July 6th, 2008:
Short: Up early to find the crack security guard sleeping, Bucket of hot water, Awesome samosas in Iringa, Terrible traffic In Dar, Car trouble, Q-Bar people watching
Long: We woke up early this morning to the pleasant sound of construction equipment positioned next to the guest house. It quickly became obvious that the guest house’s twenty-four hour security guard was not quite twenty-four hours when I accidently woke him up trying to find the bathroom. While I was in the bathroom trying to operate the shower the guard was kind enough to come in and explain that the shower was no longer working, instead he brought me a scalding hot bucket of water and a cup. I couldn’t complain, a few cups later I was clean and both Niki and I packed the car and headed north again. (I must admit I love my hot showers – This is something Nikolai has been able to do without more easily than I)
It took us about two hours to reach the next large town of Iringa in southern Tanzania. The geography along the route has been primary green and hilly, with farms dotting the landscape, and the climate has been fairly temperate. This morning it was overcast, a condition we haven’t seen since Namibia. Just outside of Iringa we decided to fill the tanks and then headed up a windy mountain road to the center of town in order to find a place for lunch. The town was built on the ridge of a mountain by the Germans, who occupied the area decades ago, in order to protect themselves against attack by local tribes. The city is nice, and we managed to find the best beef samosas we’ve had on the trip at a small local restaurant.
Long: We woke up early this morning to the pleasant sound of construction equipment positioned next to the guest house. It quickly became obvious that the guest house’s twenty-four hour security guard was not quite twenty-four hours when I accidently woke him up trying to find the bathroom. While I was in the bathroom trying to operate the shower the guard was kind enough to come in and explain that the shower was no longer working, instead he brought me a scalding hot bucket of water and a cup. I couldn’t complain, a few cups later I was clean and both Niki and I packed the car and headed north again. (I must admit I love my hot showers – This is something Nikolai has been able to do without more easily than I)
It took us about two hours to reach the next large town of Iringa in southern Tanzania. The geography along the route has been primary green and hilly, with farms dotting the landscape, and the climate has been fairly temperate. This morning it was overcast, a condition we haven’t seen since Namibia. Just outside of Iringa we decided to fill the tanks and then headed up a windy mountain road to the center of town in order to find a place for lunch. The town was built on the ridge of a mountain by the Germans, who occupied the area decades ago, in order to protect themselves against attack by local tribes. The city is nice, and we managed to find the best beef samosas we’ve had on the trip at a small local restaurant.
A few uneventful hours later we began to encounter increasingly heavy traffic as we drove into the 3.5 million people strong city of Dar es Salaam, or “Dar” as many call it. We had not heard wonderful things about Dar, and our first impressions lived up to this. As we entered the city we hit the worse traffic we have had thus far on the trip. The heat, and the stop and go traffic, began to wear on Betsy, and she began to heat up, and the clutch began to stick. At one point the clutch just stuck to the floor and I was unable to shift. (We can report that this problem has not occurred since!).
After a grueling hour of traffic we drove north into the expat neighborhood of Oyster Bay and found our hotel, Q-Bar. We checked that Carolina, a friend of Nikolai and I, had not yet arrived and then just sat at the bar for the next few hours. Q-Bar was a very interesting place to just sit back and people watch. The bar is a budget stopover for budget tourists, expats, and creepy locals. The post 8 pm scene could have been taken straight out of Bangkok. At around 8 prostitutes began to fill the bar, and dirty western men followed soon after. By the time Carolina arrived around 9, Nikolai and I were in the midst of a conversation with a British man who had been living in Tanzania, illegally, for the past twenty years. At one point he eyed, what looked to be, an unhappy prostitute and yelled, “What, didn’t I pay you enough last night!!!”. Classy…very classy. Shortly thereafter we decided to call it a night.
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