This post is incomplete. Will update this draft later For 3 years I have been in East Africa and I haven’t visited the other countries in the region. I have always wanted to travel to Uganda. So when a friend of mine, Abdul-Jalil, told me he was headed to Kampala for a Toastmasters district conference I seized the opportunity to tag along. In this post I will outline my trip to Kampala, the interesting parts from travel, music, food and anything in-between.

The beginning - Kigali

The journey was done by coach bus from the Rwandan capital, Kigali, and took approximately 11 hours; it took 2 hours to reach the Rwanda-Uganda border, the majority of the time was from the border to Kampala. There were four of us, Abdul-Jalil and 2 other Rwandans going for the toastmaster’s conference, and myself visiting Kampala. We departed Kigali around 7pm CAT with the Trinity bus service. The bus had adjustable seats, USB ports and a foldable table like you find in airplanes. Here is a picture for reference.

We had no issues with the buses in general except another issue on the rest stops which I’ll speak about later.

Border -Uganda+ Rwanda

When we got to the border we first had to go through a health screening, for West Africans we had to show our yellow fever vaccination card. Then we went through a security check with our luggage then headed to Rwandan immigration. After this, you guessed it, Ugandan Immigration with a few questions. Ghanaians don’t need a visa to enter Uganda.

There was a forex bureau so we exchanged some Rwandan Francs(RWF) for Ugandan Shillings(UGX); at that time it seemed like a lot of money, the exchange rate from RWF to UGX was ~3 UGX to 1 RWF. At that time our money seemed to have been multiplied by 3.

No passenger left behind?

I don’t think we spent a lot of time at the forex bureau but when we got back to the bus there was apparently some final checks going on for the passengers and we had to wait outside the bus till the officer came down. After attending to the other passengers he checked our passports. We got on the bus and not a minute later the bus took off heading for Kampala.

‘Chauffeur, CHAUFFER…’, someone shouted. There was someone not yet in the bus; we had barely started moving. We thought it was reasonable for the driver to wait a couple of minutes, perhaps someone delayed at immigration or was using the washroom. The driver kept on driving, exiting the checkpoint and turning unto a dark road. I would say he even sped up and kept ignoring the passenger’s pleas. 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 taking a motorbike. This was around 10pm in Ugandan time (Uganda is 1 hour ahead of Kigali’s time CAT). For context when travelling at least, we were used to is 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. Apparently none of that was standard for this trip and you either made it on time or were left behind. 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 still wonder what happened to that passenger, probably standing at the border checkpoint watching the bus depart into the night.

The journey to Kampala

A taste of Pilau (a bit similar to jollof rice)

A hearty breakfast at the Silver Springs hotel. Compliments to the chef.

Toastaster’s conference and award winners

At the break of the conference there was actually a vendor selling pictures of people taken randomly throughout the event. Talk about the entrepreneurship spirit. Here’s one photo that captured me whilst I was unaware.

With the award winners for speech evaluation

Group photo at the end of the conference

Visited the adidas store at the acacia mall

More pilau below at a Ugandan restaurant.

This was taken shortly after checkout from the hotel. That sculpture of the president was … interesting.

I couldn’t believe it was over and we were headed back to Kigali. The sights of Kampala, the food, the people, the food. I said food twice didn’t I.

The trip back to Kigali was in the day. We left Kampala some time before 8am.

On the bright side we get to see attractions on the road we didn’t see earlier when we passed at night. I’ll add some of the photos I took on the way back to Kigali. Most of the places we passed outside of the towns were mostly green fields as far as the eyes could see with occasional herds of cows.

I like this photo. Taken somewhere in Lwengo, after passing Bulimbale

Cows, long horn cows

A rest stop after some hours in the bus. Still in Uganda.

Boda boda rider with an Umbrella after the rain.

This trip happened in March 2025.