We had made arrangements for
private transportation throughout the 12 days of our trip. In Uganda, it is best to hire a driver with the vehicle, and provide the gasoline, which might cost about UGX 250k/day (or $70/day inclusive). This enabled us to maintain our itinerary and travel more freely, avoiding crazy public transportation (taxis and buses).
Although we had brought an
infant car seat for Moses (free checked luggage on KLM flights), we used it only in the beginning. It is not the rule there for infants to travel in car seats. We also traveled with a carry-on
stroller that we did not find much use for. Moses liked being held during our airport layovers. So we'll likely skip these accessories on our next trip.
For
accommodation, we used a hotel in Kasese (
Virina Gardens Hotel) because my house itself was not move-in ready for us. In Kampala, my sister vacated her master bedroom for our use, and in Kabale, my aunt boarded us in her rent-ready furnished home. We are grateful for this generosity because it saved us the expense of hotels, which are comparatively more expensive (for foreigners and tourists) than here in the US. A good hotel might cost about $60/night although you can always find cheaper alternatives if you know the right people. Make sure your room has air conditioning and mosquito nets over the beds. That fee also includes room-delivered breakfast.
Speaking of
mosquito nets, we had brought some for our bed and Moses' crib. Late August is the end of the dry season and rains where expected when we were there. But there were no mosquitos, so we didn't really use the nets the last half of our trip. Even though, we were religious about taking our Malaria pills each day. The only other travel requirement for Uganda is a yellow fever shot.
Pretty early in the trip, we realized we needed to still maintain
Moses' sleep schedule, so whatever we did happened after his naps. Thankfully, he did well with one nap most days and didn't experience jet-lag while we were there. We brought his pack-n-play so we can set up for him to sleep wherever we go as needed.
As soon as we arrived, my sister gave us a SIM card for
phone service through MTN Uganda. Although Verizon claims I could have used my Galaxy Note 3 phone with it, it did not work. Luckily, I had borrowed an iPhone 4 from a friend back in CO and it worked perfectly there. I take note here that MTN is not the only network in the country; there are 3 more and they are incompatible. This means people carry around 2 or more phones for each network they are subscribed to, usually the ones where most of their friends and family are, because it is more expensive to call people out-of-network. Also, everything is pretty much prepay. Voicemail is not part of most service offers; you just keep trying all the person's numbers until you get a hold of them. Whatsapp is prevalent for those with smartphones.
In order to charge our American devices (phones, cameras, and for my blender), we bought a power converter to step down their 220/240V to 110/120V. But even with this, I managed to go through 3 batteries on the camera, with no further way to recharge them because I forgot to bring their charger. Regrets.
On our second day in-country, we needed to
exchange dollars for Ugandan shillings. The exchange rate was UGX 3,500, but we found out this only applies to large denomination bills. Your $20, $10, $5 and $1 bills will be exchanged at a much lower rate. Outside of Kampala, the condition of the bill matters too: inked, old, or torn bills might not be accepted. With small bills, you can bargain for a better rate if you have a lot of them to exchange.
Speaking of
bargaining, this is the way to shop in Ugandan markets. You can bargain on anything except in supermarkets or other formal venues. The prices are obviously hiked for foreigners (especially when they see a white person), so my strategy was to start my offer at half the price. A few times I consulted with any local I was traveling with whether the stated price was fair.
The markets didn't have as many fruits as I had hoped. I had planned to blend fruit shakes daily, so I brought my Bullet on the trip. Didn't use it even once, small disappointment. The
food was otherwise excellent, food I had missed all these years living in the US. The only warning is that it is usually fried and heavy on the carbs. We didn't eat out much; my family and relatives provided most of the food we ate. Sometimes we ventured out for road snacks (gonja, bananas, and muchomo mostly). To avoid drinking tap water, sodas were the thirst-quenchers. One weird practice: if you want to take a (glass) bottled drink with you, you must bring an empty. Otherwise, you must drink it wherever you bought it and leave the bottle behind.
Things are cheaper in Kampala than they are upcountry, so if you want to do tourist-type shopping, Kampala is your best best for variety and price. Even exchange rates for the dollar are better there. Caution though that places such as the African Village (where they sell traditional art and other trinkets) are not cheap, because their target shopper is the tourist. I saw a good piece of art on canvas there priced at the equivalent of $100 and thought it wasn't for the average Ugandan. I've seen the same piece of African art for half that price in Denver.
The
weather was fair the whole time we were there. I think it rained once or twice only. There is a day we got out to explore Kasese markets, and were drenched in sweat only a few hours into the expedition. The sun wasn't even shining per se (some cloud cover), but it was quite hot. Kabale had the best weather, save for the dusty atmosphere due to road construction in the town. Luckily, our transport also had air conditioning, although we didn't find out about it until 4 days into the trip.
To stay hydrated, we bought a cooler and filled it with frozen bottles of water (or added ice whenever we could). The cooler mostly stayed in the vehicle, as that's where we used it most. Eventually sodas and Moses' food ended up in it.
We spent a lot of time in the vehicle (
on the road). Kampala to Kasese is 6 hours, and Kasese to Kabale about 5 hours (although we took a remote detour to drop off my sister at the hospital where she works/teaches). Kabale to Kampala took us 7 hours. Traffic in the towns and city is mayhem; no traffic control signals and lots of road construction. On one occassion, we hit traffic building up because the president was passing through. We passed a couple of bad accidents on the roads. The main roads are generally in good condition, and we had a good driver.
The driver, it turns out, is a distant relative of mine. At some point during the trip, he referred to an aunt of mine as his aunt. He spoke my
mother tongue (Lukonjo). The language didn't come back to me as quickly as I thought it would, so we used English all through the trip. I understood when people spoke it, but I couldn't muster complete sentences beyond simple greetings. That's what 20 years of zero practice does to you. The driver found all this hilarious, my trying to speak the language.
This means that
introductions to my various relatives also had to be in English. There also had to be a translator close by, in case those relatives didn't know English. We got introduced to so many relatives, most of whom I really did not know before, or whom I could not remember. It was sad somewhat to not remember someone that knows you well.
