My second day in Juba started when I awoke at the lovely Acacia Village Hotel. I wish I had better pictures of it, but as with the rest of Juba, photos are technically not allowed. All around the hotel grounds they had signs forbidding photography. (So there is no photographic evidence of how great sweaty I looked smoking my cigar and sipping on pineapple juice under the trees.)
While yesterday I was a solo vagabond, today I would be escorted around by a driver who would show me the sights of Juba. I don’t normally think this sort of things is necessary (and I much prefer to walk than drive), but with Juba,not being the safest of places, this was my best bet to see the city.
Money Matters
The first order of business was exchanging money. I had come from Sudan where credit cards and ATMs are non-functional, so I had wads of pristine US cash and Euros, but no Sudanese Pounds. The driver knew just the spot. He took me to a small supermarket/general store (not fancy but tidy and well stocked) and the cashier let me exchange money.
I ended up with a fistful of Pounds, each bearing the round head of John Garang de Mabior, one of the leaders of the South Sudan independence movement and the first VP of South Sudan…for 3 weeks. (He died in a helicopter crash.)
Not on the money, sadly, is Salva Kiir Mayardit, the first President of South Sudan. You will seldom see him without his trademark cowboy hat, reportedly a gift from George W. Bush. I must admit to finding that detail rather charming. I feel like if you are going to be the leader of a conflict riddled country you should have a signature look. Say what you will about Idi Amin or Mobutu or Muammar Gaddafi or similar despots – they all had signature looks. Like Karl Lagerfeld.
Take note that the amount of money I had in my hands was far too much for my remaining time in South Sudan and I was unable to change it back, so if you are reading this, and planning a trip to South Sudan, hit me up. I have some Pounds to sell at a good rate.
To Market
From there, we drove to the central market of Juba, the Konyo Konyo Market. I loved the market. It didn’t feel at all tense or unsafe; it was just a regular African market, colorful and lively, with produce, housewares, textiles, food vendors and whatnot. My guide said it was ok to take photos around the market (but he also told me when to not take photos). Lots of women getting their nails done, men selling hookahs and clothes, and so many items I could not identify, but looked to my untrained eye like rocks and sticks.
We walked around the outside of the market a bit and even took a selfie.
Shipwreck
From there we went to what is probably the most photographed place in Juba, the Afex River Camp restaurant. It is very popular with visitors, expats, and locals who have the money. A nice, outdoor restaurant along the banks of the Nile, under shady trees. You must go through security to enter the compound, but once inside the gates it feels like a haven. We had coffees and water and chatted, while I watched kids climb up a giant tree to grab fruits. Maybe mangoes, but I can’t be sure.
Not only is it a nice spot, but it is the best place to see the most famous sight in Juba: the sunken ship in the Nile. It is about as iconic as sights get in Juba. It is a passenger ferry, half sunk in the Nile, and just…sitting there, stuck. It is incredibly picturesque, sitting at just the right angle and surrounded by foliage. My guide didn’t know a lot about its history but said it had been there for about 10 years or more. The best info I could get was that its engine had just failed and it floated and got stuck. I had been hoping for a more dramatic tale.
It is very tempting to swim out to it, but the multiple warning signs about crocodiles is a sufficient deterrent.
Congregants and Cows
Rested and fuelled, we drove around, stopping at a church to take in part of the ceremony. The place was packed, and people sat outside on the steps and grounds to listen to the sermon.
We drove across the bridge, over the Nile and stopped to check out a herd of the long-horned cattle for which South Sudan is famous.
Plans Thwarted
I had wanted to leave Juba to see a bit of the countryside and maybe drive to a village or something, and my driver was game, but said we may not be allowed to leave Juba. We drove down a rode on the outskirts. Just as the buildings faded away and were replaced by landscape, there was a road block. A rope strung across the street and a mud brick and corrugated metal shack to one side. Men standing around. We were motioned to pull over. A man came up to the driver’s window and they exchanged some words before the driver told me he had to go to the “office” (the aforementioned shack). I waited in the car for a few minutes and then I was asked to join them.
One man sitting at an empty wooden table asked to see my papers. It was impossible to know if there were police or soldiers or just dudes. I handed him my passport, my stamped e-visa, and registration document. He looked and them and then said that if I wanted to leave Juba I needed a special permit. We went back and forth on this for a bit, but he would not agree to let me leave the city. I don’t know if I truly needed a permit or if he wanted a bribe, but he didn’t give me any signals that a bribe was needed. (He didn’t say anything like “Perhaps if you could give me some tea money” or anything like that. Didn’t even ask about money.) So we left and turned around and drove around a bit more.
Market of Giants
It was fine though because we were able to visit a rural feeling market that I guess was technically in Juba, but it really felt quite apart from the city. I don’t know the name of it, but it was a fairly large market. A collection of shacks, or three walled, roofed structures, extremely modest, on a few streets of dirt surrounded by open, flat barren-looking land. The places sold mostly food items: produce and meat, spices, flour, coffee, that sort of thing. It was market mostly for the Dinka people.
The Dinka are a tribe from the area of South Sudan about 4-5 million in number and traditionally have a pastoral lifestyle and polytheistic religion, though many have converted to Christianity. The thing the Dinka people are most known for though is their height. They, along with the Tutsi people of Rwanda, are the tallest in Africa, which probably makes them the tallest in the world. I know that usually the lists of the tallest people put Netherlands at number one, but I wonder if those fact collectors are overlooking Africa altogether, because I have never seen people this tall in Amsterdam. The Dinka are shockingly tall, and thin, which adds to the look of their height. Many of the men wore western style clothes, but the women wore skirts and dresses of traditional African textiles. Watching everyone parade up and down the market streets, it looked like a convention of super models. I am 5’9” and I felt short.
I don’t have pictures of the market. I took a couple and then my driver said that I shouldn’t, so I put my phone away.
We walked around and then sat in some plastic chairs in the shade of a thatched roof and had ginger coffee, watching the market activities.
Concluding Juba
That was about all there was to see in Juba. It was a good day. I returned to my hotel and spent a relaxing evening smoking cigars and having dinner.
That was my final night in Juba. There is more to see in South Sudan. It is a country with some beautiful landscapes but there is no infrastructure, so it is nearly impossible to see on your own at this time. There are some multi-day tours that one can book to visit the Mundari tribe and spend time with them and their cattle herds. It looks fascinating, but I’m not a group tour person and I was out of time on this particular trip. I was glad to have seen Juba. To see a bit of a country so new and, unfortunately, so troubled. It’s only 12 years old though, so it hopefully it finds greater stability and prosperity in the future. Maybe not in my lifetime though.
That was it for my Sudan/South Sudan trip. The next morning I would leave for Canada, but via Istanbul, where I would have a lovely overnight layover.
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