Boat cruises: The trending way to fun

By Diana Namutebi

Last December I had a few friends coming to Kampala for holiday. They asked me to take them around, and I could only take them to a bar, club, the beach, a good restaurant, the usual, really. And then we repeated the cycle, only changing locations. The whole bar and club hopping got tiring and we resorted to having the fun at home.

However, one of them, who is a nature enthusiast insisted that we should go out of town if we wanted to have a good time. He had also had something in mind; bungee jumping at the Nile in Jinja. To me, this sounded cliché and not my sort of idea to have fun.

But being the gracious host, I followed reluctantly, wondering why I had to travel all the way to Jinja to have the so-called nature experience — I mean Kampala is literally surrounded by many natural habitats where we could have fun. But to my friend, Kampala lacked something; it could not give you the kind of experience that can make it onto your bucket list.

THE SEARCH FOR A CRUISE

When they eventually left, their description of Kampala kept me wondering. How can Kampala, a city with such an active social calendar, be so boring at the same time? When I brought up the conversation to a friend, she told me that I should have taken them on a boat cruise. That would completely change their mindset about Kampala.

At first, it was actually difficult for me to believe that boat cruises had become commercial and that I could just dig into my wallet and hop onto one for a fun day of my life.

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If you are not looking for a very classy cruise, this one at Ggaba will do

I mean, since time immemorial, boat cruises here have actually been a preserve of a few special occasions like St. Valentine’s getaways, a few corporate sponsored occasions where all strings were pulled to secure one, or even for the Sudhir Ruparelia family.

Since when did mortals just get the ability to hop onto a cruise and sail away just like that? That stuff, as far back as I can remember, was unattainable — you had to go through the annoying process of winning a boat cruise ticket from a radio station, where you spent weeks in a queue of calls competing with one another to get through to the deejay and act nice for the damn ticket, one ticket.

But then I cast away the doubts and continued asking friends and I was pleasantly impressed that boat cruises have become some sort of weekend getaway among a number of city party animals. So, determined to discover this reportedly fun stuff one could do while in Kampala, I started looking up a boat cruise on the Internet. I needed to get onto one so I could experience it first  hand and interest my friends in taking one the next time they visited.

My search for information about any boat cruises happening soon in Kampala was futile. This made me resort to calling up friends, who had been on a boat cruise to give me contacts of organisers, but I hit a dead end. So what kind of big trend was this that many did not seem to know about? I started to get this feeling that either many people left the boat cruises too drunk to ask for the organisers’ numbers, or the boat cruises were such a bore that nobody wanted to keep the contacts of the organisers.

Since looking for a boat cruise from my desk was not helping, I opted to go out and physically look for one during the weekend — my friends had promised they would come back soon and I wanted to have a first-hand account of one if I was to succeed in getting them on one. Plus, I am the kind that goes the extra mile when my fun radar picks up on something.

PORT BELL

My search led me to Port Bell, where I was told that MV Armani or Earth Wise (those are boat names) sometimes dock to pick up its clients. The empty pier was my answer, no boat cruise. I then went to Ggaba landing site since I had been told to try there. The commercial small boat operators, after failing to convince me to take a ride on their little motor boats, started to tell me about the big loud boat cruises.

They told me that I had about three options: MV Armani, which usually docks at the Ggaba Beach house or Port Bell and the prices are agreed upon from time to time; Tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia’s boat, which is paid for in dollars for one to make just a U-turn around Ggaba Beach, and Big Yellow Banana boat, which sets off at Waterfront Beach only if it gets enough customers who want a ride.

GGABA BEACH

I then dashed to Ggaba Beach house where I was told that the boat had other engagements for the weekend. However, the attendants told me that if I wanted to book for a party, it would cost me about sh3m upwards. But that for a normal boat cruise where you join strangers, while paying for whatever you consume, it would cost about sh30,000.

I also learned that sometimes people just show up, hire a boat make lots of food, drinks and entertainment on the boat, then charge sh60,000 or more if one wants to attend — one just has to keep an ear to the ground and eyes on the Internet, especially the social networks, which are the common recruiters of boat cruise fans. That weekend though, I went home a bit disappointed, as I had loads of information, but no boat cruise.

MY FIRST TIME RIDE

It took me some weeks to get on one. But when I did, I could not hold my excitement. It was the MV Armani. It looked like a small version of the luxurious boats I have seen on the Internet and not motor boats I had seen at Ggaba. I had to board from Port Bell, with word having gone around that boarding time was 12:00noon, and that sailing time was 2:00pm. By 11:30am, I was aboard for the fear of being left behind.

People kept trickling in until 3:00pm. However, I did not feel the wait because the DJ on the boat knew exactly what to play. After everyone who was expected to come got on board, the music got louder and the boat set sail, slowly. And just like that, a number of party girls changed to revealing outfits, which,  for the guys around, was a sort of declaration that the party had started.

Luckily, the kind of cruise I went on was the kind where you find eats and drinks on board, courtesy of the organiser — I had somehow managed to secure my name onto the guest list. We were served food by  ushers, while the boat steadily picked speed, at some points, and reducing at others, while some workers updated those who cared about the given location of the boat. We sailed by Ggaba, then Garuga towards Entebbe and at a certain point we were in Mukono.

Boat cruises with lots of food and drinks on board are the best

It was serene. As we went further, the lake turned azure and there was no trace of algae, weed or even that foul smell at the beaches. In a distance you could see hills covered in green. The beaches were dotted with old-fashioned colonial houses, which left me wondering what story lay behind those houses? Who occupies them? Whoever the occupants, they must have some comfortable financial means.

Occasionally, you  would see a fading island. At a certain point the waters were so calm, the bright blue sky being reflected off them in what made me realise that Lake Victoria is truly beautiful, the reason we really need to save it.

The only distortion to this perfect canvas of nature was our boat, which was blasting loud music, and people, who were dancing. As people downed more beer, they started to shout at whatever they thought would hear them, including the birds.

The boat then docked at a beach in Mukono, and motor boats picked us up to take us ashore. We were welcomed by a barbeque grill laden with meat. Then the drunken occupants of the boat swarmed the small beach, for the barbeque meats. Those, who wanted fish had to wait for a minute or two for their orders to be delivered.

With all satisfied, some people went off to play football, others to swim, while others headed for the motor boats. Couples snuggled around the bon fi res, while other people took to the dance floor. This mini rave lasted about three hours. At 10:00pm, we were asked to get back onto the boat, most of the group were so drunk that the organisers could not take any chances they had to do a head count as we embarked, before heading back to Port Bell.

The boat sailed slowly as people continued to drink and laugh at the not-so-funny jokes going around. Others fell asleep only to be woken up at the Port Bell pier. At 11:00pm, the boat cruise was over, and I had a nature experience, party on a boat, day out at the beach — without necessarily travelling long hours or leaving my comfort zone Kampala.

For a moment I had no worries except my new friends, who had to worry about the drunken driving operations by the Police. Fun to know we have us this new way of partying around here, don’t you think so?