You never know what to expect on a travel day

I've said it before... travel days are always interesting. It's probably the reason I never sleep very well the night before a travel day, You just never know what's going to happen or what's going to go wrong. And sometimes (it does happen occasionally!) we are surprised when everything goes according to plan!

We were up early because we had prearranged with our taxi guy in Tanga to pick us up at 7:00am. Sure enough, he arrived at about 6:50am, so the day was off to a good start.

Our bus tickets had been printed out of a handheld electronic device. We were pretty surprised by this because we had bought them out of a little wooden shack, so when they brought out this fancy little printer machine it was such a contrast. 

But, there is so much conflicting information. 

They had said the price was 16,000 shillings each, and I had paid 32,000 total. But the ticket said the price was 36,000. Strange.

And the ticket said that the bus left at 8:00am, but the "reporting time" mentioned was 6:45am. The lady said that if we showed up between 7:15am to 7:30am we would be fine.

We got there just before 7:15am and there were quite a few other people waiting. And there were two big coach buses parked at the side. 

Around 7:35, a smaller bus pulled up, and everyone who had been waiting started getting on. Someone grabbed our bags, and put them in the back. By the time we got to the front door, there weren't any seats left. And, seats had been assigned and our ticket mentioned that we had seats 1 and 2 right behind the driver. But of course someone was already sitting in them.

I went and spoke to the ticket person, and she explained that this is only a shuttle bus that takes you to the proper terminal!

Anyhow, we were directed to a smaller van. The other bus took off with our luggage in it, and we eventually left in the smaller van. Didn't like seeing the other bus leave with our bags in it!

But sure enough, we arrived at the main terminal and saw our bags being brought to the big coach bus. We got on, and were put in seats 1 and 2 right behind the driver.

And surprise, surprise... the bus departed at 8:01am!

So, everything was happening the way it's supposed to, and I'm sure if we were familiar with the procedures we never would have been worried to begin with. Things are done differently in different countries.

Didn't take many photos from the bus. The windows were dirty, and it wasn't the nicest day out. 

The bus was air conditioned, but the seats weren't that comfortable. Six and a half hours in an uncomfortable seat was not fun. At least my legs had some room.

This was our view.

The girl in the yellow was the bus attendant. She looked after people who got on for shorter runs. Not that there were very many, because the bus was pretty full. And she also announced some stops. There were also a steady stream of people getting on and off selling stuff. 

Our driver was pretty aggressive. We think he must get a bonus based on arriving earlier than scheduled! The people who were getting on and off pretty much had to already have their legs moving because the bus would still be moving!

There were so many times he passed someone when there was someone smaller coming our way. I guess he just figured that we are bigger, and the other guy will have no choice but to move to the shoulder. He wasn't so aggressive when there was another bus or truck. But motorcycles? He didn't even hesitate. I saw one motorcyclist give him the finger.

We made one washroom/snack stop. Not sure what was said when the stop was announced, but they must have given people a time. We got out and stretched our legs, but didn't stray far from the entrance door. We got back on, and watched. When the driver and the attendant got on, they fired up the bus and started driving. There was no checking to see if everybody was on board, so we have no idea if anybody got left behind. 

Ruth, and our bus at the rest stop.

Scenery from the window.

Coming into the big city of Dar es Salaam.

I had read that there is a brand new bus terminal in Dar es Salaam, and I was hoping we weren't headed there because it's quite far from the center of the city where our Airbnb is located. But sure enough, the bus turned in that direction and that's where we ended up. I had read that it's a real mess and there isn't enough parking for cars and taxis.

We arrived at about 2:15pm, a few minutes early.

And sure enough it's a real circus. And, we were still 18 kms (12 miles) from our Airbnb.

As expected, a taxi driver quickly approached us. He quoted 50,000 shillings to bring us to the center of the city, and I laughed at him and walked away. He quickly asked "how much do you want to pay?" I offered 20,000, which I knew was pretty low and ended up agreeing to pay 30,000 ($16.50 CAD, $13.00 USD).

It took about 15 minutes to get enough vehicles moved around so he could get the taxi out of the parking lot.

Then on the way, we had to stop for gas. We had noticed that the gas gauge read empty. Our driver put in about 5 liters (just over a gallon)... just enough to move the gauge. He said he didn't have any more money.

Throughout all of this, I had been in regular contact with our Airbnb host and he was there to meet us when we arrived. We were starved and he gave us directions to some restaurants. We ended up at an Indian place and had some really good chicken curry and rice. There is a big Indian population here in Dar es Salaam. 

Our kitchen.

The main room.

Bathroom.

It's just a ground floor (there is only one floor) studio apartment. The listing actually called it a townhouse. But it's fine. The location is great and it's walking distance to the hospital where we need to go to have our Covid PCR test done. Paying $34.86 CAD ($27.50 USD) per night for a six night stay.

We will go out and do some exploring today, and figure out the timing and details for our PCR test.

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