Wednesday 5/21/2008- Saturday 5/24/2008
We arrived at Red Chilli Hideaway about an hour and half later, where Dermot almost peed his pants with excitement when he learned the Champions League Final was being televised at our hostel in one short hour. We both had tasty pasta, and Katie hit the hay… while Dermot stayed up until 2:00am to see Manchester…. Take their trophy (Congrats Dale and Tom!! (that’s from Katie)
Katie got a much earlier start to the day than Dermot the next morning. She used the Internet and did the usual trip planning/e-mailing/etc before meeting Dermot for breakfast. After breakfast we arranged for a taxi ride to the Sheraton hotel which was about 20 minutes away from the Backpackers place we were staying. Thank goodness for Starwood Points. It was so nice staying at a proper hotel. Clean sheets on a comfortable bed was a welcome change from our recent sleeping arrangements. A clean shower with hot water was also a nice bonus. It’s amazing how you take these things for granted when you have them, but when you go without them for a couple of weeks, they are a huge luxury. Clean and refreshed, Dermot decided he’d head down to the Kampala golf course for a round of golf. Katie remained in the hotel and took advantage of “higher” speed Internet and the hotel’s spa…. “Swedish” Massage for only $17US.
Dermot teed off at 4:00 p.m. The starter said that there would be no way he’d finish 18 holes. Dermot accepted the challenge and as a single played through 4 different groups and finished his round in 2 hours and 12 minutes. His score was not quite as good as his speed, but he had a good time. After the round, Dermot brought his caddy Jimmy out for a drink in town before heading back to the hotel to meet up with Katie.
While Dermot golfed, Katie enjoyed her olive oil massage. It had a very unique twist to any ‘Swedish Massage’ she had received in the past, but it was greatly appreciated. We both had ambitions of heading out on the town that night, but the very comfortable bed; cable television and option of room service were too tempting…so we ended up staying in instead.
The next morning we headed out to town to check out the local neighborhood. We walked through the markets, but at this point in time we both feel as though we’ve seen enough markets to last a lifetime. The same can be said for museums, so we walked around for a couple of hours and then had lunch at a local pizza place. We ordered a pizza shaped like an elephant (even though it was on the kids menu) and then played a game of pool (Katie won).
That evening, we decided to have a ‘normal’ night out, by going to the movies to see the new Indiana Jones. We bought the VIP Emerald tickets, which meant we got priority seating and free drinks and snacks served to us in our seats…for around $10US per ticket. The movie was great and the whole movie theater experience was something we realized we now missed. We couldn’t believe that we were seeing Indiana Jones 4, also just released in the US, in a stadium seating movie theatre in Uganda! Katie wished they were sticking around a little longer—as ‘Sex in the City, the movie’ is coming next week!
After the movie we had a slice of pizza from the “New York Pizza Kitchen” which was next to the movie theater. (It was probably the best slice we’ve had in awhile) and then went to the bowling alley, (where Dermot won…by 10 points). After bowling we went to a casino where our luck seemed to have temporarily run out as #18 did not hit on the roulette wheel. We eventually made it back home and went straight to bed excited for our day trip to the chimpanzees of Ngamba Island the next day.
We had breakfast delivered to the room at 7:30 a.m., to take our last advantage of the nice hotel benefits…and were in the taxi by 7:45. We then drove an hour to the pier where a boat picked us up to bring us to Ngamba Island. On the boat we met Emma, from Ireland and Phil, an Aussie, who were joining us on our trip to the island. They were both in Uganda volunteering for a local television and newspaper company. It is an understatement to say, the boat ride over was “choppy” ….all of us felt like we had our spines impacted….but it was worth it!
Ngama Island was a great experience as they taught us about the 5 types of Apes: Gorillas, Orangutans, Chimps, another type of ape found only in the Congo and ….Humans. It was fascinating to learn that we share 98.7% of the same genetic make-up with Chimps. After educating us on the Chimps, we got to see them at feeding time. One of the chimps was named Katie. She was the only chimp on the island to give birth as all of the female chimps are kept on birth control….Somehow Katie got pregnant and her baby’s was named “Surprise.” It was definitely worth the $60/person for the experience.
We shared our cab with Emma and Phil and returned back to the Sheraton hotel. There we showered packed up and then went down to the lobby to meet Father Patrick for our next adventure—back to school for a week of volunteering!