Wanna’ Ride?

HOW TO TRAIPSE ABOUT TANZANIA ON THE CHEAP

Some of the more adventurous (read: terrifying) moments of my journeys to other countries have been on/in whatever mode of public transport I happen to find myself. Tanzania was no exception.  However, as already stated in a previous post, unless you have the cash as a backpacker to drop on a plane ticket  OR your own luxury jet, you are going to be schlepping around like a local-which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A little inconvenient perhaps if you are on a budget of time, but very cooperative with a budget of money.  Besides, what better way to watch the routine of a world different from your own pass you by? You are stuck in that bus, train, ferry, or rickshaw seat until you get to where you are going.  Might as well learn a little something about where you are, right?   The glimpse of life and landscape from a grimy bus window is the best redeeming feature of public transportation-one that is well worth the pittance fare and the discomfort . I have a hunch that some of you fellow backpackers out there probably agree.

First things first!

Tanzania operates on the Tanzanian shilling, a term leftover from former British occupation. One U.S dollar is currently worth about 1,300 shillings. Not bad considering my favorite box of mango juice cost about 300 shillings, a bottle of water approximately 500, and a hearty meal of rice and beans about 3,000 shillings.  The cost of getting around is just as cheap.

WHAT TO RIDE?

Options are readily available here. There are taxis, city buses, long-distance buses, and my personal favorite, the dalla-dalla.  This is a large van of sorts, meant to comfortably accomodate 14 but usually found with 20 or more people jammed inside.

THE TAXI

If arriving via air, especially late at night as we did, the best option is likely the taxi. A thirty-minute ride to the other side of the city cost 15,000 shillings-about $11. I spent ten minutes in a D.C taxi last week and we spent that plus tip-one of the many reasons I no longer live there!  For shorter rides around town, expect to pay anywhere from 1,500 to 10,000 shillings. It really just depends on where you are going, how good you are at talking your way into an acceptable price, and how well you may know your surroundings. It also does not hurt in the least to look as non-touristy as possible!

THE BUS

There are two types of buses-the city bus and the long distance bus. We did not take any city buses, but I assume that they are comparable in price and comfort to the dalla-dalla. I use the word “comfort” very loosely. Anytime I saw one of these buses, they were usually stuffed full of people, some of whom were hanging out the windows appearing to gasp for breath. I am kidding, but only a little bit. The long-distance bus is another story. For me, this entailed multiple hours of profuse sweating, cramped seating, and endless prayers heavenward. But all for the economical price of around $20 or less! A nine hour ride from Dar es Salaam to Arusha, where we needed to be to meet our safari company, cost 25,000 shillings. To put it in perspective, we could have flown one-way for a minimum of $150. That is a splurge most backpackers cannot afford. Our next ride from Arusha to Morogoro, eight hours, cost just a bit less at 21,000 shillings.

THE DALLA-DALLA

This is a vehicle that defies any common sense or safety standards. If you have ever traveled around Central or SouthAmerica, the combi (or mini-bus) is virtually the same thing.  In Tanzania, the dalla-dalla can be an enclosed van or flatbed truck converted to some sort of…..jeep? convertible? double decker flatbed? I don’t know. Look at the picture and decide for yourself what it is. Either way, as many people as absolutely possible were stuffed inside. They are made to comfortably hold 14 or 15 passengers. The truck types accommodate more because of the bench seats in the bed. Comfort however,  at least when it comes to transport, does not seem to be a priority in Tanzania and we would usually see well over that number stuffed inside. A fellow traveler we met along the way told us that he had recently ridden in the van type in which he counted 28 passengers and three small children.

I like the nice luggage rack

We had the good fortune, or so I thought, to ride in the truck type. If there was air flowing in from all sides, it seemed to be less likely that death by suffocation would occur. Again, this is all for the affordable  price of 1,000 to 3,000 shillings, depending on whether you get taken advantage of for your “muzunguness.”  I just added an English suffix to a Swahili word, but the idea is the same. “Mzungu” means white, but I took it to just mean anyone that wasn’t Tanzanian. None of us were, so there ya go.   We paid a little more than we should have for our ride from Stonetown to Bwejuu on Zanzibar, but we were just glad to arrive at all after that little escapade was over.  At last count, there were 35 of us packed inside. Then the real fun began. Instead of just transporting the passengers and calling it a day, somehow we also ended up transporting materials to build a house or some small dwelling. This included approximately 500 pounds in dry cement mix and about 25 cinderblocks, plus various other building supplies.  I estimated that there were about 1,000 pounds of cement sitting atop our heads.  Mind you, this is not the sturdiest of contraptions or the best craftsmanship. It had once been a truck made for hauling materials in its bed, not on a rickety, makeshift roof! Suby leans over mid-journey to morbidly request  that if the roof collapses and she dies, would I please tell her boyfriend she loves him? I assured her that if she was dead, I would be as well. We were beyond relieved when we reached our destination without injury. There was an incident, but you will have to stay tuned for that one!

Trying to discreetly take pictures while still fighting for some elbow room

*For more tales, escapades and general thoughts on travel abroad, visit me at www.travelfunnytravellight.blogspot.com!**

Tags: Budget travel, bus, Tanzania

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Claire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.