Africa Calling

I left home at 12:30am on Sunday morning and reached Kampala 3:00pm (local time) after a total journey time of about 15 hours. The Emirates flights made good time as it cut short its 1 hour and 30 minutes stop in Addis Ababa in half and we landed at Entebbe almost an hour earlier of our scheduled time.

As my wife had said that she always visualized Uganda and Congo with small houses and tin roofs. Imagine my horror when I saw a similar looking building with "ARRIVALS" written on it at the Airport. Thankfully, when I got off the stairs and walked to the building, I saw a notice which said "airport building is in process of rehabilitation" and this was just a make shift arrangement. The immigration was easy, except for the long lines. I paid $50 for my visa, collected my luggage and was about to walk out of the building though the "GREEN CHANNEL" when an official stopped me and asked for my passport. Upon seeing the green book in my hand, he extended the customary suspicion which is the fate of every Pakistani's when he lands at an airport (including the ones is Pakistan). I was asked to come in to a room where he asked me to open the suitcases for inspection. Thankfully, he casually poked around with my things in the suitcases and asked me to pack the bags and go through the green channel gates.

The drive from Entebbe to Kampala took about an hour. It was a long and winding road with shops, houses etc on both side. When I saw the roads from the plane, they all seemed like dirt tracks; even the ones which were as wide as motorways. One the ground I found out why – the sand is red-ish in colour and there is so much of it on the roads, that you can hardly see the colour of the tarmac. Also the roads are very rough which means that you feel a constant bumpy vibration when you are in the car (this caused me to dose off couple of times during the ride). Anyway, I got to the guesthouse which is very nice and also has a wireless internet connection which I am using to write this.

I guess that is enough for today; I have a long day tomorrow, see you soon!