Kenya
Nairobi

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    • Day 3

      To Nairobi

      October 18, 2019 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

      An early start in Qatar, leaving at 6 in the morning to the airport, but that didn’t mean it’s cold, 32 degrees as we left. We didn’t have loads of time to get to the gate, partly due to Nathaniel and Mum trying to find something to spend our last Qatari Riyal in WH Smith, but we did make it and had a 5 and a half hour flight to Nairobi. Landing in African sunshine and a much more bearable 20 degree heat was a lovely welcome back to Kenya.Obtaining visas wasn’t half as long as the last time but did still take time filling in all the forms for us all. Then going to collect our luggage, which was a great relief. Getting out of the airport and seeing Jose waiting for us made us feel right at home again here, we even got a welcome from some giraffes soon after exiting the airport. We then had the task of driving to Ken and Maz’s house in Nairobi rush hour, we stopped quickly to buy drinks for the journey tomorrow, but it still took almost 3 hours to get there. We were lovingly welcomed into their home and then went to a burger restaurant made out of shipping containers for dinner while it rained very very very heavily. We went back and played a couple of games, one with shoes and after went to bed after a long day travelling to get some rest for another long day of travelling to Mumias.Read more

    • Day 4

      Church😍

      November 5, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

      Uuuuh, heute war so früh Tagwach. Um 06:00 Uhr aufstehen und ab in die Kirche. Jeder kennt doch Filme, mit afrikanischem Worship und wie lebendig dies sein kann. Meine lieben Freunde, in echt ist es genau so.! Ich wollte das mal live miterleben und es war der Wahnsinn.!!! Der Chor und die Leadsänger hattens wirklich drauf. Die Community war voll mit dabei, was für ein Fest.! 🥰 Erneut war ich die einzige Weisse da. Ich wurde von denen, welche in meiner Nähe sassen herzlich begrüsst. Nach der Predigt wurden alle neuen Willkommen geheissen. Ich durfte mich vorstellen und was ich hier mache. Die CITAM ist eine tolle Kirche🫶🏼
      Nach der Kirche ging es weiter zum National Museum. Die Geschichte Kenias war sehr interessant zu begutachten. Danach ging es weiter zum Schlangenpark. Yeees, endlich wieder mal eine Schlange halten😍. Chep suchte das Weite als der Tierpfleger mit der Schlange auf uns zukam. Jaja, sprinten kann sie😂. Dann gab es noch Chameleons und Schildkröten, welche man anfassen durfte.
      Diesen Abend lernte ich noch ihren Nachbarn kennen. Er wollte mich unbedingt sehen. Eine „MZUNGU“ in dieser Umgebung ist selten. Alain war sehr nett, stets freundlich, doch auch er hatte die typische, afrikanische, männliche Einstellung gegenüber Frauen. Puuuh.. die Frauen hier haben mein vollstes Mitgefühl. Natürlich ist nicht jeder Mann so.! Chep teilte mir jedoch mit, dass es leider die Mehrheit betrifft. Nun denn, nach langen Gesprächen war es auch wieder Zeit fürs Bett.
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    • Day 3

      Kenianischer Kochkurs in Nairobi

      June 22 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

      Wie kann man ein Land besser kennenlernen als durch sein Essen? 😉 Also geht es mit Josephine in einem der hier häufigen Partybusse auf einen local Markt, um alle Zutaten einzukaufen - hier hätten wir uns alleine nicht hin getraut! Dann kochen wir zusammen Chapatis (Pfannkuchen), Rindfleisch-Eintopf, Gemüseeintopf mit Ananas, und einen Brei aus Kartoffeln, Pfeilwurzel und Erbsen. Besonders beeindruckend ist die Ölmenge zum anbraten der Chapatis (1 Esslöffel Öl pro Seite - "Put more oil, put more oil!"). Und Andi stellt sich sehr gut beim ausrollen der Chapatis an - das wird er hoffentlich auch Zuhause oft kochen ;)Read more

    • Endlich angekommen

      September 7, 2019 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Es war ein anstrengender Tag. Aber nun sind wir endlich in Nairobi angekommen.

      Wir sind sehr nett am Flughafen von einem Angestellten der "Sunworld Safari" in Empfang genommen worden. Er brachte uns zum Hotel hier in Nairobi und erklärte uns, wie es nun für uns weitergeht. Morgen früh um 7 Uhr holt uns Nick ab, der dann die ganze Safari unser Guide sein wird.

