So we were finally able to find a store to buy a note pad for me to record the daily happenings on this trip. We are at Bamboo Cafe in Arusha, Tanzania and it's 12.51pm now. It's our first morning here, we arrived last evening. Today we took a walk along the main street here in Arusha and picked up a few items (newspaper, cough syrup and some multivitamin tablets) and then walked along the main market place but didn't bother going in. We could see the vendors frantically waving in our direction hoping to get us into their stalls. No thank you, we've already been hounded enough on the payments by the hawkers.
We did stop by the local post office and mail out a few postcards to our family in India and Hawaii. Morning breakfast (standard English breakfast) was at the hotel - The Kibo Palace. At this moment, I'm enjoying my ginger tea (my first ever ginger tea), did not know it came with milk, but nevertheless it's tastier than expected. I'm nursing a sore throat that I'm desperately trying to get rid of within the next 48 hours. Jen as always loves her Sprite (costs 600 Tanzanian Shillings approx 0.60USD) as against a Diet Coke at 2000TS. Today on TV we heard that Michael Phelps won his seventh gold in the butterfly stroke event at the Beijing Olympics. One more event on Sunday for his attempt at record 8 golds.
Yesterday we got in at about 1pm, checked into the room and ordered some room service - chicken club sandwich. Showered and took a much needed nap between 3 and 7pm. Woke up, watched a bit of TV, ate again (another club sandwich, it came with beef !!) and back to bed by 10pm. We needed the rest as the flight to get here was surely the wake up call for an adventure.
Today is also my sister Sita's birthday, Happy Birthday Sis!!
After ginger tea and Sprite, we hear about this photo gallery run by an Australian photographer called Zoom Gallery Studios. We head across town, browsed a bit and ordered a few prints at this place. Not much after this except back to the hotel, a short nap then dinner. Called India to talk to my sister and parents and hit the sack by 11pm.
*** jen's outakes ***
Today, our first full day in Arusha, was spent walking around the town. It's pretty small, but with lots of hawkers and a few beggars on the streets. There are barely any signposts, but the sidewalks are wide and traffic is (surprisingly) very orderly. :) We had an interesting lunch - the Tanzanian take on pasta with veggies and sweet & sour chicken.
As we walked in town, we saw (and heard) a band in the back of a pick-up truck, celebrating a wedding. The line of cars that followed were decorated and we could see the bride and groom (along with their flower girl) in the backseat of one of the cars - I think it was a Toyota Corolla.
0 comments:
Post a Comment