Western Tanzania - Tanzania - page 445

here . With the roads improving, many companies are talking expansion, so there will surely
be more services than what's detailed here.
Train
For schedule and price information on the ageing and unreliable Central Line train from
Dar es Salaam, Dodoma or Tabora, Click here .
GETTING AROUND
Dalla-dallas (Tsh300) park in front of the train station and run along the main roads to Bera
bus stand, Kibirizi, Katonga and Ujiji. Taxis between the town centre and Bera bus stand
or Kibirizi charge Tsh2000 to Tsh3000. Don't pay more than Tsh1000 for a motorcycle taxi
anywhere within the city.
Ujiji
Tiny Ujiji, one of Africa's oldest market villages, earned its place in travel lore as the spot
where explorer-journalist Henry Morton Stanley uttered his famously casual 'Dr Living-
stone, I presume?' The site where the 1871 encounter occurred is commemorated by a stark
grey monument inside a chain-link fence. The two mango trees here (two others died) are
said to have been grafted from the original tree that shaded the two men during their en-
counter. Down below, the new Livingstone Memorial Museum (admission Tsh5000;
8am-6pm) held little more than a few prints about the East African slave trade, a few paint-
ings by local artists and papier-mache replicas of the two men, but the caretaker assured us
that the National Museum in Dar es Salaam would be installing proper displays 'soon'.
From the Livingstone compound you can continue 300m further to Ujiji's beach and
small dhow port, which many people find more interesting. No power tools are used in
building the boats and construction methods are the same as they have been for genera-
tions.
As a terminus of the old caravan route to the coast, Ujiji grew prosperous on the back
of the slave and ivory trade and during Livingstone's time it was the main settlement in
the region; a status it lost after the train station was built at Kigoma. Burton and Speke
also stopped here in 1858 before setting out to explore Lake Tanganyika. Despite its distin-
guished past, little remains today of Ujiji's former significance except that some buildings
away from the main road show Swahili traits.
Ujiji is 8km south of central Kigoma; dalla-dallas (Tsh300, 20 minutes) run between the
two towns throughout the day. The Livingstone site is down a cobblestone street about 1km
off the main road. Just ask for Livingstone and the dalla-dalla driver will drop you off at
the right place.