Yesterday at this time we were standing among the gorillas in the jungle in Uganda. Now we are waiting in front of a grim official at the Rwandan border. She wants the address and telephone number of our accommodation in Kigali. She is also annoyed because we took photos. I give her the contact details of a travel agency, which I quickly find on Google Maps.

Although we already have an East African visa, the procedure takes longer than expected. Luckily, there is a rickety bus waiting outside that is just leaving for Kigali and we are able to jump into it in time.

Crossing the border from Uganda goes almost smoothly

The journey is surprisingly short. After an hour and a half we are already in the heart of Rwanda and at a bus terminal that is like a beehive.

As I later find out, this is the most hectic place in the entire country, which is actually extremely relaxed.

We take a taxi to my cousin Kamran, who lives in Kigali with his wife Tiffany and their three children. Three years ago he started the Kivu Choice fish farming project here, which has developed very well. Kamran plans to become the king of the tilapias of Africa and I am confident that he will achieve this.

For a change, we have luxurious accommodation here and no big program, so we can recover for a few days from the intensive program in Uganda.

The two have a small palace with guards, cooks, nannies and drivers.

One evening we go to a fancy restaurant to celebrate Tiffany’s birthday. Friends of the two are French and Belgian expatriates and a Congolese man named Hans, who is planning to become the next president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for him. It’s going to be a fun evening. In a bar we drink gin and tonics until the early morning.

If you search for the highlights of Rwanda you don’t get many results. The country is very small. But it is clean and safe.

Pollution by garbage is punishable by law and every citizen of the country must perform public service one day a year.

The weather in Rwanda is also fantastic. It is not too warm and not too cold. There is a heavy rain shower once or twice a day, but otherwise the weather is good. There are still no mosquitoes either.

The country is clean and a woman can walk through Kigali at night without any worries. Rwanda is actually a perfect oasis in the middle of Africa.

Uwe and I keep the program in Rwanda small. Since we have safaris in Uganda and Tanzania, we limit ourselves to getting to know Kigali in Rwanda. We get a new SIM card. With the mobile internet we can use the app “Yego”, which works like Uber.

We explore the clean city center, which even has a pedestrian zone. Motorcyclists constantly approach us to offer a taxi service. Otherwise, no one pushes themselves on us. It’s really relaxed. And Kigali is nothing compared to Kampala, which was very dirty.

We take a Yego and visit the Kimironko market on the outskirts of town. It is a huge hall where you can find everything from tomatoes to siphons. Word quickly gets around that two Muzungu are walking around the market, and soon we are surrounded by a flock of them.

Everyone tries to lure us into their souvenir shop by asking, begging or joking. I am surprised that there are so many souvenir shops in this market. The market is in an isolated location and we seem to be the only tourists.

The market offers everything

Even when we are pressured and talked into things, we are relaxed. The people are very respectful and accept rejections. I patiently let them show me the items in one small shop after another.

I actually buy a few little things. Negotiations are easy because everyone there has the same items.

Uwe and I used the hungover day after Tiffany’s birthday party with far too many gin and tonics to visit the Hotel Mille Collines. This hotel gained notoriety in 1994. The Huthu started the genocide against the Tutsi and the hotel became a place of refuge that saved hundreds of people’s lives.

After four days we move on. We take a taxi to the airport early. A couchsurfer will pick us up in Arusha. She is Maasai and will show us her perspective of Tanzania.