After three years in Rwanda, I finally seized the chance to visit Uganda, Rwanda’s vibrant northern neighbor. It took a Toastmasters conference in Kampala to finally get me across the border. Tagging along with a friend, I traded the quiet streets of Kigali for an 11-hour bus ride filled with unexpected twists; from a passenger left behind at the border, to the thrill of exchanging Rwandan Francs (RWF) for what felt like a fortune in Ugandan Shillings (UGX).

Here’s part one of my journey to the East-African country of Uganda. This post may be longer than anticipated because of the many interesting moments so I have broken it into parts.

Here’s Uganda on a map of africa taken from Wikipedia

The beginning - Kigali

The journey was done by coach bus from Nyabugogo bus park and took approximately 11 hours.

We departed Kigali around 7pm CAT with the Trinity bus service out of the Nyabugogo bus station. Once we left the city center, the road was mostly empty.

The bus interior

The bus was spacious with adjustable seats, USB ports and a foldable table like you find in airplanes. It wasn’t full and had some empty seats mostly at the back of the bus. Here is a picture of the bus interior for reference.

We settled into the cozy Trinity bus, ready for the 11-hour overnight haul to Kampala. I was thrilled to get a window seat, though the pitch-black night meant I could only see the blur of streetlights streaking past. The ride itself was comfortable enough (minus a separate issue with the rest stops that I’ll get to later!), but little did we know, the border crossing was about to bring its own surprises.

Departing from Kigali, it only took us about two hours to hit the Rwanda-Uganda border. That left the lion’s share of our overnight drive for the long haul up to Kampala, right near the center of Uganda.

Border -Ugandan+ Rwandan Immigration

Waiting in the cool night air, the border process was fairly quick since there were only a few other buses ahead of us. Here is how it went: First, a health screening where they checked our temperatures and verified yellow fever vaccination cards for West Africans like myself (picture below). Second, a luggage scan and checkout at Rwandan immigration. Finally, we crossed to Ugandan immigration. As a Ghanaian, I didn’t need a visa, so answering a few routine questions and showing them our Toastmasters event poster was enough to get us cleared.

Travel Tip: Always keep your passport and vaccination card handy at East African borders, and stay close to your bus during rest stops—drivers may not wait!

Here is an example of the passport sized vaccination card for illustration

Foreign exchange

We took this opportunity to exchange our money. There was a forex bureau at the border, a small kiosk attached to what appeared to be a restaurant-supermarket. The attendants seemed ready and waiting, seems they were used to getting travellers at night. The bureau accepted mobile money and cash in

1. Rwandan Francs (RWF)
2. Ugandan Shillings (UGX)
3. US dollars (USD)

We made a quick exchange for some of our money. At that time it seemed like a lot of money, the exchange rate from RWF to UGX was ~3 UGX to 1 RWF; our money in RWF seemed to have been multiplied by 3, or so we thought.

No passenger left behind?

We didn’t linger long at the forex bureau, but when we returned to the bus, final passenger checks were already underway. We waited outside until an officer stepped off, checked our passports, and let us board. We got to our seats on the bus and not a minute later the bus took off heading for Kampala.

‘Chauffeur, CHAUFFER! …’, someone shouted above the roar of the engines. It seems there was someone missing, not yet in the bus; we had barely exited the border checkpoint. We thought it was reasonable for the driver to wait a couple of minutes for this person, perhaps someone delayed at immigration or was using the washroom. However, the driver kept the bus moving, exiting the checkpoint and turning unto a dark road even as more passengers joined the shouting. I would say he even sped up and kept ignoring the passenger’s pleas.

My friend, Abdul-Jalil and I were so shocked, we looked at each other, we couldn’t imagine getting left behind by the bus and much more in a foreign country. Perhaps what shocked us more was the driver who didn’t say anything in response. The other passengers started murmuring something about the unfortunate person using a motorbike for the rest of the journey. For context this was around 10pm in Ugandan time (Uganda is 1 hour ahead of Kigali’s time CAT) at a border checkpoint that didn’t seem to have any nearby communities.

Personal note

In our travelling experience, we were used to some kind of announcement that a bus was departing and perhaps a last minute check from the driver to make sure that everyone was accounted for to make sure no one was left behind at a stop. Apparently none of that was standard for this trip and you either made it on time or were left behind in a country you may be visiting for the first time. There was a sign at the border checkpoint prohibiting honking but it still does not excuse what appears to be the hurried rush from the driver to depart without accounting for all passengers. End personal note

The coach continued down the dark road; the road from Kigali had streetlights up to the border, the road to Kampala from the border had no streetlights so we sped off into the darkness. I sometimes wonder what happened to that passenger, probably standing at the border checkpoint watching their bus rumble into the night.

Hope to work on a part 2 tomorrow, no this week … sigh… soon.

In part two, I hope to share the vibrant sights, sounds and food of Kampala, the Silver Springs hotel and a suburb called Bugulobi. See you soon.

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