6th Week, Mbale, Mountain Inn
Thursday August 20, 2009
11:28pm
The romance of the open road
God. I think out of all I’ve done here in Uganda so far, I had the most fun today. Why was it so fun? Because it was all so unpredictable, so spontaneous. And because I did it all alone – I have something to brag about that’s all my own, a story to tell.
Whenever I’m “trapped” with other people, or even when I’m given the choice to either be with others or alone, I always fear being on my own and usually opt to stick with safety (and thus, boredom). I always tell myself, “But you’ll be so much happier being on your own, doing it your own way.” Still, it’s hard to believe in my own thoughts. Yet it almost always turns out to be true. I think there’s nothing more beautiful and enjoyable than to make a plan all on one’s own and then to follow through with it, without the help or opinions of anyone but oneself. That is true happiness in life. Doing things my way. Succeeding on my own.
So I tried it today. I woke at 7:10 just as planned (Sharon was being lazy and I needed to call her twice) – Hirome kind of thought I wouldn’t be able to, but I’m reliable when necessary. We left before 8, I picked up my iPod cable in the library, and we were off to Mbale in the blue pick-up!
The ride took about an hour; we arrived at Juliet’s house at 9:15. The wholetime in the car I couldn’t quite relax – and it wasn’t because of being sandwiched with Sharon in one single seat. I felt extremely anxious about something: what if Soroti (town to the north where I was planning to go) was a waste of time? What if I screwed up? Got hurt? Now that I was so close to going back home without a single mishap, why tempt fate? I thought maybe Sharon was right; maybe choosing the “safe” route was more sensible. Maybe I was being needlessly headstrong. Anyway, I just felt nervous.
When we got to Juliet’s place, the fast Internet available there calmed my nerves considerably. After actually looking at some information on the net, I felt more like I actually knew what I was doing. I found out that I actually wanted Kumi, not Soroti. That’s where all the paintings were at. So, armed with info, I bid Sharon farewell until Kampala on Saturday, went to the Mt. Inn to book my room (had to argue a little for 15000 – they were ready to charge me 25000!), then walked to the taxi park. Well, at first I was simply going to take a boda, but I couldn’t really find any so I began walking up the slope.
Some random guy shouted to me. I responded. We started a conversation about Soroti and Mt. Elgon and Kumi – he said he was from Kumi and would take me to the taxi park. We talked the whole way (he told me he was 20 though he looked older; he kept on talking about “plans for our marriage” and “setting the date for marriage”), he helped me find a big bus to Kumi for 3000, then as we parted he held my hand for a long time and said, very distinctly and quite intensely, “I love you.” I sort of just said (without hardly blinking – I’m used to this stuff by now!), “Thank you, see you again,” and waved goodbye. Oh, and of course I got his name (Sam) and phone number.
The bus itself was extremely crowded. I almost preferred the taxi. I was in the aisle seat of a 3-seater row so I could barely see outside the windows. The entire aisle was packed full of people and packages, of course.
For the first part of the journey I was quite bored and almost fell asleep. Then I started a conversation with the well-dressed man next to me (he kept talking to his companion in English, so he must be well-educated) – gosh the people are friendly here. It’s almost impossible not to start a conversation with Ugandans. We talked quite a bit actually; it turns out he’s from a town right near the Sudan and Congo border! He told me that area is completely safe now; in fact the only unsafe area in Uganda is the Karamoja.
As soon as I got off in Kumi, a swarm of bodas came up asking “Where to?” One in particular had his eyes set on me. I trusted him because he had his own helmet and motorcycle jacket and everything looked in good condition. I asked what would be the round-trip price of going to Nyero rock paintings first, then Mukongoro Caves, then back. Everyone laughed when I suggested 7000. But he said, “Get on.”
So we were off. I came to really like this guy, Okadai, although at first he was just any old boda guy to me. I had no idea how far we would be going, though….
