Day of departure and first day in Entebbe

Day 1: The day of departure has arrived and weeks of preparation have come to an end. Books were bought, laundry from the last backpacking trip was dusted off or bought new and a few things were prepared for my longer absence. The car is still parked in the underground car park, the health insurance for the stay abroad has been taken out and we’re ready to go.

We went to Istanbul without incident and after a few hours we continued to Uganda with a stopover in Rwanda. After 6.5 hours, the plane, a Boeing 737 Max (there was something there), landed safely in the hilly capital of Kigali. There was nothing wrong with sleeping; a swinging, screaming child had something against it. After the quick cleaning team briefly swept through the plane and a few passengers were allowed to board, it took 45 minutes to Entebbe, Uganda’s airport.

Despite it being 4 a.m. outside, I was immediately greeted by tropical heat and I suddenly realized that some of the laundry in my backpack wasn’t needed here. My pre-booked taxi driver drove me well for the first 3 kilometers until he ran out of gas. First he had to go to the gas station and get a plastic bottle with supplies. The amount would only be enough for a few kilometers. The drive to the hotel took longer than expected because the road was pretty worn out due to the daily rain. I stay in Entebbe for the first two days, which is a peninsula on Lake Victoria and very close to the airport.

Day 2: The first night in the hotel took some time getting used to: the tropical nights are quite warm and my hotel doesn’t have air conditioning. I prefer to leave the fan off because I don’t want to catch a cold. There is also a pretty stubborn bird here that makes loud croaking noises. Hopefully, I’ll get to see it sometime.

After a small breakfast, I used the afternoon to explore the surrounding area on foot. The children running around immediately greeted me with “muzungu”, which probably means WHITE. Of course, I immediately stand out because my hotel is in a rather rural area, where there are a lot of people walking around and there are small shops everywhere. I walked downhill to Lake Victoria, one of the largest inland lakes in Africa and the world. Unfortunately you shouldn’t swim there because you could probably get a worm disease. Well, at least for the first day I don’t need that.

I then continued towards the center, where there is supposed to be a mall. There I would like to get a Ugandan SIM card. That worked, even though registration took 1 hour. Internet via cell phone works very well here, with 12 euros for 10Gb per month, the prices are the same as ours. Paying via cell phone is also offered everywhere. In the mall I looked at a sports store (very expensive, t-shirts for 40 euros) and the Carrefour. I bought chips and an avocado for 0.10 euros. They grow quite a lot here.

To be on the safe side at dinner, I ate at the mall. Chicken skewer with fries and beetroot-carrot-mango smoothie – very tasty! Home by taxi, as it was already dark around 7 p.m. and the small paths to the hotel (approx. 3km) were quite unlit. Due to exhaustion and the lack of sleep from the plane ride, I dozed off around 8 p.m.