Having been in Tanzania now for a month, and having been recently impacted by a particularly bad streak of circumstances, makes me wonder how this country can work its way out of the lack of modernization and unreliable resources. Tanzania is a hot tourist spot because it has Wild Animal parks like Serengeti and Ngorogoro Crater and for the more ambitious visitors, it has the highest peak in Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro at 19,341 feet and it has some nice beaches and islands.
Our guided experiences climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and doing a safari with a locally owned company were decent and had no mishaps. They could have been done better but nothing went wrong. In fact, the jeep we used on the safari did have the engine warning light come on while on safari and our driver was able to get it fixed within the Serengeti park by a group of mechanics who can fix the hundreds of Land Cruisers from mechanically failing, during a safari. And he did this on his own time – our safari wasn’t impacted. It goes to show that where the tourist money is the strongest, the resources are readily available. Sidenote: we had written into our safari guide contract a reimbursement clause if there were mechanical difficulties that impacted our safari time – luckily didn’t need to invoke it.
Mike and I then decided to strike out on our own and go to a southern area where we could possibly do some hiking in 8,000 foot mountains without needing a guide. Get off the beaten tourist path. And here is what happened:
- In Dar es Salaam (largest city) tried to book a train trip (24 hour train ride!) online and there wasn’t a way to do this. We went to the train station (40 mins from the city center) and were able to buy the tickets but only with cash. We had to travel 15 mins to an ATM to get enough cash and then back to the train station.
- The day we were due to depart we got a ride to the train station and were told the train didn’t show up and to come back the next day at the same time. No online mention of the schedule change.
- The next day we got our hotel concierge to call the train line and confirm it was leaving that day. We got a taxi ride but the taxi broke down. We had to quickly rustle up another ride to only be 15 mins late from when we were told to be there. We were taken to the first class lounge – hardly any seats that weren’t decrepit and part of the ceiling was rotting and missing. That should have been a clue. The train was an hour late in leaving.
- The train was very old and dirty, no AC and in our 1st class compartment there were 4 bunks, one window, one little fan. The shared bathrooms were also gross – hole in the floor, barely working sink, no soap or towel and BYOTP (bring your own toilet paper).
- We get a very fitful night of sleep with the very jerky movements of the train – probably due to very old tracks in need of maintenance.
- The next morning we were informed that there was a freight train accident that damaged the tracks we were headed towards and it would take at least 3 days to fix. We were in the middle of nowhere Tanzania in a very small town, the only foreigners except one Korean man.
- The train’s station master did take care of us and prioritized us when refunding some of our ticket cost. We managed to get the refund in less than 2 hours – other people had to wait much longer. He also found a private car for us to hire to take us out of that area (not easy to do – very bumpy, dusty, hilly roads). It was a 5 – 6 hour drive. Along the way the Toyota Prado got a flat tire. Finally made it back to some civilization and booked a flight the next day to Dar es Salaam. Those 3 days ^^ made us want to return to the beaten path.
- Our flight to Dar ended up being moved earlier by 2 hours – email was sent – but if we had slept later, we wouldn’t have seen it since we had gone to bed early from being so wiped out from the train experience. We rushed to the airport in a rickety tuk-tuk that almost needed to be pushed there. Then the plane was an hour late in departing.
- Got to Dar airport where we had a layover of 5 hours to take another domestic flight to Zanzibar. That flight ended up being delayed and there was no announcement until the time it had been due to depart – a lot of uncertainty swirling around the status of the flight.
- Finally got to Zanzibar at night, At the airport another oopsy. We weren’t aware of a local insurance requirement that Zanzibar levies for $88 per couple “for our safety”. It covers a variety of things that we already have covered in various ways. But no way to get it waived. And the process was impeded by an island-wide WiFi issue, so it took a long time. We didn’t find out about the WiFi issue until the next day, all the while being very frustrated with the WiFi crapping out all the time.
“You know”, I said to Mike, “all the people we interact with have been trying to help but they are set up to fail due to lack of dependable resources and crumbling infrastructure.”
Trying to travel in Tanzania without being on the more expensive tourist track, is wearing. It wore me down – I got congested and a slight sore throat and a bit demoralized. I’m okay now, by the way! Ready to continue the adventures — but not too much longer in Tanzania.