      Jetzt sitzen wir in der Hotelbar und lassen den Abend ausklingen. 🍹
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    • Day 19

      Kwaheri Kenya

      November 4, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

      Unser Transfer führte uns heute von der Rhino Watch Lodge nach Nairobi.
      Da wir noch ein wenig Zeit zu überbrücken hatten, statteten wir dem Nationalmuseum einen Besuch ab. Dort erfuhren wir noch einiges über die Einwohner und die Tierwelt. Ein leckeres Dinner im Carnivore rundete unsere Safari ab.
      An dieser Stelle möchten wir uns bei allen bedanken, die unsere Footprints so treu nachverfolgt haben.
      Ein besonderer Dank gilt unserem Guide Emmanuel, der uns mit viel Umsicht und sehr zuverlässig geführt hat.
      Nun steigen wir in den Flieger und sagen "Kwaheri Kenya"
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    • Day 2

      Dag 1: Nairobi

      November 1, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

      Uitgeput kwamen we gisterenavond omstreeks 1 uur lokale tijd aan in ons hotel in Nairobi, zo’n twee uur later dan initieel gepland. Grootste schuldigen waren de vertraging van KLM, een trapbestuurder op de luchthaven van Nairobi die zoek was en de lokale baggage-scanner die allesbehalve efficiënt loopt. We laten het niet aan ons hart komen, want we zijn er geraakt.

      Ons hotel blijkt chiquer dan we hadden verwachten. Een imposante marmeren inkomhal en sky-bar met infinity pool en zicht op het Nairobi National Park, zijn maar enkele van de faciliteiten.

      Na een enorm gevarieerd en uitgebreid ontbijt, trekken we vandaag op pad naar het centrum van Nairobi. Om de avontuurlijke spirit er toch een beetje in te houden, hebben we deze excursie niet via de reisorganisatie geboekt.

      Na een korte (maar filerijke) rit met een taxi van het hotel, komen we aan in de Jivanjee Gardens in downtown Nairobi, waar onze gids Alex op ons wacht. We doen een heuse wandeltocht met onze gids door het centrum van Nairobi. We spotten en bezoeken enkele lokale marktjes, de McMillan Memorial Library & de parlementsgebouwen van de Keniaanse overheid.

      Tot slot brengen we een bezoek aan het Kenyatta International Convention Center, waar we de lift kunnen nemen naar het dak met een panorama-uitzicht over de gehele stad en omgeving. Bij klaar weer zou je zelf de Kilimanjaro van hier kunnen spotten, spijtig genoeg niet het geval vandaag.

      Op aanraden van onze gids, nemen we een Uber terug naar het hotel (wat ons exact 2,20 euro kostte) en beslissen om de rest van de dag nog gebruik te maken van de faciliteiten die het hotel te bieden heeft. Zo zijn we morgen optimaal uitgerust voor de briefing van onze safarigids om 7u30, waarna we richting Ol’ Pejeta zullen trekken voor onze eerste ‘game drive’.
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    • Day 158

      Nairobi (Part 4)

