On our trip to Mwanza, we traveled for the first time by public transportation! It was quite an experience (it was almost the highlight of the trip!), so I thought it deserved it's own blog post. We got a ride to the bus station in Musoma, and as soon as we were dropped off, we were surrounded by drivers trying to get us to take their bus... we're still not completely sure how they new we were tourists! Any who, we were lucky enough to get on a bus that left about 5 minutes after we boarded. It was like a Greyhound bus, and while there wasn't any air conditioning, we were able to open the windows- on a whole pretty comfortable. While we were boarding, we saw someone put 2 chickens under the bus in the baggage area, no cages or anything. Then, at our first stop, a lady boarded the bus just carrying a chicken, and sat with it on her lap, luckily it was well behaved, we didn't hear it cluck once! The way down took us about 3 hrs, and the only real bummer was when it started to rain and the roof leaked all over Stephanie! The other interesting aspect was about 2 hrs in, a preacher got on the microphone and spoke for about 20mins, not that we could really understand because it was in Swahili. Definitely something you wouldn't see in America!
One of the funniest parts about riding on these bigger buses, is that when they stop at a city or pull into a bus station (aka a big dirt parking lot with little stores), the bus is immediately surrounded by vendors. They come running (and I mean literally running) up to the bus, holding a plate of vegetables, bunches of bananas or other fresh food, trying to get you to buy them. Other vendors would carry cardboard boxes stuffed with different kinds of cookies and drinks. Rather than getting out to buy a snack, they come right to you, quite good service actually! At the bigger bus stops, you'd get a little more variety, vendors selling all sorts of things- watches, socks, hats were just a few of the things we saw. The other funny part was that rather than yelling like American street vendors, they would come up to your window and hiss to get your attention, which worked really well and probably saved them from losing their voices! Needless to say, we had fun bartering with them and bought some great snacks along the way!
We also got to experience the smaller buses or "Dala Dalas" that are used for more local transport. They look like a more compact version of a 15 passenger van. You just flag them down on the side of the road like you would a taxi in America. If they are going in your direction and have room, they'll stop and pick you up. Each time one stopped to pick us up, the door opened and I thought, "Shoot, no room," only to be told to get in! While there are only about 12 seats, most of the time there where 15 passengers. It seemed that every time I thought the van was full, they'd stop and pick some one up! We quickly learned that it's OK to climb over random people and Tanzanians have a very small personal bubble! I'll say it, Dala Dalas are not the most comfortable mode of transport, but they're cheap and fun adventure to ride in!
The trip back we a little longer, somehow we managed to get on a slower bus that made A LOT of stops. The bus was packed, with people even standing in the aisle. The bus was pretty weighed down, so much so that we weren't sure we were going to make it up a few of the hills! Rather than getting picked up at the bus stop, we took a Dala Dala closer to Kowak, and were picked up where the dirt road to Kowak meets the tarmac. Overall, the trip back took us about 6 hours (just under 4hr on the way down!). Mwanza is about 180 miles away, so if our math is correct, we averaged about 30mi/hr on the way home...kindof crazy!
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