Behind the scenes - all facts about Tanzania motorcycle trip

hi guys a couple of months ago we went on this Fly and Ride trip to Tanzania and since then I've gotten a few uh requests to make a video on yeah the experience and what we learned there so if you're thinking about oh uh if you're thinking about doing the same kind of of trip or yeah are curious about it this is the video for you yeah so this was something new to us because we used to just get on our bikes at home and then ride to whatever destination we've visited um yeah all the way down to Eastern Turkey last yeah trip like that but now we had a limited time 3 weeks in August so that was fixed and we wanted to fly to some more exotic place and rent bikes and yeah do that kind of trip so we looked for a country and we aimed for Africa because none of us have ever been to Africa and we want that full Africa experience distilled into uh two three weeks uh somewhere so we decided on Tanzania because it has all the African things going on there that you yeah have in your head of what Africa is all the animals and natures and uh oceans and savanas Masai and lions and elephants and all that good stuff um and also the oh thank you uh also so the climate is perfect because Tanzania has a yeah sort of rain period and so on but starting about June July it starts the dry season and until September somewhere it's the dry cold season and cold means quite comfortable temperatures for a swed uh between yeah 20 30° that's the cold season uh during the dry period there so yeah everything seemed perfect so we decided I think there were a few beers involved but we just ended up with tickets to Dar Salam and then we had to sort everything else up yeah so back home with the tickets in hand we had to sort things out before we could go and one was all the vaccinations we had never been to Africa before so some of the vaccines that you need to have going there are for yeah lifetime uh but since we didn't have those uh yeah we had to get everything so we spent about €400 per person for a whole Buffet of uh vaccines in three different sessions that we had to go there um like uh t oid fever um hepatite A and B uh coolera that's not shots but you drink the Colora stuff but the important thing that they actually shck on arrival um is yellow fever so you need the yellow fever uh vaccination and also not before the trip but you need the recipes and get the pills for it for during your stay a bit before you go during the St stay and sometime after your trip the whole time you need to uh Munch malaria pills and two of us got the malaria pills that you eat every day you need to take one pill every day for whole this period but me and seore we we got the pill that you take once a week so that's much better right but it turns out that you have to start eating it about two three weeks before you go this once a week pill because you have to be on the lookout for are you getting Suicidal Thoughts are you getting paranoid do you th see things that are not there and yeah so so it was uh quite interesting uh I didn't know that before I was just ordinated these uh pills so but I was quite on the lookout uh During the period before we we went do you also see that bird sitting there all right so the vaccines you get this little yellow vaccine book and you need to bring it because they will check it on Entry to the country uh especially the yellow fever uh stamp you need in there um um and also to get into the country at least for sweds and most other countries I guess you need a visa and you can apply for that online costed 50 per person I think and yeah you get it approved within a week or something like that and yeah it's you can print it and bring it so that's very convenient but you can also apply for Visa um on entry on certain airports I don't know exactly which but I at darus Alam you could so but yeah it saves time if you already have it and you're sure to at least have that approved so yeah that's good also while packing uh you can see the packing video that that uh I did and of course I want to bring all my camera gear [Music] um but the Drone loss in Tanzania scared me a lot because it's completely forbidden to have uh drones and fly them in Tanzania um you have to in order to fly your drone in Tanzania you have to get a permit and approval from three or four different instances and PVE uh quite a lot so because apparently poachers and things are using drones so it's um and if they see find your drone uh at the airport checking your luggage they will hold it for you so you can get it back when you um yeah return I opted not to bring it because this uh yeah sounded too complicated and risky KN knowing now I guess I would have taken it because people were flying drones and yeah it's uh and they didn't really check for it of course the rules are there to be followed and that's what I did so I didn't want to risk it and the last thing before we go if you wonder what that is I wired this subscription button so every time someone subscribes to the channel I get a little tickle uh yeah so thank you before we go we need also to sort out the bikes and again aroua area which is about 600 plus kilometers from Dar Salam where we land arouse is the place where you have the bike rentals and stuff like that it's also the most packed area to um yeah have close access to everything really cool to see but we needed to find bike rentals I checked our Salam uh that was no success um SAR turned out to we cannot really rent bikes on SAR to ride on the mainland because yeah there's a lot of bureaucracy there so I contacted the embassy they gave me um contact to a company um that rented bikes and that felt nice also because I know nothing about uh companies in this country I don't want to get uh yeah tricked or anything so going through the embassy was nice when they suggest a company for me I feel a bit more secure on on yeah the quality of the company so that's how I got in contact with Alpha from yeah Tanzania motorcycle safaris there and yeah we sorted out the bikes which were going to be CRF 