      March 9 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

      A couple of days ago, I took a flight to Nairobi to spend my last days in Kenya 🇰🇪 I was lucky since I had a window seat on “the right side”so that I could see Mt. Kilimandscharo 🗻from the airplane.
      Back in Nairobi I took an Uber 🚕 straight to the Jabulani Backpackers Hostel, where I had stayed already so many times before. It has become sort of my second home 🏠 away from home/in Kenya. Initially, my plan was to stay only for 2 more days there but I ran into some issues with my eVisa on the website. Germans require a Visa in Tanzania 🇹🇿 which actually can be obtained on arrival when entering the country but I heard some horrible stories of travellers crossing the border to Tanzania being extorted or scammed by the officials of the border police 👮🏿 They had to pay a fine (up to 300 USD) because of “mistakes” they had made. For example, leaving Kenya on the last day before their visa expires (leaving them with no other option than to proceed to Tanzania and pay whatever is necessary) 🗓️ But also seemingly irrelevant things could be used as reason for making up a fine like having not printed out the eVisa. 🤦 Therefore, I wanted to avoid being scammed by the officials at the border and opted for getting my eVisa upfront, print it out and leave no room for discussions. The immigration website for Tanzania is one of the sloppiest programming for a government service that I have seen so far. First of all, it was not reachable ⛔️ many times when I tried accessing it. Once it was available, I found out that you cannot make your Visa application with a mobile phone because the website is not mobile ready and thus you need a laptop 💻 or desktop 🖥️ to enter your details. Thankfully, I was able to borrow a laptop from Susan (the owner of the hostel). She has gone through the process with another traveler a few days before already. 🙄But that was only the start of it. After I entered my personal details and uploaded the required documents, it came to the payment. Of course, the payment process was broken as well. 😠 After the 50 USD were deducted from my credit card, there was only a white page with a server error shown instead of a confirmation page. I also didn’t receive any confirmation email - neither for the Visa application nor for the payment. 🤬 If I hadn’t made some screenshot of it before, I wouldn’t have even known the transaction ID for my Visa application! And when I tried to lookup the status of my application with the transaction ID, the website indicated even that it cannot find my Visa application. 🤨 At that point I had lost all trust that I even had a valid application for a Visa in Tanzania. So, I sent an email that outlined my issue to the technical support for the website which has not been answered yet - even to this day! 😤 I was mad and if I had not already booked my flight back to Germany from Tanzania’s capital Dar el Salam … I would have skipped this country altogether. But there was nothing more I could do. 🤷 So, I went with some other travelers of my hostel to the National museum in the afternoon. It has very extensive exhibition halls for typical Kenyan animals like elephants, lions and birds but also featured an exhibition of marine photography 📸 by Prince Hussain Aga Khan called “fragile beauty”. It was designed to raise awareness for environmental issues and concerns in ocean ecologies as well as inspire appreciation for wildlife and ignite a desire to protect it. The exhibition has been shown in multiple places already. Canada 🇨🇦 has featured it on a website that gives a quite good impression: https://www.glenbow.org/exhibitions/the-living-…
      Apart from wildlife, the museum also gave insight into Kenya’s pre-colonial, colonial and post-independence history 📖 I already knew some facts from other visits to museums or historical sights in Mombasa as well as Lamu but one thing that was particularly interesting for me was the construction of the railway. Between 1896 and 1901, and under the pretence of attempting to stop the slave trade, Britain built the Uganda Railway 🚂between Mombasa and Lake Victoria. The British faced many problems, especially lack of manpower since Africans were reluctant to offer their labour. This forced the administration to import almost 38.000 workers from India. 🇮🇳 Of these, about 2.500 lost their lives to the lions of the Tsavo national park, diseases and other causes. Also the engineers faced major challenges since the railway had to be built on the highlands ⛰️ The Africans objected to the railway passing through their land and for example stole the rails as a source of iron for their local blacksmiths. The railway was seen by the British as an opportunity to open the way for the exploitation of East African resources. They were convinced that it would be a means for making huge profits for the colony💰 Ultimately, it had cost over 5 million British pounds and proved to be an expensive and uneconomical venture. 😅
      After two hours in the museum we had enough. Outside of the museum was the Snake house which was included in the ticket price. So, we paid it also a visit and it was surprisingly good. We could hold a python 🐍 (not venomous) and also a small chameleon in our hands. Apart from that they had also turtles 🐢 and crocodiles 🐊 in outdoor habitats that you could watch from further away.
      In the evening, we went with Susan to the cinema 🎦 to watch “Dune 2”. We had seen „Dune 1“ in the hostel on the night before and were excited to see how the story further unfolds. IHMO it was not a great movie but entertaining enough. 😌

      On the next day, I visited the tower 🗼of the Kenyan International Congress Centre (KICC) together with two other travellers from my hostel. As the first and still one of the tallest skyscrapers of the city, the KICC tower provided a great view 🏙️ of all the different districts. On the way to it, we witnessed hundreds of Kenyan lawyers coming out from their graduation party 🧑🏻‍🎓of their university. All of them were super well dressed but ridiculously also wore blond wigs. 🫣
      Anyways, in the afternoon I finally went to a hair dresser which is close to the hostel. Zhe haircut was much needed and they did a great job. For only 2000 KES (approximately 13 EUR) I got my hair cut as well as a head and a neck massage! 😃😊
      It was the fourth time for me that I have been in Nairobi during the past month but I have never been out. Susan was intent on changing that and suggested to go to a Standup Comedy show 🎭 in the Levels Hotel that night. Among others - Mike (from the U.S.), Christel (from France), Romain (from France) and I joined her to go to the venue. That day was the international women’s day. So, a lot of the jokes revolved around that. Kenyan humour is a bit raw and less intellectual though. Some comedians were hard to understand because of their accent but many of them were really funny. 🤭 After the show had ended, we went to the pretty nice Gecko bar - where I had a whiskey sour 🍸- and then continued to the popular Alchemist club. The DJs had an interesting style where they would play a song not longer than for 20 seconds. It was a bit annoying after some time since you never really got into a song before the next transition. 😒Anyways, we stayed until 3 am and then decided to go back to the hostel which was only 10-15 min. away (on foot). The only problem was that it was raining heavily 🌧️ that night with small breaks of maybe 10 minutes. So we tried to time ⏱️ our walk back as good as we could but ended up running for the last 150 metres through the rain. 😅

