You&meTraveling2

Uganda There are travelers who like buses, there are travelers who take buses to save money, and then there's us. We'd love to save money but after more than a year of traveling, we just don't have the stamina and patience for long bus rides anymore. How to Get to Sipi Falls The nice lady at our guesthouse in Entebbe organized a taxi for us to go to Sipi Falls. The only thing was, she didn't know where Sipi was. Nor did the driver. They only knew it was "near" the town of Mbale (actually it's 70 km from Mbale). Our driver, who drove an airport taxi, probably had never been too far away from Kampala and had no idea where he was going. From Kampala, there are two ways to go to Sipi: a long and a short way. Our driver took the long way. He got a speeding ticket and almost drove to the Kenyan border (twice). By 6 pm we arrived at the turnoff to Sipi and it was clearly the driver's first time driving in the mountains. Despite his frequent complaints (where ...

Lake Natron Area, Tanzania A few hours drive north of the town of Mto wa Mbu, near the border to Kenya, lies Lake Natron. Away from the safari- and therefore main tourist trail, this was supposed to be a relatively cheap adventure (compared to the safaris). Pictures on Google showed a red colored salt lake, thousands of flamingos, and the amazing crater landscape of Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano. It looked great and we had to go there, no matter what. Neemia organizes tours around  Mto wa Mbu. Highly recommended! How to Get to Lake Natron There are three ways to get to Engaresero, the Lake Natron region's main town: By bus, on foot, or by car. The bus, a converted truck, was the cheapest but not the best option since we wanted to be able to stop en route to take pictures as well as to bring enough food and water for several days. The two-day hike through the Ngorongoro Highlands to Lake Natron sounded amazing but the park fees alone (USD 60 per person per day, plus 18% VAT) were enough ...

Tarangire and Ngorongoro Crater National Parks, Northern Tanzania Arusha is   the   place to organize a safari to the northern circuit-parks from. Tons of tour operators, some better, some worse, offer all kinds of tours to the parks. How the Safari Finds You Our hotel was located one or two kilometers west of Arusha city center, where most of the tour operators are located. While walking there along the main road, not one person came to us and tried to sell us a tour. As soon as we reached the clock tower however, things changed. Suddenly, we found ourselves surrounded by "fly catchers", as they call themselves; young guys that hand you business cards and try to lure you to an office. We, the flies, however, went first to the tourism office to have a look at their blacklist, a booklet with business cards of unreliable operators. Tripadvisor - or a simple Google search - is also very helpful, but there are also lots of new agencies of which you can't find any reviews onli...