Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Eating Out

"ARSE I have to put up with from you people. You ponce in here expecting to be waited on hand and foot, while I'm trying to run a hotel here!"
Basil Fawlty

Lodges and service in Uganda is amazing outside Kampala...in the city, everything is hit and miss! Here in Kampala, you go out before you are hungry. If not, the experience is not funny but annoying. As...

you might go out for breakfast, but there will be no eggs for the omlettes at the cafe. Or you'll order a Bloody Mary but be told, 'the chef has gone home' (haa- this still makes me laugh now, the response of my friend to the drinks waiter was hillarious!!). Or you'll wait 30 minutes for a coffee and be pleased it didn't take too long. You're forever sending corked wine back or worst still be told by the French manager, that no, we could not taste the wine before ordering it...it would not, he knew, pass the test. You see a rat the size of a small pony running through the restaurant/bar, so decide not to go back..for a week. You laugh when you see the sign, 'please allow 2 hours for pizza delivery' but appreciate their honesty! Ordering off the menu is always a mistake, in fact just best to ask waiters what they have, rather than read the menu at all. I'm still waiting, a year and a half later of being in the city, to be able to try a lemongrass martini...

Maybe, just maybe, if I am here long enough, I won't find all this entertaining anymore.

6 comments:

  1. I loved that time had a different beat when living in Costa Rica. I cherish that about third world countries. Timeliness can be so boring :) XOL

    ReplyDelete
  2. I guess it forces you to let go of the need to be somewhere at a certain time, to slow down a bit. It would take me quite awhile to get used to that, I think. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes- some days its great...others not so..! Always good to remember where I am though...I sometimes forget! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. You have got a nice blog and I have never been to Africa, so I will follow you to come again and learning about your interesting experiences! Regards and pleased to meet you,

    ReplyDelete
  5. Haha...for the kind of service you expect (the kind we all want) you'd have to go to places a bit more upscale. The likes of Java's, Ban Cafe, Cafe Pap, all those nice places in Kololo, Garden City and Nakumatt, you catch my drift. Even we, born and bred Ugandans, get so frustrated by the poor service in some places, and have learnt which places not to bother with. Sometimes, of course, one has got no choice. If you're upcountry then you just make do with what they have.

    Hope you have some nice memories of Uganda :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. haha-I've just read over my post after reading your comment...must have had a bad day when I wrote it! Oh ys, plenty of great memories, once I just slowed down a little.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving a comment-it is always nice to hear from you!