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As I boarded the bus early in the morning in Nairobi I prepared myself for the scheduled 12 hour journey to Tanzania. Interesting sights along the way, but nothing to keep me awake for more than 20 minutes straight! Luckily I woke up in time for the border, for what should be a simple procedure of getting my visa. Should be! When I handed over the $50 U.S., the customs officer quickly smiled and stated he didn't have any change. I pointed out that I had seen the Kenyan in front of me receive his change. Amazing how the officer then said he'd ask his colleages if they might be able to scrape together the $20 owed back to me. 20 minutes later I boarded the bus with my transit visa and $20. No way is the only fight against corruption!! Bloody ironic that we then remained stuck at the border for a further 30 minutes with a flat tire!!

Aaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhh, Zanzibar

Coffeecat
2005-12-24 22:46:05

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smiling creatures just a few feet below me. I followed their actions with as much attention as possible then had to yell with excitement at the people still sitting in the boat. They'd seen nothing. Ha ha.

The evening was another relaxing meal with the girls in town, followed by a bit of retail therapy. Such a shame that I was having to leave the next morning. Zanzibar is a place that I will always suggest for people to see. It's interesting, friendly and safe and so very different to the rest of Eastern Africa.

The next day the Tazara train journey began in the early afternoon. It was a scheduled 2 day journey, of which we were guarenteed to arrive at the final destination of Kapiri Mposhi, in 5 days. Strange way to advertise train timekeeping eh? I met up with Anita at the train station. We chatted over a beer and plowed through our guidebooks reading about the sights to soon see. We then noticed
the line in our guidebooks about getting our visa beforehand, not on the train. Oops. We boarded quickly hoping to deal with it later.

First class was a joy as the lounge areas were very comfortable, opposite to the comfort of my room that is. The 3 Zambian ladies that I shared my cabin with managed to fill every possible storage space. Luckily I didn't mind propping my feet on my bag as I slept. My new buddy Anita snuck into first class, slightly upsetting the staff as her ticket didn't really allow her to do this. (always always 1st class, it's only a few dollars difference!!) Anita offered to pay more money and buy more things as a true American citizen, and finally calmed the conductor down. The first delay of the journey was just after breakfast, still in Tanzania somewhere. It was time to break out the deck of cards with the new friends on the train. The games played started with polite consideration of rules and others sitting within the carriage. And then the game of peanut poker was born. We were lucky enough to have a chap walking by the window several times selling a few bags.

The next couple of hours I well and truely learned how to bluff my way to the biggest peanut pile possible. Laughter is such a good cure for train boredom!! We had become mates with fellow Canadians Chrissy and Adrian, and Brits Bryanny and Lyndsey.

The next adventure began at 4am when we arrived at the border. We had been told earlier on in the journey by train staff that Anita and myself wouldn't have too much trouble getting our visas. So, most of us slumbered off of the train to get our exit stamps on the Tanzanian side. In trying to save a bit of money I was planning on using my Canadian passport (cheaper for a Zambian Visa) instead of the British that I had been using to date. The Zambian customs officials then boarded the train and would be issuing our Visa whilst travelling across Zambia. Sounds easy enough right? Hhmmpphh. That's what I thought. What an interesting start to Zambia!!

My few days in Tanzania were extremely good, the time far too short. Be ready for the next adventure!!