Trip 5 - Southern Africa
Message 1: Nairobi to Dar es Salaam
From: seth@sethweinstein.com (Seth Weinstein)
Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2000 13:51 -0000
The suspense preceding this trip started several weeks before I actually hopped
on a plane. First, there was the question whether Swissair would be flying: The
airline had gone bankrupt early in October and the government was keeping it
funded only until three days before I was supposed to depart. Then there was the
little problem that due to recent mail delays in Washington, D.C., my passport
was still at the Kenyan consulate awaiting a visa on the day before my
departure, as it had taken more than a week and a half to get there from New
York. By some small consular miracle, I managed to track down the guy who had
it, and he sent it by Federal Express - so I had it a good four hours before my
departure.
JFK Airport was virtually deserted on the 30th. There was no line at the
Swissair terminal, and the flight was less than a third full - and that was
after Swissair canceled its two other New York-Zurich flights that night. I had
a fun 13 hours in Zurich (a truly exquisite, clean city) - I spent many of them
learning about the early inhabitants of what's now Switzerland at the
Landesmuseum, visiting the Clock and Watch Museum, and enjoying some good
fondue.
Now on to Africa.
I actually rather liked Nairobi - there was something appealing about the
maddeningly fast pace of it all, and the center of the city is easy to walk
around. Highlights included a peaceful walk through the suburb of Karen, where I
visited Karen Blixen's former home (now a museum); feeding the Rothschild
giraffes at a giraffe center; the Railway Museum; and lunch at the Carnivore -
where the fare included, more or less, the parents of whatever I'll see on
safari next week. (Crocodile is especially tasty...sort of a combination of a
firm fish and very tender chicken, made even better with red-currant sauce.)
Nairobi's National Museum also had good exhibits on Kenyan ethnography, flora,
and fauna.
I took the overnight train to Mombasa, sharing a compartment with a very funny
pair of Kenyans who were leaders of a youth cultural group (the Kenyan branch of
USY, perhaps?). Mombasa has much Arab and Indian influence, so there are all
those wonderful spices around, and the old part of the city consists of narrow
alleys flanked by Muslim homes, mosques, chickens, goats, and people selling
whatever they can.
The beautiful town of Lamu, on an island reached by an eight-hour bus ride and a
half-hour ferry ride, is among the most tranquil places I've been in a long
time. There's a one-kilometer waterfront overlooked by a few restaurants; two
interesting museums on Swahili culture; and essentially just one main street,
which is really a narrow alley. There are no cars; donkeys are the main form of
transport. One man calling himself Ali Hippie invited a few tourists over (he's
something of an institution in that matter) for a good Swahili dinner consisting
of snapper in a tamarind-based sauce, rice, shrimp, and lobster. After dinner
Ali and his family performed traditional Swahili songs to the accompaniment of
his not-so-traditional electronic keyboard and various makeshift drums in the
form of empty plastic containers. (Ali also persuaded me to play something on
his little four-octave, non-touch-sensitive keyboard, so I attempted a bit of
Beethoven's "Waldstein" sonata, changing octaves when necessary and
vocally popping out a high or low note every now and then.)
On my second day on Lamu, someone took me out in a motorboat to Manda island (at
least until we ran aground and had to wade through a mangrove swamp). On Manda I
visited the Takwa ruins, remnants of a Muslim city that mysteriously disappeared
about 400 years ago.
Three other tourists and I happened to be heading to Dar es Salaam at the same
time, and so we endured the grueling 18-hour bus ride from Mombasa last night,
most of which was spent not actually traveling but rather stopped at various
nondescript little towns and at the Kenya-Tanzania border, where everyone's
luggage was meticulously inspected to ensure that Tanzania's higher tax rates
weren't being circumvented. Three boxes of our cargo consisted of plastic
drinking straws, which must be a hot smuggling commodity through this corridor.
Public Internet access for 55 cents an hour is really a wonderful thing.
Cheers,
Seth
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