Vacation (PART 1)

10/13/05

I'm in a room in Arusha: bare concrete walls are illuminated by a light bulb hanging from wires. The window hasn't been installed yet, there is just a gaping hole overlooking the taxi park and a filthy hoteli, where I ate dinner: rice and beef, with a pineapple Fanta for $1.20. A bad kung-fu movie, dubbed in English and subtitled in Arabic was playing on the black and white TV (the other patrons watched intently.) This room smells strongly of rotten fish, a smell that is actually coming from my bag. Apparently the cargo hold of the bus was leaking, and now I have this wonderful (and constant) reminder of Zanzibar. The door won't seem to lock and I don't trust this place, tonight is the first that I will sleep with a knife next to my bed. The 'bed' is actually just a concave single mattress on the ground in the corner. All in all, it's kind of like a prison cell, except for the gaping hole and the fact that my bathroom is three stories down. At least it only cost $10. There is a strange Muslim chanting coming from a loudspeaker through the 'window.'

To combat all of this, I bought two cans of cold beer, Castle Lager, 5.0%, which I will be consuming shortly.

After 4 hours of sleep last night, I woke up at 5am, packed, and said goodbye to Ma (whose teammate, Claudia, just called to say they reached the Dar Es Salaam Airport safely.) I caught a cab to the ferry, bought a second-class ticket, and barely made it on board by the 7am departure time. We started moving half an hour later. I slept the two hours or so to Dar. At the harbor, I pushed through the touts at the gate and found a cab to the bus station. I knew I had missed the last scheduled bus to Arusha, so at the entrance to the bus station when a tout jumped into the cab and said he had one I was sort of relieved, although I realized it was a shady deal when he gave the taxi driver 500/=. I asked when the bus left and how much it cost. He said 10am, and 12500/=. When we got to the bus and I saw it was only half full, I realized he was full of shit saying10am. I asked again when he was writing my ticket, and the conductor standing next to him said something to the effect of, 'we're scheduled to leave at 10am. But come on, this is Africa.' He was right. They handed me my ticket and I handed them 15000/= and asked for my 2-5. The tout said no, the ticket was 25000/=. I yanked my money back, and got up to leave. I was in no mood. All of a sudden, four guys were surrounding me, telling me to calm down, "Hakuna Matata" (I would never have believed that so many grown men actually said that, and usually when there actually is a problem.) I stood fast, I told that I was getting off the bus, and quickly my 2-5 appeared. I probably still would have left, just on principal, but I was tired, so I sat back down. Then one of the 'hakuna matata' guys told me that my luggage was an extra 3000/=. I got up again. But then I was assured, No, my luggage was no extra, I wouldn't have to pay anything more, and the bus was leaving very soon. The deal was done. The station was busy and I was certain that someone was reaching into the cargo hold and pulling my bags out, or that the conductor or the driver would be coming by to tell me that my ticket was invalid for this reason or that, that I needed to pay again. And I only had 10000/= left. I was tired, but I refused to fall asleep. I wanted to watch the cargo hold, but I was on the wrong side of the bus. I sat on the edge of my seat, scanning the bus park for someone running away with my bag. I was extremely uncomfortable. Finally, around 11am, we started moving.

I started getting nervous around Moshi, still an hour out of Arusha. The sun was setting fast. Nothing is worse than showing up in a new city without much money and no idea where to stay, after dark. I pulled out my Lonely Planet book to try and figure out where the bus park was and if there was a room nearby. As I flipped the pages to the Arusha section the heading 'Dangers and Annoyances' caught my eye. It reads, "Arusha is the worst place in Tanzania for street touts… Among the worst places for touts are along Boma and Goliondoi Roads and at the bus station… At night, take a taxi if you go out; it's not safe to walk…" Great. At the bus stage, I pushed my way through the wall of touts who were grabbing at me, telling me to go to this hotel or take that cab or how about a safari (I mean, who, who books a safari at night in a taxi park?!) I grabbed my (now rotten fish smelling) bags from the cargo hold and charged up the street, avoiding touts (which in Northern Tanzania have been appropriately dubbed 'fly catchers') like it was a video game (it's Donkey Kong… the touts are the barrels being thrown at me by the evil gorilla… where is my giant hammer?) Fortunately Hotel 7-11 wasn't far, and had this lovely $10 room for me.

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