Kigali Diary - stories from the city!

It's not easy to sum up Kigali in a post, so I will do it though a series of short stories. Kigali is the capital of Rwanda and has a population of about 1.2 million. It was founded in the year 1907 by the Germans.

This was my first visit to the country and I tried to make the most of it by spending as much time as I could out on the streets and interacting with people, apart from enjoying great coffee at every cafe I could locate :)

If I have to write about one thing that impressed me the most about the country then it has to be its cleanliness. The city is spotlessness clean and the roads everywhere have footpaths. All cars follow traffic rules and its hard to miss the sense of discipline.

I will hope to try and understand the city and the country and hopefully will be bring it alive for my readers also. Here are the first few stories...

Ethiopian Airlines

Coffee at 36,000 feet!

I think I really like Ethiopian Airlines, there is something really really nice about them - maybe it's just the fact that they come from Ethiopia, a country that I want to visit extensively.

I had ordered for Hindu meal and they very happily served me chicken. When I told them I want vegetarian food, they looked clueless for a while. Of course I had not expected chicken with Hindu meal (thought Hindus are not always vegetarians), so even I was surprised. Anyway I took some wine and dug into my my bread and butter. And this is when they surprised me with a full platter of cheese and greens. My day was made :)

Kigali - first impressions

Just as we were reaching Kigali...

Kigali is so clean and so beautiful. My first thought was that I should move from India send settle down here. In a country where the capital city is so green and clean, I can be assured that the mountains and countryside would be even more pristine.

There wasn't a piece of paper on the streets, everyone followed traffic rules, there were parks all around and people were very friendly. I spent hours walking alone in town, and though everyone looked at this Indian guy walking purposelessly, I never felt unsafe. I didn't carry my camera with me, so was just soaking in the city.

You can also see a lot of police and what looked like military all over the market area. I tried taking a Selfie with a group but they politely refused. We did have a chat after that about the role of police there. The bunch was very keen to hear about India also from me.

Kigali - early shopping experiences

A fairly crowded but neat lane...

I am not much of a shopping fan, but occasionally I do buy local stuff. When I saw this narrow lane where everyone was heading, I followed them and found many shops selling very interesting hand made stuff from naturally sourced material.

There was a beer and a milk container made out of wood which I really liked. Our of habit I mentioned that they are charging too much from me and they said it was because I was a rich man. I was such an honest answer that I paid them the price he initially told me and not the negotiated one. In my opinion, even his increased prices were very very affordable, or maybe I actually do qualify as a rich man here :)

Coffee in Kigali

Coffee in the market...

I am a coffee fanatic and just love drinking it any time of the day, and in any country in the world. Except India, I even drink it on all road side coffee shops, and have always been impressed.

In Kigali, I actually had to look hard to find one. The market is large but surprisingly there are very few eating places. Many mobile shops, many stationary shops, many household shops, but very few for coffee. The first two places I found had already run out of their daily quota (it was only 3pm), and walked around and asked around till I found this sort of formal coffee shop.

I am sure not many tourists come their way because when I asked them for coffee with milk separate and no sugar, they went into a huddle to decide what to do :) Finally I got my black coffee with a rather large cup of milk (four times the coffee). The coffee was delicious...and it costed Rw 1000. From the French press I got, I could have three full cups!

Motorbike taxis - TVS Victor

Getting all nostalgic about TVS Victor :)

So what was the most pleasant surprise in Rwanda so far? It was  to see my beloved TVS motorbikes all over the capital city Kigali :) TVS Victor was my first bike from my own money and I was quite close to it, so when I saw them used as motorbike taxis here, I was both happy and impressed. TVS has certainly managed to leave Baja and Hero behind in this country.

Though I was warned that these are often pillion rider killer, I still took one. It was super fun to ride even though I was cold, and the trip didn't feel like a killer one at all. I had my own helmet and it felt pretty safe. Moreover it was just one fifth of the cost of taking a full cab. I think I will use it much more often here, esp when I travel alone.

My first Rwandan meal

My Tilapia meal!

After my interesting meal experience in the flight, I was hungry again as soon as I reached my hotel. But before anything else, I ordered a chilled beer Mutzig, as recommended by the bar men as well as Pierre - an architect friend I met at the airport and who was also staying at the same hotel. To me it felt blissful, also because the weather was so warm and sweaty. I follow it up with Tilapia fish with mushroom sauce and rice. It was too much food though I managed to finish most of it :)

The fish was really good and I am sure I will have more of it in the next few days also. As for Mutzig, I will have that and experiment with other locally brewed variety as well. Someone also mentioned a local scotch and that's also on my list :)

Beer and more beer

At the bar with my first bottle of beer :)

I never thought Africa would have so much beer, but every country I have visited so far has impressed me with it local beer.

Mutzig was the first beer offered to me and I loved it! I will soon be writing more on beer in the country (including local beer) but Mutzig is certainly the most popular bottled beer there!

Kigali Love

And finally a short video I made there...shows my love for the city :)