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Published: September 1st 2007
Kenyan Sunrise
Train from Mombasa to NairobiSafari?! Just say the word and images of Africas wildlife will come to your mind. Close your eyes. Speak out the Swahili word "Safari", and your imagination will go off and away, over mountains, across the sea and around the globe right to the East African Savannahs and right to places like Serengeti or Maasai Mara with its endless herds of wildebeests where you can see lions, elephants, giraffes etc... just a few steps away from your jeep... Say the word "Safari" again, and you will find yourself trekking through the thick forests of Uganda or Rwanda to see some gorillas.
But if you started to think this entry gonna be about safaris and wildlife, I am sorry to disappoint you... as I am asking you now to say the word "Africa" and to tell me what kind of images will come to your mind this time?! Yes, say it again: "Africa"!
- Leaving Lamu & the nighttrain Mombasa to Nairobi - After a couple of relaxing days on Lamu Island, I left Lamu with Grace. Our plan was to go all the way from Lamu to Kampala, the capital of Uganda and then from there to Jinja
African Sunrise
Mombasa to Nairobi at Lake Victoria. A 1800km road trip from the Swahili Coast to the source of the Nile... by boat, bus and train.
"I am what you might call a night person. Generally the sun comes up before I go for bed, and as a fundermental rule I never open my eyes until noon." (First sentences of the novel "Amrita" by Yoshimoto Banana) We had to leave Lamu early in the morning at 6:30AM by ferry to the mainland for the 7:00AM bus to Mombasa. So the first problem of the day was that waking up a "morning grouch" like Grace before noon is like waking up a sleeping dragon, a lifethreatening task. But I somehow managed and survived it and to my big surprise she didn't turn into a dragon or any other hideous monster - well, at least not really. But she wasn't in best mood so that I (1.) avoided to talk to her and (2.) avoided any eye contact: Have you ever heard about Medusa, in Greek mythology the most famous of the three monstrous Gorgon sisters - who stone enemies with her petrifying gaze, I feared that something like that could happen to me.
Topi
Tsavo National Park - train Mombasa - Nairobi :-)
From the mainland we took a bus to Mombasa, after the 7hours busride we went straight to the train station and booked our tickets for the overnight train to Nairobi as people told us that the train journey was an unforgettable and unique experience.
I think that there is something romantic about travelling by train, and there are some great railway adventures to be had throughout the world. Indeed, the overnight train from Nairobi to Mombasa is one of them and certainly one of the world’s classic rail journeys as well as a rare colonial gem with the old diesel engine pulling the long train through the endless African savannah.
The 1st Class cabin contains 2 beds only while the 2nd Class cabin contains 4 beds but then the 2nd Class cabin is double the size as the 1st Class. Therefore, we decided to travel 2nd Class as we had low season and there were not so many travellers anyway, many cabins stayed empty, so that we had the big 2nd Class cabin for just the two of us.
In additon to the trainride, we decided to book dinner, breakfast and bedding, means that they
Zebras
Tsavo National Park provided us sheets and pillows and someone to make up the bed, and full service dinner and then breakfast in the dining car (all together 36USD).
The train was old... and the first surprise was getting stuck with our backpacks on in the very narrow corridors. Backpacks off we walked sideways to our cabin-door. The second surprise was that we had to find out that there is no longer any electrical power in any of the carriages except the dining car & engine - but someone came around with big fluorescent lanterns - very necessary to go to the pitch dark washroom on a moving train, even though they ran out fairly quickly, but fortunately I had a flashlight with me or how Grace would say: a very organized German.
The train left Mombasa fairly on time at 7:20PM and after about 20minutes we were notified that we could go to the dining car as dinner was served. The Dinner wasn't special even though we could chose from 3 different meals, like chicken, beef or vegetables. But to be served by waiters in a white uniform on a train and to eat our meal with proper silverware while
the rain was running through the African savannah was an experience indeed. And by the way... I decided to have the vegetables, even though I am not into vegetables... and even though I had a bad feeling about it and it turned out to be a big mistake indeed... - but more on that later.
Later Grace told me that she had mixed feelings about this whole "colonial experience" how she called it, she felt a bit uncomfortable being served by "dressed up Africans", she felt "like some weird back to the colonial past time warp" so for her it seemed a bit "backwards". I personally didn't read that much into it and was fine with the whole experience.
