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Kigali, thru Burundi to Kigoma, Tanzania. Hello from
Lake Tanganyika.

Sent 4/27 from Kigoma, Tanzania 

I started this at an Internet cafe in Bujumbura, Burundi,
now continuing in Kigoma, Tanzania.  I just got my ticket
on ship Mwangozo from Kigoma to Mpulungu, Zambia.  Boarding
is at 3pm today, sailing at 4pm, will be there in the morn
of Apr. 29.  Talk about Off the Beaten Track travel, the
route from Bujumbura to Kigoma was just that.  (See below
under 3, Burundi to Tanzania.) There is NO ferry from
Bujumbura to Kigoma--nor a bus in fact.  The ship that
Lonely Planet lists as sailing from Bujumbura to Kigali is
the one I am taking from here to Zambia, as ship MV Liemba
is on repair here in Kigoma.


1. To Burundi.  According to Lonely Planet, people
regularly get killed on the highway I took from Kigoma to
Bujumbura.  I figured that if this happened on each trip,
Yahoo Bus  would not have daily buses to Bujumbura.  So I
chanced the trip.  Bus fares in Africa are very cheap, so I
will not bother to list them.  Finding the bus station
maybe the real issue, as every agency that runs buses is
located at a different address.  You have to find out who
runs what buses to where and when.  In Kigali,
international buses start from the Nyabugogo Station about
2km from the hotel; I paid taxi 1,500 RF ($3) at 5:30am.
The trip takes 7 hours over generally nice landscape but
not as gorgeous as the stretch from Kabale to Kisoro in
Uganda--BUT read below under 3.

a) Visa, etc. I paid $20 for 3-day transit visa to Burundi.
 You just cross a bridge over a small creek to be on this
side.  The landscape is still awesome, the roads are better
than in Kenya, with all sorts of turns and twists and
climbs/drops thru the mountains, and the gorgeous drop from
the top of mountains to the city level, with glimpses of
Lake Tanganyika way below.  Bujunbura is not a pretty city,
but the riverfront seemed nice and there are a few nicer
corners.  You can readily exchange Rwandan Franks and
Dollars at the border--I did 20 Dollars (20,000 BFr), but
also used my excess Rwandan Franks.

b) Hotels. Hotels in Bjumbura are expensive.  I checked
several and decided on the STAR Lodge Hotel right across
from the Orthodox Cathedral--NOT the cathedral on Patrice
Lumumba Ave., which most people refer you to if you ask for
the cathedral.  Single rooms go for 18 Dollars, the room
the best I had on this trip, the queen-size bed very
comfortable, a nice shover and bath right next door, a
reasonable restaurant on site. Internet cafes nearby charge
600 to 1,000 Br.Franks per hour ($=1,000 to 1,200 BrF). 

c) Ferry to Kigoma. As far as the ferry from Bujumbura, a
local girl who came with me by bus from Kigoma spent 1/2
hour with me in a taxi driving here and there to see if I
could take the ferry.  The service is discontinued.

d) UN Presence, Police, Military.  Both Congo and Burundi
are full of UN people in white 4-wheels.  They are probably
dealing with the wars and refugee problems.  At the
outskirts of Bujumbura, I saw a city-block-size of land all
covered by huge gray tents.  I saw the same in Goma, Congo
(blue tents there).  Also, I noticed that in Kigoma,
Tanzania, an English-speaking country (or Kswahili), a lot
of people speak French or the tribal Kirundi language, NOT
English.  I surmise these are refugees from Burundi who
have settled down in Tanzania.  Bujumbura (and the roads)
has heavy police and military presence in bunches all
around.  I found the people courteous, really nice, many
very poor--which brings me back to the comment I made in my
1st report.  TOO MANY babies in Africa.

