After a full day at the VSO office sorting out the final
preparations and making sure all the volunteers were safely en-route to
Nairobi, I set off to the Hotel in Nairobi where we were to leave from the
following day. I had a full bag of my stuff (we had to pack as if we might get
evacuated to our home countries for a few weeks) 3 envelopes of cash in Kenyan
shillings, Tanzanian shillings and Dollars around £2000 in total. This was to
cover the cost of Visas, allowances for the volunteers and a contingency fund
for the stay. Luckily I got a lift to the hotel.
9 volunteers from outside
Nairobi were staying overnight and the rest were meeting us in the morning to
board one of the two buses that were to take us to take us to Arusha,
Tanzania. Ben and Makenna (Director and Head of Programmes respectively from VSO Jitolee)
were on hand to see us off and clarify any final matters before handing over
the Nicole (another volunteer) and me to take care of any problems whilst we
were away.
Wendy the other volunteer representative was travelling direct with
the Mombasa team.
The trip to the boarder was painless. The process to exit
Kenya and enter Tanzania was on balance pretty simple given there were 25 of us
but with chaotic queues and having to work out what the process was as we went
along it was quite entertaining. To assist others the process for pedestrians (from
memory) was as follows, If you have a vehicle there are other papers, processed
and buildings to visit to process the exit and entry of your car:
- After passing through a traffic barrier and
police gate you are then in the Kenya border zone. On getting to the Kenya exit
building (at the top of the hill last building on the right before the gate).
Obtain a form (yellow or blue card A4 sized available in the building) fill in
your personal details, passport, where you have travelled from, where you are
going, when you are due to return, details of your tour company if applicable
and a contact address in Tanzania. Top tip is carry a pen so you can fill this
in in the queue.
- At the desk you hand this in with your passport
and get the appropriate exit stamps etc.
- Then you go out and cross through the Kenya gate
and into no-mans land. This is where care is needed!!
-
NOTE – As you pass through the Kenya gate you
enter what is a large dusty gravel area and looks like a truck stop. In the
distance, towards the left are some administrative buildings and a Tanzania
flag. You should head to these and ignore the very persuasive hustlers who work
as a team to un-nerve you and convince you they are genuine. They try and say
if you give them $50 they will give you 3,000 Tanzanian shillings and sort you out
the stamp you need. This is a scam. 3000 TzS are worth around $1.5!!! the stamp
is a fake and you will still have to pay the $50 ($100 for Americans – don’t
know why?) when you get to the official building. So just walk past anyone and
keep a tight watch on your bags, wallet and passport.
-
Once safely in the Tanzania Visa building a
helpful official will hand to a form similar to the one you filled in on the
Kenya side. You then join the relevant queue for your visa position and pay
your $50 ($100 for Americans). Then once you get the stamps you are clear to
go.
-
Returning to Kenya is a reverse of the above.
-
From memory I believe this should be a good
guide. If anyone has anything to add please let
me know and will update it.
So we entered Tanzania and drive through a dry scrub land
with occasional Masaai style villages. The road from the border was one of the
best I have been on in Africa. We made good progress with views of Mount
Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru.
As we entered the outskirts of Arusha the bus I was in
started playing up and there was a strong smell of burning. Eventually it
ground to a halt with stem rising from the engine. Being volunteers we rolled
our sleeves up and pushed it to the side (well actually the ladies did as you
can see from the photo). We transferred the people to the other bus for the
last 5km and our bags arrived later when the working bus had gone back to
retrieve them.
We were to stay at the hotel Pentagon which was about 3-4km
out of the centre. This is a pretty good hotel and all was good.
Over the next few days we were at our leisure to explore the
area. Arusha is a great place, quite modern and the people are very friendly.
We noticed we received much less attention, less shouts of Mzungu, etc. which
was nice. There were many ex-pats in town as many other organisations and
individuals had chosen to get out for the elections. Also holiday makers had
been relocated too.
Top Tips for a stay in Arusha
Good coffee – http://www.africafetanzania.com/
Pizza – Pepe Italian Restaurant – Kanisa Road
Ethiopian Restaurant Spices and Herbs - Phone 255 572279 Mobile: 0742-401050 Simeon Road
(also known as New Moshi Road) on the right as you go up the hill from the roundabout.
Sazan Japanese Restaurant – +255 732 978 624 - Awesome place with great food at
amazing prices. Where Kanisa Road meets Nelson Mandela Road head out of town on
Nelson Mandela Road (also known as Nyerere Road) about 200m on the right is
where you will find it.
