Things You Wish You Knew Before travelling to Uganda

The thing which will undoubtedly happen with you, once you visit Uganda, is that, when the time reaches for you to return back home, it won’t be as simple. That is the sort of impression and magic it does on you. However, indeed, your arrangements and learning more about Uganda will choose whether you will be happy that you are leaving the country, or sad.

Volunteering can be the most perfect way to comprehend the subtleties of the culture of the destination; same goes for Uganda. Be that as it may, it is always a perfect idea to know a couple of things about the country you planning to visit. It will not only help you do better planning of your trip, but additionally makes you mindful of what you are going to deal with and spares you from the cultural shocks.

Here is a list of things you must know before you travel to Uganda;

Know its unique people
With a population of about 44.25 million people, the country is amassed with individuals from various creed, attitude, lingo, and interest. On top of that Ugandans are such easy and friendly people always ready to welcome foreigners and always ready to help in case someone need help. Am sure most tourists who have ever travelled to Uganda on self drive trip have ever experienced this. Getting a car breakdown when you on self drive in Uganda even before you contact the car rental company, the locals will be already surrounded you trying to find out whether you have any problem or when you need help. On that point you assured that you will never get lost in Uganda because everyone will need to give you direction when you need it.

Know its vibrant culture
If we to discuss about Uganda’s culture, we need a full day here but I will be in brief. Uganda is composed of different tribes which lives in different location of the country and the different tribes are categorized in different ethnic groups for example, the main group is the bantu group which contributes 50% of the total population of the country they comprise of tribes like the Baganda, Banyoro, Batwa, Banyankole, Bakiga, Batooro, Bakonjo, Basoga, Bamba, Bafumbira, Banyole, Baggwere and Basamia- Bagwe. They mostly occupy the areas of central, east, west and southern Uganda. In the northern part of the country where you can find the second category known as the Para-Nilotics or sometimes referred to as the Nilo- Hamites, which constitutes the Langi, the iteso, the Karamajong, the Kakwa and the Kumam.

So all these tribes have different culture beliefs, so on your tripe to Uganda you should expect to find people with different culture and different languages, but the main languages used in Uganda is Luganda and most of the people in the country cab speak English.

Know its classy food
As everyone needs to eat to survive, even on your trip to Uganda you will need to what you should expect on your plate when you enter in a restaurant. If you ever visited East Africa, Uganda local food is similar to elsewhere in the region, though ugali (a food staple usually made from maize flour or cassava) in Uganda it’s called posho.
Since Uganda is composed of different tribes you don’t have to be surprised when you find every region has a different favored food for example in the central where which comprises of Baganda people their favorite food is matooke, when you cross and drive far north you will find people there love posho so much and others.

From that real food you can also think about the street food, in Uganda there is that unique food called rolex (a chapati rolled around an omelette) it mostly sold on the street and even you can find it in big restaurants.

When it comes to drinks, Ugandans love their beer and Nile Breweries and Uganda Breweries are the two big local Breweries and they produce some drinkable lagers for example Club, Nile, Bell and other.

Waragi is the local millet-based liquor and is relatively safe, in spite of the fact that it can knock you around and give you a ghastly hangover. It’s like gin and goes down well with a sprinkle of tonic.

Imported wines are a bit costly and not common beyond the tourist trail. Imported spirits are moderately less expensive, albeit, similar to wine, availability is somewhat restricted.

Know its means of transport
In spite of the fact that Uganda is small and a landlocked country, travelling can sometimes become a nightmare at a particular time of the day (office hours mainly), or at some particular areas (markets), it might get hard for you to get space for yourself. The public transport in main cities can be chaotic and the streets are jammed for miles, be prepared and plan your travel from one place to another accordingly.

Apart from the public means of transport, there is a variety of car rental companies who can offer you good deals in case you planning to hire a car to travel around the city.