adventures in khartuom

Today I planned to go kayaking on the Nile put our boat club friends were not around. So I walked around the Nile area (with 2 other teachers) and we discovered quite a bit.

First there were tents set up by the Tourism agency of Khartoum. I had heard of the agency but never saw much evidence of their existence. The tents had pictures of different sights and different artifacts regarding Sudanese history. Old stamps, money, pictures, baskets, masks, wooden figures, bowls, books etc. It was like a mini museum. They also gave away posters and postcards featuring highlights for tourists to see is Sudan. This was really exciting because there aren't many tourist publications or things available in Khartoum.

We continued walking and then saw a huge white building surrounded by a fence. We saw movie poster/ads outside the building and lots of people and women walking inside. We decided to check it out and found a MOVIE theatre!! The theatre was huge and looks like it would seat 500 or more. All the movies looked like they were Arabic and Indian. We plan to go back and watch one and see if any have English subtitles.

We also found a nice indoor market. It was clean and orderly inside not like the unusual outdoor markets. I got a doll named -Fula- she is like the Arabic version of Barbie. She is all covered and has a headscarf.
We also walked by the Sudan National Museum! I didn't know there was one in the city so Ill be planning a trip there for sure!

We then walked to a new and large hotel we call 'The Egg' because it looks like a large egg. It is the tallest building in the city and overlooks the Blue Nile. The restaurant on the top floor is now open so we went up for a look and what view. You could see the entire city ...the two Niles (white and blue) the bridges, Khartoum North, center city everything.

There was also an art exhibit going on in the hotel about Japanese Architecture.

We stopped for lunch for taamia at a little outdoor cafe near the Nile. And the great thing about this was that there was some music playing. This is an anomoly in Khartoum.

And to top it off we found a really nice Amjad (taxi) driver who later picked us up and gave us a fair price!!

The only down side is none of us had cameras. We were expecting to go kaking and rowing so we didn't bring cameras.

So next time we go around there I will be sure to take pictures.

The picture im including is a picture of one of the posters that we got for free.