Backpacking in Uganda: Two Eagle Dark and Our Stay At Sunbird Backpackers in Entebbe

“Two Eagle Dark please” – Random American Tourist in Uganda.

It might seem ridiculous to some that we spent three nights in the city of Entebbe and cumulatively five days, but, look, life throws us up curveballs and with overland buses so slow, it was time to chill out on our last two days in Uganda. We had seen the River Nile’s Source on a dreamlike Marlo-boy morning in the city of Jinja and before that we had fed giraffes in Kenya, went on the rip in Burundi, quit a gorilla tour in the DR Congo and visited the grim Genocide Centre in Rwanda’s Kigali.

“Nigdy więcej wojny / Never more war” – Polish war memorial in Westerplatte, Gdańsk.

Now, our minibus (the sixth of many) strolled my Ulster soul back into the city of…Entebbe for the second, and (likely) final time. This time, we chose to stay at the Sunbird Backpackers, just a 10 minute walk from Lake Victoria. We loved our nights and days relaxing by Lake Victoria, one of four lakes we saw on this trip – the others Lake Nakuru (Kenya), Lake Tanganyika (Burundi) and Lake Kivu (DR Congo, and Rwanda).

We actually really liked Entebbe, it was like the calmest city on our entire tour in April 2019. And so I thought I’d try and cover both backpackers we stayed in and maybe write about the city. I don’t do sponsored hotel reviews or free hostels now incidentally (at least not on this trip), so we paid for all of these. It wasn’t that times changed, it was that I just wanted to pay and then decide whether to write about them or not. It’s not even funny how I decided to write about a few of them, as I always did that. The fake bloggers and GuruGods better get ready for the shitstorm, or did I expose them too much in my glory days?

But this place, I liked it – here are Five Rockaday Reasons To Stay At Sunbird Backpackers…

1.Location, Perfect

Okay, so the 2Friends Hotel might have been our hangout bar for 3 nights in Entebbe (we were actually still drinking in the 2Friends Bar just 3 hours before our flight out!) but the overpriced hostels, hotels and guest houses down by the beach were not for us. We opted to stay for 2 nights in Entebbe Backpackers (which was good but a little less cosy than Sunbird) and for a final night and 2 days at Sunbird Backpackers.

So why was location perfect at Sunbird then? Okay – because it was the best of all worlds – we were opposite the market and shopping mall (Victoria Mall) in Entebbe which had great coffee (Java’s Coffee) and cheap carryout beers. It was also only a 10 minute stroll to the beach and lake we loved.

The market was also the venue where I bought Rafal Kowalczyk the famous “Uganda Punk” football shirt.

Sunbird was a cool location, really no restrictions here.

2.Fast Wi-Fi

Another shock. Malina wanted Wi-Fi when we arrived and it worked in our room and allowed us both to do some work and get online. Admittedly, I’m not craving Wi-Fi anymore as much as I did when I was only a professional travel blogger, but it was still good to know we could be online fast and easy here. We watched YouTube videos in our bedroom.

3.Our Cosy Room

The turquoise duvets enlightened Polish backpacker Malina on entrance and gave both of us a good night sleep. Anti-mosquito nets were provided and we had a very cosy room for 3, but as it was off season, it was only two of us in the room that night.

4.Welcoming Staff

We walked inside and within minutes we were greeted by Lydia, the owner and sidekick Wycliffe. It was one of the most welcoming hostels of all time. Then came Daniel and Patrick. This was funny as two of my best AFC Bournemouth mates are Daniel and Patrick! Patrick helped us get the “Two Eagle Dark” (see point 5).

5.The Extinct “Eagle Dark”

Don’t Stop Living is a real life travel blog and I always used to share wacaday tales to you all in days gone by, Eagle Dark could and should (and maybe would or will) be a blog post all of its own. The “Eagle Dark” statement is an inside joke. Okay so the story begins (“country house style”) we were on a wacaday bus from Entebbe (Uganda) to Kigali (Rwanda) when we noticed another white guy, I think maybe the only other white male on that bus (there were two other Danish white females). He overheard me just before the bus left…

Basically I wanted a cup of coffee, or tea, or beer. Yes, at 9 am! But there was no coffee, or beer. So it was tea and the tea was vile. Like the worst ever. Really. Malina and I ordered and drank the tea (okay the price was about 80 cents). When the American overheard all of this he started asking me questions about beer, using phrases like “an Irish lad must know about good beer”, “where’s a good Guinness when you get one?” etc. and he seemed like a guy in the know, being a US lad living in Uganda. He then told me about “Eagle Dark”. He asked me if I had ever tried “Eagle Dark”. My answer was no.

I was intrigued. Eagles give connotations of Crystal Palace FC, birds in Sri Lanka I saw, the Polish emblem. An Eagle Dark just seemed like the dream, and perfect beer. We got back on the bus and Malina, Russell and I had only water, snack crisps and some chocolate. Every time a food or drink vendor came to the window, said American asked them for…

not ONE…

but TWO…Eagle Dark…

“for me and my Irish mate”…

I’d only just met the geezer, and

1.I was Northern Irish and

2.not yet his mate…but it was starting to become funny.

Malina and Russell often burst out laughing at each time said American tried in vain to order TWO Eagle Dark…

About 8 occasions passed when said American tried to order TWO Eagle Dark…

No success and when we arrived at a petrol station, I found some local beer and purchased it, on the second such stop I even bought Malina and I a Smirnoff Vodka mixer.

and we slept and crossed the border easily, and quietly into Rwanda. At this point, said American had offered us not just TWO Eagle Dark but 3 nights in his house with 3 free meals in Kabale, Uganda. He didn’t cross the border with us due to fear of war and border closure. So we crossed into Rwanda all alone.

The point of the story was that we then spent 2 weeks looking for an Eagle Dark beer, believing it didn’t exist and that we would never ever find it. Malina and I asked in vain, even in Jinja where said American claimed to have found the proverbial hen’s tooth. But then on arrival in Sunbird Backpacker’s, we asked for TWO EAGLE DARK. Employee Patrick disappeared for 30 minutes to bring us TWO EAGLE DARK. Yes really…we finally found what we were looking for…

Here are the details for booking a bed/room at Sunbird Backpacker’s in Entebbe: