For those of you keeping track, I haven't been to a new place in a week or two. Since Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, I'd just done a return trip north back through Vic Falls town, Livingstone, Lusaka, Kapiri Mposhi (Africa's armpit), the train, and then onto Dar. Sure, there was some new scenery from the train, including a animal-free jaunt through the Selous National Park, but I was ready for something new.
So here it goes: wake up, pack everything, ride the bus. The bus is supposed to take 6 hours and cost 25,000 shillings, but it took 10 hours and cost 50,000 shillings. I won't translate that into dollars out of sheer embarrassment for how badly we were ripped off. When the guy at the bus stand tried to charge another 20,000 shillings as a "baggage fee," a well-known scam, I let loose a pretty long string of expletives. At this point I've been in Africa for nearly two months, and bus-ticket-overcharge notwithstanding, I wasn't going to fall for a baggage fee scam.
So me and a friend from the train hop on the bus to Moshi, on Tanzania's famous northern circuit. We pass through green mountain chains and- although it was too cloudy to see- Mt. Kilimanjaro. Once in Moshi, my travel buddy had some friends who ran a cafe/travel agency downtown. We had dinner and then they found us a cheap hotel.
Today didn't turn out to be much of an adventure, but at least I was once again seeing new places.
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