Hotel Boulevard Nairobi

in a nutshell: well, we have almost finished our Cape Town to Nairobi overland truck journey, we have a small trip tagged on to the end - 3 days in the Masai Mara - before we leave to fly home. ---------- We rose early and drove the short journey to Nairobi getting to the Boulevard Hotel by 10am. We were staying the night in the 1970's retro-fest that is the Boulevard - expensive but convenient because the truck leaves from here tomorrow morning. We re-packed out bags and bought a small holda...

The constant sound of the river in the night kept me awake till day break when I woke up at 1 am ... well the small stream outside was no doubt a better sound to listen to than the constant noise of cars that would have been heard on the other side of the hotel. I was asleep by 7.30 pm. My body was certainly tired after a SAFE walk into the city centre just 10 mins passing by the university last night before the sunlight faded.

Now to adjust the body to local time over next 2 days and ...

Today I had planned to go to the renovated National Museum just behind the hotel. But first I needed some KES $$$ to pay for the hotel plus buy some more rechargeable batteries as I don't think my 2 sets will last. Yesterday I used one set in 2 hours!

I wandered through the city markets and welcome to Africa! "Jambo" as the stall holders wondered why did this tourist walk into this smelly place with fish being filleted, meat hanging ... you can get the drift. Then next door was a craft...

Started the day with a game drive that was to be 1.5 hours and it turned into almost 3 hours. Lots of action with fresh kills and lions eating and then some large male lions encrouching on anothers territory and getting run out of the territory. Lots of action and an amazing experience to see and hear the lions roar right beside us.

Back to the city of Nairobi late this afternoon. Great to have a hot shower and then went out for dinner with the group. Managed to do some laundry by han...

(N.B. Very difficult to find an internet cafe with a service that actually works at a decent speed outside Nairobi so far. Therefore, quite late on my updates. I'm actually writing this on the 16th of July from Arusha, Tanzania and will hopefully catch up soon. It's been a fantastic experience so far.)

Day 4

Had a late night out in Nairobi. Met a few interesting people at the Gypsy bar and subsequently at Carnivore. In truth Nairobi proved to be a lot safer than how the guide bo...

As my plane passed over Egypt, I peered out the window and saw a vast expanse of desert. A singular black line meandered into the horizon; I assumed this to be the Nile.

Without a cloud in the sky, the Sahara looked unending and the sight filled me with anticipation for the coming days.

Western ignorance had washed over me and I half-expected Nairobi to be a gem in the desert, very much like a Las Vegas of Africa. The first thing that hit me as I stepped onto Kenyan soil was t...

When the plane landed in Nairobi, I was fully prepared for a crazy situation. I have read many travel guides that talk about how "crazy" the city is and often the nickname "Nairobbery" is thrown around. I stepped into the airport, went through immigration and reclaimed my baggage without any problems or stress. Where is all of the "African" craziness at the airport that I kept reading about? I quickly get a cab and proceed to my hotel... again no stress here. My cab driver, Charles, was a ver...

We have arrived safely! Robin and I arrived in Nairobi at 6:30 am and were met by a driver of the hotel. The ride here was incredible. We saw giraffe's eating in a game park and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The drive took us about an hour to get to the hotel. We were in rush hour and it was amazing to see the amount of people who would walk in thier suits towards downtown to go to work. English is the first language of Kenya so we are really lucky that we can spea...

So, we made it to Nairobi airport after 8 hours on the plane with very dodgy in flight entertainment. After several attempts to restart the system all that was working on my screen was the map of where we were and how far away it was to our destination, thanks BA! We were picked up from the airport by a friendly guy called Harrison. He drove a Toyota just like everyone else in Nairobi. He also drove it in a rather scary manner just like everyone else in Nairobi! Still we arrived in one piece ...