Market shopping in Entebbe, Uganda

My first flight working in first class took me to Entebbe, Uganda. A new destination for me, and a short flight at just under 5 hours.

The flight went quickly and I’m still getting used to where everything is located in the galley, especially on the 777, which I don’t fly as much. Hopefully it won’t take too long before I know where everything is without having to ask!

Once we landed into Entebbe, our journey to the hotel took quite a while. Although google maps showed the distance as being only 18 miles, due to the terrible traffic and bad condition of the road, it took us over an hour and a half to reach the hotel!

Luckily the scenery was interesting – as well as luscious green fields and trees, we passed market stalls selling all sorts of things, from bed frames to live chickens!

Once we checked in to our rooms and arranged a time to meet for dinner, I settled on to my balcony to relax to this view.

The hotel sits at the edge of Lake Victoria, one of the Great African Lakes, and the second largest lake in the world.

We probably would have arrived at the hotel quicker by boat than by bus!

For dinner the majority of the crew met at the restaurant in the hotel, and I enjoyed a freshly caught tilapia, which was recommended to me by one of my first class passengers! However even with copious amounts of Deet the mosquitos seemed to enjoy hovering around a bit too much, so we called it a night and made plans to explore the local market the next morning.

After a quick breakfast, 5 of us hired a boat (they called it a canoe, but luckily we didn’t have to do any paddling!) to take us to the market.

It was only a 20 minute ride or so to the market, where we jumped out of the boat and were greeted by a local who would show us around.

The majority of the stalls were selling fresh fruit and vegetables, piled high on mounds of earth or in woven baskets. Some of the others were selling clothing items, meat (including a whole goat!) and fish, caught that morning from the lake.

We all bought piles of enormous avocados, mangoes and passionfruit, and myself and the first officer bought some of the fish to take back with us. I always carry a small foldable cool bag in my suitcase so we made sure it was nicely insulated and straight into the fridge once we got onboard!

After wandering through the market and being stared at a lot, we walked back towards our boat. Whilst waiting to pass through one narrow lane, one of the ladies started stroking my leg – I’m guessing it was the first time she’d touched white skin!

We hopped back on to the boat and our captain took us back to the resort, just in time for wake up call.

I’m glad I got to see a bit of the real side of Uganda, although I’m sure there’s plenty more to do if you have more time there!

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