Tanzania Day 1: Just One Night (Again)

Shortly after take off from Doha, we were served a brunch of scrambled eggs, sausage, and potato. I was sitting next to a woman reading the Bible and there was a kid in front of us who screamed for hours. I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep somehow. We had to make a pit stop in Arusha and we were able to get a glimpse of Mt. Kilimanjaro through the clouds. Finally, after about eight hours, we landed in Dar es Salaam.

The airport in Dar had one of the most unorganized Visa processes I've seen. There was no line. They just randomly took your passport and disappeared with it. We both got our passports back with the right Visas so then it was on to currency exchange. Now last time we were in Tanzania, I had a terrible experience where the currency exchange in town stole money from me. So this time, I thought it would be better to do it at the airport. I was wrong. I gave the woman at the counter $1,200 USD. She gave me back Tanzanian money equivalent to $100 USD. What is with people trying to scam me in this country? All three women were behind the counter giggling and laughing. I ended up having to cause a huge scene to get the correct amount of funds.

At least our driver was waiting and he took us to Hotel Slipway down on the waterfront.

We were exhausted and practically falling asleep but we fought the urge to crash.

View from balcony

We walked downstairs to the Waterfront Restaurant for dinner.

It was a relaxing little restaurant with a house band.

They played everything from Kool and the Gang to Kenny Rogers.

We both ordered rum and Cokes. Boy were they stingy on the rum.

For dinner, Brenda had king prawns.

I had grilled octopus.

We hung out for a little bit and watched the locals dance.

Then it was back to the hotel for a re-pack. For safari, we were only allowed 30 lbs of luggage each in soft-sided bags. We brought additional clothes for our time in Dar and Doha so we had to shuffle things around in order to store the extra luggage at the hotel. We finally fell into bed around 11p.