Edited by Rocky Grove, Thursday, 9 Jan 2014, 20:25
I had a long, but uneventful flight - 24 hours doorstep to doorstep. Train to Birmingham, Emirates via Dubai to Nairobi, Kenyan Airways to Bujumbura and the hotel taxi to finish. Thankfully I have found some antihistamine tablets which knock me out so I slept most of the way, even missing several meals!!
Bujumbura airport seemed out of the fifties, complete with 2 DC3s on the tarmac, the Kenya Airways plane was the only modern one I saw. Still passport control was very quick, they just checked my visa, passport and landing card - stamped the passport and that was it - presumably someone entered the details off the card later.
Only the major roads in Bujumbura are paved, most are still dirt, including the one on which my hotel was located. It's a very spread out town with lots of rural life and livestock near the centre. There were few modern buildings, the main ones were a couple of hotels, UN buildings and the poshest - the anti corruption unit!
I spent the first day walking round town, changing money - not easy - and buying a bus ticket to Kigali - the bus station is unpaved!
On Tuesday I walked to Lake Tanganyika and spent a pleasant afternoon sipping soft drinks watching a bloat of eight hippos, including one calf. They came to within about 10 meters of where we were sitting on a raised platform. A heavy thunderstorm prolonged my stay, spectacular and not very good for the unsurfaced roads!
Today I caught the bus to Kigali, about 350 km and six and half hours. The roads were generally good, especially in Rwanda. We had three dirt road diversions in Burundi around broken bridges. The bus was pleasant but very crowded, every stop the guy had to unload luggage to let people off. They played a video of gospel singers, I think singing in French, with English subtitles!
Rural Burundi is very poor and I saw only two schools the whole trip to the border whilst there were many children working, or playing by the road side.
The border emphasised the contrast between the countries. Burundi, my details were entered into a ledger, Rwanda my passport was scanned as is normal.
The infrastructure is far better too and many more schools and uniformed kids. Sadly there was soon a reminder of the genocide as we passed the Butare Genocide Memorial.
Kigali seems like a modern city, although I'll explore properly tomorrow. I am staying at "The Inn at Heaven" , they seem to like names of this sort in Africa! Accommodation is expensive due to all the NGOs here so i experimented with what's known as AirB&B - a bulletin board which rents out people's spare rooms. The Inn at Heaven is a very popular and quite classy restaurant but they rent out three rooms via Air B&B - a pleasant place to stay and gorgeous, quite reasonably priced food.
Thursday
My first impressions weren't really born out. It is a pleasant city and seems very friendly but I have never experienced such a high level of security - even in Israel, bags searched going into major supermarkets and frequent soldiers and security guards complete with automatic rifles. The modern shop fronts are evidence of the extensive rebuilding following the civil war, but shield typical African shops. Behind the new building one soon walked into ghettos with raw sewage and people sifting through rubbish heaps for a living. Despite this I felt relaxed and safe exploring. I walked to the Genocide Memorial, sadly the 4th such place I have visited and by far the most moving. It's in a beautiful landscaped setting on a slope facing the centre of the city - in many way the outside reminded me of the Baha'i Gardens in Haifa. Inside was very sombre, more so I think because - happening less than 20 years ago - all the pictures looked modern. I found the room entitled something like "Those who should have been our future" most moving. It was blown up pictures of children aged 1 - 16 who had been murdered - the commentary listed things like their favourite food, what they liked to do - and how they were killed.
Central & East African Adventures
I had a long, but uneventful flight - 24 hours doorstep to doorstep. Train to Birmingham, Emirates via Dubai to Nairobi, Kenyan Airways to Bujumbura and the hotel taxi to finish. Thankfully I have found some antihistamine tablets which knock me out so I slept most of the way, even missing several meals!!
Bujumbura airport seemed out of the fifties, complete with 2 DC3s on the tarmac, the Kenya Airways plane was the only modern one I saw. Still passport control was very quick, they just checked my visa, passport and landing card - stamped the passport and that was it - presumably someone entered the details off the card later.
Only the major roads in Bujumbura are paved, most are still dirt, including the one on which my hotel was located. It's a very spread out town with lots of rural life and livestock near the centre. There were few modern buildings, the main ones were a couple of hotels, UN buildings and the poshest - the anti corruption unit!
I spent the first day walking round town, changing money - not easy - and buying a bus ticket to Kigali - the bus station is unpaved!
On Tuesday I walked to Lake Tanganyika and spent a pleasant afternoon sipping soft drinks watching a bloat of eight hippos, including one calf. They came to within about 10 meters of where we were sitting on a raised platform. A heavy thunderstorm prolonged my stay, spectacular and not very good for the unsurfaced roads!
Today I caught the bus to Kigali, about 350 km and six and half hours. The roads were generally good, especially in Rwanda. We had three dirt road diversions in Burundi around broken bridges. The bus was pleasant but very crowded, every stop the guy had to unload luggage to let people off. They played a video of gospel singers, I think singing in French, with English subtitles!
Rural Burundi is very poor and I saw only two schools the whole trip to the border whilst there were many children working, or playing by the road side.
The border emphasised the contrast between the countries. Burundi, my details were entered into a ledger, Rwanda my passport was scanned as is normal.
The infrastructure is far better too and many more schools and uniformed kids. Sadly there was soon a reminder of the genocide as we passed the Butare Genocide Memorial.
Kigali seems like a modern city, although I'll explore properly tomorrow. I am staying at "The Inn at Heaven"
, they seem to like names of this sort in Africa! Accommodation is expensive due to all the NGOs here so i experimented with what's known as AirB&B - a bulletin board which rents out people's spare rooms. The Inn at Heaven is a very popular and quite classy restaurant but they rent out three rooms via Air B&B - a pleasant place to stay and gorgeous, quite reasonably priced food.
Thursday
My first impressions weren't really born out. It is a pleasant city and seems very friendly but I have never experienced such a high level of security - even in Israel, bags searched going into major supermarkets and frequent soldiers and security guards complete with automatic rifles. The modern shop fronts are evidence of the extensive rebuilding following the civil war, but shield typical African shops. Behind the new building one soon walked into ghettos with raw sewage and people sifting through rubbish heaps for a living. Despite this I felt relaxed and safe exploring. I walked to the Genocide Memorial, sadly the 4th such place I have visited and by far the most moving. It's in a beautiful landscaped setting on a slope facing the centre of the city - in many way the outside reminded me of the Baha'i Gardens in Haifa. Inside was very sombre, more so I think because - happening less than 20 years ago - all the pictures looked modern. I found the room entitled something like "Those who should have been our future" most moving. It was blown up pictures of children aged 1 - 16 who had been murdered - the commentary listed things like their favourite food, what they liked to do - and how they were killed.
For photos of Rwanda & Burundi click here