      On my last day in Nairobi, I just recovered from the evening before and didn’t do much. 😴 I tagged along with Romain when he went to the Sarit Centre and to Tamu Tamu dishes for lunch 🍽️ We had heard from the cleaner in the Hostel about “mukimo” - another Kenyan dish - and were eager to try it out. It is a delicious mash made of potatoes 🥔, corn 🌽, peas 🫛, spinach 🍃 and onion 🧅 It is quite filling. So much so that after finishing the portion, I felt stuffed for the next 48 hours. 🫃
      After lunch we returned to our hostel and - call it a hunch - I tried to check my Visa status again on the buggy website of the Tanzanian immigration office. 😒 I didn’t expect much but magically there was a new status - my eVisa was approved - despite all the prior hiccups. 🥳 Exhilarated, I went to a copy shop in the Sarit Centre to print out the eVisa approval so that absolutely nothing could go wrong with immigration at the Tanzanian border. 🤩
      In the early evening many people from the hostel (including me) went to the Jumuiya cocktail festival (https://www.instagram.com/p/C3-uvMKIYwL/). 🍹 It was at a nice location but I could also immediately see that it was for the more affluent people. So, prices were a bit higher in comparison with other places in Nairobi but so was also the quality of the drinks ✅ IMHO the cocktails of the Artcaffé were particularly good. The event was over at 11 pm and we went back to the hostel where I only packed my backpack 🎒 for my journey to Tanzania on the next day.

      It was a fitting last night in Nairobi that also gave me the feeling that I had done everything I could. I was ready to move on and start the final chapter of my sabbatical. 😏
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    • Day 44–47

      Spontaner Urlaub

      October 22 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

      Letzten Mittwoch haben wir spontan erfahren, dass wir Donnerstag frei haben. Weil hier immer am 10. Oktober nationaler Feiertag ist. Da haben Lisa und ich spontan beschlossen einen kurzen Urlaub zu machen. Wir haben dann zusammen für die nächsten Tage ein Airbnb gemietet in der Nähe des karura Waldes. Um dort zu wandern und sich die Wasserfälle anzuschauen. Mit einem Rucksack ging die Reise auch schon los. Als wie dort ankamen, waren wir echt überrascht. Unser Airbnb lag in einem sehr reichen Viertels Nairobi. Um in unser Haus zu kommen, mussten wir durch einen security check. Uns wurde erklärt, der Grund dafür ist, dass dort wichtige Politiker und Abgeordnete leben. Den Tag darauf sind wir dann los gewandert zu dem Wald. Dort haben wir uns dann die Wasserfälle angeschaut und haben dann in dem river cafe noch Samosa gegessen. Ansonsten haben wir den nächsten Tag noch die wirklich reichen Seiten Nairobis gesehen. Riesen Häuser und Villen, mit jeweils eigener Security. Pool, großes Auto und sehr viel Grünfläche mit Palmen. Hier gibt es auch eine große Einkaufshalle, mit einem extra Außenbereich für Kinder. Der Außenbereich war dann unter anderem ein Riesenrad. Doch anfreunden konnte ich mich mit der Einkaufshalle nicht, weil mir hier, ich zitiere: "the card get captured" (die Bankkarte gefangen genommen wurde). Ich wollte Geld abgeben und dann hat der Automat einfach meine Karte gefangen genommen und aus dem Automat kam ein Beleg; es ging zu lange, die Karte ist jetzt gefangen genommen. Aber habe mich dann sofort darum gekümmert und klappt jetzt alles Gott sei Dank wieder.
      Ja und so haben wir in unserem kurzem, ersten Urlaub doch einiges erlebt.
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    • Day 3

      Saiwa Swamp Nationalpark

      October 19, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

      Heute Morgen wurden wir nach dem Frühstück um 7.00 h von Emmanuel abgeholt, der uns zum kleinsten Nationalpark Kenias fuhr. In diesem Gebiet wohnen auf etwa 3 km² die Sitatunga Antilopen sowie die seltenen Debrazza Affen. Auch die Colobus und Velvet Affen. Ausserdem ist der Park u.a. bekannt für seine zahlreiche Vogel- und Insektenarten.
      Den Tag verbrachten wir dort mit einer 13 km langen Wanderung und vielen schönen Begegnungen.
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    • Day 158