250 L's Hondas uh since then they now upgraded to the new 300s so that's all um nice but we got the 250 and it was the first time actually ever to go on a trip on such small bikes but turned out they were perfect for the job uh for the for the place where we going we're going to ride them so yeah we dealed a bit and we ended up with 60 Euros per bike per day um and also we had to pay extra for we wanted we wanted to start close to Dar Salam uh so yeah we paid for them shipping the bikes down to Dar Salam area to bamu and after the trip also to take them back to to Aria and so on so that was a bit more expensive of course so we ended up with about 45,000 Euros for the bikes for four people for two weeks so quite a big difference in the in economy on this trip where we don't just get on our private bikes and ride from home now we have to fly all the four of us and rent bikes for two weeks so that's um yeah turned it becomes the most expensive trip that we did so far but it's because of those expenses okay so we fly to Dar Salam in Tanzania uh just one stop in Adis Ababa Ethiopia and it was very easy uh quite small airports and yeah not huge distances to to yeah between transfers and stuff like that so yeah was nice then we end up in Dar Salam uh with the things that we paid for the bikes already they include uh picking us up at the airport with a van helping us with the biks driving to bamoo there are our four bikes uh we spend the night we do the second and final payment of the bikes we paid half before half after and we also made a300 EUR deposit per person um yeah that we would receive refunded when we get back they also provided us with SIM cards uh for our mobile phones uh which is a must I would say because we had not pre-booked everything and we didn't have a fixed itinerary for the trip but we we booked each Place yeah day by day and and we like to do that because then you are free to stay an extra night here or yeah deviate from from the plans and so on and using the mobile phones um most of people in Africa or at least Tanzania are on WhatsApp so you need the data package uh we had 20 Gigabytes or something like that um and it's also good because you yeah you call up for a room or something and if you check the websites and so on they have the WhatsApp number and stuff and you can then also uh chat with them and stuff but also make sure that you have normal phone um sort of money on the SIM card because in some areas the the internet coverage or the uh the data coverage were not always 100% especially in the remote remoter areas so the phone has better coverage and then you can call them and so on so we're in bamoo and we have the bikes but most companies provide of course also guided tours and that's what they wanted us to do of course because there's no better way to make sure that you get everything the best parts of of your trip uh tailored and it will be convenient they speak many of the Tanzanian langu languages Swahili is the main language English of course Works quite well sign language but but they have these uh local languages also that they know so super convenient nothing to bother uh just uh follow the red light and so on but we opted not to have guides because we want the living Stone feeling of just being here in this exotic country and deal with it yeah and and figure out stuff and and yeah it it gives you a a little bit of more of a adventure nerve they of course provide us with a lot of uh right in this region these are great places to stay and so on we didn't have a full itinerary but when we got to a place and didn't really know where to go from here we could just contact them over WhatsApp we're here what do you suggest you could go there or there or there so it was really really Dynamic like that and I really enjoyed that if you never been to Africa before like us just taking your bike out on the road and ride is an amazing adventure uh it's everyday day life for the tanzanians or yeah but for you everything is different uh first of all it's a motorcycle country um eight or nine out of 10 vehicles are motorcycles and motorcycles are everywhere and just looking at everything uh there's a monkey on the side of the street there's a motor bike hauling a big machine and there's a bike with four people on it uh everything is intense and exotic so just get on the bike and ride and you don't have to go to this fantastic waterfall to start enjoying uh or feeling the sense of adventure with guides going with you you don't have to worry about flats or mechanical problems at all they're all service and makes everything uh and they're great friendly people uh but if you go solo you can end up with either Flats which you probably will the the amazing thing is there's no one around you get a flat and you're on your own but no not in Tanzania just from nowhere I don't know where they come from they just show up people and ah and they fix your uh help help with your bike and they do all sort of stuff or just talk with you and take selfies so and and everybody rides bikes so everyone has a solution to sort out flats and whatever problem that you may encounter also solo things happen for us we had a fan that stopped working we could ride but yeah it when you R rent a bike it needs to work it should work but things can still fail and they just they they have sort of guys on the on standby and when we call sorry we have a fan that broke down we can go to this place and then when they just come with a new bike or whatever they fix the problem so they really take it seriously to sort out the problem um for you so I wish that if you go that you have small problems because when people just come to your rescue and help you and offer you food and yeah we fixed your tire now you you can join me in my home if you want so just a way to meet the local people that you don't do when everything's working in just ride Mainland was fantastic in the sense that it is everyday life Tanzanian it's not a touristic feeling at all whatever uh people you meet there they are so proud of their country and they're so