HotelChatter

Tags: Uganda Hotel Scene / Uganda Upcountry Hotels / Uganda Hotels / → All Tags

Uganda Hotel Scene :: An Upcountry Luxury Option Fit For A German President

Where: Anywhere outside Kampala, Gulu, Uganda

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.

There's not much about "post-conflict" that makes people think "spa," but that's only if they haven't been to Boma Hotel in Gulu, northern Uganda.

Gulu has been the epicenter of a conflict between rebels and the Ugandan government for more than the past two decades, but now that things seem calmer, the flak jackets are being replaced by mud wraps. While most upcountry hotels are never more than basic, Boma Hotel brings luxury in the bush to a new level.

The amenities range from horribly over-priced to a welcome reprieve from dirt roads and poverty just beyond Boma's gates. For 10,000 Uganda Shillings ($6), you can get a club sandwich that is essentially bread, butter, a fried egg, and a chicken that tastes as tough as if it had run a marathon directly before becoming your sandwich.

more ›

Tags: Uganda Hotel Scene / Kampala Hotels / Uganda Hotels / Uganda Upcountry Hotels / → All Tags

Uganda Hotel Scene :: Upcountry Hotel Breakfast Offerings

Where: Anywhere outside Kampala, Gulu, Uganda

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. Earlier this week, we recommended you step out of your comfort zone and check out an upcountry hotel, and yesterday we gave you a vocab lesson to help you along. Today, here's the scoop on upcountry hotel breakfasts. Enjoy.

Breakfast is usually included in the price of an upcountry hotel room, which at JoJo's is 25,000 shillings non-self-contained, and 50,000 shillings self contained ($15 without a private bathroom, $30 with a private bathroom).

Breakfast is almost always the same at almost all upcountry hotels: bread, a boiled egg, a banana, and instant coffee. The bread will not be toasted, and will often be stale. There will also usually be a tub of Blue Band and a can of Zesta at your disposal.

more ›

Tags: Uganda Hotel Scene / Kampala Hotels / Uganda Hotels / Uganda Upcountry Hotels / → All Tags

Uganda Hotel Scene :: Your Upcountry Hotel Vocabulary Lesson

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. Earlier this week, we recommended you step out of your comfort zone and check out an upcountry hotel. Today, here's a little extra help navigating the scene. Enjoy.

The official language of Uganda is English, but English here is of its very own unique, um, interpretation. In Kampala, you'll find that most people will speak in a way that can be pretty easily understood, though some effort may be involved.

Upcountry, all pretense at British English of the traditional, colonial kind is pretty much abandoned and idioms are the rule of the day.

Here a are a few hotel-related idioms that are necessary to understanding what the receptionist is trying to tell you, in order of importance to the comfort of your stay.

more ›

Tags: Uganda Hotel Scene / Kampala Hotels / Uganda Hotels / Uganda Upcountry Hotels / → All Tags

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."

more ›