      Nairobi (and some of Kenya)

      February 21 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      From the border at Kenya, where they have replaced visa with "electronic travel authorization" for which you have to apply and pay 30$ but which is _not_ a visum, because Kenya is "visa-free" (the biggest bullshit I have encountered anywhere on this trip), I went to Kakamega forest, the only rainforest in Kenya. On the way I again had problems with my front brake—it was getting worse — so I again did road-side piston cleaning somewhere in a small town, which only helped for a while. It was rubbing constantly, so I tried to brake as little as possible: kind of deathgripping some sections.

      Kenya is definitely more developed than Uganda, with much more schools, supermarkets, and buildings rather than "shacks" as in Uganda.

      In kakamega forest I joined a sunrise walk for amazing views, and spent the afternoon trying again to make the brake work: I got some improvement done. The next morning, earlier than my early alarm: diarrhea. So did a 30 km ride only with lots of climbing and with a visit to a local church where they were jamming like it was a party, helped by imodium. That only lasted one day though (probably caused by bad water...), so the next day I climbed yo nearly 3000 meters, first encountering lots of kenyan long distance runners (kapsabet), and then encountering very bad gravel roads downhill, with bad functioning brakes (just enough to save me, it was really cool actually).

      In the end of the day my front brakes really refused though, after the pistons were rubbbbbing again and pushing them back rendered them unusable, so I was forced to take a bus to Nairobi.

      Ok so now I get finally to talk about Nairobi. As you know I am interested in (in)equality, living conditions, observing cultures, etc. Well I read "going down river road" before I got here, and I was dropped off by the bus a street away from river road, in the center of "genuine" nairobi, the real deal, the real mess. The area around the busstop struck me as a shithole: busy, cheap, somewhat poor and dirty, with many beggars (I was corrected later that "those beggars were very few") but many friendly locals. Very very busy with traffic. Go a few blocks out and you have small shopping malls, which are like western cities. Go 5 kilometers out—were the bike shop was, a very good one by the way— to the UN complex, and it is a separate world, with western people living luxuriously, lots of international restaurants, guards everywhere, and clear cultural divisions: the locals serve the foreigners. Go a bit outside of that and you have massive villas and houses, where the expats and UN personnel live. The division and different worlds of Nairobi are unreal; the inequality is possibly the biggest I have experienced anywhere. What's more, near the hostel I am staying there is a street full off big houses and hotels, and the street itself is guarded because of it (no embassies or anything). Go one street behind it, and the people serving there live, in shacks, slumbs, and poor makeshift housing. It is just a city of divides, where the separation of colonialism has been swapped by a similar economic separation.

      I have heard a defence that these lifestyles also create jobs for the locals, and so it helps them. It's self-gratification; the poverty is not combatted by receiving big salaries and living in houses built by very low salaries.

      To end this polemic, let me rephrase what an austrian cycling couple I met here said about cycling in Rwanda with satisfaction: that they, after having their bikes carried by children, gave them "some cookies as a thanks". I flinched. At least give them something worth to them, if they help you that much... But of course, I am not solving anything myself. (Not blaming anyone, it just proves the different worlds we are in and how they are kept intact.)

      However despite all my quarrels with the city and, as a friend put it, " the UN where they manufacture poverty", my bikes is nearly fixed. The chain is fucked and the casette is fucked, but it will get me to Dar: on o ring in the piston seems damaged because there is air getting into the system, but they did an awesome job in getting it to work as good as possible. Plus, new pads.
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Nairobi, ናይሮቢ, نيروبي, نايروبى, Nayrobi, Горад Найробі, Найроби, নাইরোবি, ནའི་རོ་བི།, نایرۆبی, Ναϊρόμπι, Nairobo, نایروبی, Nairoby, ניירובי, Նայրոբի, NBO, Naíróbí, ナイロビ, ნაირობი, ನೈರೋಬಿ, 나이로비, Nairobî, Nairobia, Nairobis, Најроби, നയ്റോബി, नैरोबी, နိုင်ရိုဘီမြို့, Nairòbi, ਨੈਰੋਬੀ, نیروبی, Nairóbi, Найробі, Nayroobi, நைரோபி, ไนโรบี, Naýrobi, 内罗毕, נייראבי, 奈洛比

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