happy that you're there but not to sell you stuff they're just happy that you're there so they shout welcome uh how are you and everybody's waving and you feel like you're on the red carpet or something but you you're easily noticed on a red Honda CRF uh which no one else has and you wear helmets uh full face helmets and that's just screams uh yeah Foreigner uh to them so they they spot you a mile away and yeah people get happy just seeing you so that was uh one of the great memories also so safety uh Tanzania we have criminality just like any country that's mainly in the big cities we didn't stay in any of the big cities and the crimes that you would see mostly would be theft of course that don't go flash your iPhone and expensive stuff around in the big cities in the middle no experience about that now because we didn't go there uh had no security issues or even I I I I didn't feel that it wasn't a thing at at all with security in Tanzania going around on the small roads and in The Villages and all to to the different places everybody was so just so friendly and when if you come in an expensive car even the police notice you a lot more and it screams money uh but if you're on a bike you're poor that's that's how it works and no one really sees you as dollar assigns when you come on a bike it's more you you blend into to what they do and so so that's nice so I can't think of anything that felt threatening or or so but it on the contrary everybody was so happy and welcoming and yeah it was just uh great in that sense security also has to do with traffic and I do have a warning and the the D most dangerous thing in Tanzanian traffic are the highways and the buses uh you have a lot of uh trucks or lores uh on the road and it's quite hilly uh going through the country and these Hills the the the trucks slow down and then we have the bus drivers bus drivers know that they are King of the Road they are the biggest largest so if they want to pass something at any point in traffic they just overtake they don't care about what's coming on the road they can have traffic but they'll move so especially when you come over a Crest like this it's common to just come up to the crest and there's a big bus in front of you so you buses just don't care about any other traffic they have to adapt so that that was a bit Yeah close calls sometimes and people in general that overtake don't really care about the lanes being free and stuff so yeah but we didn't spend that much time on highways on the small roads it it's the occasional truck that blasts by and leaves a big dust cloud but no incidents or close calls or anything on the small roads um and we always did everything during daylight of course um it was about um halfast 6 to halfast 6 in the evening that's daylight and after that darkness and it goes pretty quick so that's how we planned our rides also that um we need to we started out the day with knowing where to sleep tonight so yeah we could plan for that and always plan to be at the accommodation at 5 6:00 at the latest not to risk uh Darkness because you have all the wildlife and the wild drivers at night apparently uh connected to security o there it is again thank you another one uh connected to security is health or yeah like that so waterwise we always drank bottled water never tap water we didn't brush our teeth in in tap water either um sometimes we used tap water but then we had the filter bottles so we filtered any tap water that we used um food was great it was I didn't know what to expect I never had African food in that way before but most courses uh on the mainland were sort of they they put up a buffet with a lot of different things with rice and fries and different stews of vegetables and meats and barbecued meats and stuff like that um it had a special taste to it and if I can describe it for someone uh it would be in the direction of Indian food not all the way to Indian but you have the the masalas attached to it a little bit and I think they had some Indian influence also through sansar and stuff like that so perhaps that's but I would say in general for a Westerner uh Tanzanian food is tasty and fresh and yeah it I had a good uh eating experience in in Tanzania and especially close to water with all the seafood that you can get that's to Notch um on sansar and on the coastline uh otherwise it's mainly beef and chicken uh when it comes to Meats then then the other types of side dises of course we have rice and Fries but also some fun stuff for us which would uh the bananas not the sweet bananas but those for cooking they they have the texture and taste like uh potatoes almost nothing special it's the sauce that makes it it doesn't taste banana like that and yums also uh we had which is also a new thing and and yeah tasted like potatoes and gravy almost yeah so great stuff breakfasts were awesome a lot of fruits avocados uh pineapples stuff like that and then they flirt a little bit with the westerners giving us some bacon and eggs and stuff like that uh at times so yeah food great and money um you can use two currencies in Tanzania either the Tanzanian Shilling uh or US Dollars um and you can use any of those currencies all over the place if you go to an ATM because uh yeah during the trip we need to refill the the cash pile um in the ATMs you usually get the Tanzanian Shillings and we measure uh the amount of money we have not in in uh yeah currency but centimeters so how many centimeters do you have I have only one left but he has 2 cm because the Tanzanian current is one one euro is 2,600 Shillings so when you get Tanzanian Shillings uh you get them the highest bill is 10,000 uh Shillings which is € 33.8 so if you want to take out money for all the food and beverage accommodation and fuel for for the next few days you end up with centime of 10,000 Shilling bills so as a swed who never used cash for the past 5 10 years not sure having this big yeah big pile of money was a special thing I guess and you paid for um for a dinner for four people that's 170,000 and yeah I get to the price level soon accommodation were yeah so it was in the hundreds of thousands of Shilling that we counted um price levels um some places in Tanzania they have two price lists one for residents if you are from Tanzania you have the cheaper price list and if if you're a a foreigner you have a different one but let's start with the most important price levels and that's Fuel and beer same thing but fuel I would say about 30 sorry 13 1.4 which is a bit cheaper than home but not extremely cheap and up to say €2 per liter if you buy them bottle per bottle in remote areas that don't have them available there so so but we only did that once so if you go to fuel station it's about €140 or something like that uh a beer in on average twoos uh at a restaurant or or bar something like that uh accommodation enormous price ranges so if you check booking.com especially out in the Safari

