Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'You will see me later, yes, Lev?'
'Later?'
'Are you forgetting already?'
In the moment I was, but Boston had invited me to his family home for dinner the fol-
lowing night. He had been chattering about it all the way into the Kibuye roundabout, and
I had to admit to being particularly intrigued at seeing how Boston lived a more sedate,
family life.
'I'll be there, Boston,' I said, and we clasped hands in the African way - first up, and
then down.
With Boston gone, it was only me and the revellers. For a moment I stood and watched
them, and it was then that exhaustion truly caught up with me. We had come a long way
today, and it was time to make camp.
A piece of Boston's endless chatter came to my mind and I weaved my way to a place
he had recommended, the Hotel Le Bougainviller. The hotel was located in a quiet, resid-
ential area of town, away from the bustle of the market and financial area. There, among
the leafy hills and white-walled embassies, I closed myself in my room and found peace
and privacy for the first time I could remember.
There is a guilt that comes when you experience a moment of luxury in a country where
you have seen such poverty. As I lay back on the hotel bed, I was thinking of Kasansero,
Moses and the AIDS epidemic, the stragglers I had seen eking out their subsistence lives
on the shores of the lake - but I was thinking of other things too: the promise of a good
steak, a glass of red wine, and a long, dreamless sleep. I closed my eyes. This was all, I
told myself, very surreal. I resolved to make the most of it because, in a few days' time, it
would be back to the road - and, a few days after that, the luxury of Kampala would seem
a very long way away.
Kampala is the pride of Uganda, a capital city that has more in common with the affluent
cities of the West than it does the landing sites we had passed through on our way north.
We were going to be here for seven days, the first real lull in our journey and, though I
wanted to rest, I also wanted to know what made this city tick.
In this city of more than a million people there are a great number of different cultures
all existing side by side. Although the Buganda, the local ethnic group, make up more than
half the population, the city's ethnic mix is truly diverse. As in most modern countries,
the growth of the urban economy has seen people flock to the capital - but Kampala's ex-
pansion has been driven by political factors too. During the rule of Idi Amin, and Milton
Obote - who was overthrown by Amin and then restored to power following Amin's de-
position - many Ugandans from the native northern tribes were brought into the city, to
serve in the police and army, as well as to shore up the government's other, more shadowy,
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