Masai Simba to Tanzania

In the morning, we went for an early morning walk to see the Giraffes and birds, and we visited a small Masai village. Flo has written about that, so I will skip it here except for the most memorable moment. In the tiny house that sleeps 6 in about 4m2, the children asked, "Where do you store your clothes?" The answer is that we wear the only clothes we have!
Breakfast, then a drive to the Tanzanian border with Tom. Today, his driving on fairly normal tarmac roads is chilled, but this is Africa 😀, so after 10 minutes, Tom pulls off the road and says we need to stop to have the exhaust repaired . The service garage us truly basic, but they have welding equipment, and after 45 minutes, we are back on the road. Then we drive uneventful with views of Kilimanjaro to the border.

The border would make the most bürokratic civil servant proud. That mixed with good old attempts to pocket money means crossing took nearly two hours, despite the fact that there was never any queue .

To cut a long story short, it was a bit like this. Start at passport control Kenya side, but one step back to get health clearance. Health clearance, covid certificates, and yellow fever. We politely ask why yellow fever, since we are leaving Kenya. Well, they have it in Tanzania, and most people who cross come back. Ok, it makes some sense. Luckily, we all have our WHO yellow fever certification. I ask what happens if we don't have it. He says we can vaccinate here. Next back to passport control of Kenya. We have to sit one by one whilst visas are examined, photos, taken, etc. We are done with the Kenya side in 40 minutes. Then we are smart. we go do Tanzanian health check 1st. It's a repeat of the Kenya show. On to passport control. Sorry, we need your e-visa printed, and we can't do it here. You need to go to the cyber shop on the Kenya side. Flo and the kids wait, whilst I walk 200m back to Kenya . 15 minutes to print two pages. I walk back across the border setting off the metal detector, but nobody gives a shit. (Multiple previous checks never detected my army knife). Back to Tanzanian passport control. They then ask for the children's visas. I explain they are in mine. Turns out they aren't. This was true. Then the fun starts. Where will you exit Tanzania? This felt like a round about way of saying if you exit here we might be able to let the kids in for some chai (they don't ask for money, they ask for tea,usingvthe word chai). Well, we would leave at a different post, so that possibility wouldn't work. So we paid $200 for 4 visas. Tanzania wins the prize as the most expensive place for a family just to enter. Fun part 2: Flo asks for a receipt. The officials claim they gave us one. Flo shows she has none. They then bizarrely claim that a reciept takes a long time and has to be approved by telephone. Well, we just wait till they finally issue a receipt. It is important in case the visa is somehow wrong/ false/ double, and we get problems leaving.

We say goodbye to Tom, who has been invaluable in helping us navigate the burocracy and potential traps, even if he did take life-threatening risks in Amboseli.

Welcome to Tanzania 😉

We now have a Tanzanian driver. What is noticeable with him and most others is that they speak very little or no English. Tanzanian is near the very bottom of most development tables, e.g., Human Development Index, its 163 out of 189 countries. Oddly, houses and infrastructure seem in our non representative sample far better than in Kenya, but educational levels and skills seem by comparison to be very poor. ( I base these comments on observations not impacted by language skills)

After 2.5 hours, we reach Moshi. Sorry, sir, wrong hotel 🏨. You are in the other one we have with the same name. I see Flo really nervous for the 1st time, but luckily, the story is true, and the other one has a better location, even if it looks less charming.

Anyway, for $45 per night for 6 people, including a decent breakfast , who are we to complain 🤔.

But we are still worried a bit about the risk of theft. I spot some foreign workers, and so I ask them about that and any general advice or tips. A nice South African, here to extend the local brewery, says he has no security concerns, but in town do not speak to anyone who tries to attract your attention. So we relax and begin to enjoy Tanzania , including Kilimanjaro beer
for $1.30 each.Okumaya devam et