2. Bujumbura to Kigoma, Tanzania--GORGEOUS Off the Beaten
Track Trip.  OK, there was no ferry from Bujumbura to
Kigoma, Tanzania.  BUT it seemed there was also NO direct
bus link to Kigoma.  I wondered if safety was an issue. 
No! The road is, as I found out 4 hours later. I paid 3,500
BFf for the bus Bujumbura to a village called MABANDA 3
hours south.  Lonely Planet suggests Kabale to Kisoro as
very pretty, I nominate this stretch as EVEN MORE
BEAUTIFUL, tops in the world.

a) African Road Scenes.  Because Burundi is a tiny country,
and perhaps more isolated and rural, highway scenes typical
of Africa are accentuated and multiplied.  The road to
Mabanda itself is story-book, with lush mountains with
homes and settlements of mud with thatched roofs, small
family plots, dense banana fields, and lush vegetation to
the left (going south), and oil palm plantations (further
south), and Lake Tanganyika on the right, sometimes close
enough to touch, other times more distant, with glimpses of
its coastline.  Add to this people all along the road and
you have the complete picture, boys carrying sugar cane,
water canisters, etc. on their heads, women in very
colorful costumes, with babies wrapped on their backs,
carrying a basket full of something, some even with an
umbrella besides, seemingly gliding on their feet . . .
going somewhere.  (Our western models should practice this
gliding walk of African women, with erect backs, their bodies
nevertheless undulating very feminine, rather than their
artificial gate, as if to clear off ants in their panties.)

b) Mabanda, Brundi to Kigoma, Tanzania.  OK, having
embarked on our journey at 8:30am, 3 hours later the bus
dropped me and a few other passengers in Mabanda.  There
was a car waiting there to take us to the border with
Tanzania, a 20-min ride, on nice flat dirt road to the
border, for 1,000 BF (1 Dollar, I paid 2).  I got my exit
stamp, and the car to us some km to the Tanzanian border,
there to discharge us.  I paid 30 Dollars for a 14-day
Transit visa to Tanzania, also saw the customs official and
entered Tanzania, with ONLY 60km left to Kigoma, I thought
only about an hour.

There was a minibus waiting there for people, villagers
too, going to Kigoma.  Somehow that minibus fit in 18
people with luggages and packs in that space.  Since
Nairobi, seemingly ages ago, I was the only white person
around.  The driver told me he had NEVER taken a tourist on
this route--from Burundi--that I would likely be the first
and only white person the villagers along the way would
see.  15 minutes into the trip, I understood why there were
no direct bus links from Bujumbura to Kigoma.  The dirt
road was so bad that we were just crawling.  The trip I
thought would take just an hour lasted 5 hours, by then all
pasengers sitting as if glued to the next person.  Since
this minibus operated once-a-day, for me there was no
option, apparently same for the rest, as it would be the
same the next day.  For this very arduous 60km trip, we
paid the driver mere 2.5 Dollars (2,500 T. Sh.)

3. In Kigoma, Tanzania at last.  I had no Tanzanian
Shillings. I told the driver I would pay him 1 Dollar extra
for each of: 1) to take me to a bank with ATM (2 banks have
ATM), 2) to the ferry ticket office (it was closed), and 3)
Lake Tanganyika Beach Hotel (in Lonely Planet) thereafter. 
In fact, I was so grateful to be done with this trip that I
paid him a Dollar extra. 

a) The Hotel.  The beach hotel is located a few 100 meters
from the main ferry station in town.  It has a superb site
with the front lawn right next to the lake, and a
restaurant on site too.  (The place was prettier than any
of the camps we had stayed with the Wide World tour.) The
rooms cost 10,000 (10 Dollars) single, 12,000 double. Mine
was so so.  But I was going to stay there only one nite.

b) The ship.  1st-class ticket costs 50 Dollars, with 5
Dollars extra for port charges.  (1st class cabins are for
2 persons, but I asked to be alone, if the ship was not
crowded, as it seemed I would be the only white person.)  
on-board. The 2nd-class prices were shown as 42,000
TSh--about 40 Dollars, for 4 persons.)  The only complaint
I have is that the ticket office is at the port, a km or 2
on a very bad road, half km from the hotel.  A taxi is a
must, just to get the ticket, then back . . .  It would be
easier to sell these from the main ferry station in town,
or even at the hotel.

So as soon as I am done with this email, I will take a
photo of the interesting-looking main ferry station, walk
around a bit, take a taxi to the hotel, take in the view of
 the lake again, and be at the port at about 2pm, to make
sure the boat IS still there and WILL sail today, as I was
told.  This is Africa, after all.

In Zambia, I will try to take the train to Lusaka, perhaps
as far as Harare, Zimbabwe, then be back in Victoria Falls,
where I had started my tour north a month ago on Mar. 27.

Sirman