Weekend in Gisenyi

This past weekend, Joyce, Justine and I headed off to the town of Gisenyi for a little weekend getaway. Gisenyi is gorgeously situated on the great Lake Kivu. Lake Kivu is one of the African Great Lakes, which lies on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It's the perfect place for a nice beach getaway - exactly what we were looking for!

Gitarama (home) to Gisenyi (red star)

We were a bit hesitant at visiting Gisenyi when we first arrived in Rwanda, given its proximity to the DRC border and all the talk in the news about the instability at the Rwanda-DRC border; HOWEVER, there was a "big" party going on there last weekend called "Earthdance Kigali" - so we thought it would be a good reason to check it out regardless of the warning lol! Glad we did too because the border was nothing to be scared about - probably one of the quietest borders I've ever seen. We walked to the border our first night in Gisenyi with a couple of our Rwandan friends - didn't get to cross it though, since the visa fee is CAD $120 - not worth it for just a couple of hours lol.

Here's a pic of the border sign, just to prove I'm actually not lying =P haha

Congo-Rwanda Border

So anyways! This Earthdance Kigali party was being held on the beach at the Lake Kivu Serena Hotel both Friday and Saturday Night. DJ's from Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya comprised the DJ line-up for both days. The set up was really nice and the music and sound system were really amazing, but sadly not too many people showed. Friday night was legit just mzungu's, and not many of us lol... So we (Justine, Joyce and I) headed to a local bar with our Rwandan friends Monik and Didier and one of the guys from the hotel staff that we had made friends with at dinner. He brought us first to this one club that was small, but very packed. We stayed there for a bit, and then headed to a bigger club in town which also had a good crowd. Was definitely a fun night of dancing!

Saturday we spent the entire morning at the Serena Hotel pool, and the entire afternoon (and part of the evening - until about 6pm or so) on the hotel beach. Definitely an amazing day! Met some cool people too (both local and mzungu - oh! and Alvin who's from Uganda, lol!). Justine and I ventured over to the "public" side of the beach, as most "adventurous" mzungu's do lmao! I say this only because, obviously its normal to go to the public side of the beach when you're visiting a country in order to hang out with locals and get a taste of the culture.... Was definitely an adventure though, to say the least lol! The beach was mostly guys (younger boys) from the Congo - we didn't last long there, maybe 5 mins and then we headed back to the Serena beach and our lovely Rwandan and Ugandan friends lol! Good adventure, but we preferred the Rwanda side better lol.

Here are some pics from the beach and pool... :)

Lake Kivu Serena Pool

Justine & I in the Poool :)

Lake Kivu Serena Hotel Beach & View of Lake Kivu

Lake Kivu

Sunset at Lake Kivu

So if that wasn't exciting enough for you, then I should also tell you that the Lake Kivu Serena Hotel is a 4-start hotel [yes, we splurged - just a liiittle ;) ] - meaning that we also enjoyed a weekend of luxury with amazing food and HOT WATER SHOWERS [with pressure! added bonus]! lol! Oh the things in life that make us so happy... But yes, the hotel is absolutely gorgeous; the food is amazing; and the staff is very very friendly and kind. Great place! I had 5 showers over the span of 2.5 days - yep, that's right! It was that exciting lol. Here's a pic of our room at the Serena:

Isn't our little Gorilla & her baby keychain just the icing on the cake? loved it! lol!

I surprisingly didn't take any food pictures this weekend, I think I was just way too excited to eat all the amazing food that I forgot to take pics of it lol! I'll describe it for you though, cause it's worth it lol! So breakfast was included with our room, which usually isn't super exciting in North American cause it usually just means a dinky complimentary breakfast that consists of cereal, muffins/toast, boiled eggs (or scrambled - usually cold - if your "lucky") and some yogourt or something lame like that.... but no. Rwandan's and Serena Hotels don't mess around with food here - this breakfast was impeccable! A full, all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet was what was included - tables and tables of anything you could think of - all the pastries known to man, cheese, meat slices, tons of fruit, rice, beans, chicken wings (?? random, but awesome nonetheless lol!), porridge, a million different juices, yogourt, and a pancake/crepe/omelette making station with chef on-hand to make them fresh for you - amazing! We were lucky to have two mornings at the Serena because that breakfast was to die for lol. 

