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Africa » Kenya » Nairobi Province » Nairobi
May 4th 2012
Published: July 2nd 2012
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After 3 nights, I decided it was time to leave Lamu and head back towards Nairobi. I got a speedboat back to Mokowe and found a bus going to Mombasa. This was fine until, just as we were about to leave, a lady showed up with a ticket for my seat. This was despite the fact that the conductor had told me to sit in that specific seat. This left me standing in the aisle as we got going. The conductor came down looking for money shortly afterwards. I told him I would only pay half price, as I had no seat. He then sent down the armed guard, who asked me was I not satisified? I told him no. About 15 minutes later, one of the passengers got off and they made sure the mzungu had his seat and they had their full fare.

I managed to get off before entering Mombasa, which was a lot more convenient as I was returning to Mombasa Backpackers for the night. After a fairly quiet night there, I went into town and bought a ticket for the night train to Nairobi. By chance, one of the lads at the hostel was also taking the train that night, so we shared a tuk-tuk to the station that evening.

The train between Mombasa and Nairobi is one of the remnants of the colonial era. Nairobi only exists because it was the last stop on the train line. We both had got 2nd class tickets, which gave us each a bunk in a 4 bed carriage. Luckily, there wasn't many on the train, so we got the carriage to ourselves. I had a surprisingly good sleep, only being woken the odd time, by the jolt of the train.

The next morning we were woken at 7 a.m. for breakfast, which was served in the breakfast carriage.The tables were set with cutlery and crockery, with a tablecloth undrneath. The breakfast was sausage, eggs, bacon, beans and toast, with tea or coffee and served by waiters. It was all very colonial, white people sitting on a train going through the savannah, being served by native Kenyans.

Back in Nairobi, it was dull, which later turned into rain. This was my third time stopping in Nairobi and each time was purely out of necessity. It is the one place I have been so far that I had no affection for whatsoever. During the day, there is very little to do in the city, which seems like a bad version of an American or European city, as opposed to African. At night, you are warned not to go anywhere without a taxi, which are almost as expensive as they are back home. I spent one more night there and was happy to leave the next morning.


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