We can't dwell in the past and feel guilty or uncomfortable for something that had long gone and has nothing to do with the here and now anymore. Guilt starts always in your mind and stays in your mind even though life and reality had moved on. It's like the Nazi-history in Germany. Foreigners always keep asking us things like, "do you guys still feel guilty for what happened in Germany 60years ago?" and most of us would say
Breakfast
on the train Mombasa - Nairobi "Guilty? No, why?" We know that what Germany did 60 years ago was wrong and a big mistake in our history! but then life had moved on, what does the current generation has to do with what happened during WWII? Not much. I do think that foreigners think more about all these Nazi-past and guilt issues and how it effects our thinking than we do here. It's like... travelling to the US and stop someone on the street and asking him: "Heey, I am just wondering... how do you feel about the fact that the generation of your grand-grand-grand father killed the Indians?! Do you feel guilty?!"
But bearing in mind that everyone in 1st and 2nd Class were white tourists, a mix of backpackers and families and just a handful Africans, it was indeed like a 2 class society. At every stop you could see it with your own eyes, so when I looked out of the window and towards the very end of the train, I saw crowds of Africans waiting there with all their stuff to board the 3rd Class - yes, there was a 3rd Class and of course tourists aren't even asked if they
Morning
from the train Mombasa - Nairobi want to purchase tickets for that, assuming that no tourist would ride 3rd Class anyway. But locals do as it was the cheapest way.
What I wasn't pleased with was the fact that the staff and waiters were a kind of sluggish, unfriendly and with grim faces, so it was not like dining in a nice restaurant with nice staff trying to provide you a good time by giving you a good service. At the end it's their free choice to work there or to leave and to do something else... or at least it's the railway company's responsibility to hire people who are able to do a good job and to train them for that. Therefore, I didn't feel uncomfortable like Grace did... especially as I treated the staff a way friendlier and nicer than they treated us!
The trainride itself was nice. I woke up to watch the sunrise over the East African savannah, the view and colours were spectacular. After breakfast the train passed through some national parks, so that I had a bit of a safari for free. Sometimes the train was so slow and even stopped for a few minutes that I could
Sunrise
Train from Mombasa to Nairobi jump off for snapping some shots! And I was lucky and saw quite some animals from the windows like zebras, impalas, antilopes and ostriches... but unfortunately none of the big ones like lions, elephants or giraffes.
Unfortunately Grace missed all that because she was sleeping and just got up for an half hour to have breakfast before falling asleep again as soon we returned to our cabin until we finally arrived at Nairobi. But she had already been on a 5day safari the week before Lamu and had seen more than enough animals and some sunrises before.
When we started approaching Nairobi and passed by the slums with the poorest people, loads of kids would run out to the train, waving and shouting "hello, hello!". Some silly tourists were throwing sweets out of the windows to them. I wasn't too happy about 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.
After a 16hours trainride, which supposed to last only
My feet
bored as Grace was sleeping the whole time on the train Mombasa - Nairobi 14hours - but African time and not real time, we finally arrived in Nairobi with only a delay of 2 hours.
- Nairobi - Nairobi got a different pace than Mombasa or Lamu, life is much faster, streets are much more crowded and the city center is full of tall, modern buildings - so it felt like we have arrived in a different country. And... people call Nairobi “Nairobbery”, because it's the city with the highest crime rate and considered to be one of the most dangerous cities in Africa.
Grace had spent a week or two in Nairobi before and told me that the city is not as bad as people say. But I still had a bad feeling about it as I'd read and heard soooo many bad things about Nairobi. I am sure that it's by far not as bad as people report, but then it's definitely not the safest and best place in Africa for travellers to be, especially after sunset when you don't know exactly which part of the city is safe and which is not or if you just walk down the wrong street and bump into the wrong people -
Just our feet
On the ferry from Lamu to the mainland it doesn't have to happen every day, and you can be fine walking through the city at night a 1000times but then some certian things only need to happen once - if you are lucky it will only ruin or end your trip, but if you're unlucky it might ruin or mark you for the rest of your life - especially when you are a girl. So I was glad that we just had to stay for a few hours before moving on by nightbus to Uganda.
- Nairobi to Kampala - We had already booked our bus tickets to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, in the morning while in Mombasa. Thinking we were smart by booking in advance to make sure we have seats - things turned out to be different.
The Mombasa branch somehow failed to inform Nairobi about us so that when we get to the bus station at 7:30PM and boarded the bus, we had to find out that there were some people sitting on "our" seats - which as we then found out were double booked with other passengers. As the bus was full we had to wait for the next one
Ostrich
The train was running through Tsavo National Park at 10:30PM. Then, it turned out that there was actually just one seat free in the 10:30PM bus and the rest was fully booked too, but we were 2 people, so that I ended up on the seat next to the bus assistant in the very front of the bus which usually stays free. I was fine with that as long we could move on.
So we departed from Nairobi and headed towards Kampala, we were told that the busride would last approx. 12hours. But as 'I've already mentioned in one of my previous posts, always remember that Africa time is not real time - it's just a fictional construction - and nothing takes as long as it is supposed to. 12hours in Africa time are approximately 13hours for us or 14 real hours... and in this case... it turned out to be 21 (!!!) hours!
