Some of the patrons in party vibes in one of the pubs in Gulu City. PHOTO | TONY MUSHOBOROZI
Of all the newly crowned cities in Uganda, Gulu gives the best city vibes to any visitor. It does not feel fake to refer to it as a city. The town is a flurry of activity. Business is booming.
The streets are filled with traffic and the sidewalks are overflowing with shoppers. It is not uncommon to see traffic jams building up at peak hours of the day.
Restaurants are packed with diners at lunch. Pubs are filled with patrons at night. And as a rule, when you visit a town this vibrant, it starts whispering things in your ear, inviting you to check out the night life. I mean, what is the point of visiting a fun town and going straight to the hotel room, right?
When you are new to the town and you are not familiar with the geography of its nightlife, a boda boda is most likely to recommend Buganda Pub because it is one of the oldest and most known in Gulu City. The pub is successful for a reason. It plays good music the way Ugandans love it, which is to say, very loudly.
Well-dressed women tend to love to stand in and outside the pub for some reason, ahem! And the men come here only to look at these ladies. For this reason, the pub is always full, even on a Wednesday night.
The only problem is that it is not an exclusive bar, where you can sit and enjoy a great conversation with your travelling gang. For that reason, you have to look elsewhere.
The Night Captain Lounge on Jommo Kenyatta road is more like the place you want to check out for a serene ambience. Pubs such as Password Lounge, Murphy's Lounge or Masaki Bar are places that can suit the department cate sensibilities of travelled people like you and your gang.
While bars such as Buganda Pub are favourite for locals, travellers would rather go to the Night Captain Lounge because they are less crowded and quieter. Here, you are bound to meet the working class of the town and have a conversation about all things Gulu. You will meet nubile university students looking to have some fun.
Such pubs are everywhere in the town, you cannot fail to find one that you really dig.
There seems to be a well-to-do working class in Gulu City. Over the last 20 years, Gulu has been the centre of rebuilding Northern Uganda after the LRA war.
Dozens of both international and local NGOs have been working in Gulu, rebuilding lives that were after the terrible war, and employing thousands as they went along.
If there is one town that has enjoyed donor money in Uganda, it is Gulu. As a result, hotels have been built, businesses established and the town redeveloped. Couple that with the fast-growing Gulu University and you get a party town that almost never sleeps.
Pubs in Gulu are never short of patrons. The town is flooded with travellers all the time that hotels are almost always overbooked here. And you know how thirsty travellers tend to be.
Big bucks exchange hands in this town (donor money) and everyone is bound to get their hands on a piece of that cake. For that reason, a night out in Gulu is likely to push your limits and make you drink harder than you have since you were in year two at university.
Gulu is a party town in its own right. It is almost as vibrant as a beach town anywhere on the face of the earth. Okay that may be stretching it, but you get the point. If you pay attention, you can even sense this before you step out of the vehicle.
As you enter the city, there is an elephant statue that welcomes you into the city of Gipir and Labongo.
Tusker Lager decided to capitalise on this statue by erecting a big billboard that has a familial relationship between the two entities that love their elephants. It may sound like overkill, but is it? Gulu City low-key winks at you upon entry to let you know that it is a party town.
So what makes Gulu such a fun town? It's the nice, agreeable people of the north, the loads of cash accruing from Gulu's vibrant NGO economy, the nice pubs and the university students. If you have never been up here, you do not know what you are missing.
