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| Floyd on the patio with the sign in the background. |
Meals at our hotel arrive hours after you order, so we usually order dinner just after breakfast and order the next day's breakfast just after dinner. Floyd just skips lunch and I have a handful of pistachios and/or some beef jerky from my backpack (it saves money and we're usually out at that time anyway).
On Saturday we had forgotten to order our dinner before Pastor Johnson picked us up, so we decided to go out for dinner. It would be a nice change of scenery anyway and something different to eat. Our hotel provided a nice young man and vehicle to drive us to Tick Hotel. We sat on the beautiful patio, at a plastic table with an umbrella, and enjoyed people watching. Their patio is right on the main road, so you have all the noise of honking vehicles, racing Boda-Bodas (motorcycle taxis), and countless pedestrians.
We ordered steak dinners and they arrived in about an hour (that is a good amount of time in Uganda, many places take 2 or more hours). The food was fabulous and it was a great time of relaxing. We called the driver to come back for us and returned to our hotel. The crazy thing is the price. It cost us about 55,000/= for our meal, tips, and transportation combined. Now, for our Ugandan friends, that is an expensive dinner but for our American friends, you would be so surprised. That is about $21 US dollars!
The following day we were picked up for church. Church lasted until just before 2 pm and then we were dropped back off at our hotel. Pastor Johnson had some other business to attend to and we could have the hotel driver take us to do some things on our own. We arranged for transport and headed into town. We ran the errands that we needed to run, and were heading to the church to drop off a large item that we purchased. By then it was 6 pm and we had not ordered dinner before we left that morning, so it made sense to just go to the Tick again.
When we arrived, it was a pleasant surprise. The gentleman at the front greeted us, took us to the same table, and said he'd be right back with our drinks, if we wanted the same as the day before. Sure enough, moments later he returned with the same drinks we had ordered the day before. How did he remember that? We certainly weren't the only ones there the night before (I do confess that we were the only Muzungus (white people)). We told him that we would go ahead and place our orders because we wanted the same thing. Floyd started to order his and the waiter said, "yes, the pepper steak with chips, correct?" Then he looked at me and said, "steak chasseur and parsley potatoes?" Wow, that is a good memory! Our food came and once again it was delicious.
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| The first day the carrots were shaped more like the chips on Floyd's plate, which I enjoyed even more, but the entire meal was fabulous. My steak is covered in a creamy, mushroom and whine sauce. Floyd's is covered in a pepper, whine sauce. Mmm, mmm, good! |
Now, it had been our intention to return to our normal routine of eating at our hotel, which is even less expensive than the Tick, but today was an interesting chain of events.
Pastor Johnson picked us up in the morning so we could get today's business done. The plan was for him to take us out to the property again because we needed to gather specific measurements. At 1 pm, he wanted to go by the church for some business and then attend a funeral at 2 pm. He asked if he could drop us at the Tick and we could eat lunch and wait there for him to return. We weren't really hungry for lunch, especially since we don't usually eat it and I had just had my beef jerky and pistachios; however, Floyd discovered that they actually had ice cream. He got a lovely serving of strawberry and vanilla ice cream.
When we heard from Pastor Johnson, he had been tied up and we wouldn't be able to make it to the property today. He had forgotten that he dropped us off at the Tick and was thinking we were at our hotel. When Floyd asked if he was coming to get us to take us to our hotel, he was a bit surprised but his memory quickly came back to him. Since he was still tied up and it was already after 5 pm, we decided to just have dinner at the Tick one more time and call our hotel for the driver to come get us.
When we walked into the restaurant, we were greeted and taken to another part of the hotel. We sat on a balcony on the other side. It was a bit odd because we were the only ones on this large balcony and it was VERY quiet. We had gotten accustomed to the noise of the main road, so this was quite different. This time I changed up my order, but Floyd got the same. We quickly realized that we had eaten more steak in the last 3 days than we've had in at least the last 6 months, and all for less than one steak dinner out in America. :)
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| This is the beautiful patio on the new side of the Tick Hotel. This is where we sat on the last evening. |
Perhaps you're wondering why they'd name their hotel the Tick...
Here is their motto:
We know travel is precious and therefore we ensure you will have a perfect trip. We will do whatever it takes to make sure that every detail is taken care of with the utmost attention to your satisfaction.
T- takes
I- interest in
C- Customer care
K- King
When I first heard about them, I read their description on their hotel info, and it became more clear. A tick is a tiny little bug and they want to pay attention to the tiny details. I can't explain as well as they did, but that is the gist of it. :)
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