Nyero Rock in itself was a fair distance away. Maybe 20 minutes from Kumi – but my guy drove at a breakneck speed, much faster than any of the other bodas thus far. I’ve never actually been in a motorcycle without helmet at that speed before: at times he would go up to 80 km/h, which is quite a bit for a motorcycle, especially on non-paved roads (the max on the speedometer is only around 120). He would just race ahead with reckless abandon, honking everyone in his path out of the way. Needless to say, my hair was completely wrecked within 5 minutes of riding at that speed. It would not be the same for the rest of the whole day…
The roads there were perfect for practising motorcycle though – dirt roads, wide ones, with very little traffic and mostly friendly, polite drivers.
At Nyero, at first there was no one around, but eventually we met with two guys, one older, and a younger taller one named Emmanuel. They took me on a tour of the area (3 rock painting sites) for 5000 (started at 10 000). I decided to get the most out of my money by asking for photos all the time, climbing up the huge rock-hill-things there, and asking millions of random questions.
Me with boda driver at a Nyero Rock Painting cave
The paintings themselves weren’t really that impressive. Most of them were just spirally suns, washed out and drawn in white on a rock surface of a cave. Only one painting area was extremely interesting – the biggest one with over a dozen red paintings drawn on a huge slab wall of white rock. Still, most were suns. Those that weren’t suns were either animals or boats. I found the boats quite interesting – I mean, they were very distinctly boats.
I was pretty surprised however, when I found out these “ancient” paintings were only 500 years old or less. Uhh… how is that ancient, again? In the West, 500 years ago they were painting Mona Lisa already! Anyway, I’ve heard that these paintings are the earliest in all East Africa: I was expecting them to be at least 2000 years old.
Anyway, so we went to see some various caves and walked through beautiful lush paths to places with amazing views of the surrounding countryside and the other nearby rocks and hills. On three occasions I insisted on climbing up these very unusual rock formations – very smooth rocks with astounding views on top. Of course I would insist that my guide take numerous photos of me in various angles – hee hee! I was quite the funny and charming one. The guide Ema was quite knowledgeable and good with English, so we struck up a nice conversation. He seemed to love taking photos of me, too. I sweated so much climbing those rocks, but it was totally worth it.
After I said an emotional farewell (and used the washroom – with a leaf as substitute toilet paper….), we were off again, this time towards Mukongoro (opposite direction nearly).
Oh yeah, I learned from Ema that the sun right now, when directly overhead at noon isn’t actually overhead but slightly to one side due to it being August (in spring it is the opposite side that the sun slants to, and on June 21 the sun is directly overhead). Weird! (it’s because we’re on the Equator)
Having fun at the market
Riding to Mukongoro was so much fun. First, because we stopped in Kumi for a “food break” at the market. However, due to the market’s beauty I couldn’t help but pull out my camera – and as soon as I did, instead of offending the market people they actually flocked over to check it out! They found it all extremely amusing! This one girl actually took at least four or five photos of me and kept bringing me to different places to take photos of fish, or tomatoes, or cabbage, etc. The fun kind of fizzled when the driver found me playing around instead of actually buying food. I ended up sampling two mandazi and two deep-fried rice balls (think hash browns – but even greasier!) for only 200! And two bananas.
The ride to Mukongoro was far. It must be at least 30km, since we were going at 60-80 most of the time and took half an hour to reach it. The ride was amazing – reminded me of Taiwan but almost even more romantic. The sun was beautiful but not hot. The surroundings were lush but there was little traffic or people, so photos and videos were easy to take.
When we got to Mukongoro, we went around asking a ton of people where the caves were. When we at last got there, there was no one around to show us – only an empty “resort” (it was not like I had imagined… a bit more ghetto). There was a little girl around though. We sat around waiting and sipping luke-warm soda for nearly an hour before anyone came. The place was interesting though – there were a ton of dogs there (later I was told they’re for keeping away monkeys that steal fruits).
