Have had a busy (scoff, scoff) couple of days. From Nairobi, we caught the overnight train to Mombassa. It runs every two days, and takes over 12 hours. There were no 1st class sleepers left (sleeps 2), so we booked an entire 2nd class cabin (sleeps 4), so we had the peace of mind whilst sleeping. Our carriage did not have electricity, so we we were given a small lamp to use, much to Mike's disgust! He was totally bummed that we couldn't go first class!
We had an interesting dinner included. It was a 5 course meal, sounds good, which it was, but the portion sizes were laughable. The minestrone soup just covered the bottom of the dish and I couldn't see any vegetables or pasta! We ended up grabbing the waiters coat tails, just to get a coke. Breakfast was even funnier, and much more chaotic. Overall a fabulous experience eating with silverware from the 1960's and silver butter dishes etc. I compared it to the orient Express at a fraction of the price with ?? more charm.
When we got to Mombassa, we got the first bus north to Watamu Beach. We were riding with the locals, learnt about stomach tonic from a local herbalist who got up halfway throughout the journey to sell his products. The whole thing was in swahili, but we got the words typhoid and malaria and were suitably impressed by his drawings of intestinal worms.
We stayed in an amazing place in Watamu for three nights. It was just near the beach, had a security guard on the gates, so we were not pestered by the locals. We had out own balcony to relax on, and a fabulous 4 poster carved bed with mosquito net. We spent the first night however swatting mosquitos, that seemed to penetrate our net. So we put up pour individual nets, so we had 3 nest up for extra protection. I am sure the locals would have thought us bizarre.
we befriended a local guy, Simon, who is a secondary school science teacher. So we would meet up with him after school, and hang out with him. He introduced us to sima and sukuma, two African dishes and taught us heaps about Masai culture. Apparently women marry, then do all the work, the men just take the cattle out to pasture and kill the cattle, and that is it!! The women even build the houses! The Masai men can have as many wives as they like, the women only one husband. Obviously I was rather concerned at this, Mike rather amused (surprisingly :-).
We spent an afternoon in a town called malindi, and saw hand carving being done. There were some amazing carvings, but unfortunately we both feel our bags are too heavy to warrant any more weight.
We sat through a 2 and a half hour catholic mass in Watamu on sunday. It was an interesting experience, all in Swahili, but I think a bit too long for me! We sadly left Watamu after church and caught a bus back to Mombassa. We are staying on Nyali Beach (blew the budget) in a lovely place with a pool and ocean views.
Today we visited Fort Jesus and are bumming around (hence update!) awaiting Mike's flatmate from London, Linda's arrival from Nairobi. We are hoping to head south tomorrow towards Tanzania (as we dumped our internal flight).
Hope all is well
Ngaira
xx