After 2 hours our bus broke down when we were trying to pass a mountain range at 1:00AM. The driver couldn't change the gear anymore, so that he had to stop the vehicle. We were in the middle of the mountains and I could see that people weren't happy about that and
Gazelle
Tsavo National Park a bit concerned. The men started to get off the bus so that a crowd of people was standing outside in the total darkness of the night. I thought that they just wanted to have a smoke or some fresh air, so I stayed in the bus especially as my stomach had been a kind off strange since Nairobi. I've never ever had any serious problems with my stomach and diarrhea on all my journeys, even in India I was fine, but the cooked vegetables on the nighttrain managed to bring me down. So I was actually pretty glad about the break, because it was perfect for me and my stomach as I could go into the bushes and have a sh.t...
When I got off the bus and walked towards some bushes nearby, one of the drivers asked me: "Sir, where do you go?!", I need to go into the bushes! - "I will come with you!", You mean into the bushes? You don't need to. I am gonna be fine. I just have an urgent business to do! - "No Sir, I will come with you! It's not safe in the bushes!" - No, I just go
Zebras
Tsavo National Park and have a shit, don't worry. I'll stay close! There are no lions here, so I'll be fine - "Sir, it's not because of lions! Bandits, Sir! I am coming with you!", Ok ok, whatever... but I really have to go RIGHT NOW!
So he followed me to some bushes nearby and guarded me from a distance while I was having my business, from time to time when he heard some "strange" noises coming from my direction and from my "stomach or whereever", he pointed his flashlight on me and asked "Sir, are you ok?!" - Yes, I am fine. I am fine... but please, don't point ya flashlight on me!
The men were standing outside, guarding the bus the whole time. A broken bus in the middle of nowhere, full of people and luggage at night, was a perfect target for bandits. Fortunately our driver managed to get into the mountains, so the place wasn't that easily to access and our bus couldn't be seen by strangers easily - it would had been more dangerous to break down in the savannah where everything is flat and you can be seen from a far distance, how one of
Impalas
Tsavo National Park the drivers told me. A few days before in Lamu, a German girl told us that there was an incident a few months ago on the road between Mombasa and Nairobi, some people stopped a bus, shot the driver, robbed the passengers and raped the women! But things like that happens rarely, she added! - but they happen.
About 20 men were stading outside on the dirty road, their feet in the mud and every time when a truck or bus passed by they left a cloud of redish dust behind. But I had some interesting chats (inbetween my bush businesses) with some of them. One said: "Sir, you know... the problem about Kenya is corruption! You see this road, it's not a road... it's just dirt! and why? Because of corruption!" another one said: "You have diarrhea?! Sometimes we have diarrhea too, like you now! You know, we are all the same - just with different problems!" and another one asked me if I went on safari and as I denied he said: "Safari, safari...nice but now you know real Africa," he said. "Now you have real Safari!!!" another one added and everyone laught.
We ended up
On the bus to Kampala
Ugandan men reading my guide book! waiting 4,5hours for another bus to come by so that we could swap the bus and I had to go into the bushes like every 20minutes - every time with my own personal guard. Can you believe that?
Grace was sleeping the whole night like a baby. When we swapped the buses she just sleepwalked from one bus right into the other one, fell into the seat and continued her sleep, forgetting everything around her. So I had to carry both of our backpacks from the old to the new bus. Fortunately my stomach felt better probably because there wasn't anything left inside of my body except my organs and some blood but I felt exhausted.
A few hours later, a few miles before we reached the Ugandan border, we had to swap the bus again, as the 2nd bus wasn't in a good condition neither. Fortunately all was a kind of planned out this time and the new bus came within 10min. So we had to move our bags again over to the 3rd bus. The new bus made it all the way to the border and finally to Kampala with 9hours delay.
When I got
Leaving Lamu
Dhow ride to the mainland off the bus in Kampala, my white longsleeve shirt was totally dirty and rather redishbrown from the dust and red sand of the road - in addition I haven't had shaved myself for almost 2 weeks. A few seconds later Grace got off the bus, she looked at me and said: "Chi, you look like coming right from a war!!?!", I looked down on me and answered "yes, I look really bad!" (and thought to myself: "Grace, if you just knew!") and went to the restroom for a change, I looked into the mirror and took off my shirt and hold it in front of me over my head, looked at the dirty thing and said to myself: "Well, it really looks like that I had a real Safari!"
To be continued… next - The last Chapter: Uganda - The Source of the Nile...
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Ramz
Ramanan
Superb
Hi Chi, It was indeed lovely experience you have had and narrated in a good way, this is really cool. ramz meramana@gmail.com