I am in an internet shop in downtown Arusha. The speed is a lot faster thank god. After I met with Peter, one of my neighbours came over to chat with me. His group had just returned from the same route with the same company. They were from the UK. The three of them walked me into town. It does take me a bit to "acclimitatize" to a new place. They warned me about the hawkers and indeed they are ferocious. I have one watching the shop for me when I come out, lol. It goes against my nature to be rude but one has to be.
My new friends also advised me about tipping. I am in big doo-doo about the tips. They said they each put in $250USD. They had a slightly smaller group than mine but not by much. I had budgeted and taken $75 as that is what the book suggested. Tips always turn out to be more than what you thought - this happened in Peru too. Apparently the book is way off. So I will have to go get more money from the ATM and they will have to get schillings. Of course I forgot my cheat sheet (have I mentioned how bloody disorganized I am for this trip?) at the hotel so when confronted with do you want to take out 50,000, 100,000, 200,000 or some other amount?, I was not sure. I took out 100,000 and looking it up now on the net, that turns out to be $67 Canadian dollars - oof. So I have to go back.
I'll have a quick look about if I can escape my stalker and then spend the rest of the day resting/packing/sorting at the hotel. I really wanted to buy some Kilimanjaro coffee and a tshirt but it's looking tricky. There is no "tourist section" (as far as I can tell) where you can find things easily. Traffic is crazy (cross at your own risk) and the sidewalks are a mess. I'll try to get some pictures.
I have a briefing at 6 tonight where hopefully I'll get the stuff I rented. Departure is at 7:30 tomorrow morning, likely on the same bus we all came in on from the airport. It's about 5-6 hours of travel to the start of the trek as it's near the Kenyan border around the other side. It's market day Saturday so hopefully I'll see lots as we drive through the villages.
I will try for a brief "hi I'm still alive" post Friday night from the hotel before heading out on the safari Saturday morning. I'm taking notes to jog my memory and will fill this in later at home with pics.
So far, so good. Other than the hawker and the money issues, everything is going well and I am enjoying myself immensely. Forgot to say I saw 2 cats at the airport running about outside. Took that to be a good omen. Didn't expect to see any except for the big ones, of course. lol.
Ok off. Hope I can find my way home!
