Milles Colinnes to Kampala Coach

Kampala Coach, the bus company we used to get to and from all of our major destinations, is nothing like Greyhound.

After visiting the memorials outside of Kigali, we headed back into town to check in at our new hotel. We had booked this one before we even left Arusha, knowing the history that this place held... That and it just happened to be one of the only 4 star hotels in Kigali....

The Hôtel Des Milles Colinnes, or Hotel Rwanda, housed something like 600 Tutsi's during the Rwandan genocide. The hotel manager was a Hutu but had a Tutsi wife and wanted to protect not only his family but his people as well. Calling in all of the favors that were owed to him by prominent figures in international society, the manager was able to keep the Milles Colinnes a reasonably safe and invasion free place for the majority of the genocide.

We were not disappointed when we arrived at the hotel! Having carried our backpacks with us all day, we were filthy, sweaty and exhausted tourists. The concierge and receptionist greeted us with enormous smiles and handed us a cool cloth and a glass of fresh fruit juice while we checked in. They chuckled at us when they asked for our luggage and we just sort of shrugged and explained our backpacks were all we had. We embarked up to our rooms and collapsed on the queen sized bed and basked in the air conditioning! We were in heaven. I decided later to venture a bit around town and the other girls went to lay by the pool.

Just before dinner we headed up to our rooms, and flicked on the TV. I think only my mom would know how elated I became when the Grey's Anatomy season finale part 1 was on. Naturally, the four of us crowded onto the bed and didn't even question leaving the room for food until the show was over. For dinner we decided to head to a nearby Chinese restaurant, and devoured all of our food, including the deep friend bananas we got for dessert. We all slept like babies that night.

In the morning we woke up early, not wanting to miss a minute of Milles Colinnes luxury. The continental breakfast did not disappoint with five different types of fresh fruit juice, full fruit spread, eggs benedict, sausage, omelette chef and who knows what else. We gorged ourselves and then threw on our bikinis (not the greatest combination) and headed to the poolside. We soaked up the sun, (and didn't burn!) and grabbed a quick lunch to end our stay.

After we checked out, we went to the final genocide memorial. Because of the road construction it took us a little while to get there, but that only made it seem more worth while and captivating when we arrived. The Kigali Genocide Memorial was the most tourist-y of the memorials. It was complete with audio tour, and was sparse on the human remains. It taught me more than the others, going into depth of the pre, during, and post genocide situations.

The most heartbreaking part was the children's room. It had huge posters of different children who had lost their lives in the genocide, and descriptions of the young people they were.. For example one said "Name: Eric, Favorite Toy: Bicycle, Favorite Food: Chips beef and eggs, Best Friend: His sister, Behavior: Calm, Killed: Gashed with a machete."

After the memorial, we went to the bus stop to wait for our bus back to Arusha. We got there at 530, with our tickets say we were to depart at 6pm. Of course this was pretty far fetched, nothing in Africa is ever on time. We grabbed some fries and beer and sat and waited. Finally at 8pm the bus rolled in and we were off. Kampala Coach was going to be our best friend for what was supposed to be only a 30 hour trip.

We all fell asleep quickly, and didn't wake up much except for the occasional border crossing or dropping-people-off-pee-break. The bus was full the whole way, so you can imagine our surprise when we woke up at 645 the next morning in Kigali and we were the only ones left on the bus. oops. We scrambled off, half asleep, and tried to explain to the guy at the desk that we were trying to get to Arusha. He said oooh Arusha, okay hop on the bus in front of your old one. So we did. Then when the ticket checker came by us, after the bus had left the station, he said nope wrong bus and proceeded to call someone. This someone came and got us off the bus and explained that it was going to Nairobi and wouldn't leave for Arusha from Nairobi until much later. Instead, we needed to wait in Kampala until 1pm for our bus to Arusha. So we did. We found a little cafe in a Mzungu mall and just hung out. We walked around, stopped at a little market, and finally 1230 rolled around. We found our way back to the bus station only to be informed that the bus had no room for us and instead we were going to be put on the 4pm bus. Back to the mall we went. We ate our third meal of the day at the cafe, they loved us, and wandered around feeling sorry for ourselves. The break in Kampala was a nice way to break up the million hours we were supposed to spend on the bus, but a nine hour stop over is a little much. Kampala is a beautiful city though, and I'd love to spend more (planned) time there!

Back on the bus we went, and we were more than lucky to have no stops that lasted more than 20 or so minutes the whole way home!!! After crossing the Uganda/Kenya border, we learned that the Kenyans stop all the busses, bring them to a police station (different from the one we were stopped at on the way to Uganda), and inspected to ensure the busses weren't hijacked. We all got off, had our purses searched, and were on our way. Uneventful, but it instilled a bit of fear in us girls who had bus-jackers as the last thing on our minds until then. The rest of the ride home was extremely bumpy, with us getting air off of our seats on a couple of larger bumps. We were relieved to arrive in Arusha at 11am on Friday. Stinky, hair matted, exhausted and much more worldly than when we had left, we must've been quite the sight to see. The whole trip only took 38 hours, and it didn't even seem that bad! Kampala Coach was our home, but I never hope to see the inside of one again. Needless to say, Cassie and I opted to fly to Zanzibar next weekend...