Walking to Town

Today almost began when I was awakened by my telephone at 4:30am with "Good morning ma'am this is your wake up call! (No, I did NOT place that call!) Fortunately, I was able to go back to sleep as I did not have any appointments for the day! When I finally woke up at a “reasonable” hour, I had a nice breakfast in the hotel and planned out my day. The goal for the day was to find a safari for the end of my trip. I decided that as long as the travel agency was within decent walking distance, I was not going to take a taxi as I wanted to see more than through a window of a car! Of course the taxi drivers tried to get me to take a ride but I insisted I was walking. It was a lovely walk and along the way I stopped at the Serena hotel. It is a magnificent place!!! It is a five star hotel all the way. They offered me an excellent rate but it was still more than what I can justify for the film budget so I had to reluctantly turn them down! I did check out their safari package which was VERY nice.

I continued my walk towards town and passed a nice little park called Uhuru Park. The hotel staff advised me not to cut through it on my way to the travel agency so I heeded their advice but as I walked past it along the street I could not see any danger. It was daylight and there were plenty of people but they had told me because it was a weekend and many people were not working that it would not be very safe. It was fine, I took the longer route and was able to see the park just fine. The traffic congestion all around is so bad that I actually made it to the end of the street before the traffic did. I know this because I was following a coca-cola truck and the three men in the front of the truck were such hams and kept posing for me to photograph them!

I passed other men on the street who stopped me and asked me to take a photo of them! The people here are SO friendly! They are So polite and accommodating in the hotel and all around outside as well. I made it to the travel agency and decided which safari I would take although I did not book it yet. I will wait to see which day Catherine is running in the prison championships which will either be this Friday or Saturday.

After the travel agency I went to get some snacks for my room because there is nothing around the hotel, no snack machines and the only option is the one restaurant. So where did I go? You guessed it, good old Nakumatt! I did decide to take a taxi back from there because it started to rain.

The weather here has not been great. They are now coming out of their rainy season into their winter. People here find it SO cold, to me it is pleasant temperature-wise but it is still rainy and cloudy throughout the day. Thursday started that way and became sunny and beautiful. When it does rain though, it does not rain for long at this time of year. Earlier in the rainy season they get the heavy rains.

Once back in my room I took some time to make notes and write in my blog. I got a bit freaked out when right in front of my eyes was a mosquito! I smashed it against the wall with the telephone menu and it squished/bled across the wall! It obviously had gotten someone before I got it and I just hope it wasn’t me! Everyone here keeps telling me ‘no worries” about mosquitoes; they aren’t bad here, or they don’t come in, or we have those “things” plugged in the wall to get them….well, ummm….the proof is ON the wall! Lol I will still not open my windows at night although I am getting a bit more brave during the day because it does get hot in the room without the AC.

I really enjoyed walking around town today. I stopped and had lunch in a local place and sat outside while still able to view the rugby match on the television at the bar. I had “chicken curry Indonesian” which was very good and I guess because of the British influence, everything is served with “chips” (French fries to those of you who don’t know that!)

(Check out this sign in the restaurant!) And this one:

I treated myself to a massage this afternoon because the rates are so reasonable it was hard to pass up! It was 2200ksh (Kenyan shillings) which comes to approximately $37.90. The massage therapist was very good from what I remember and how I felt afterwards (I slept through most of it!)

think I will go into town for dinner to night even though it means braving another taxi :-) It was a very nice day today!