For dinner the first night I had beef brochette, which was yeummy - but the second night was a million times more exciting - MONGOLIAN BUFFET. Awee yeeeeehhh. Soooo good!! Again, all-you-can-eat buffet with everything from appetizers, main course, to dessert. We start off with French Onion Soup (always a fav), then went to the main course which was Mongolian stir fry - you pick your ingredients and the chef's fry it up for you in front of your eyes. I had beef strips, bacon (YEUM!), onions, green peppers, garlic, mushrooms, something else, and soya sauce in mine lol. And then added some rice to the plate and some other main course goodies - SOOO GOOD. The bacon honestly probably was the best part of the meal cause the taste of bacon took over the rest of the stir fry and I was ridiculously happy about that since I miss bacon soooo much lol! Then for dessert I had creme brulée and passion fruit with an African Tea - perfecto! :-)

After dinner Saturday night we went back to our room to get ready for the night. Saturday night was supposed to be the big night for the Earthdance party and people had been arriving at the Serena all day, so we were pretty excited. Sadly I guess people got discouraged cause no one stayed at the party long enough to give it a chance to populate - they all just went to a local club instead - but that's besides the point cause we didn't even really care lol. But yes, so we got ready and then Joyce, Justine and I started playing drinking games (mainly "never have I ever" and "Kings") with our famous "White Mischief" vodka that Justine had purchased in Kigali before we left lol! (name is soo perfect for the occasion haha). See pic below for White Mischief lol!

We were joined shortly after by Alvin and Patrick (2 guys we hung out with at the beach during the day) who so innocently agreed to partake in our ridiculous drinking game fiasco (they had noo idea what they were getting themselves into, especially Patrick lol!). It was good times for sure.

Since the party was a bit of a flop we just spent the rest of the night having some drinks by the beach and pool and hangin' out - it was a nice, relaxing night.

Sunday we checked out of the Serena and headed off to the taxi park to catch our bus back home. Oh, I completely failed to mention our bus ride TO Gisenyi, ha! Well we decided it would be totally convenient to just grab one of the buses from Muhanga (district that we live in) that goes "directly" to Gisenyi, instead of taking a bus to Kigali and then one from there to Gisenyi (which is what most people do - but we didn't understand why... now we do). So anyways, this bus ended up being one of the regular buses that picks up and drops ppl off everywhere and anywhere along the route... it also happened to be one of those buses that cram a million in at once, along with live chickens among other random things lol. Definitely not a fun way to travel. Three people were puking out the windows the entire drive (which took something like 5hrs, when it's really meant to take 3.5 or something), we were crammed in the back seat all tightly together with chickens pecking at our feet (a man put his live chickens in the trunk under our seat lol) - and then every time we stopped and they opened the trunk, my bag would fall out, which wouldn't have really been a big deal - except for that one of our bottles of White Mischief was in my bag - so it became a sketchy situation real quickly lol! But anyways, we made it. It was funny to look back on after we arrived, but definitely assured us that we would be taking the "via Kigali" route on the way back to travel in a normal bus lol.

We met Alvin at the taxi park and he took the bus back to Kigali with us, which was fun. This bus was waaaaay more enjoyable - very spacious, no squishing 7 people into a seat intended for 4 lol. No puking people, no chickens pecking at your feet.. no stopping every 5 seconds, and my bag was safe up front in the baggage area behind the drive - happy mzungu's! :-) lol! Very nice way to come home from a lovely weekend in Gisenyi.

Kigali is this weekend - we're looking forward to that as well =D