Thika and Fourteen Falls

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Trip Start Sep 03, 2006 Previous
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  Thika, Kenya
Monday, October 16, 2006

(I'm actually writing this a coupla weeks later, but I forgot to write about it and I have pictures to show!)

And now I'm going to add more later because I've been here for two hours and I want to leave. Sorry! Look at the pics! They're pretty!

OK now here's the actual entry. Anyway...The whole plan for this weekend was to go to Thika and Fourteen Falls for some hiking and camping. The boys warned us that there probably would not be camping at the Falls, but we ignored them and went anyway. Ash etc. went early in the morning so that they could go hiking, but Laura and I opted to sleep for a bit, since we'd had a late night the night before. So instead we went to Java around 9, then walked to Nakumatt, where we met Chris in his Celtel-mobile. He picked us up literally 30 seconds away from Nakumatt, then shopped with us for a bit. He met Dan from our program and called him a buttie-boy (somebody who's gay). That was funny, cuz Laura and I both think he is gay. THEN he offered to bring us to the matatu station that goes out to Thika. Bad idea on his part! None of us knew where it was, so we had to drive around the shady part of Nairobi for a good half hour before we found it! I think he was sort of irritated at us, but really, it was his idea!

The mat (matatu) we took was not fun. I sat next to a window that wouldn't open, and Laura sat in the middle seat, so we had no access to windows. Apparently we're freakishly warm, because there were Kenyans on the mat who were wearing winter hats and jackets, and ALL the windows were shut! We had sweat POURING down our faces for about an hour. It was awful. And, when we arrived at Thika, nobody told us where to go or anything, and these guys tried to get us to pay 1000 Ksh for a ride to a place 1km away! Seriously! So we walked to the place that would take us to Fourteen Falls. The vehicle was not a matatu, but rather a pickup truck with its back enclosed. We had to sit in the back. Ha, the best part was that we refused to pay more than 50 Ksh to the place - the guy finally relented and we climbed in, only to realize a few minutes later that he had been telling the truth, that all the customers pay 70 Ksh! Oops! Oh well.

We arrived at the place very shortly, but then we were confused as to where to go. We ran into the security guard, who brought us to look at the hippos in the water (entirely unfenced!! ahh!!), then told us that the mountain that we wanted to hike was 5km away, and that you could not rent (hire) tents at either Fourteen Falls or the National Park at Donyo Sabuk. Ashley confirmed that. So we just decided to wait for Ashley to return and, in the meantime, visit Fourteen Falls, where we hung out with semi-creepy teenage boys who showed us that it was fun to swim in the Falls. Kamau, the security guard, protected us from them. That was nice.

Then Ash showed up anad we decided what to do - we'd call the boys (who'd been messaging us all day asking us if we wanted to be picked up since there was no camping), make them come to Thika, and stay in a hotel overnight. I'm glad we did that, because it ended up being a really fun night! We just stayed in this little hotel and drank inside, and Dan and I had a very nice talk!

The next day (Sunday) we decided to sit in Thika Park and just chill. That was quite nice as well, since we all just relaxed for about two hours. Dan bought us all very good bananas - they're different than American bananas. They have at least three kinds here: normal, matoke (cooking bananas - used as a meal), and sweet bananas. I'm sure there are more, but that's all I've tried. Then we decided to go home. But, since Chris's Celtel-mobile has room for only two in the front, Ash, Geoff, and Dan rode in the back. Poor kids, it was boiling hot back there and they were there for 45 minutes! Hmm. We tried to go to Sirona Hotel, where we stayed last summer for Koobi Fora, but the Indian restaurant there was gone!!!! Sad! So they took us to Habesha instead, an Ethiopian restaurant. Yeah, I fell in love. It is AMAZING! The shirow dish is sooooo unbelievably tasty, I can't even describe it. And the bread (when dipped) is sooo good!

After we dropped everyone off, Dan asked if he could come for me in an hour. So he picked me up and we went to the bar where we were at before the Butterfly People movie, and just hung out for a couple of hours. It made me realize how much I liked Dan, and also how much I wished we could just hang out alone sometimes. All in all, a good weekend.

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04 - Kamau and us	05 - Fourteen Falls	06 - Fourteen Falls   Comments!	07 - Laura and the Falls
08 - Boy swimming	09 - Sunset at Fourteen Falls	10 - Keys to the hotel	11 - Chris and his Tusker
12 - Dan and me	13 - View to the right of the hotel	14 - View to the left	15 - Dan trying to hide behind the paper
16 - Ashley and Geoffrey	17 - At Habesha   Comments!

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