After my mad adventures in Thailand, I decided to take another jump and this time went to Kenya, so I've now been to 4 of the 5 main continents...next on the list is South America, so that's the summer sorted.
But Kenya, well I had wanted to go for some time, there's a strange connection between Kenya and me, with a few of my ex's having come from there.
I have also been chatting on line with someone interesting who lives in Kenya so the chance to holiday and meet up with the lovely Benta, and spend some time was a no-brainer.
It has been amazing, but a land of such contrast, the poverty is tear jerking in ways that made me ashamed of my species, there's also shocking violence and a sense of dread when walking down even the so called posh parts of town, especially at night. but I think its to be expected in such a large city, where such poverty exists. Driving is a death defying experience, combined with a waiting game in the jams. It so wants to be a modern city, but as much as it tries, its not there.
In the daytime though I went on a walking tour with a fun guide, called Gene, who I managed to out geek on the subject of railway lines and steam engines and even African history and art. Lots of interesting fun, and also jaw dropping arrogance of the empire builders who used people as a disposable commodity when building the line.
Out of the city though my fantastic guide Timothy took us to amazing places, wonderful highland forests, where the +2500m altitude had me gasping for air, but still able to show a natural talent for archery (I need to look into taking that up here), and a surprisingly non complicated ability to let gravity drop me down a zip wire while not screaming like a girl.
Also he showed us some amazing views from the edge of the Great rift Valley, and then a chance to walk among the animals who live there at the Hells Gate park...(not the meat eaters, just the usual non tofu eating vegetarian types in their natural habitat).
Timothy was also arranged for us to spend a night at the Sarova Salt lick game reserve https://www.sarovahotels.com/saltlick-tsavo/
Which was out of this world, Lions, Elephants, warthogs, various antelopes, Ostriches, mongoose, zebra and lots of other things trotting down to the waterhole in full view of the terrace, just amazing.
Such wonderful things to see, and such lovely company for the trip, there were so many funny moments and breathtaking awesomeness, it was amazing.
A small downside though was a serious bout of tummy troubles, most of the time there, maybe the water I was brushing my teeth with was a bit dodgy, since I only drank bottled, but it was bad, so much so, that a fart was never undertaken without a lot of careful preparation, and I got to be very chatty with the local pharmacist who's sales of Imodium tripled while I was there. The last day in particular when the Imodium basically stopped working was a strategic mission from toilet to toilet but I got to the plane with no accidents, and in fact in the plane, I had the dubious joy of discovering that happens when the loo flushes when you are sat on it.....interesting sensation.
Another downer was the hotel, the Ibis Styles Nairobi, it was awful, I am well used to Ibis's minimal approach, but this was bad, the room was tiny, of course and kept clean, but the staff were slow, chatting among themselves most of the time, the restaurant was a disaster of inept careless food (who serves unrinsed pasta mixed with a full jar of pesto as a dish). The air conditioning, which was the main reason I chose the place, didn't work most of the time, and even when it did it was crap and dropped only 1 degree, and on my last day, at 4am, they had a workman doing some work in the car park below my window at 4am... fucking a.m....using an angle grinder no less for 15 mins then welding.. I was livid.
But am home, once again confident in my farting and looking forward to a fresh block on Monday.
Looking forward to Benta coming to visit NL soon, and then I can show her our tofu eating vegetarians in their natural habitat.
Ahthankyew
