Little Somalia, LSATs, Sushi, & Surf: What to Enjoy & Accomplish in Kenya
By Sally Dunst
At 5:30 a.m. Hector the flight attendant explained to the three of us the importance of our emergency exit row responsibilities. He had to scold Trena once in order to regain her attention but eventually he succeeded in imparting us with Rwandair‘s protocol knowledge. As the plane took off from the Kigali airport, we doubled over with laughter while Devin pronounced the message printed on our folded up tray tables, ―Schwimmweste unter dem sitz.‖ This was going to be a great trip.
In the amount of time it takes to get from Kigali to Muhanga by bus we traveled from Kigali to Nairobi, Kenya. The flight cost $400 round-trip, Hector's delicious meal service included. One hour of aviation was purchased with 1.5 months of PCV salary or 26 bus hours and about as many dollars: either way Kenya is a fairly accessible travel desti-nation.
As East African Residents, we bought the $25 Kenyan visa and traversed the early morning emptiness of the airport. Out on the road, driving on the British side of the yellow line, several things were apparent immediately: Nairobi was hotter, flatter, bigger, and more developed than Kigali. Not to mention dirtier and more chaotic. On the outskirts of town heaps of garbage lined the streets. As we left the highway and turned into a more commercial area, cars, trucks, and buses piled in around our vehicle. Buildings towered above us in the sprawling city center.
We rolled along inside the caravan of packed vehicles, ignored a red light like everyone else, then slowed to a crawl. Our driver turned back to us and said, ―You should roll your win-dows up a bit and put your hand bags on the floor. When we're going this slowly people can reach inside the car and snatch your stuff right off your lap.‖
Other than watching out for thieves, here is the most important piece of advice for Kenya travel: exchange your money at the airport! We thought we'd get a better exchange rate inside the city, and we did save a few dollars, but it cost us over an hour of waiting in a snaking Saturday morning line at the bank.
We spent a total of four days in the capi-tal. Nairobi boasts several luxuries that Kigali lacks, such as to-go coffee, movie theaters, a great sushi restaurant, and two-for-the-price-of-one delivery pizza on Tuesdays.
Matatus seat only three people per row, resulting in enough elbow room to comfortably eat fajitas purchased from a taco bar— the one downtown with the knock-off purple bell logo.
If food doesn't get you excited enough to immediately hop Rwanda‘s eastern border, per-haps live animals will do the trick. For only a dollar (remember your passport to get the East African resident rate) we visited the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, a center where you can pet and feed giraffes. As long as you don‘t mind encountering large quantities of mammal saliva I highly recommend putting a food pellet in your mouth and presenting your face to a giraffe. It was one of the best kisses I‘ve ever received in my life.
We spent a full day in Eastleigh, or ―Little Mogadishu.‖ After getting off the matatu we found ourselves on crowded sidewalks dodging people, mud puddles, and the flames of burning piles of trash. Many women wore full burkas and men called out, enticing us to buy their cheap Chinese wares. We entered a multiple-story shopping center I never would have guessed existed by the look of the tiny entrance. A Somali immigrant shopkeeper sold us a beauti-ful hand knit shirt, then served us each a small cup of delicious coffee.
Back out on the street we sorted through piles of clothes, shoes, and jewelry. Things were inexpensive and we bought matching shirts that glittered with the gold letters O-B-A-M-A. Next we explored an alley that contained stall after stall of checkered scarves and burka fabric. As we made our purchases we noticed some of the women had beautiful henna tattoos. ―Can we get those?‖ we asked.
A veiled woman replied with a friendly smile, ―Let me call someone. Wait here.‖ We sat on a bench, pressed against a wall, and watched people walk past. A vendor sold us mango and avocado smoothies from the box he was carrying. A man missing several teeth took our picture.
After several minutes a women came and whisked us away. She welcomed us into her home, an apartment which contained a television playing Somali music videos. We entered her bedroom where several giggling women and chil-dren lounged in
each others‘ laps. She removed her burka and motioned for us to sit on the cushions on the floor. The woman took out her supplies and with grace and skill began to paint our arms, shoulders, and legs. We laughed as the Somali song on the television ended and Justin Tim-berlake came on.
Once we were all tattooed we invited the woman out to lunch. She took us to a restaurant down the street where I ate camel meat (tasted like beef) and Devin drank camel milk tea. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring allies and alcoves, tasting date candy from street stalls, and deciding we would really like to visit Soma-lia. Unfortunately we couldn‘t stay out late that evening—Devin and I had some serious business to take care of the following day.
Our vacation was nine days total but Devin and I got three free-bee days since she took the LSAT and I took the GRE. I believe they of-fer the GRE in Kigali, but it's paper-based rather than computer-based and available only a few times a year. In Nairobi the test is offered almost every day of the week. The LSAT is nowhere to be found in Rwanda; Nairobi is the closest testing location. Our tests went well—no power-outages or seat reservation mishaps. However, we were both very glad we'd located the testing centers the day before our exams. The test sites aren't very close to each other and the LSAT building has no signs or directions. Make sure you know where you're going before test day!
