Weekend in Champala

Friday
Friday started off rather slow, no one in the office invited me for a drink or offered to do anything with me on the weekend. I do not blame them though, I appreciate the fact that they also have lives to leave and they should not ammend their plans just because I happen to be around and far from home. So I sent out few texts to some people I know have partied in Kampala and they suggest a few places I can go to.

After having dinner at hotel staying at, which I did after spending 45 minutes or so in the gym (if I can gather enough will power this may be my new hobby) I step out to a pub called Rock garden. Picture F2 with all the prostitutes but without a cover charge and you will have an image of the crowd at Rock garden. The bar/club is part of the Speke hotel and so pynts are rather pricey (USH 3,000 or KES 120), they have a raised and roofed dance floor that is 20 meters outside the bar. There is very little seating space in the bar so most people sit out in the garden which is not very well lit an d a guy can only imagine the kind of fun and games go on in the corners and under the trees.

After a pynt and getting a feel of the local women I jump into a cab and head off to Angenour. I always feel apprehensive taking a cab in an unfamilia r place, I cant help but wonder if the guy is overcharging me, going to pull a gun and peleka me to some dark alley e.t.c I get to Angenour and stand on a queue to the entrance there are like five guys infront of me and they all pay for the ground floor club (USH 3000) I decide to follow suite knowing I can always upgrade my ticket. The club is kind off dark and not really full. At the entrance to the pub is one of those huge metal detectors that a guy walks through, this acts as a reminder of the fact that there are many legal and illegal guns in this country and while a bouncer in Kenya is worried of a guy trying to sneak in a Safari cane into a club, bouncers here are worried about guns finding their way in. For some reason I always forget that while a pub kicks any time from around 6 pm, a guy has to wait until midnight or so before a clubs starts happening. They are playing hip-hop and lots of East African music and the crowd is very young. The only issue I had with the place was they served me beer in a plastic cup/glass (is a plastic glass not a contradiction of terms?) and since it was not one of those disposable ones and so one could see and feel fat around its rim.

After like 2 pynts I decide to check out the upper floor, I walk out to the entrance and get an incremental ticket. The club on the first floor is wonderful the lighting is good, it has a wall to wall carpet with the name of the pub printed all over it. The music system is also really good and the crowd is older. The gals are well dressed, quite a number are in nice short cocktails dresses and those high heel shoes that look like they were made to be won once, hair that looks freshly done and make in just the right places. This time round my beer is served in a glass. And as far as I can tell there are more women than there are men in the club.

While seated on a stool at the counter bobbing my head to the music I notice some two girls seated at a table next to me. The cuter of the two is light and is wearing some red pants which remind of a guy who used to wear red leather pants when I was in high school the other is dark and is wearing so much lip gloss that under the club lights she looks like she asking to be kissed. At some point I walk up to them and start up a conversation (a jamaa can do anything after a few pynts). The darker one is more outgoing and so i find myself talking to her more, she is also wearing this small low cut top without a bra and since I could not take my eyes of her (them) it was easier to speak to her. We have a few drinks but things take a turn for the worse when the chik bila bra asks me to buy her food and I politely decline. At some point they stand up and walk away and all I can think is 'good riddance' .

A little later I walk out of the pub, and notice a BMW Z5 in the parking (the kind in James Bond had in Golden Eye) Enyewe this Kampala guys now how to have fun. I walk to a cab and huggle with the cab driver in the rain coz he wants to charge me USH 2000 more than the cab that brought me over (now that I think about it does not make sense to have gotten rained on coz of KSH 80).

Saturday
I meet up with my cousin who goes to High school out here. She is the closest thing I have to a younger sister since I do not have any of my own and so I try to sort her out when I can. She is with one of her friends a Tanzanian who is kind of cute has a sweet little ass and looking at her cleavage (which I found myself doing a lot) must be wearing a wonder bra. They are leaving school this coming Wednesday and want to do some shopping I decide to tug a long to get a better feel of Kampala and help them carry their luggage.

We turn into a street and are met by a group of guys running out and in the distance can see a an anti-riot truck with a water gun at the end of the street. The two girls convince me not to turn back coz this is quite common in Kampala and any we are nearly at the shop we need to get to. As we walk to the shop they had in mind I find myself sneezing and my eyes getting watery, clearly there is tear gas in the area. When we leave the shop things have gotten worse there are more people running from the direction of the cop car and the tear gas has gotten stronger, I am surprised that the shops are not yet closed. We get out of the area and sit out the commotion at a restaurant. Later I was informed that the fracas was caused by police disrupting a rally organised by Besigye. Enyewe Kenya has come far its just the other day we had such issues. At least know its only hawkers who through stones.

Later in the afternoon when things have calmed down the girls finish their shopping, we have a late lunch and they head back to school. Talking to my cousin reinforces my conviction never to take my kids to boarding school. Apparently half their school mates are alway high on weed or cheap alcohol and go out to pubs like every Sato. Of course they tell me about all the things that other people do. I tell them that I would be going to Munyonyo (a resort on the shores of Lake Victoria) on Sunday and my cousin indicates she has to study for exams she is doing on Monday. The Tanzanian says she will be in town anyway and so can join me. I can hear alarm bells going off but I am not bright enough to do anything about it.

That evening I went to Club Silk. It is a nice place but Angenour is better.