Uganda Hotel Scene :: Take a Chance on an Upcountry Hotel
HotelChatter's newest contributing editor Scarlett Lion is filing her stories from Uganda. Every now and then, she'll be sending us dispatches about the hotel scene here. Got questions? Send 'em to us and we'll get them answered. Enjoy.
Kampala, Uganda, may be a bustling metropolitan capital, but nothing about the rest of the country is "bustling" or "metropolitan."
Within minutes of leaving the city center, large buildings are nowhere to be found, houses with amenities like tile floors and running water and electricity recede into scores of banana trees separated by occasional mud-brick homes and concrete slabs that serve as stores and trading centers.
Traveling north from Kampala to a town in the Acholi region, Gulu, is a five to seven hour journey by road. Gulu is nothing like Kampala. Where Kampala is sprawling, Gulu is sprawled: about ten square blocks that quickly petered out into bush. There's no Sheraton or Serena or Emin Pahsa or other centers of luxury that tourists, businessmen and aid workers flock to in the urban capital.
Instead, there is the "upcountry hotel."
The upcountry hotel is a very specific species of lodging, recognizable from tropes that are repeated in almost every region of Uganda.
The upcountry hotel is - if you're lucky - clean and basic. "Unlucky" includes bed bugs, remnants of past guests and stiflingly hot temperatures.
On a recent trip to Gulu I stayed at JoJo's Palace and felt as lucky as the royalty who should grace a palace. It was clean, had a mosquito net, and even a fan in the room.
Other highlights: a calendar on the wall from several years ago, a foam pillow the density of a coffee table, and even a small television. The TV didn't have a power cord, but that was okay with me because the more essential fan did have a power cord.
The stay was pleasant, if at times trying. Stay tuned to HC this week for a bit more about upcountry hotels.
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