Carnivores?- Protein Overload
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2003
1
50
59
Trip End
Apr 23, 2005
Nairobi,
Kenya
Saturday, February 12, 2005
- That explains why we have started to enjoy 12 hour bus journeys on dirt roads....
Abstract:
Arrive exhausted in Nairobi, eat meat, meet Kish (again..) get (long) bus to Kampala Uganda....
Nitty Gritty:
Landed at Nairobi completely exhausted after a frantic last day in Colombo sending packages back to the UK, getting CDs cut of our photos and rushing - not at all pleasant in the heat and humidity and by the time all was done, we must have looked like we'd jumped in a bath with our clothes on
BBQ anyone? Carnivore Nairobi....
. We were met at the airport by Minneh, a very persistent safari salesperson and enjoyed her hard sell whilst battling the rush hour traffic that plagues Nairobi's main arteries. It was great to finally be in Africa and everywhere seemed clean and litter free (from what we could see in the dark, anyway).R was at a loss as unlike in India & Sri Lanka, where she could hold her own re cricket, Africans are made for soccer and the English premiership and she is not a footy fan!It was hot and humid and Africans don't seem to like draughts (we later found) so none of the cheaper hotels seem to have fans....First impressions of Nairobi highlighted the Africans love of chicken and chips, with many fast food places and small restaurants. We were shattered and crawled into bed.The following morning we were delighted to get a call from our buddy Kish who we were due to visit in Mombasa at the end of our East African adventures, but his plans had changed and he was now at his aunties house in Nairobi and planned to join us for a few weeks of travel from Nairobi to Kigali in Rwanda.After fobbing off the safari saleswoman we met up with Kish for a leisurely lunch of, you guessed it, chicken and chips...and beer..., bought bus tickets for Kampala and train tickets for Mombasa to Nairobi (a taste of colonial travel, we were promised).
The railway had a great little museum which G was really excited about as there were restored trains for you to clamber about on and a great exhibition of photos of the building of East Africas railways and travel during those early days including a VIP seat on the very front of the steam engine where game could be blasted and photos of plenty of large hatted, crinoline dressed British women.
Dawn over Nairobi....
Nairobi was clean and litter free and the people were very smart...got news that we are to be aunty and uncle as R's brother and wife are expecting- very exciting!
Before leaving Nairobi we booked our safari in Tanzania with Sunny Safaris after many weeks of correspondence and info searching, found a great little African restaurant called appropriately G & R Restaurant and headed to Kish's aunties for mangos straight from the garden and a huge vegetarian dog the size of a small pony who was menacing to look at but a real softy. Our final night in Nairobi was spent with Kish and his friend Nadeem at a restaurant called Carnivore - not popular with vegetarians! Here meat is cooked on huge BBQs and various bits are carved for you onto your plate whilst your table flies a small flag. Once you've had enough,you lower your flag in surrender. That night we tucked into camel (not very tasty), crocodile (OK), Ostrich (good), beef, chicken, turkey,pork, sausages - a meat lovers delight,especially after all the veggie food of India & Sri Lanka.
Beers and bed at 1.30am before a 5.45am awakening followed by a 13 hour bus ride to Kampala don't mix very well and 'never again' springs to mind!
Nairobi (Nairobbery) has a reputation for muggings after dark and as a big burly Kenyan told us, even locals don't walk around after dark and the chap at our hotel was distressed when we asked whether it was safe to walk to the nearby bus stand at dawn "No
The menu and a small helping....a wafer thin mint?
! Don't walk!" he instucted and hailed a cab.The bus trip allowed us to view the Rift Valley scenery - a huge valley with some small volcanoes and lakes, notably Lake Naivasha which looked very pretty. The countryside was very clean, with no litter beside the road and far less people than in India and very green and fertile looking - not at all how we imagined Africa to look (barren and
infertile is what you're led to believe by the media). We saw our first zebra grazing beside the road and baboons playing chicken with the bus.The locals in the countryside all had closely cropped hair, men, women and children all having the same style.
The border with Uganda underlined the fight against AIDS and HIV infection that plagues Africa, with posters and condom dispensers and reminded us that Uganda has the second highest infection rate in the world (second only to South Africa). 25% of the population are infected and this statistic came to mind everytime we took a bus - for every 20
people crammed into a minibus, on average, 5 will be infected with HIV.... clinics and signs about AIDS orphans were in every small village passed......
The bus had to take a detour down dusty roads and past small communities by the road. Houses were round, thatched mud huts and the inhabitants were poor, with many of the children wearing adult T-shirts, but they were happy to see us 'Wuzungu'(white people) and some waved whilst others started dancing and clapping - what rhythm these people have!
We arrived in Kampala after dark and grateful for it being safe to walk around as we had no local money and thankfully were able to find a bank that a) took VISA and b) worked (the ATM network is notoriously bad in Uganda).
What we haven't mentioned so far is how expensive East Africa is, which is a bit of a shock coming from Asia, so to avoid paying for a hotel quoted in dollars, we headed for the area around the bus station and eventually after some help from the locals (a taxi driver directed us without telling us to get in the car and charge us for the 50metre trip), found the Hotel L'Fiancee (strangely appropriate for us!).Kish went out to get some water and the hotel security guard told him to take his mobile phone off his belt and to be careful. Not trusting the police, private security guards are employed by businesses.We were shattered.
We instantly fell in love with Uganda - wonderful people, wonderful place.
The following morning we headed out to the suburbs for a couple of nights after discovering that none of the ATMs in Kampala were working.The leafy streets of Kampala's CBD were home to huge Maribou stalks (carion feeders) who teetered on the top of acacia trees lining the streets and tree surfed - no idea how the trees cope with the
weight of a family of these birds and their droppings. Close to the hotel was Kampala's huge matatu (minibus) stand which was a work of art when viewed from the hill overlooking it - hundreds of identical minvans crammed into every available space - you could even buy post cards of the place. The women were very chic with wonderfully braided hair in intricate designs.
