With all our work completed, Sacha and I once again faced a weekend with not much to do. This forced us to put our tourist hats back on and explore what Mbarara has to offer in terms of fun weekend activities so that none of you ever have to. We were going to make a top 10, but unfortunately Mbarara doesn’t have that many attractions so here’s our top 5.

1. The Lake View Hotel.
Allegedly Mbarara’s best hotel, I say allegedly because you definitely leave Mbarara on the way to find it, but it’s definitely worth the half an hour walk. It’s situated on a small lake about half way up Mbarara’s many hills meaning that whilst you journey there you’re treated a lovely view of Mbarara’s stunning countryside. You also pass a few roadside nurseries where you can buy the bulbs for your allotment, it’s a shame there’s no way these bulbs would take to British soil or I’d definitely be bringing home a mango tree and an avocado tree.
When you arrive to the hotel you will be instantly gratified by how lovely the place is - especially if you haven’t been in the presence of lovely for a few weeks! The garden is a lush green, the flowers are beautiful colours, and the reception area has a hint of grandeur. However, if you’re planning on using the hotel’s outdoor pool or speedy Internet it would be advisable to check out the colour of the clouds before you leave. This was Sacha and I’s first mistake in visiting Lake View as we arrived just before one of Uganda’s tropical storms hit; not exactly ideal sunbathing weather and naturally the high winds knock the internet off for the duration.
Luckily we had brought our books and so we decided to sit in the hotel bar area overlooking the garden and read. It is here that we made our second mistake in befriending the local drunk cosmetics entrepreneur. Now, this is not necessarily our fault, because usually when the locals here try and make conversation with us they’re willing to leave us be after we’ve entertained them for a minute or so. However, this one guy was determined to ‘network’ (regardless of how many times we insisted that we were both unemployed), and pulled a chair up to our table, not by invitation I might add. He wanted all of our phone numbers, full names, and every kind of email address that we have. Oh god. It is also worth noting here that panicked looks to the staff of the Lake View Hotel went completely unnoticed or ignored and so I decide to change tactics and make a point of being heavily into my book and completely uninterested in anything that he had to say. Sacha, however, is clearly a better person than I am, and wasn’t prepared to take such rude measures to get rid of the guy. So soon she had reluctantly shared with him where we lived, how long we’re staying in Uganda, both of our nationalities, and what we’re working on whilst we’re here. Woops. Thankfully, two beers later, fate decided to intervene and the guy got called away to work, but not after he’d left us with two litres of hand soap so that we could promote his company in the West. So I guess he wasn’t so bad after all.
Finally back alone, and with the storm over, Sacha and I decide to fire up our laptops and make use of the fast Internet that we’ve heard so much about. Unfortunately it wasn’t working, I don’t really know why we expected that it would! Not to worry though because the service in the hotel was fantastic in this regard, and we soon had the Internet provider for the whole of Mbarara sat next to us determined to get us connected. He also offered to wire up our little shack of a house for a small fee. What a guy, definitely a friend worth having.

2. The Market
Chaotic but colourful place to buy all your fruit and veg fresh of the tree / out the ground for a good price. The sellers will even be honest if they don’t think their produce is ripe enough to eat yet. Watch out for over-eager Americans. They find the market SO MUCH FUN.

3. The Ankole Monument
A big plastic cow, overshadowed by a phone advertisement, in the middle of a busy roundabout. A classic.

4. The Rainforest
About an hour walk along the main road to Kampala. Don’t be deterred by that though, as the walk can be made fun by not getting hit by busses, enjoying your celebrity status by being charmed by the local boda-boda drivers (apparently Sacha and I were in many of their dreams the night before our trip to the rainforest, ergo fate has sent us to them) and waving at children, and trying not to get followed.
Whilst you are not allowed into the rainforest to explore, it is a beautiful attraction and if you’re lucky you will catch sight of some real life Ankole cows. This will most likely have been a dream of yours since you saw the big plastic Ankole cow on the way into the Mbarara city centre.

5. The Coca-Cola plant
Just a bit further on from the rainforest, right in the middle of Uganda’s beautiful scenery. It’s big, red, and otherwise not much to write home about. That being said, we may be back to beg for a tour next weekend.