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I left Jinja bound for Kampala and had mixed feeling about arriving there. I'd seen the movie the Last King of Scotland and was fascinated to learn more about this guy, Adi Armin. The downside to Kampala I had been told was that it was a really congested city.
Now for the people who haven't seen the film or heard Armin, he was a famous dictator from the 1970's. The different for Armin was the fact that most people actually liked the man. Had it not been for the 300,000 people killed in the genocide during his regime, he would have been remembered as a great leader. I arrived in Kampala thinking there would be loads of information and museum on the man, but no it was really hard to find much about him. I firstly headed to the Uganda museum confident there would be loads there on Armin, well there was a bit but not much.What there was there was a Model T Ford, which I never seen one before. That was pretty cool.
I tried talking to the locals about Armin, nobody really wanted to talk about it really. This was so different from where I had been in Africa, as I found they mostly want to talk about their culture and history.So the second night I was in Kampala I watch the Last king of Scotland, this time with the Director's Commentary on. Sad I know, but I learnt loads and one bit mentioned that most of the filming was done between Kampala and Jinja. So I went to have a look and found some locals who were extras in the movie, they were so excited when I told them I seen the film. Ugandan's are great people, so friendly and obsessed by English football.
Kampala though is a crazy place; the way to get about is on the back of a boda boda, a motor-taxi. Racing around the city you never feel safe but as a backpacker it was worth the risk saving the money.I realised just how bad it was when I went to leave Kampala and headed for the mini-bus park. This place was right in the middle of the city and there must have been a queue of a about one hundred van into the park. The fumes were unbearable and as I turned the corner I was amazed at how big the park was. There must have been 500-700 vans in the park. If u were a short person and got lost you would never get out it was like a maze.
I finally found my van and then sat there cooking for the next two hours waiting for it to fill up. Uganda was the first place that had been hot id been Africa, it got to 32C one day. That was my time concluded in Kampala I never got to on a night out there, which I regret as I've heard it's a really good night out.
I left Kampala not really having any more knowledge of Ugandan history. Everyone knows that Ugandan is the reported place where man first walked the earth but there weren't any museums or information on it compared to say Ethiopia. Uganda was going through a lot of changes whilst I was there.Oil had been discovered in or near one of its most national park and there was talk of it being drilled. This would be devastating for the wildlife that was left in the park. It had already been almost wiped out of its big attractions like Lions due to poaching.
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