Dodoma

I had arranged to meet a taxi driver, Ali, at 5.15am, as the ‘reporting time’ on my bus ticket stated 5.30am. I located him kipping in his car on the street. ‘I come from club’, he divulged. That explained the blurry slurring, but I was out of other options at that hour. I made it to the bus station and Robert Harecy (according to my ticket) boarded safely.

A remarkably smooth journey to Dodoma, Tanzania’s official capital, which meant I was there by 10am. I jumped in a tuk tuk to locate the New Dodoma Hotel, which is actually Dodoma’s oldest hotel and the oldest in central Tanzania. The original incarnation of the hotel was built by the Germans in 1904, and has been remodelled and refitted by Brits and Tanzanians since, but parts of the original design remain. A sign in the car park proclaims that Dodoma is ‘the only city known by its hotel name worldwide’, a claim that is simultaneously bold, clunky and probably untrue.

I explored Dodoma, interested to understand more of this planned capital where government institutions dominate. I expected there to be more orderliness than in Dar es Salaam, and think this is true. It was bustling but not intense and quite cool and rainy. It’s an impressive feat to build a sizeable city in the geographic centre with the goal of equalising development across the country and with most core government functions switched from Dar es Salaam. Lots of the transition is still happening apace judging by the volume of construction warehouses and building sites I saw. Think Milton Keynes but much bolder, with fewer roundabouts and all ministry staff and politicians forced to relocate from London.

I completed my wanderings in Nyerere Square, named for the first President of Tanzania. Then I found some chicken which was substandard and over-priced, but I hadn’t expected Dodoma to be at the forefront of global cuisine.

I spent the rest of the day relaxing at the New (old) Dodoma Hotel.