We had a good night’s rest and woke up to the sound of birds. It was quite chilly today, aided by an overcast sky and the high elevation. We agreed to depart around 11am for the three hour drive to Arusha. It was a stark change in road conditions as we enjoyed a paved road the entire way. It was unusual to not be covered in dirt/dust while bouncing around inside the truck.
As we left Karatu and the Ngorongoro area, we saw numerous people transporting jugs of water on bicycles, motorbikes, wheeled carts, or donkeys. This is common practice for the area. Salvatori said 60% of the people don’t have running water, so they have to fill these containers at a hand pump or well. As one would expect, those that don’t have running water typically don’t have cars either. Traversing several kilometers over undulating terrain with nothing more than a bicycle in most cases makes all of this quite a challenge for something as basic and necessary as water. Think about that next time you turn on the taps.
We passed a few outdoor markets on our way to Arusha. It’s certainly a different way of life than Nicole and I are accustomed to. There were a lot of women carrying different items on their heads. Most often it was bananas, but as we got closer to Arusha, I saw some with about 200 different pairs of socks for sale — all on their head.
The outfits are often vibrant and colorful, and it was not uncommon for people to wave to us if we were in one of the smaller villages. All in all, the people have been extremely friendly and warm in Tanzania. And they didn’t give me the vibe of a fake friendliness. It all seemed genuine. I would even go as far to say that Tanzanians are at least in the top three of friendliest people I have encountered while abroad.
As we got closer to Arusha, commercial buildings replaced the outdoor markets. Salvatori pointed out a new shopping mall that had been shut down from March through July. Keep in mind, Tanzania’s government reported zero cases since April, and yet the mall remained closed for months after such declarations. It would seem that businesses and local leaders have had to take action to fill the void in shoddy leadership. Or as everyone’s crazy relatives on facebook would say (in all caps naturally), “THAT MALL IN ARUSHA, TANZANIA IS CLOSED TO MAKE TRUMP LOOK BAD! THEIR CITIES ARE RUN BY DEMON-RATS! LAW AND ORDER!”
And on that note, we arrived back at the African Tulip Hotel in Arusha, where we were able to use a room and relax. We did our laundry there, which was absolutely necessary (albeit a bit overpriced). It was nice to relax for several hours before getting a transfer to the airport for our midnight flight to Doha. We arrived at the airport nearly three hours before our scheduled departure, but it was again a multi step process starting with a security checkpoint immediately upon entering the door. We needed to prove that we had already applied for an e-visa to Turkey, booked a hotel, and had an onward flight. We slipped through with two out of the three. Since this is a rare occasion where we actually bought tickets, we decided to check our bags to make it easier on ourselves. We then filled out our customs declaration forms, got briefly interrogated by crusty border agents (is there any other kind?), and went through another security checkpoint before we finally reached the boarding area.
We were each handed a face shield before boarding our Qatar Airways A320. Once airborne, we received a very late dinner. Because we had confirmed seats for once, I was able to put in a special meal request for Nicole. That request? “Bland.” Nicole finds the meal options a bit lacking on airlines because there’s no such thing as simple chicken or pasta dish. Everything is curried or saturated in a cream sauce (which is true). Her “bland” meal was indeed bland. Cantaloupe was the dessert. I needn’t say more. After some six hours of flying, we touched down in Doha, Qatar.
We didn’t have a very long layover in Doha, but when I was researching lounges — all of them used a giant teddy bear as a point of reference. It became absolutely necessary to see what this giant teddy bear was all about, though I admit that it underwhelmed and somewhat terrified me. From there, it was a long walk to our gate, where we soon found ourselves enroute to Istanbul.
passports & pepto bismol 