A middle-aged man who immediately struck me as business-minded came up to greet us. He told me the route to the caves was “bushy” and I said I didn’t care. I didn’t exactly regret that, but I was surprised by what he actually meant…
It was bushy!! Basically there was no path whatsoever, and only by hacking away for several minutes with a machete were we able to “somewhat” pass through. That was the “bushiest” experience of my life, for sure! Ants swarming everywhere, thorns pulling at my hair, branches whacking me, entire plants crunching beneath my feet. I was in for something!
It turned out the caves were quite shallow and “crappy” in comparison with the other ones I was expecting. There were paintings also, and pottery fragments. The place afforded a spectacular view though.
We went through to another cave area, but it wasn’t that amazing. Later, the hotel guy gave me a tour of his “soon-to-be” resort. There were a ton of half-finished buildings, lots of fruit trees (I found out that mangoes start out as tiny little buds on trees!) and a clearly cut road. Other than that, it wasn’t really like a resort yet. But I could tell this guy was extremely proud of his work and this was his dream.
Afterwards he asked for 6400 to pay for both drinks and the guide fee! Grr… I paid 5000.
We left by 5:10 – I needed to be in Kumi by 6. Okadai took me there at top speed – another romantic sunset ride there! (my hair was caked with a layer of dust and dirt though!)
In Kumi, I spent some time looking at turkeys before we discussed the price of the driver’s efforts. Finally, I gave him 10 000 (I’d already paid 2500 for fuel – I’m surprised 1 litre lasts that long!). I really really wanted one last photo with him and his motorcycle (the lighting was perfect), but it seemed like the last taxi was leaving without me. I scrambled inside and didn’t even get to say a real goodbye to him. As I watched him leave on his bike, he peered through the windows of the taxi bus, smiled at me and called in the most genuinely caring voice, “Safe journey!” I felt so bad that I couldn’t take that last photo with him.
The ride back to Mbale was very sleepy for me. Although the distance is only 60km, the journey took over one hour. Still, I arrived at 7pm in Mbale and spent a while wandering the evening streets filled with food vendors – they even make chips right on the spot for you. Annoyingly, I got a phone call from Zahida asking a bunch of questions – I had no idea what to answer when she asked how I’d wrapped things up with the placement, or what an average day at the library looked like. I sounded like a fool in order to avoid telling the truth!
After, I bought a small fried tilapia for only 1000 – it was delicious! Geez, I should’ve bought 5000 worth of that!
Back at Juliet’s house, it was quite boring. Calvin was boring. Dinner was boring. Mostly watching TV. I used Internet briefly, got something done. Calvin asked me to buy “La Tormenta” (Spanish sitcom popular here) in Kamapal for him! I said goodbye to him and Josephine.
So I’m at Mt. Inn again, and I love it. Took a totally cold shower just now because my hair turned my hands reddish black when I rubbed it! My face made the towel brown when I rubbed, as well.
I watched this Decathlon games report on TV for a while. Very cool German high-jumping girl, Friedrich (last name) with blond hair, sort of tomboyish look, but she had such a great, sportman-like attitude!
I love this room – even huger than the last, with two windows – oh, it’s lovely! I could live here forever.
God, it’s raining now. Are my plans for Mt Elgon gone down the drain?
-Valerie
Butaleja turned out to be where all the fun’s at (a district just 15-20 minutes away by car and larger than Busolwe). We stopped at some official council type building where I spied a number of sweet motorcycles parked by a tree. As soon as a rider approached, I pounced. Me and Sharon combined forces and managed to persuade him to teach me riding on his bike. At first he seemed really suspicious of my abilities, but later he proved to be a very warm and instructive teacher. The bike was a red Yamaha all-terrain dirtbike. It was much tougher to control than the regular straight-body boda-boda motorcycle. Also, the gears are switched upwards instead of downwards. Whoa! (I mean, I know that’s the standard and it makes sense to increase the gear by switching up – but pressing down is far easier to execute than lifting up)
