Kenya Trip: Part 1

Our trip began late thursday night as we headed to the airport at 11:30pm. We signed in made our way to the gate and took off somewhere in the range of 2am. I slept the whole way to Ethiopia. During our layover we located the only airport bar where several of my colleagues took part in an early morning beer. Much need after two months living in a dry country dealing with the stress of back to school. Flight number two went off without a hitch and we landed in Mombasa at 1 on the afternoon. 

Now when we finally got the go ahead on our vacation our main concern was finding a location that was cheap and awesome. This was a problem because everyone was jacking the prices, and flights that were normal $300 round trip, were now closed to $1000. Luckily we came across the flights to Mombasa for fairly cheap. Kenya's awesome, there's beaches and elephants and safaris! What we failed to see while planning and booking it was that Mombasa is actually one of the most dangerous cities in East Africa. Needless to say we didn't spend much time there. We had arranged for car to pick us up and drive us straight to Dianni beach, on the southern part of the coast.  Our drive took us about 2 hours to get to our hostel. One of the most interesting parts of the drive was the barge which ushers people back and forth across the river connect the west and east bank of Mombasa. There are no bridges that connect the sides, just ferries that traverse the 200 foot width. Cars pay a tolls, but pedestrians walk on free. Our driver, Mike, warned us to stay in the car as pick pockets are very common here. 

 

At the hostel we saw to our rooms, and i quickly changed out of my fully covered Kuwait friendly garb into a bathing suit. Very little has felt more liberating in my life. We didn't leave the hostel for the rest on the night. I had called it an early evening because of the hectic week and long flight. Others choose to head out from the poolside bar to some of the others in town. I spent the following day lounging by the pool, others slept off their hangover. I managed to get one of the worst burns I've ever had from a combination of expired sunscreen and sun sensitivity because of the anti-milaria medication. In fact as I write this weeks later (I know, I should have blogged sooner) I'm still slightly red and peeling. 

The next day was overcast, which I was secretly very thankful for. Around noon some of us made our way down to the beach. It was less than a five minute walk down the road. However, we took the matatu (the local public transport) down the road to a restaurant with lounge chairs and food options. The matatu is exactly the same as a dala dala, for those who are familiar with Tanzanian public transport. For everyone else they're basically like a van that drives around picks up people, where you cram into tiny seats and there may or may not be chickens on there. All for the low cost of 10 shillings (about 10 cents). Our matatu did not chicken, which was nice but I had secretly hoped for them so Haley and Joan would get the full experience. 

We spent the afternoon at the beach and as it started to cool off and spit rain we headed back to the hostel. 

The camels of Dianni Beach. These are left over from when arab traders controlled the spice trade in East Africa. Now they provide rides for tourists.  

The road heading back to the hostel.

 That night we headed down to the beach for dinner were we ordered far too much food for the five  of us. It include 2 snappers, 1 lobster, a mountain of rice, potatoes coleslaw and salad. All for about $15.