BUS TO TANZANIA

BUMPY BUS RIDE TO TANZANIA

In order to enjoy the surroundings in Africa, I decided on a bus journey to Tanzania. I was heading to Arusha town, around 350 kms from Nairobi. Siva had told me that there was `luxury’ bus service between Nairobi and Arusha.
It was a kind of mini-bus called shuttle service and the experience was exactly as any private buses in India. There were agents and bus operators, trying to woo the customers. But, they take good care of their customers and are very polite.The bus
started at 3 pm, one hour behind schedule. By the time we came out of Nairobi city, it was almost 4.30 pm. Getting out of African cities by road can be as frustrating as getting out of Bangalore city. The crowded traffic in the outskirts and foot path hawkers will add to the misery. Soon I realised that it was not a highway journey as I presumed. The Chinese are laying the road in a big way, but at the moment, we had to travel on a mud road. It was very dusty, and the journey was very bad. I could see the quality of work being done by the Chinese. The entire road, after levelling, had been covered with long plastic sheets. On the side of the roads, laying of optic fibre cable was also in progress. ``Road to development’’, I thought.
The rural side in Africa is very beautiful. Large tracts of open land, bushes and small hillocks ae worth enjoying amidst a bad journey. At around 7 pm, we reached Namanga, the Kenya-Tanzania border. Namanga is a small town, which has immigration offices of both Kenya and Tanzania. There is no presence of either military or any kind of security forces here.
It was a nice experience to see the vehicles crowd at the border. Long queue of trucks, and cars parked on both the sides ae a common scene. While you walk around the offices, hawkers, especially the Masai tribes approach you with colourful ornaments to make some quick business. The immigration process is too simple. Just walk into the Kenya office and get the immigration cleared. Enter Tanzania office and get a visa. Officials in both the offices were friendly. The Kenyan authorities inquired about my return date and wanted to know if I would be spending some more days in Kenya after my return. The Tanzanian officials asked me how long I would stay and suggested some places to visit. They generously issued visa for three months, though I told them that I would be staying in their country for only three days.
Even after all the passengers completed their immigration and visa process, the bus took a long time to start. We were only four foreigners – including two Israeli women and a US national. The rest were locals and we asked if there was any problem. But the driver assured that everything was fine.
At last, we started from Namanga at around 8.30 pm, only to be stopped within next 15 minutes at a customs check post. The bus did not move for one more hour and there were negotiations between the bus driver and the customs officials. At the end, the bus driver decided to leave behind some luggage, which was under dispute.
Things went wrong further down the journey. On the way, there was a huge pile up of the highway traffic, following a small accident. The driver did not even give a second thought and diverted the shuttle bus towards a road under-construction road. It was bumpy and too dusty, but there was no option. By this time, even I felt a little fatigued, but could see some lights at a distance. In the next 15 minutes, we were in Arusha and the driver dropped me at Impala hotel, where I had booked my stay. One good thing about the shuttle bus is that they drop the tourists and pick them up from their door steps. Though a bumpy and dusty ride, I was happy at the end of it.

Arusha