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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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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!!

Having survived the 15 hour journey to Dar Es Salaam, I was slightly off track to discover my chosen hotel was full. Who wants to traipse the streets with a pack at night? The taxi driver was accomodating enough to drive me
to the next budget option. So I put the pack back in the car in order for him to reverse across the street. And then he parked. Can you believe it? An extra buck in the fare because of two drop off locations just a few feet apart!! I argued and made a scene, and then realized in my tired state I was fussing over one dollar. Don't sweat the small stuff right? It's easy to loose track I promise!

I wasn't really intending to spend a lot of time here, really just the starting point for a trip down to Zambia. After a well stretched out sleep I found a french coffee shop frequented by too many ex-pats. Once the caffeine flowed through my system I made my way to the train station to purchase a ticket departing in a few days. I then snagged a lift back into town with some young lads from the UK-and why ...