entebbe's lake shore left me broke and humid (a budget student's tale)
i'm writing this from a cracked plastic chair at a cafe that charges 2000 UGX for a bottle of water, and i can see the lake through a broken window. lake victoria, they call it. but right now it's just a massive, humid puddle that's soaking into my socks. i've been here three days and my clothes haven't dried. the humidity is 94% according to my phone, which feels like a lie because it's actually 100% miserable. the temperature is 17.9°C but it feels like 18.2, which is basically the same but i'm sweating anyway. pressure's 1012 hPa, whatever that means. all i know is the air is so thick you could chew it, and the ground level pressure is 887, which might explain why my ears pop when i walk downhill. i just checked and it's...this relentless dampness that clings to your skin like a cheap wrapper. hope you like that kind of thing.
so yeah, i'm on the shores of lake victoria, somewhere around 0.5°N, 29.4667°E if you want to get technical. the map shows this huge blue blob, but being here is different. it's all fishing boats that look like they're from a museum, and women balancing baskets of fish on their heads, and the smell of diesel and rotting seaweed. i'm a budget student, so i'm staying in a hostel that costs 10,000 UGX a night, which is about $2.70, and that's with a shared bathroom that has a spider the size of my hand. *always check for spiders before you sit down.
the food here is cheap but risky. i've been living on rolex (chapati rolled with eggs and veggies) for 500 UGX, and sometimes i splurge on grilled tilapia for 3000 UGX from a lady by the beach. someone told me that the fish is often caught in the morning and left in the sun all day, so i try to eat it early. i heard from a Peace Corps volunteer that the lake has bilharzia, so you shouldn't swim. i didn't plan to anyway-the water looks like a sludge of tea and motor oil. but kids do, and that's how you get parasites.
if you get bored of the lake's endless grey horizon, kampala's a bone-shaking matatu ride away, but honestly, why would you leave? the chaos here is cheaper. i took a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) to the market for 1000 UGX, and the driver tried to charge me 5000 at the end. i laughed and gave him 1500. haggle hard or get taken for a ride. that's my advice.
i've been reading reviews on TripAdvisor for things to do, but i take them with a grain of salt. one review said the sunset boat tour was 'romantic and serene', but my boat had a hole and we were bailing with a cut-up plastic bottle. still, it was 2000 UGX, so can't complain. i also found a local board, the Uganda Travel Forum, where they warned about the ferry schedule changes. that saved me a day of waiting. i've gathered some links that might help: the hostel i stayed at (though noisy with a lake view) is on Hostelworld here, but check the recent TripAdvisor reviews for bed bugs here, also there's a local Facebook group called Uganda Travel Forum where they share real boda boda fares here. and for fish joints, Yelp lists Fish Factor Uganda. hope that saves you some cash.
anyway, the weather is still oppressive. i just checked again-still 94% humidity, like the sky is crying but forgot to drop the water. i'm starting to think the number 219057 is a secret code for how many minutes i'll be stuck here. and 1180325051? that's probably my future phone bill if i use data too much.
the lake at dawn looks like this:
it's actually pretty, if you ignore the smell.
i took a rickety boat out to a tiny island that's just a lump of rock with goats:
the boatman charged me 5000 UGX but i got it down to 3000 after pretending to walk away. never accept the first price.
the sunset over the water was:
and i almost cried because i was so broke and it was free.
right now i'm sipping tea that tastes like lake water, and i'm worried about my laptop dying because the cafe's power flickers. i've got 5000 UGX left, which is enough for dinner if i skip breakfast tomorrow. i heard that the night bus to kampala leaves at 2am and costs 8000 UGX, but i'm not sure i have the guts to take it. maybe i'll just stay and get a job gutting fish. at least it's cheap here.
i should mention the neighbors: if you want to escape, the Kenyan border is a few hours west, but that's another country with different scams. or you could go to jinja for rafting, but that costs money i don't have. so i'm here, sweating, writing this on a keyboard that's sticky with who knows what. always carry hand sanitizer*, you'll thank me later.
i'm not sure if this post makes sense, but i'm tired and the humidity has melted my brain. hopefully someone finds it useful. or at least entertaining. now if you'll excuse me, i need to find a cheaper bottle of water.