Kampala Favorites

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Favorite thing: Visa on arrival to Uganda can be obtained on arrival for stay up to 90 days. The procedure is very simple. Just fill an application and deliver it together with your passport and 50 USD. You must write a name or an address of where you shall stay during your holiday in Uganda. If you don't have a hotel, just write a hotel name. No question is asked by the officer, and you will get a small stamp in your passport (see picture).

Multiple-entry visa: USD 100 (6 months), USD 200 (12 months), Transit-visa: USD 15.

Hotels can be arranged at a hotel desk counter inside the terminal, but they are more expensive. Make it easy and read my hotel tips before you enter Uganda.

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Fondest memory: Uganda is located in the tropical equator line of Africa, and the weather change quickly here.
I experienced a heavy rain weather a day I was at Muyenga club. I had just arrived the swimmingpool area when dark clouds came from Lake Victoria. It rained for 40 minutes, and then the clouds disappeard as quick as they came. June 2010.

Fondest memory: It's cheap to buy an Ugandian SIM card in one of the many phone shops in Kampala. After buying a SIM card, you can refill it with "credits" on a plast card. Just scratch the card to reveal the pin number, send SMS with the number and recieve a confirmation. You can see your credits at any time when sending a sms to the network. You can also recieve calls without credits. Foreign SIM cards are expensive to use in Uganda. The country code is +256.

Fondest memory: Currency exchange or forex burea are found many places in the city. You will get a slighly less rate at the airport than in Kampala. One dollar was 2100 Ugandian Shilling at the airport and 2200 Ugandian Shilling in Kabalagala area in Kampala (June 2010). (See picture)

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Fondest memory: Kampala is the capital and the largest city in Uganda with 1,5 mill inhabitants. The city is built on many hills with the average altitude of 1200 metres above sea level. The city is very lush and green, and was earlier a swampy hunting area. Downtown has some few high buildings, suburbs and other parts of the city have small houses and lower buildings.

Favorite thing: When traveling with USD to exchange into local currency in-country, note that the exchange rate given for U.S. Dollar bills in demoninations less than $100 receive a lower exchange rate, than $100 bills do. The difference in rate can be quite signifigant -- approximately 15% less. Plan accordingly!

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Favorite thing: Not that much to see at The Parliament of Uganda but it’s bang in the middle of town so would be rude not to pop by and have a look.

The current incumbent is President Yoweri Museveni who came to power in 1986 after Tito Okello surrendered to the National resistence Army led by Museveni.

Even though Uganda was basically a one party state up until 2005 there was presidential elections in 1996 when Museveni won 74% of the vote. At the next election in 2001 Museveni beat Dr Kizza Besigye with 70% of the vote.

In 2004 Museveni scrapped the presidential limit on 2 terms going back on an earlier promise, clearing the way for him to run in the first multi party elections for years in 2006. A few months before the election Dr Kizza Besigye returned form exile in South Africa only to be shortly after his arrival to be banged up, fortunately he was released on bail a month before the 2006 election.

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Favorite thing: This was a great day out. I wanted to go to the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and had to get to Entebbe, 45 kilometres away. My trusted motorcycle driver, victor, said he would take me. What a blast! We rode with the morning traffic and at one light it looked like a whacky race with cars, motorcycles and bicycles all making a mad dash as soon as the lights turned green. Along the way I saw a variety of Ugandan life in the morning. Farmers working in the fields, families fetching water, shops getting deliveries of bananas and a bit of wildlife along the way. The whole time I was bouncing along on the back of the motorcycle enjoying every windy minute of it.