Mombasa

We took a taxi from the beach to our hotel in Mombasa at around 2:30 in the afternoon. It rained while we were in the car but stopped by the time we reached our destination, the Castle Royal Hotel. It was nice. A step up from the Twiga Lodge for about the same price. I would definitely stay here again if I ever return. We had reservations for a dinner cruise on the Bay that evening, so we decided to relax at the hotel until our transport was scheduled to arrive. We had masala chai in the hotel cafe. It was really tasty.

Meredith and Stephanie enjoying their chai

Our transport for dinner arrived at 6:30PM and took us to the Tamarind Restaurant from where our dinner cruise would depart.

The Tamarind Dhow and the beautiful sunset we witnessed while waiting to board

The call to prayer. It is Ramadan, so we saw all of the preparations on the streets of Mombasa for the evening feast on our way to our dinner cruise.

It really was a spectacular sunset

Meredith and Stephanie at our table. This is after we enjoyed the most yummy pre-dinner cocktails called Dawas. It was made of vodka, lime, honey, mint, tonic, and ice. I hope I can get the proportions right at home, it was so tasty. I wish I had gotten a photo of it.

The main course. We all got different things and shared. Stephanie ordered the seafood medley (it had a fancier name than this but I can't remember it, I also can't remember what all was in it). I do remember that it had a peanut flavored sauce. It was really good.

Meredith got the prawns, also really good.

And I got the lobster - yum! The entire meal was delicious. It also included an appetizer, seafood salad and asparagus salad, soup (I got the tomato, Stephanie and Meredith got mushroom), desert (cheesecake and fruit salad), and coffee. We also got a bottle of wine to go with our meal.

The boat was largely filled with couples and people on their honeymoons, but we ended up sitting next to two South African women, Patricia and Hilda. They were both fairly toasted and were quite funny. Patricia offered us all a place to stay if we find ourselves visiting Durbin in the next couple of years, after that she is planning to open a hotel and pub in Zanzibar. We've got her card, but given her level of intoxication, I highly doubt she will remember us and her offer. The entire evening was wonderful. They even had a live band on the boat. I would totally do this again if I ever return and I highly recommend it to others.

The following morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then set out by foot to follow the walking tour in the Lonely Planet through the old part of Mombasa. The walking tour starts and ends at Fort Jesus (built by the Portuguese). We were going to start our tour by taking a tour of the Fort, but we found ourselves being harassed by someone trying to be our tour guide despite our continued comments that we did not want a tour guide and that we were not going to pay him. We were able to ditch him near the entrance; however, it was rather short lived. We opted to do the walking tour first and then check out the fort but stopped in a shop shortly into the walk. When we emerged, he was there. I really hate to be rude, but I found myself yelling go away at him. He called us names and finally left us alone. We were glad to be rid of him.

We spent several hours wandering through the streets. The colors and the ornamentation on the buildings was beautiful. I found myself taking a lot of pictures of doors and ally ways.

For all of my triathlon friends... Talk about a destination race.

Once we finished our wandering, we were able to go into Fort Jesus harassment free. We were even able to get the resident rate with our embassy cards, a difference of 700 shillings. We were greeted by someone who became our guide once we entered. He was very friendly and not aggressive in any way. We were glad to have a guide, and even happier it wasn't the guy from earlier.

We had to end our tour a bit early so that we would have enough time to grab some lunch at the hotel and get to the airport in time. We decided to take a tuk tuk back to save time.

When I had booked my ticket, the flight that Stephanie and Meredith were on was no longer available, so I was on a later flight. I was hoping that I would be able to get a seat on their flight, but it was sold out and everyone showed up. I was able to get on the next flight, which saved me an hour from my original flight. I was home by 9:30 and "quickly" did a load of laundry in the bath tub. I didn't bring many clothes with me and had taken a lot of them with me Mombasa. Between the salt water from the beach and the dust in Mombasa, they were dirty! Since I was scheduled to take off again on Tuesday for Kisumu, I needed clean clothes in a hurry. Having a washing machine handy is one thing I really miss.

The South Coast - Tiwi and Diani Beaches

I left Nairobi early the morning of Friday, August 27 for the airport for a long weekend in Mombasa and on the beach. Friday was a Kenyan holiday to celebrate the signing of the new constitution that had been voted for on August 4. I was traveling with my new friends Stephanie and Meredith. Stephanie is here for several months working at the Embassy and Meredith was in town for two weeks from Atlanta. We had all stayed at my apartment Thursday night since I live closer to the airport than Stephanie and Meredith's hotel is near where all of the constitution signing festivities were planned and many of the roads were scheduled to be closed on Friday.

