After losing our first day to sleeping and recovering from our flight, we set out to make the most of our first full day in Kampala.
First things first, we need to get a sim for our spare phone and sort out Wi-Fi.

On our previous visit, we used the personal routers, which we thought were great, and meant we didn’t need internet on our phone and at home, we just used it as our pure source of internet.

This time round we found out the supplier had gone bust and we needed to go with another telecoms company, but luckily personal routers are readily available out here.
The registration process was not simple, and we were put off by the idea of needed to submit a fingerprint with it! I could imagine the outrage if you had to do the same in the UK.

Another observation was the lack of smiling, especially in the service industry.
We experienced this when we first arrived, then at the telecoms shop, and in restaurants/ shops.
Maybe it’s because it’s the British way and we always lead with a smile, but its rather off putting and tends to make us rethink whether we want to spend our hard-earned cash!

I spoke to a Ugandan friend about the culture of smiling, and they informed us that it’s not part of the Ugandan culture, women especially tend to be shy.
Eye contact, which is something we practice, is not culturally respectful and that’s why they may come across as aloof, disinterested or just plain rude. However, once you do get a smile its quite a beautiful thing.
We further learned, that women especially feel the need to behave submissive or they may not be attractive to potential husbands
Once we understood that is was a cultural issue, it became clear why Caz gets stared at wherever we go! She is anything but submissive and must seem uncouth in her confident ways.

After sim registration and a supermarket run for booze with the sullen customer service, we were happy to have lunch at an establishment known for their great customer service…. cafe javas!
We frequented this coffee shop on our last visit, as it had some of the best coffee, smoothies and ambience in general.
The franchise was founded and managed by Kenyans who are famous for their hospitality, so it wasn’t surprising that customer service at CJ’s was renowned for it.

The décor was lovely, the menu extensive and the service more welcoming. The smiles weren’t as readily available as I would like, but they were attentive and understood service was part of the dining experience.
Caz was so taken with the standard of service; she was keen to talk to management and find out where they do their training.

After lunch, we retired for the afternoon to relax as we planned to hit the town for the first time.
In KLA, you can go out anytime of the week, and you can find food, drink and music…in that order!

We chose to go somewhere local instead of hitting the tourist bars and tried out Nexus in Nijjara.
This massive open-air late-night bar that had an alarmingly loud sound system, but not many people were dancing!
When we arrived, there was a football game playing on all the screens and those that didn’t stare at us, where engrossed in the football, so we made a b-line for the bar to get a drink.

We were served by Sina who initially looked tired, bored and basically over it…
We had already had to deal with a dismissive Uber driver, our first but not so ‘uber’ ride, so we were really in no mood to deal with more bad customer service.

Maybe it was the double orders of Coconut Waragi (Ugandan gin) and Jameson’s, but after a couple orders Tina started to thaw towards us, or maybe us towards her, but she eventually cracked a smile at us, and what a lovely smile it was!
After that, she became chattier and more welcoming, and more encouraging of our drinking habits.

We enjoyed the rest of our night, and despite the medley of 90s/00’s hip-hop bangers that the DJ was playing, we were part of the few that were actually dancing. We weren’t sure if that was due to the music choice or the fact it was still relatively early, the bar is open until 6am every day!

By the end of the night, we had exchanged numbers with Sina, and she had promised to take us out sometime, and not only that, the other members of staff too had warmed and couldn’t help but crack smiles at us!

It might not be a cultural norm to make eye contact and give up smiles easily, but we decided that we were going continue killing them with our big cheesy smiles!