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Published: August 29th 2007
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After our beach time we headed to Mombasa. Although it's still on the coast, the beaches in town aren't much to speak of and the ones out of town are quite resort-ified. Our main reason for heading there was because our planned mode of transport back to Nairobi was the famous Mombasa - Nairobi overnight service.
Anyway, we thought Mombasa was ok. It helped that this time we stayed in a better hotel than on the way through last time. Had some nice meals and visited Fort Jesus (a fort which has changed hands many times between the Omanis, Portuguese and finally us Brits). Was averagely interesting with some very old grafitti and nicely carved wooden beams.
One highlight (for Marianne at least because Adam is too vehemently anti the religious aspect to even consider that he might enjoy the music) might have been the gospel concert on the last day, but unfortunately we missed the best bits. We found a small article in the "what's on" section of the paper saying that at the Mombasa Evangelical Centre there would be a Big Gospel Concert featuring lots of famous artists and a choir. It took some persuading to get
Adam to go but eventually we headed off in a tuk tuk to the Evangelical Centre at the edge of town.
When we arrived, we walked through the gates and (as you would if you were arriving for a concert) said we were there for the concert and asked where to buy tickets. But everyone kept shaking our hands and saying "Praise the Lord!" to which it became apparent we were supposed to also reply "Praise the Lord!" or "Halleleujah!"! Imagine the uncomfortable "Hello... ummm yes... Right." that Adam and I managed. And the one-sided conversations we had multiple times about "which church do you attend at home?". Ahh... the hypocrisy. (The unholy church of the dark lord satan and his evil hordes probably would have got us lynched or stoned or both, probably with a burning tyre thrown in)
Anyway we were seated in a small waiting area. The normal Sunday service hadn't finished yet. When the congregation (all 3000 of them!) left it provided some entertainment, just people watching. They were all really smartly and brightly dressed in their Sunday best. As the only white people in the place, lots of people came over and shook
our hands and more "Praise the Lord!" and awkward conversations ensued: "what mission are you from?" etc etc.
Finally at about 4pm (we arrived at about 2pm, concert was supposed to be starting at 1pm, imagine how happy Adam was after 2 hours of polite conversation and hand shaking with evangelical Christians) people started filing into the concert area. We were adopted by a lady preacher from the church who took it upon herself to be our companion and guide (Adam even happier). Local dignitaries were quickly booted out of their seats and we were seated as guests of honour in the middle of the front row, next to the judges. We were then introduced to the main star of the concert an (apparently) famous gospel singer from Nairobi who was using the concert to launch her 3rd album.
At this point even I felt a bit bad. We attempted to explain that we would have to leave early because we had to get the train, and we really didn't need to be in the front row... but to no avail.
The concert finally got going at about 4.30pm with a short service of thanks. One of
the preachers sang hymns with three backing vocalists, and lots of the choir members in the congregation came out front and danced. Everyone else had to stand up and sing the "halejeujah!" choruses and shout "praise the Lord" at appropriate intervals, along with much hand waving and swaying. Since we were guests of honour in the front row RIGHT in front of the stage, seated next to one of the preachers, we couldn't really not join in... Picture Adam... I had been feeling a bit of a con but all hypocrisy concerns were forgotten when I looked at Adam next to me trying to do a convincing hand-waving Halejeujah chorus. (Joy!) Had to try very hard not to laugh hysterically as would have been most inappropriate.
Sadly the concert staretd with "support acts" - locals who fancied trying their hand at gospel singing. One by one three rather nervous individuals came on stage, mimed along to their CD (mostly badly) and then shuffled off. Kind of like a religious version of Pop Idol in the early rounds.
Much to Marianne's disgust and Adam's relief, after the 3 wannabes we finally had to leave to get the train. So
we suffered all those hypocritical forced conversations and waited for hours, even listened to some bad songs... and missed the main event. Adam still hasn't forgiven me.
So, the train from Mombasa to Nairobi. It's a famous overnight service which has operated since colonial days. If you take a first class cabin (we did) you get a double cabin to yourselves with bunks, someone to make up the bed, and full service dinner and then breakfast in the dining car. The route travels through a few national parks and some spectacular scenery, with animals next to the tracks.
The train left mombasa fairly promptly at 7pm (after about 30 mins of faffing around building the required size train fromall of the carriages lying around) and after about half an hour we were notified (by a man with a xylophone) that dinner was served. We negotiated our way along the 5 unlit carriages to the dinner car. Dinner was basic but we've never been served by a white jacketed waiter on a train before so it was a novel experience. They even had cold white wine - we shared a bottle with our fellow Brits in the next door
cabin. Of course everyone in 1st class were white tourists, a mix of backpackers and families.
We eventually went to bed and were woken by the xylophone man again. It was light so the views from the dining car over breakfast were quite spectacular. After breakfast we had a good few hours back in the cabins and saw quite a lot of animals fron the windows - various antelopes, wildebeest, zebra and giraffes.
Also a lot of kids - especially as we started approaching Nairobi, hoardes of small kids would run out to the train at the small village stations and then chase it along, waving and shouting. Some asked for money, and some of the passengers were throwing biscuits and sweets out the windows to them. Didn't feel particularly comfortable with this - for the kids shouting and chasing along it was a bit of a game, but when people threw sweets to them and they scrabbled around on the ground for a dirty biscuit it was a bit too much like feeding animals at the zoo. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, taking it too seriously, but it made me uncomfortable. Adam personally was hoping
someone would fall under the train just to spice the journey up a bit.
Anyway we pulled into Nairobi at lunchtime. Took a while to find a taxi and when we eventually did, said taxi was being pushed into the train station. But we were desperate so we got in. The taxi kept going but the driver got lost several times en route to the backpackers - lucky we knew our way round Nairobi by now - but we got there eventually.
Joy! back in Nairobi Backpackers! Hallejeujah! Next stop Kakamega Forest Reserve.
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pauline Talbot (scary Auntie)
non-member comment
just chat
Hi you two, Looks like you are having a ball out there. Don't think I could stand all that mud and bugs too fond of my creature comforts (and I don't include bugs in that) The pictures are fantastic. Look after yourselves, my two favourite people in the whole world. Lots of love Scary Auntie xxxxxxxxxxx