In the morning rode a motorized boda-boda (pika-pika in Swahili) to Jinja. It's a 20 minute ride, about 7km. Average fee is 3000 USh per person, but from the 5000 bill the driver refuses to give back change (he claims that he doesn't have any).
Jinja is a nice quiet town. Nobody is aggressively selling stuff to mzungus. The houses are nicer than e.g. in Nakuru, Arusha, and other towns that we have seen so far.
There are many banks: almost every second building along the Main street is a bank. Banks are surrounded by a fence, and guarded by armed guards. Exchange rates vary, our 40 USD is bought for 2060 USh per dollar.
We walk along the Main street, then downhill to the lake. Several hotels by the lake, many run down, as if they have had better days (maybe in the 60ies). We dine at Hotel Triangle: vegetable samosa (both), vegetables and chapati + fanta (Cs), tilapia fillet with mashed potatoes + 2 x coke (K). In total 23000, with tip 25000. (i.e. 17 USD).
Walk back to the center. Kids greet the mzungus and are happy when we want to take a photo of them.
Meet some boda-boda guys and have them take us to the Nile Reflections hotel (for 2 x 1000). On the way to Nile Reflections pass a huge fair ground. Just a week ago an annual agriculture fair has ended.
Nile Reflections is a nice hotel on the hillside. Completely empty. We walk down to the river, have coffee, and watch the kingfishers, cormorants, and otters fishing. Two coffees: 7000 + 1000 (tip).
Walk back. Pass by an Indian temple with a monument of Mahatma Gandhi in the yard. Apparently his ashes were placed into Nile. All the cleaners and gardeners at the temple are black, some Indian women sit next to the temple, some Indian men inside. We are allowed to look inside the temple (provided that we take off our shoes) and take pictures. Uganda had a large Asian community in the 60-70ies, but during the Amin times most were forced to leave.
Meet a group of boda-boda guys. Tell them that we want to go to the Nile Explorer's campsite. They take us to the Nile Explorer backpackers just approx. one km away. This is not what we want, the guys don't seem to know where the campsite is, although I show them on the GPS that it's still 6km away. Fortunately, yet another pair of boda-boda guys come who seem to know better what we want. We change the vehicles, and pay the failed guys 1k although they seem to want more.
We agree on 5k for both rides to the camp. Starts another bumpy, dusty and fun ride.
Total cost of the Jinja experience for two: 8k + 25k + 2k + 8k + 1k + 5k = 49k.