areas you can have the super duper Safari Lodge for €7,000 for one night I saw one place like that but yeah there are all the different price ranges the cheapest we stayed was at um the Casia guest house in longido and guest houses are everywhere those are like small family pensions and yeah you eat their food and they cook for you and and have the accommodation we paid for one double room which includes two people and breakfast for two people that was 10 euro for one night for two people so that's that's really ni nothing uh the most expensive we paid because yeah that's the guest houses then you have the hotel style levels um usually around uh I think we paid about 100 €150 for all the four of us so splitting everything between the four of us makes yeah um save some money the most expensive place we stayed at we paid €250 for one night for the four of us but then we got our own Villa with a pool two yuzzi two floors and breakfast for everyone so that yeah we did that one night and yeah that was um awesome experience also so compared to Sweden or northern Europe Tanzania is definitely cheaper and you have a lot more if you want to go really cheap you can do that and go super cheap but there's no limit to because of all the safaris and and tourism around there they have price levels without a ceiling so riding around Tanzania the mainland is thank you uh riding on the mainland is really the feeling of being there in everyday life you meet the Masai out there Hing their cattle and the the people there it's it's all really real it's like that and the places that we went is also I mean the northern Tanzania is sort of The Hot Zone for most tourism but you never meet tourists if you meet tourists you you meet them in a in a jeep that overtakes you or passes by and you can see there the little pale uh sort of Mommy in the house with her new Safari outfit really Chic with sunglasses and feeling a bit like my Africa and the the dad and then you have two teenagers in the back with zebras and giraffes all around the car but they're on the iPhones no just kidding but but if you see tourism it's mainly in in Jeeps that you pass by so it's not the the feeling of seeing tourists everywhere and I would suggest uh where we rode was a great place the Eastern Arc Mountains close to the Indian Ocean so you you can see the go out to the ocean awesome places to stay and those mountains are really uh cool to ride in also and it goes all the way up to I think it was at least 1,800 M and and then also then continue to Kilimanjaro of course must sea uh we were a bit unlucky with the weather we didn't see the full Mountain at at any time but you can still feel the presence of it and see sort of the base of of it going up uh and then on the west side of Kilimanjaro the indu game uh area the Wilderness Management Area something like that because you cannot go with your motorcycle into the the game Parks like serengetti or ororo Goro crater which are awesome places to go quite expensive we opted not to do that because in the uet uh gaming Game Area West of kilimo you can go in your bikes and you're guaranteed to see there are sebras antelopes giraffes uh ostriches elephants and sometimes some Lions crawl in there also but that's not the usual thing uh so yeah so much more to see in Tanzania than what we did but hey it's a first trip and yeah it was awesome anyway um and dry season means uh it's dry but still I was a bit confused looking at the forecast every day had rain in the dry season but that's because in the morning comes a little uh splatter a little shower and then it stops and the rest of the day is is fine so we never rode through rain or anything it's uh it was mainly in the mornings or or the evenings yeah English works all all over you can speak English uh most people especially at service companies like restaurants and and accommodation speak English or at least some someone does um and you can also just speak sign Lang sign language but I wouldn't say language was a problem at any point uh it's nice to learn a little Swahili um phrases and and one was yeah to greet someone you say jumbo and that's like hi uh and then you have Mambo and that's jumbo is just something you say and they say it back hi hi uh Mambo is sort of comes with a question it's more like how are you and they always answer Pua which is cool or good like that so how are you good Mambo um you have thank you which is always nice to know as Sante and they say this a lot because they they have great Hospitality um kibu which means you're welcome Asante thank you and just add Sana at the end to anything and that means a lot thanks a lot asant Sana uh so so yeah that's all we learned to say but we used it a lot and yeah jumbo Mambo boa okay that I think that was everything that I could milk out of thank you uh that's all I remember I think but if I missed something if you have specific questions just shoot them uh meanwhile I have some tires to change and yeah working on this baby soon ready I have a video of the whole process there also coming up so yeah hope the weather is rideable where you are and see you in the next one ciao

2023-11-11 05:51

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