Our flight was slightly delayed out of Nairobi, but we were still in Mombasa early and at our "resort" in Tiwi Beach by 10AM. Bargaining for the taxi at the airport was an interesting experience. There are many taxi companies there vying for business and we thought we could play them against each other for a better price. We were so wrong. They had all agreed on a minimum price for each destination that they would all use and no matter how hard we tried, no one would go below it. We ended up paying 3000 shillings (~$37), which was only 200 shillings below the original price. It seemed high, but it was a long way and taxis in Kenya are expensive.

Our "resort", the Twiga Lodge, was not really a resort compared to the places I've stayed at in Mexico and Jamaica, but it did have a bar, restaurant, and little mini mart with water and snacks. The beach was nice and that's what we came for.

View from our patio

After we got settled in our room, we went for a walk on the beach. When we weren't being solicited for business (snorkeling, dinner), it was really quite nice. It was low tide and there were tide pools all the way out to the breakers. We wanted to walk out that way, but there was a lot of coral, so we stayed near the beach.

There were lots of sea urchins to beware of

When we first saw this we thought it was a sand dollar (we have no idea if there even are sand dollars in the Indian Ocean), then Stephanie picked it up and it was a bit fatter than a sand dollar, so we thought maybe it was a sea biscuit (again we have no idea if there are sea biscuits in the Indian Ocean), and then she flipped it over. It was part of a coconut shell. We got a good laugh at ourselves over that one.

Dhows (sailboats)

The end of the "safe" part of the beach. According to the guys trying to sell us stuff on the beach, beyond the rocks is dangerous. We took there word for it but I can't help but wonder if what is really beyond the rocks is their competition.

After our walk, we decided to have lunch at the resort restaurant. Lonely Planet says that the restaurant is "OK." I think Stephanie, Meredith and I would all agree that this is a generous review. We ordered a tomato and cheese sandwich, fries, sodas, and a dish called prawns avocado. We were quite excited about that last item since we all love avocado and we were on the coast, so the prawns should be excellent.

My favorite soda in Kenya - it is ginger flavored but much stronger that ginger ale

You can only imagine our disappoint when this showed up. Yes, this is the prawns avocado. There are itty bitty shrimp mixed in with that pink stuff. They were not fresh. We did not eat this.
All in all the only decent thing we got were the fries and the sodas.

After lunch, we set out for the beach. The tide had come in by now, so exploring the tide pools was out. We took our towels and made ourselves comfortable. We were revisited by all of the people selling things to check in with us in case we had decided to purchase anything they had to offer. There was a woman selling kikoys. Those we were more interested in. By the time we finally made our decisions and bargained for a price, they were strewn all over the beach. It was really pretty.

Once the shade from the palm trees had blocked our sun, we walked down the beach in the other direction. Again, we were revisited by everyone trying to sell us stuff. Our patience with them was starting to wear thin, but we were still trying to be nice. We just really tried to emphasize that we would find them if we decided we wanted whatever it was that they had to offer.

We went back by the restaurant to get some water from the mini mart on our way back to our room and encountered the resort cat.

Another picture of the beach
We opted to hire a taxi to take us to a nearby resort to have dinner at their restaurant. It was actually a place we had tried to get a room at but they didn't have any availability for the Friday night. There restaurant was much better and we had a good dinner. It was well worth the taxi fare. Once we returned to Twiga Lodge, we got drinks at the bar and sat outside enjoying the sound of the crashing waves and the stars. The moon rise over the ocean was pretty spectacular too.

The following morning we headed to Diani Beach, just south of Tiwi Beach, to go snorkeling. Diani Beach has a bit more of a "Caribbean" feel to it. The resorts are larger, and probably closer to what I have experienced before, and there aren't any breakers to let tide pools form. There are also a lot more people than on Tiwi Beach. I'm really glad we stayed in Tiwi Beach, but I would probably go to Diani Beach if I were to ever return. There is a lot more there as far as activities, shopping, and restaurants go.

We boarded our boat as soon as we arrived and headed out to the reef. We took a glass bottomed boat with a group, but others took a dhow.

A fisherman
The reef we snorkeled on was really nice. The coral was still in pretty shape. I do wish the guides would give a little spiel about preserving the reef before they sent us out in the water though because there were people standing on the reef with their, basically killing all the coral beneath their feet. Perhaps the even better thing to do would be to not give people fins.

I'm so glad I have an underwater camera!

On our way back to the beach, we saw people taking camel rides.

It was low tide when we returned to Tiwi Beach, so we finally got to take our walk out in the tide pools.

After our walk, we showered and it was time to meet our taxi to head into Mombasa for the rest of our weekend. When we arrived at Twiga Lodge there were a lot of monkeys hanging out. We went looking for them a couple of times, but didn't see them again until we were leaving.