BootsnAll Travel Network



Nairobi or Nairobbery

Day 278

If there was anywhere on the trip I expected to get mugged it was Nairobi. A city with the nickname of Nairobbery. Since I’ve already been mugged in Panama City I hoped that was going to be my only time of the trip. So many African cities are considered dangerous, even in small towns we are constantly warned to not be out at night. I’m beginning to think a lot of it is just overreaction and over protection. When people mention Africa our first thought is danger. We fear disease, war and of course crime. Sure they all exist but I’m not convinced it’s as bad as we are led to believe, at least the crime. If I was to compare so called dangerous places on this trip I would say that Central America was more dangerous than here. We couldn’t even go for a basic walk in Central America without someone telling us we needed a guide or that we just couldn’t go period. In Africa I haven’t got the same feeling, at least not in the countryside. Today we were headed north to Kenya and the notoriously crime ridden capital, Nairobi. Hopefully we wouldn’t be leaving calling it Nairobbery.

“What time does breakfast begin?” Jordana asked the one of the wait staff in the hotel restaurant. “7am”, he replied. It was 7:15am now. We knew that it began at 7am, we were asking as a way to speed up the setup of the breakfast buffet. We were in a bit of a rush since our bus to Nairobi left at 8am and we had already purchased tickets. Eventually breakfast was served and after another Spanish omelette we were off on our way to the station. We boarded the 30 seater Toyota Coaster bus, now a very familiar ride in Africa. The majority of buses are these Toyota Coasters, very cheaply made with huge windows and seats that fold down in the aisle to create 5 seats across each aisle. They do the job but when one of these buses rattles down an unsealed road it’s quite a jarring experience. This was one of the newer and nicer ones we’ve been on. It was full but they used the roof to store the passenger luggage instead of everyone stuffing their belongings in the aisles and under seats. What a smart operation, they even had assigned seating!

We headed out of Arusha, past the UN tribunal for the Rwandan genocide and onto a decent stretch of road towards the Kenyan border. On our right we were afforded with a view of Kilimanjaro, through the thick haze we could just make out the snow covered peak. I looked up at the snow hoping the sight of it would somehow cool me off, it was not even 10am yet but the temperature was easily into the 30 Celsius range. We reached Tanzanian customs just before 12pm. The border town looked like most others, a line of trucks, a bit chaotic, beggars, money changers and not much organization. This was one of the busier crossings we’ve done and we waited for about 45 minutes to get into the office and be stamped out of Tanzania. We walked over to Kenya; I snapped a photo of the welcome sign even though I was being yelled at. “No photos!” I just played dumb tourist and moved on. We were merely using Kenya as a transit point on our way to Uganda. Originally we planned to spend more time here but since we have already done out safari and beach time in Zanzibar we have decided it would be much easier on the budget to move west to Uganda. We’ll be back another day, hopefully to do another safari in the Masai Mara and see the coast here. We waited in line to pay for our visa when they asked how long we’d be in the country; I had said 10 days to be safe. Thing was they actually offered transit visas for a much cheaper price than the regular 3 month visa. I hadn’t known this but now I wanted a transit visa instead. However now the custom agent wouldn’t believe me, since I’d written 10 days on the application form I now tried to explain that we would actually only need 3 days maximum. I didn’t get why he thought I was lying, did he think I was looking for a cheap way to stay in Kenya? Eventually we had our 3 day transit visa and were back on the bus on the way to Nairobi.

The rest of the drive from the border was not the best, the sealed road disappeared and we rattled along with clouds of dust filling the bus. Oh the dust, it’s the story of African bus travel. I have a big issue with dust, the smell, the way my head feels when my hair is coated with it and the cloud that rises if I slap my hand on my pants. I think I’ve developed a bit of OCD when it comes to dust. It’s something I won’t miss when we are out of Africa. Overall the bus trip wasn’t that bad, I mean we’ve been on much worse. Every bus trip here is hot and dusty so if you can complete one with some decent leg room, without a kid puking on your back, without a chicken pecking on your feet and without having a whole village sit on your lap…well if you can do all that then that’s one successful African bus journey. We finally arrived in Nairobi in the late afternoon; we saw a hotel directly across the street from where the bus dropped us off and next to the office for the bus to Uganda so we elected to stay right here.

Good decision that was, the hotel was spotless and well run and we easily bought a bus ticket for the trip to Kampala, Uganda in the morning. We had thought of staying here a few nights but with a bus leaving tomorrow we didn’t want to pass it up. We walked around downtown Nairobi for the rest of the afternoon until the sunset and then had pizza next to our hotel. From what we saw the centre is actually the most pleasant African capital I’ve seen in a awhile. It’s green, has some nice colonial buildings and is bustling with activity during the day. Even at night the area we were in wasn’t deserted like some cities are. Safely back in our room we talked about how Nairobi didn’t seem so bad, we were only here a few hours but based on everything I’ve heard I expected it to look more menacing. Compared with Johannesburg there is much less security presence here and there is actually a nice downtown. I’m not sure if the lack of security is due to a lack of money but oddly enough it made me feel safer. For the short time we were here I’m perfectly happy referring to the city by its proper name of Nairobi and not Nairobbery.



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