A (typical) Day on the Bus

5am: woke up at the YMCA hostel in Dar es Salaam
6am: caught a taxi to the bus station to go to Arusha
8am: started boarding the bus
8:30am: bus left Dar es Salaam

Arrival time in Arusha? 8pm...

I was told the estimated time to bus from Dar es Salaam to Arusha is about 6 hours. It took me twice as long.

We made so many pit stops along the way -- often times it was just to pull off the road in the middle of no where and stop for a little so people off the streets could sell us something, or it was to pull off the road and make a loop to go through some random check point.

The bus breaking down twice was also unfortunate and slowed us down. The first time wasn't too bad because we were fine within five minutes or so. The second time, however, made me nervous because they had to completely stop the bus in the middle of the road and check the engine. They didn't tell us what the problem was so we all just sat there waiting, hoping we wouldn't have to walk the rest of the way to Arusha because it was getting dark.

They never told us what the problem was, but we were back on the road after 20 minutes. (Phew!)

I've noticed events like this are normal in Tanzania. A lot of things are just out of your control...

P.S. I can't seem to upload pictures right now (slow internet). Hopefully I can get it to work next time.