started to notice where most people were heading so I followed.

I actually led me to an amazing “pedestrian” street (or so I thought until I saw a huge truck coming up and people moved to the sides) full of shops, people, and a gazillion items! It was Yangon on steroids!!!!

Of course I went to a second floor to take it all in and take some pictures.

So much stuff and people!!!

I found it hard to walk on my own, this guy is pushing his bike with heavy bags on top!!!

While I was standing there I talked to some of the guys who worked at the shops and then a lady came up the stairs and said “Do you have permission to take pictures?” I looked at her in disbelief and said “I do not need permission to take pictures” and then she said that she saw me take pictures of her, that she saw my flash on her face! haha
I had not taken pictures of her, I even told her “I didn’t take any pictures of you! Why would I want a picture of you? My camera doesn’t even have a flash!” and even showed her the pictures! Then she told me she would take me to the police! WTF? I told her “Ok, let’s go!” and then the guys got involved and told her I had been taken pictures of the street and that nobody needed permission to take pictures.

Then she calmed down a bit and I apologized for her thinking I took a picture of her! haha I said “I’m sorry you think I took a picture of you, and if I did I would show it to you and erase it!” She left it at that and went down the stairs.

Later in the day after I was done shopping at Owino Market guess who tapped me on the shoulder, gave a big smile and said “I see you again”?!?! Yeap! that same lady! People are funny!

Not much to see in Kampala but a nice first stop to get a taste of Uganda.

About Post Author

Andrea

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!