Saturday, November 26, 2011

Nakuru

15/11/11

Yesterday Carrie and I slept in a bit, had a sandwich at the restaurant, and then caught a matatu to Naivasha.  From Naivasha we caught another to Nakuru.  They had us pay for a seat for our bags as well as our own and we spent Ksh 600.  At Nakuru we decide we were hungry and ate at a restaurant.  I learned again that the chips (fries) were not very good.  By the time we were wrapping up we decided it would be too late when we made it to Kisumu so we got a room in the New Mt. Sinai Hotel.  We paid Ksh 600 for two beds, a bathroom/showere on the top/5th floor with views from the roof of the city.
We dropped our bags and went out in the city, into the market for fruit and eventually to an internet cafe.  After spending time onlne we walked home and decided to check out the bar, Olkegei (or something like that) for a drink or two.  As soon as we walked in, every eye turned our way and we heard mzungu this and mzungu that followed by laughter.  Carrie saw someone, a woman, blow us a kiss.
We ordered and the bartender, a woman, set two chairs for us at a table where two guys sat drinking.  They were quite friendly and tried to make us feel welcome, saying, "Karibu."  Others, however, were quite scary.  Carrie was tapped on the shoulder and starred at by a guy next to us at the next table until one of our new friends told him to quit.  The starring never quit.  Another guy came up to me and shook my hand and said something about not showing any fear and then demanded I give him 100 dollars.  I said no and tried to ignore him.  Our friends told him to beat it.  At one point in our conversation he sat and looked at me saying, "God forgive, God forgive."  This too I ignored and th brtender turned him around in his chair and then pushed him out of it.  Our friends could sense our fear too and told us to relax and feel welcome.  They bought us a second beer, but we didn't want it.  We drank it anyway, having a nice conversation with Oke, George, and eventually Sammi.  I sat there sweating and nervous, trying not to shake as I poured my Tusker into the glass.  These three men were great, but we eventually paid up and said our goobyes.  They were worried we had far to go until we told them it was just across the street.  We left the bar and bee-lined right for our room.  Once up on our roof, which our room was on, we relaxed and looked out on the city.
This morning we were up not too early and caught a matatu out of town.  It is mayhem trying to catch one, with everyone swarming you trying to "help" you.  We negotiated a price and once aboard were charged for our bags, which we stood strong and only paid half.
It was a cramped ride over mostly dirt, bumpy dirt, roads (at least in the middle section) from Nakuru to Kisumu.  In Kisumu we had fish stew (with a whole fish) and ugali, and then we caught a bus to Luanda Kotieno.  The bus was great as we had more room.  Once we exited the bus we walked to where the ferry picked up in an hour but were able to get right on a boat that took us with about eight others to Mbita.  In Mbita we found the Elk Guest House and relaxed the remainder of the evening.  We're excited to be on Lake Victoria, Africa's largest.

2 comments:

  1. One of these days the fries will taste good. Right?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I knew Jon would go for those fries again.

    ReplyDelete