There are many ways to get from here to there in Uganda. None of them involves multilane highways, smooth roads or trains, but all of them are interesting in their own way. There is walking, of course: even on the major roads between cities we never drive far without seeing at least a couple people walking along the side of the road, and when it is market day in the nearby village there is a stream of people.
There are the dangerous buses, which rocket down those highways without regard to potholes or, for that matter, little Topapa with me gripping the wheel and Theresa trying not to look as they speed by with perhaps an inch or two to spare. There are boda-bodas -- bicycles and motorcycles both -- that are one of the most popular forms of mass transit.
(Yes, they are mass transit, because sometimes there may be as many as four passengers on a single motorbike.)
And then there are the ubiquitous matatus -- the "taxis," as they call them, really little minibuses with a stated capacity of 14 that is often exceeded. You see them EVERYWHERE in the city, darting in and out, and on every road around the country.
And the place they all come from is this....the Old Taxi Park in Kampala.
Well, they don't all come from here. There's a New Taxi Park too, and naturally there are smaller taxi parks in towns and villages all around Uganda. But this is the grandfather taxi park. Taxis from here go to destinations east of Kampala, and as you can perhaps see, it is a large challenge just to find the right one. There are little red signs marking destinations, which helps a little. There is a small marketplace. There are people with luggage they have to cram inside, pile on the top or tie on the back. (Can you see a small mattress tied to the back of one of the taxis in the right foreground? You see those everywhere, apparently as people move from one home to another.)
All aboard!
There are the dangerous buses, which rocket down those highways without regard to potholes or, for that matter, little Topapa with me gripping the wheel and Theresa trying not to look as they speed by with perhaps an inch or two to spare. There are boda-bodas -- bicycles and motorcycles both -- that are one of the most popular forms of mass transit.
(Yes, they are mass transit, because sometimes there may be as many as four passengers on a single motorbike.)And then there are the ubiquitous matatus -- the "taxis," as they call them, really little minibuses with a stated capacity of 14 that is often exceeded. You see them EVERYWHERE in the city, darting in and out, and on every road around the country.
And the place they all come from is this....the Old Taxi Park in Kampala.
Well, they don't all come from here. There's a New Taxi Park too, and naturally there are smaller taxi parks in towns and villages all around Uganda. But this is the grandfather taxi park. Taxis from here go to destinations east of Kampala, and as you can perhaps see, it is a large challenge just to find the right one. There are little red signs marking destinations, which helps a little. There is a small marketplace. There are people with luggage they have to cram inside, pile on the top or tie on the back. (Can you see a small mattress tied to the back of one of the taxis in the right foreground? You see those everywhere, apparently as people move from one home to another.)
All aboard!
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