Weekend in Arusha

Who knew the time it takes to down 6 pints of your favorite drink, you could be in Arusha? Now I know. 4 hours to be exact.

As random as it could be I set up a quick plan on Friday night and set off the following morning at 8am. This time i drove and if I’m honest with you, I do not want to find myself ever driving for more than 4 hours ever again.

To carry if you are crossing to Tanzania with a car: 1) COMESA insurance (2) Emergency triangles and fire extinguisher (3) Guts to say no to tips (4) Certified copy of your log book (not a must original copy)

Important to note is no. 3 and best excuse you can have is that you didn’t carry cash. This applies to both the KE and TZ side(s) of the border.

In 2 hours exact, I found myself at the Namanga border without no. 1. There was no cause for panic as there are a number of insurance agents at the border who are involved in the profession. My advice would be you handle the insurance aspect in Nairobi and minimize border crossing costs.

After the COMESA saga, we entered the land of H.E. Samia Suluhu (President of The People’s Republic). Oh my, it was very different from the KE side.

The KE side had an array of lodges on the way to the border but into Tanzania it was large tracts of land which were unoccupied with nothing but a gorgeous scenery. The acres and acres of land went on and incase once doesn’t convert TZ cash at the border, you have no other point to change until you get to Arusha town. (2 hours later). And so we arrived in Arusha town. First stop was the Cultural Heritage Center.

One of the the largest art galleries in Africa

The gallery features 4 floors of never ending artifacts and art from all over Africa. Noticeably is that West Africa has a very rich cultural heritage as 70% of objects were from countries in that region.

After about an hour plus the gallery tour was complete and it was time to catch a snack. Good thing there’s a restaurant in the vicinity and I could unwind to a cold one.

Once done, I got a glimpse of a second gallery which I couldn’t leave without checking out. Turns out this gallery built the 4 floor gallery which is now constructing another gallery.

Had to carry a souvenir and nothing better than the usual fridge magnet.

After the gallery tour, I went to AIM mall which was just around the corner.

Here it was to check out Tanzania’s first brewery which impressed me coz I found it by accident.

I think I lost track of time and had to now find the staying place at night. It was a decent 30 minutes drive around Arush going through a murram neighborhood then to a highway all thanks to google maps.

Finally the arrival at Arusha Safari Hostel could only be greeted with a quick check in and a hangout at the lounge. Note that backpacking hostels have no in-house sockets so you have to be social.

After an hour I called it a night and woke up to the coldest morning. Temperatures were very low and this discouraged my swimming plans. Luckily they had breakfast which was a simple one and much appreciated.