I felt the rains down in Africa...

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  Mombasa, Kenya
Friday, September 29, 2006

We Said:

Having traveled quite a bit, we've found that places usually are not as bad as guidebooks or the news media lead you to believe. Before Todd went to New York City for the first time he thought he'd be lucky to get out of there without being mugged, conned, or at least caught up in a drive-by shooting. Well after being in NYC hundreds of times in the last five years, none of those has yet to happen. Even so, we both admit we were a bit wary about traveling to Africa. (By "Africa" we mean, Sub-Saharan. To us North Africa is more Arab than African) We were both a bit anxious while sitting in the Dubai airport waiting for our flight to Nairobi to depart. It seems that you never hear good news coming out of this continent. Between AIDS, famines, corrupt regimes, reports of widespread misery, and all the rest...who wouldn't have a bit of trepidation?

We are happy to report that so far, it is nothing like we expected. Keeping in mind that Kenya is a developing nation; the town of Mombasa is pretty clean, orderly, and safe. The Kenyans we have encountered so far have been genteel, polite, well fed, and smiling. Now we don't want to rush to judgments after only one day in Africa, but we both have a feeling this part of the trip will have a lot of big surprises in store for us.

When people come to Kenya, the main reason is to go on a safari though the wildlife-filled Masai Mara. When you envision Africa, the expansive grassy plains filled with herds of migrating wildebeest, pack of elephants foraging in the brush, and prides of lions lazily sleeping under trees, that is the Masai Mara.

Getting on board to fly to Mombasa

Unfortunately, its popularity has also made it one of the most expensive places to do a safari. Being that we are trying to travel for a full year on a modest budget, the $300-$500 per person, per day, price tag of most Kenyan safaris was way out of our range. We are opting to have our wildlife experience a bit later by doing much more affordable camping safaris in southern Africa.

So if we are not doing a safari, then why are we in Kenya? Our ticket allowed us a low-cost stopover in Kenya so we opted to hit the coast and visit Mombasa before heading on to Zanzibar Island in Tanzania. We had just one day to check out the town but unfortunately it rained heavily for most of the day. During a short break in the downpour we did manage to wander a bit, sample the local Indian cuisine and see some of the old town. Most of the old town was pretty decrepit. But since it is the only place in Mombasa that busloads of tourists visit, it was brimming with "unofficial guides", enthusiastic shopkeepers, and touts eager to steer you into their restaurant. Needless to say, we got out fast! The other parts of the city were delightfully hassle-free. People were friendly and we felt very comfortable.

So tomorrow morning we are off to Zanzibar for a week. We'll certainly be able to get at least one update out from there.

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