Nomad's Pub

Kenya at Last...

I've arrived!!! Just thought I'd let you know that! And here's something I wrote out a few days ago about the trip getting to Nairobi...
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28 March 2007
After a long, 12 hour turned 13 ½ hour bus ride from Kampala, Uganda; we arrived weary but happy in Nairobi, Kenya yesterday evening. So far we have not seen much of the city because it was quite dark by the time we pulled in…but what we have seen? Wow. This city appears to be significantly more built up than Bratislava and constantly references itself to London. Marble Arch? Windsor House?

Our stay here in Nairobi, apparently, was originally going to be a whole week; however, plans have been bumped up and so either this Thursday or Friday I and my three traveling companions will be flying north to Marsabit. We are told that to drive the distance would be too dangerous and take two days instead of the two hours by plane.

Now Nairobi lies at our disposal, a rather exciting thought. Our mornings are planned but afternoons are free. Touring, eating, and swimming are high on our list at this point…

As for the bus ride in getting here, now that was an experience, sure! But not at all what we expected. (Should that really surprise us, though?) At 6:00 yesterday morning, we were picked up by a perfect stranger at the guest house we live at in Kampala, who tossed our three bags into the back of the truck and told us to climb in. Off we drove through the dawn until we reached the bus service we would be taking to get to Nairobi—AKAMBA Bus Service. The man gave us our tickets, handed down our luggage to us, muttered something undecipherable, and drove off, leaving the four of us women standing at the wayside quite dazed. We had no idea what we ought to do next.

It was not quite half light out yet, and there we stood in front of a gate with our luggage, staring at his taillights. Was this a bus stop? Would we have to flag down the bus? Were the gates going to open and we supposed to go through them?

As it turned out, the door in the gates opened and other people standing there with us moved to pass through it, so we joined in. A guard stood just inside the door with a detector he scanned us all with as we walked through. Please note though, as we did with wry laughter, that he allowed you to pass whether you caused the detector to beep or not.

Once inside, and seeing as we already had our tickets in hand and needed not to purchase them, we walked straight over to the buses. There were three of them, all looking exactly alike to us at the time, and all, of course, AKAMBA. Which one was ours?

We went over and asked one of the men standing around which bus was going to Nairobi. He looked at us askance and exclaimed that all of them were, of course! As that did not help us very much, we were then redirected to another man who took our tickets, stared at them and deliberated with another man over them while we nervously waited, and then sent us to the middle one.

After we got our luggage sorted out (an ordeal in itself), we boarded the bus and found our seats. Here the numbers are on the back of the seat. We had 5,6,7, & 8, which was quite nice, and I had the window. And there I noticed something interesting… the windows were not made to open. Hmm… You see, it was coming on 7:00 and we had no breakfast and no lunch. We were arranged to have dinner upon our arrival in Nairobi at 19:00, but Becky and I already placed bets as to just how late after that time we would actually arrive.

Usually, people selling food will come up to the windows and you can buy bananas (ndizi), g-nuts, chapatti, roasted goat, and water or soda from them and thus satisfy your hunger, but obviously… there would be none of that on this bus. So we sat down thinking so much for eating today!

And sitting down we noticed something else… these were really nice seats. Hugely spacious in the actual seat and the leg room—better than economy class airplane seats! Our faces mirrored each other’s surprise as we looked at one another. Here we had expected a rickety, squishy bus to travel on and found ourselves on this luxury bus instead! It was a first class ride… And do you know? Before we even left the parking lot, they came around and served us each two hot samosas and a full cup of passion fruit juice. So we breakfasted after all.

The ride to the border itself was quite uneventful, and at the border we discovered that we were on AKAMBA Royal, which is why we had the extra service. As the man sitting in front of us commented, this was considered the premier bus service to be found.

Border crossing was also relatively uneventful. We had been told nothing of what to expect aside from paying a 50 USD visa entry fee at the Kenyan side, so were not completely unapprehensive about it. But having gone through the Uganda-Rwanda border, we figured it would not be much different. Sure enough! Relatively the same thing, though we almost walked across the border without getting checked at first because we went the wrong direction. (whoops!) Everything went fine… Jess even exchanged a few Ugandan shillings into Kenyan shillings and Becky and I found our bus again after a nice good walk… (you disembark from the bus and walk across the border…and then you walked a long ways before you found where your bus parked!)

Now Kenya? That’s were the adventure really started. We have taken turns saying who is to blame for the misadventures we had (none terribly alarming), but all in good fun. We went through three police checks before 10 minutes had gone by, and after driving a while, dozed off. When we awoke next, we had arrived in some town and the conductor told everyone that we had 20 minutes. It was dinner time…

Out we stepped, to wander for the first time through a town in Kenya, free to test our Swahili (which we did) and get lost if we pleased (which we didn’t). We eventually saw an Italian Pizzeria place that made our eyes practically bulge out of our heads… and stepping inside I’m surprised with didn’t drown in for the sudden salivating that the smells brought upon us. Mmmm! So delicious! But with 15 minutes left, we definitely did not have time. So we bought to coke-a-colas and left without food. One pizza was more than all the shillings we had, anyways. Not expensive; we just hadn’t exchanged much.

Back on the bus, we snacked on lollipops and gum, and dozed off again on again for some time.

And then… then the bus began to have problems. It slowed down…and slowed down…and slowed down. And then it would shudder and give a tremendous jerk and then speed up again. This happened many times… and when we finally stopped around 16:30 for another rest stop, we waited an hour while they tried to find the problem and fix it. Which they thought they did, and so off we went again.

But after some time had gone and darkness had settled, we discovered that no… they had not fixed it, and we broke down on the side of the road. Apparently it had something to do with the plugs, as a man I asked explained. Some people eventually disembarked and we were wondering whether we would have to as well and however to make our way should it come to that. We had no contact numbers, no money at this point, little Swahili, and we did not even know where we were staying once we reached Nairobi. Words cannot suffice to explain how utterly helpless the four of us felt at that point in time.

After a good thirty minutes or so, they got the bus working… well, working enough so as to move, but we struggled to keep pace with a man walking along the roadside, and we definitely broke down a few more times after that.

However, we did eventually make it to Nairobi and only an hour and a half late at that. We reached the edge of the city at the time I had bet, and the bus stop 25 minutes before the time Becky bet. So we considered that a tie and congratulated each other.

Now here we are… the weather is quite cool feeling here so that we are quite chilled, and all of us terribly achy from the longest, bumpiest ride of our life. My foot was swollen like a balloon last night when I finally was able to look at it, so I have it wrapped today and on pain killers again and we shall see how it feels later. We have orientation later this morning, then lunch, and then who knows what. Exchanging money would probably be advisable.

posted by Lada @ 10:33 AM