With the stress of the tests behind us and our study books in the garbage, we made our way to phase two of our vacation: Mombasa! The coast! The overnight bus from Nairobi to Mom-basa is $10 and takes between 7 and 9 hours, de-pending on
where exactly you're staying in Mom-basa. We left Nairobi at 10pm and arrived in Mombasa around sunrise. The bus continued heading south and, after a quick ride on the ferry to South Coast, we were dropped in the salt water humidity of Diani Beach.
For the next several days we spent our time lying out in the sun, eating delicious burgers and seafood, and drinking Tusker after Tusker. We swam in clear blue water, rode camels, and danced at Forty Thieves Night Club, right on the beach. We were able to stay with a friend who has a house in Diani, but we heard wonderful things about Stilts, a cheap hostel where you can rent a tree house to spend the night.
Almost as populous as the camels on Diani Beach were older white women flaunting good-looking Kenyan beaus as arm candy. I remem-bered learning something about this phenomenon in college: European and American ―cougars‖ flocking to African and Caribbean coasts to find a good time with beach boys. Some call it sex tour-ism; others refer to the practice as ―romance travel.‖ Either way, it‘s clear what's going on: these ladies are sugar mamas, paying for meals, gifts, and hotel rooms in exchange for the physi-cal company of young adult Kenyan men. As health volunteers, Devin, Trena, and I were tempted to pass out bright orange SINIGURISHA bracelets. By looking around the beach it was clear the industry is booming.
In addition to avoiding female sex preda-tors, be wary in Diani of thieving taxi drivers and vendors. Matatu drivers
repeatedly over-charged us. Whenever a tuk tuk driver brought us home he always seemed to be 50 shillings short of our cor-rect change (A tuk tuk, by the way, is something like a golf cart that has been turned into an en-closed vehicle. Not much power, but they're cheaper than hiring an actual car). We paid in advance to have a couple of key chains made; the seller was nowhere to be found for the next three days. Perhaps it was simply the price we paid for being tourists in a tourist town. As the days passed we learned to be extra relentless when bargaining and demanding change.
On our last day in Kenya we crossed back to Mombasa mainland in order to explore the city a bit. It's a beautiful town full of Indian-influenced architecture, mosques, and palm trees. Making friends was easy and we found ourselves enjoying our last Kenyan sunset at an exclusive country club. Looking out over the ocean Devin, Trena, and I agreed that we had packed so much into the trip that it felt like we‘d been in Kenya for weeks. I can‘t say any of us
were ready to get on the plane the next morning, but we arrived at the airport
relaxed and fulfilled, each of us savor-ing an elephant-sized load of
spectacular Kenyan memories.
In the amount of time it takes to get from Kigali to Muhanga by bus we traveled from Kigali to Nairobi, Kenya. The flight cost $400 round-trip, Hector's delicious meal service included. One hour of aviation was purchased with 1.5 months of PCV salary or 26 bus hours and about as many dollars: either way Kenya is a fairly accessible travel desti-nation.
As East African Residents, we bought the $25 Kenyan visa and traversed the early morning emptiness of the airport. Out on the road, driving on the British side of the yellow line, several things were apparent immediately: Nairobi was hotter, flatter, bigger, and more developed than Kigali. Not to mention dirtier and more chaotic. On the outskirts of town heaps of garbage lined the streets. As we left the highway and turned into a more commercial area, cars, trucks, and buses piled in around our vehicle. Buildings towered above us in the sprawling city center.
We rolled along inside the caravan of packed vehicles, ignored a red light like everyone else, then slowed to a crawl. Our driver turned back to us and said, ―You should roll your win-dows up a bit and put your hand bags on the floor. When we're going this slowly people can reach inside the car and snatch your stuff right off your lap.‖
Other than watching out for thieves, here is the most important piece of advice for Kenya travel: exchange your money at the airport! We thought we'd get a better exchange rate inside the city, and we did save a few dollars, but it cost us over an hour of waiting in a snaking Saturday morning line at the bank.
We spent a total of four days in the capi-tal. Nairobi boasts several luxuries that Kigali lacks, such as to-go coffee, movie theaters, a great sushi restaurant, and two-for-the-price-of-one delivery pizza on Tuesdays.
Matatus seat only three people per row, resulting in enough elbow room to comfortably eat fajitas purchased from a taco bar— the one downtown with the knock-off purple bell logo.
If food doesn't get you excited enough to immediately hop Rwanda‘s eastern border, per-haps live animals will do the trick. For only a dollar (remember your passport to get the East African resident rate) we visited the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, a center where you can pet and feed giraffes. As long as you don‘t mind encountering large quantities of mammal saliva I highly recommend putting a food pellet in your mouth and presenting your face to a giraffe. It was one of the best kisses I‘ve ever received in my life.
