East African Safari

On arrival at Mombasa Railway Station on disembarking we arrived at the exit we couldn’t find the tickets, even though we knew we had them somewhere. Finally the ticket collector got fed up with us and waved us through. We found the tickets later in the mobile phone pocket of my handbag. Outside the station we hired a taxi and he drove us to the Royal Court Hotel we had booked in advance. We were disappointed with the location and we found it was a hotel that was used for conferences etc., however we were here now and made the best of it. We had a room choice, standard or executive and we chose the standard. The bathroom was not wonderful, the shower head needed to be cleaned or replaced and there was no shaver point which might be a draw back. John booked for us via the hotel staff to lunch on an Arab Dhow that sailed around the harbour. We had booked the taxi driver to come back at 11.00am as away from the coast the area we were in didn’t look to safe to be out unaccompanied. The driver duly arrived and as requested took us to Fort Jesus. The fort is the old town’s biggest attraction dominating the harbour entrance. It was built by the Portuguese and begun in 1593. It changed hands nine times variously used as a garrison and a holding place for the slavers. As usual an unsolicited guide showed us around which proved beneficial. The taxi driver who had waited for us then drove us to the Tamarind Hotel from where we would be leaving for lunch on the dhow that was moored at the end of the jetty.

The Tamarind Hotel was beautiful and we sat outside in a lovely garden and had a drink. We thought we had a long time to wait and then found the dhow was due to leave one hour earlier than we were told, 12.30 for 12.35pm. The dhow was extremely large and very comfortable and on being seated we were offered a drink of mineral water, lime, ice and honey and it was very refreshing. Sailing did not take place on time as there were some late arrivals they had obviously been misinformed also. On board was a live band and they entertained us for most of the cruise.
For lunch there were two choices, seafood or steak and we chose the seafood. The platter that was placed on our table was enormous consisting of lobsters, crabs and prawns with a dressing it was as good as it looked and tasted out of this world, this was followed by Tropical Fruit salad. We were offered CDs of the music, played on board, to buy from the band but we had already bought one at Fort Jesus. Our taxi driver was waiting for us when we got back and returned us to the hotel. Mombasa, like everywhere else run down and dirty. The coast is beautiful and this is where the normal tourist stays seeing exotic plants, white sand and lovely hotels.

In the evening, not being too hungry we took the lift up to the roof of the hotel where there was a bar, a swimming pool with tables and chairs surrounding it, this lead off from the restaurant. We sat at a table for a pre-prandial drink and on either side of us were sitting large parties of African families. Then looking slightly out of place a young African woman appeared, she was wearing a suit and a pink straw hat which was a bit odd. Firstly she sat at a table solo and had a beer beside the swimming pool as the bar at that time was surrounded by a party of Germans and when they left the girl moved swiftly to a bar stool. John and I passed her going to the dining room, stopping to sign for the drinks. The girl struck up a conversation such as, “What is you name etc.”, her name was Katherine and had recently moved to Mombasa from Nairobi where she used to sell tomatoes from the roadside, and was now in the beauty business. She then asked John to buy her a beer which he did, and then we left her. We saw her talking to a man at the bar and much later found her walking along the corridor on our floor. Draw your own conclusions.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2003 at 1:57 pm and is filed under East Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.