City Report: Arusha

We have been in Arusha for a total of eleven days and this morning we are leaving for Dar.

I know it’s a little early to say as I readily approach the end of my third week in Tanzania, but I think Arusha might be my favorite Town in Tanzania. Because of its high altitude, Arusha is significantly cooler than any of the seaside towns we’ve been to thus far. You might want a medium jacket until about 10 or 11 am when the sun melts away the cloud cover. Arusha is also an incredibly clean city. Aside from the occasional corncob, you’re not going to find too much trash on the ground, which is perfectly fine with me. Fewer rats.

As the hub city for safaris, tourists—wazungu—are not hard to find, although they tend to stay in nicer parts of town than we do. We only encounter them as we walk briskly past places you could easily mistake for Europe or America such as Africafe or the Blue Heron Pizza Garden—a garden surrounded by a high wall where they sell pizza and salads—or Shoprite. The first time I passed Africafe, I couldn’t help but laugh. It was filled with people whose skin was the opposite color of the coffee they were drinking, and they were paying close to Starbucks prices for it and the food they were eating. Perhaps they knew that they could get these things for less than one-fourth the price even a few doors down, but it was much more likely that we didn’t. We seasoned Arushans, on the other hand, did.

After a few days of wasting thousands of shillings on taxi drives, we began to venture out of our safety net by walking around the town. It helped us get to know it a lot more quickly, and saved us quite a bit of money. We also got to know quite a few people and places as we passed them each day on our way from one side of town to the other.

Food:

Can I hear three cheers for Sweet Bite? Very aptly name, this joint with the typical Tanzanian fare was one of our favorites. Enormous portions and dirt-cheap prices. What more could you ask for? While Arusha does have tons of expat-friendly restaurants—I’ve even seen a sushi restaurant—we preferred to frequent the types of places where the waiters don't speak much English. Restaurants such as Kulan’s, Mehboob’s BBQ (yeah, we know), The (2G) Restaurant, and the like. At these sorts of places you can never go wrong with Wali Ro(a)st (the “a” is optional) which costs around TZS 2500-3500 ($1.50-2.25).

Notice: There are also places nearer to the outskirts of town that are a bit cheaper than this. They’ll usually have enormous banners that you can see quite easily from the street announcing their prices. This is most likely a lie and they will tell you that the promotion is over, but the food is usually good enough.

Also, Mehboob’s has 4 different types of grilled chicken. Do not be fooled: they are all exactly the same. And what they give you doesn’t taste like any of the descriptions, but it’s still good!

Markets: Mount Meru Market (aka the Maasai Marktet, it’s near the clocktower roundabout) is fantastic. However, if you don’t have basic Kiswahili skills or are white they will rip you off immensely. I actually made quite a few friends in that market (I went there far too often) and even received two marriage proposals. They know me there as the Girl from Cameroon. There is also someone selling something at every street corner and a few places in between.

(Hoorah for new categories!)

Sights:

Mt. Meru is a mountain near Arusha that always stands proudly in the distance. Unlike Kili at this time of year, you can see Mt. Meru most days, and it’s a rather incredible sight at that.

Arusha has a fantastic Cultural Tourism Program (which is just near Africafe so you can go there right after your TZS 5000 muffin!) which provides area tour excursions ranging from a half-day to four days to places such as maasai villages, waterfalls, Mt. Meru, local schools, camel safaris, and the like. The best part about these is that the profits go back to the community. While they tend to be slightly overpriced (be careful because they will cheat you), they’re still a great, relatively inexpensive way to spend your time.

Stays: Hotel Flamingo is a dream. We’re currently getting the resident rate (TZS 35000 for a double) because we had our Supervisor help us out, but even without the savings would be worth it. The hotel is incredibly clean, the water is (almost) always hot, and the staff will even cut and peel your mangos for you!

Notice: The girl at the front desk smiles and laughs a lot. You may assume she’s laughing at you and your inability to open the door or work the remote, but she’s really just like that.

Also, our Boss says Hotel Miami Beach is not as good and more expensive, so don’t be fooled by the price.

Warning: I’ve heard that Arusha is supposed to be a very dangerous city. We haven’t encountered any mishaps (thank God), but I’ve heard quite a few stories. Everyone knows someone who knows someone—that sort of thing.

There is a particularly rude scarf vendor one street down from Sweet Bite who will most likely refuse to give you good prices and won’t sell you a Pashmina for any less than TZS 8000, even if you want to buy five.

Always make sure to add up the bill yourself. Some restaurants will add on random fees just because they assume we'll just go ahead and pay. Which you probably will. Let's just go ahead and call it a wazungu tax.

We all adore Arusha and will miss it immensely when we go. We extended our stay here for an extra day because we love it that much. A day in Arusha vs. a day in Dar? When the opportunity presented itself it was a no-brainer…

We have a running joke among us that when we have too many taxi drivers phone numbers, or begin to know our way around the place then that’s when we know it’s the time to go, but with Arusha we were absolutely content with befriending the Mango Guy down the street or the duffle bag vendors on the street corner or the man who tries to sell us paintings every single day. It was the closest we’ve felt, I think, to being safe and comfortable. The closest we’ve come to something we could want to call home.