We spent a full day in Eastleigh, or ―Little Mogadishu.‖ After getting off the matatu we found ourselves on crowded sidewalks dodging people, mud puddles, and the flames of burning piles of trash. Many women wore full burkas and men called out, enticing us to buy their cheap Chinese wares. We entered a multiple-story shopping center I never would have guessed existed by the look of the tiny entrance. A Somali immigrant shopkeeper sold us a beauti-ful hand knit shirt, then served us each a small cup of delicious coffee.
Back out on the street we sorted through piles of clothes, shoes, and jewelry. Things were inexpensive and we bought matching shirts that glittered with the gold letters O-B-A-M-A. Next we explored an alley that contained stall after stall of checkered scarves and burka fabric. As we made our purchases we noticed some of the women had beautiful henna tattoos. ―Can we get those?‖ we asked.
A veiled woman replied with a friendly smile, ―Let me call someone. Wait here.‖ We sat on a bench, pressed against a wall, and watched people walk past. A vendor sold us mango and avocado smoothies from the box he was carrying. A man missing several teeth took our picture.
After several minutes a women came and whisked us away. She welcomed us into her home, an apartment which contained a television playing Somali music videos. We entered her bedroom where several giggling women and chil-dren lounged in
each others‘ laps. She removed her burka and motioned for us to sit on the cushions on the floor. The woman took out her supplies and with grace and skill began to paint our arms, shoulders, and legs. We laughed as the Somali song on the television ended and Justin Tim-berlake came on.
Once we were all tattooed we invited the woman out to lunch. She took us to a restaurant down the street where I ate camel meat (tasted like beef) and Devin drank camel milk tea. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring allies and alcoves, tasting date candy from street stalls, and deciding we would really like to visit Soma-lia. Unfortunately we couldn‘t stay out late that evening—Devin and I had some serious business to take care of the following day.
Our vacation was nine days total but Devin and I got three free-bee days since she took the LSAT and I took the GRE. I believe they of-fer the GRE in Kigali, but it's paper-based rather than computer-based and available only a few times a year. In Nairobi the test is offered almost every day of the week. The LSAT is nowhere to be found in Rwanda; Nairobi is the closest testing location. Our tests went well—no power-outages or seat reservation mishaps. However, we were both very glad we'd located the testing centers the day before our exams. The test sites aren't very close to each other and the LSAT building has no signs or directions. Make sure you know where you're going before test day!
With the stress of the tests behind us and our study books in the garbage, we made our way to phase two of our vacation: Mombasa! The coast! The overnight bus from Nairobi to Mom-basa is $10 and takes between 7 and 9 hours, de-pending on
where exactly you're staying in Mom-basa. We left Nairobi at 10pm and arrived in Mombasa around sunrise. The bus continued heading south and, after a quick ride on the ferry to South Coast, we were dropped in the salt water humidity of Diani Beach.
For the next several days we spent our time lying out in the sun, eating delicious burgers and seafood, and drinking Tusker after Tusker. We swam in clear blue water, rode camels, and danced at Forty Thieves Night Club, right on the beach. We were able to stay with a friend who has a house in Diani, but we heard wonderful things about Stilts, a cheap hostel where you can rent a tree house to spend the night.
Almost as populous as the camels on Diani Beach were older white women flaunting good-looking Kenyan beaus as arm candy. I remem-bered learning something about this phenomenon in college: European and American ―cougars‖ flocking to African and Caribbean coasts to find a good time with beach boys. Some call it sex tour-ism; others refer to the practice as ―romance travel.‖ Either way, it‘s clear what's going on: these ladies are sugar mamas, paying for meals, gifts, and hotel rooms in exchange for the physi-cal company of young adult Kenyan men. As health volunteers, Devin, Trena, and I were tempted to pass out bright orange SINIGURISHA bracelets. By looking around the beach it was clear the industry is booming.
In addition to avoiding female sex preda-tors, be wary in Diani of thieving taxi drivers and vendors. Matatu drivers
repeatedly over-charged us. Whenever a tuk tuk driver brought us home he always seemed to be 50 shillings short of our cor-rect change (A tuk tuk, by the way, is something like a golf cart that has been turned into an en-closed vehicle. Not much power, but they're cheaper than hiring an actual car). We paid in advance to have a couple of key chains made; the seller was nowhere to be found for the next three days. Perhaps it was simply the price we paid for being tourists in a tourist town. As the days passed we learned to be extra relentless when bargaining and demanding change.
On our last day in Kenya we crossed back to Mombasa mainland in order to explore the city a bit. It's a beautiful town full of Indian-influenced architecture, mosques, and palm trees. Making friends was easy and we found ourselves enjoying our last Kenyan sunset at an exclusive country club. Looking out over the ocean Devin, Trena, and I agreed that we had packed so much into the trip that it felt like we‘d been in Kenya for weeks. I can‘t say any of us
were ready to get on the plane the next morning, but we arrived at the airport
relaxed and fulfilled, each of us savor-ing an elephant-sized load of
spectacular Kenyan memories.