Tayari

Two days ago, I took the express train in the afternoon from Nairobi to Mombasa. Michael (from Austria) who was also in my hostel was on the same train. 🚆 So, we could share an Uber to the train station in Nairobi. There was a ridiculous amount of security controls at the station: at first a body scan. Then we had to lay down all our belongings for two drug tracking dogs 🐕 Afterwards our luggage was scanned. Then we went through a passport control and finally another scan of our luggage. The whole procedure didn’t take long though. We still had enough time for a coffee ☕️ at the station before we had to board the train.
The train ride took between 5-6 hours since it went quite slow (80 - 120 km/h only) but I kept myself busy with watching 👀 the Japanese and quite entertaining movie „Bullet train“ (with Brad Pit) on Netflix that I had downloaded before to my iPad.
Michael and I sat in different waggons of the train and did not find each other after the arrival in Mombasa due to the total chaos 🤯 at the stations exit and parking lot. So, this time both of us had to book our Ubers separately - we were staying in different locations anyways. However, it took my Uber driver almost 30 min. just to leave the parking lot (!!!) due to the inefficient handling of the traffic by the officers on site (sorry - for my German nature 😅).
Anyways, by 10 pm I was finally in my hostel in Old town Mombasa. My Uber driver already warned me on the way to the hostel that I had picked a dangerous place to stay. ⚠️
Unfortunately, the whole old town (which is the main attraction of Mombasa) is known for pickpocketing and mugging - even during day light hours. Coming from Panama City and the Casco Viejo 😍 I definitely had other expectations for that historical part of the city. So, the visit to Mombasa turned out to be a rather disappointing one.
Michael and I visited only Fort Jesus 🏰 and the Spice market on the next day. Fort Jesus was built by the Portuguese in end of the 16th century to protect the port of Mombasa. It was the only fort maintained by the Portuguese 🇵🇹 on the Swahili coast, and is a testament to the first successful attempt by a Western power to establish influence over the Indian Ocean trade. Viewed from the air, the fort was built in the shape of a man and is roughly square, with four bulwarks at its corners. There were constant battles 💥between Portuguese and Arabic forces throughout the centuries involving the fort until it fell under British rule 🇬🇧 in the end of the 19th century and was converted into a prison (mainly for slaves).
After visiting the fort, we walked through the old town a bit. The buildings looked very run down and in general the old town could be mainly described by vibrant traffic and endless streams of stands with all sorts of things to buy. We came across Mombasa Market which also hosts the spice market 🌶️ It was nice to walk through it but we got a bit stressed out by all the vendors that wanted us to come to their stand, smell the spices and obviously buy some afterwards. So, we left it after 30 min. again and returned our hostels 🙄
The temperature and humidity in Mombasa was another reason not to leave a shady spot once you found it. The balcony of my hostel seemed just perfect with a constant breeze from the sea and its enjoyable view. 😌 I stayed there all afternoon with Hessel (from the Netherlands) and Ethan (from the U.S.) - some other guests of my hostel. We all figured that there was not much more to do in Mombasa. Even beer 🍻 was hard to come by in the very islamically influenced old town. After walking 2 km to the next big supermarket chain and finding out that they don’t sell alcohol, I went back to our hostel (frustrated) and ordered beer for us via Uber Eats delivery. 📦 It took a while (almost 2 hours) because the poor delivery driver had to bring it from a shop in another district but eventually we could enjoy our refreshing drink. 😄
After dinner, I just watched a few episodes of „The Rookie“ on Netflix and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up at 8.30 am and took a necessary shower. Due to the warmth in the rooms I sweat a lot during the night and needed refreshment. 🥵
After breakfast, I briefly met Ethan and he told me that some turkish guests in our hostel had been robbed on the day before. A motorbike had snatched the entire daypack of one of the guys - passport, money, phone, etc. - it’s all gone now. 😱 What a hassle it must be to recover/replace all of that again. At least the guy is not alone and travels with some friends that can help him out. It goes to show that worrying articles like this one from 2 years ago are still acurate: https://www.malindikenya.net/en/articles/news/l… 😔

Shortly after, I ordered an Uber to take me to my next destination: Diani Beach. And I was glad to get out of Mombasa without any trouble. Should I come back to this city, I will stay in Nyali (apparently the nices district there). 😤Read more