As of January 2020:
Entry into Tanzania (Malaba Border post)
- In theory a one-stop border post but a rather chaotic one. You park just before the border and go through to the first office to get your Carnet cancelled by Kenyan customs, then you get in car and drive across to Ugandan side and enter a slightly more organized parking area. Here you can get your exit passport stamp from Kenya done and then move to counter next door for your entry into Uganda. After that a corridor leads you to the Ugandan Customs area to get your Carnet stamped and an invoice for Road access fee. The road access fee must then be paid at a bank which is is upstairs just past the border exit boom, once you have a receipt for this you return to customs and get your Carnet stamped or TIP issued.
- Road Access fee/tax: USD 18 (UGX65200) and appears to be valid for one month or does not say so on receipt. This is payable in Ugandan Shillings. There is an ATM below the bank but as usual was not accepting international cards when we were there. Upstairs at the bank USD can be changed to shillings and the road tax paid.
- In the same building as the bank are two insurances offices, starting offer from the tout downstairs was USD150, one office offered USF 75 and another USD50. We paid the USD 50 but subsequently learnt it should have been closer to USD20! 3rd party insurance in Uganda can only be bought for 12 months no matter the length of your stay.
Visa and length of stay
Almost everybody seems to require a VISA for Uganda, this can be done online via eVisa or obtained at the border, cost is USD50. If your citizenship requires you to also get a visa for Kenya and Rwanda then an “East Africa” tourist visa will be worthwhile obtaining at USD100.
Speed Limits
The speed limits in villages is 50km/h and 80km/h on the main roads. On the road between Malaba and Jinja they also have some 30km/h zones in which they seem to trap as we got stopped, we do not know if this is an official speed limit or not.
Cellphone data and access to Social Media
To obtain a SIM card you are required to go through the RICA process so have your passport handy and be patient. Data is quite cheap and in fact many campsites also offer free Wifi. We only discovered a few days after obtaining SIM that there is an OTT tax to be paid if you wish to access whatsup or any other type of social media, so make sure you pay the OTT when getting your SIM. The OTT in Dec 2019 was UGX200 per day and can be bought daily, weekly, monthly etc.
Banking
All banks seem to charge an access fee for making withdrawals. In our experience, using a VISA card, Stanbic was the most economical as the fee was lower (UGX10k) and the max withdrawal amount higher at UGX1million.
Gorilla trekking
When leaving SA we were under the impression you needed to book a minimum of 3 months in advance to secure a permit but based on discussions with other travelers we met along the road decided to risk it and only book once in Uganda. We went to the Ugandan Wildlife Authority offices in Kampala on the 23/12 and could have secured a trek for two days time if we had wanted. A safer margin would probably be to allow 2 weeks lead time.
Some people have also just arrived at the Bwindi park gates and been able to secure a permit there.