A world apart
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2009
1
4
11
Trip End
Jan 06, 2010
Mombasa, Kenya
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Janet and Bernard were excellent hosts (and tour guides) and took us to Fort Jesus and the Old Town. It was extremely picturesque with little craft shops along the narrow streets, each with the shop owner hassling you to get you in to see their wares.
After that acclimatisation stroll we felt ready to hit the hustle and bustle of the main town. At the time of visiting Mombasa it was the penultimate day of Ramadan and it seemed as though every Muslim had come to the same street where Sarah was buying some new shoes. Both the pavement (what little was left of it that didn’t have either food, cloth or other stalls on) and road were absolutely packed to capacity with people in traditional dress meandering towards the end of the street. It was daunting enough but was not helped when a scary looking woman with haggard face and piercing eyes grabbed Sarah and told her to be careful or our bags would be slashed and stolen. We weren’t sure if that was a threat or a warning but was very sinister and thankfully nothing happened.
We spent the rest of Saturday visiting nice coffee shops and at the craft market where you can see Africa’s ubiquitous wooden carvings actually being made. In the evening we enjoyed a beautiful meal at the restaurant Tamarind, which is reputed as being one of Kenya’s best restaurants, specialising in seafood.
From Sunday through Wednesday we ventured further south to Diani, an idyllic white sand beach, where we stayed at a boutique hotel called The Sands @ Nomad. The hypocrisy of staying in a plush hotel after spending two weeks in a slum area hadn’t escaped us, but we decided we could not feel guilty for having been born into different circumstances; this and other similar hotels provide businesses and jobs for many locals who without tourism may be leading a life similar to the one we had left. This seems more apparent since the election ‘problems’ of 2007 caused the tourism economy to plummet in Kenya.
Here we took the opportunity to start our PADI Diving course and did two 12m dives where we saw several sea turtles, eels, lobster along with the spectacular coral reef and fish. Sarah was able to run on the beach too which kept her happy!
