I apologize that it has taken me so long to finish this. And actually to finish, I am afraid that parts will be stolen from various emails I wrote:
Jess and I then went to Jinja on Sunday. It's one of the "sources of the Nile." And we white water rafted. It was wonderful. Our guide was a New Zealander named Cam and he was definitely a bit crazy but it made the trip even more fun. Our group did quite well, and only tipped in one rapid - the rapid that everyone else took the calm way around. Which basically means we were the only "wild" trip that day.
We then went a bit farther north to Sipi Falls/Mt Elgon. After arriving though we decided to have an early dinner (by the way, full board is the best idea ever) and sleep. We slept for 11.5 hours and woke up at 8. Had breakfast and went hiking. I was definitely a bit worse for wear, but enjoyed the hike and did not faint. The falls were so beautiful. And we hiked through farms to see them, and coffee plantations! Pretty neat to finally see one of my favorite things growing. Our guide ground some freshley roasted for us, very few things have ever smelled so good to me!
We then went back to Kampala, partially because a couple we met rafting told us about a spa that we wanted to check out. For under $30 you could get a 1 hour full body massage, all day pool use, and lunch. We were so there. And it was really nice, a bit cloudy though. Then we went to the bookstore and grocery stores, saw another movie and continued to eat our way through foods that we tried to forget while in Kigali.
The highlight was heading back to the Chinese Restuarant: Our moto driver took us to the parking lot of the office building that Fang Fang is located in an office building. As we walked into the parking lot, we see a lot of flashing lights and aren't sure if it's an accident, if it's a motorcade, if it's a crime scene, if we should walk around the block to the front door... Well one of the police officers approached us, asked if we were going to the restaurant and then walked, past the motorcade, us up to the service entrance, where we waited for an elevator. The other bank opened first and about 8 Chinese men and women step out, obviously as confused by our presence as we are. As we try not to disappear into the wall, very hard in a narrow hallway, the elevator we are waiting for arrives. And there are another 8 Chinese nationals! Who are so polite, they try to let us in the elevator before the get out. I was trying so hard not to laugh at the ridiculousness of this obvious security breach and managed to only smile until the elevator door closed. I asked at the restaurant, it was the Chinese Ambassador and an official delegation visiting.
Next we were off to Queen Elizabeth National Park. The trip there was very long, we left the hotel at 6am and arrive at 3:30pm. So neither of us were in a very good mood. We arrived for what was supposed to be our 1 night splurge at the safari lodge (also full board) and almost immediately decided to add a second night. And a game drive. We already had the cheaper river cruise booked. The pool was so nice, it was one of those infinity pools that appear to end into the scenery? Well we saw an elephant drinking from the channel while we were in the pool, it was really cool. And apparently rare for rainy season.
The game drive was completely worth it - we saw lions!! well, 1 lion and 3 lionesses. And they aren't that easy to find, there were some people who had been there for 4 days and had yet to see one. So needless to say that I was really excited. They were far away but it was fun watching them, they are really just big cats. We also saw a baby elephant. It was so cute!!
We took our river cruise in the afternoon and saw.... a leopard!!! It was spotted and everything. =) and I know that sounds obvious but we were about 30 feet away, and it was incredible. We also saw baby hippos, which were really cute- especially when they wiggled their ears.
And for those who want to know about how we traveled, so here is my run down of our trip home which gives a good indication:
To leave the park we had to have a car pick us up ($15), about 30 minutes to the small town. We were going to wait for a Matatu (basically a small bus/15-passenger van, that usually has around 20 people in it) but it was going to be over an hour so the local motel was heading our way and offered us a lift in their van to Mbarara for $15, so we took that. 2 hour drive. They then dropped us at a gas station where we could catch a bus on the way from Kampala to Kigali. We then heard we probably wouldn't get on a bus until midnight (it was noon) so as we debated our options a man and his son stopped and offered us a lift halfway to the boarder, for $10. So we rode with them for about an hour and a half. They then got us on a crammed Matatu, where people kept complaining about the abuzungu (white people) taking up too much space, until Jess and I had a little fit which shut them up. (It involved some girl being sat on my lap as her seat, so I moved to the floor, and yeah...) Then we hired a car for $15 to take up the other 40 minutes to the boarder (it was about 20 the way he drove). We then walked across the boarder (immigration on both sides) and were looking for a bus to Kigali. It's now about 4pm, and raining. We ended up sharing a taxi with 2 other people, and when 10 minutes in the driver tries to cram another on the back seat, I told him that that was not ok. He said it was bc it was another driver, and I said he may be another driver but I am not paying my full fare if he is riding with us. So the guy got out. And that is how we finally got home. 11 hours later...
