Nov
Fri 1st-3rd Mombasa.
I’d bought a Naekana ticket for 900bob and had a front seat in the hope of seeing animals while passing through Tsavo. We only left 30 minutes late at 08:30…good news. We didn’t see any animals…bad news. But the excellent news was that we didn’t stop in Voi, so the journey to Mombasa only took just over 5 hours.
By 2pm I was in a matatu heading to Nyali. We stopped for quite a while around Lights, so the trip was a tedious hour long. Tulia was less than 10 minutes away, and I checked into my ‘Tsavo’ room on the first floor. I had been a little apprehensive about whether something would go wrong because John had booked it on my behalf.
All fine…nice big room with a private balcony; the small downside was that my bathroom was a few steps outside the room, on the other side of the corridor. So I always had to have the room key with me, and the one to the bathroom…but at least it was my private bathroom.
The first 3 days were spent acclimatising. The weather was extremely hot. I found a shortcut to the beach…the road beside Tulia went almost directly to the beach, so it was about a 5 minute walk. 5 minutes in the opposite direction is the shopping centre. Then just 10 minutes to the Reef.
I went to acquaint myself with Shadya at Ideal travel. I saw her on Saturday to get some basic facts on the types of Safaris available.
I met up with Afnan at Reef, which was nice. Because John was genius level,not only did I get a good room rate…2,318bob…about £14, but that included a Healthy breakfast of lots of fruit and a yoghurt plus crunchy something or other.
I did some Naivas shopping for spirit, mango juice and chevda. And I had to check out ‘Kenol’….the cheapest beer in town.
Fenias, the hotel taxi couldn’t make it to the airport for Monday morning because he’d gone to a funeral in Nairobi. I contacted a Jennie contact …Castro for a 06:45 ride to the airport on Monday morning to meet Richard n Margaret. All was going well.
Mon 4th.. And then things unravelled a bit. Heard from Richard that they were 2 hours late leaving Heathrow. And luckily I checked again in the evening, and they had a revised arrival time in Mombasa of 11:20. It meant I could have my Tulia breakfast, but because there was no yoghurt I was offered the English bfast. Toast,omelette, avocado, 2 sausages. Much nicer !!
Despite the arrival time change, Castro was still available. Left with Castro 10:45. Arrived the same time as R & M at Moi airport…in that they came out as we arrived. 3,000 taxi fare to the hotel.
They checked in and settled into their rooms. Richard wanted a beer, so we walked the short distance down the beach to the Mombasa beach hotel with its bar area near the beach.
Tulia pool swimming…I only swam 2 or 3 times in the pool ; I’m not really into swimming.
I had an English breakfast every day. Usually an omelette but a couple of times scrambled egg or boiled egg.
R & M said they didn’t like the Reef breakfast and twice they came for a Tulia breakfast. They had to pay for breakfast anyway as their Reef booking was on a room only basis.
Then from Tulia it was just 5 minutes to Nyali shopping. With the heat it was nice to do short walks.
It took 2 or 3 trips to Ideal travel in Nyali shopping centre to finally nail the Tsavo safari for R & M. Shadya was incredibly helpful and in the end we settled on a 2 night 3 day safari in Tsavo East, Ashnil Aruba then Salt Lick. What took the time was creating eCitizen accounts. They left on the 12th and came back 14th; they were picked up and returned to Reef and had their own vehicle. It was a fantastic success.
Thurs 7th…On my walk along the beach I spotted a little black man masai carving…something that R wanted to buy for his work colleague Roland. In the end R bought one when he was on safari.
Fri 8th…I moved to Shimba Hills, a self contained room on the ground floor. Nice room with a big bathroom, but no balcony. The move was almost a disaster. I couldn’t understand why the new room rate was a 1,000 (£6) per day more than the first week. I noticed the booking confirmation said for 2 people. I asked John to cancel and re-book. Suddenly he was personally being charged $240.
John spoke sternly with the Tulia receptionist and she got it stopped. The room charge was correct….I don’t understand online bookings…and John was charged for the revised booking as well. To not make things worse John paid and I did an mpesa refund to him of the Ksh equivalent of 31,000bob, which was 3,444 per night. Up from 2,318, but a nice room, incl breakfast, incl pool, proximity to everything…£21 was good value.
Basically, most evenings I would meet up with R & M at Reef and have a couple of drinks on a raised level overlooking the ocean. It was very relaxing as we were always the only people sitting there.
From there we would go next door to Maasai Beach to listen to the excellent live bands. They are on 7 nights a week now. The other thing that R & M liked about Maasai Beach was the toast chicken…very tender and a great flabour. A few times I escorted Margaret back to Reef when we were both feeling tired but Richard wanted to stay on .
On Sun 10th Nov we got a Bolt to the Kilindini Pub and spent a good couple of hours with Clarence; R & M really enjoyed the experience. We caught a tuk tuk and stopped at the Tusks on Moi Ave for photos before stopping at Coffee Point for a late lunch. I just had chips but R had a seafood platter and M had a chicken mandi.
We got a tuk tuk to Fantasy for one beer then a Bolt to Reef to try to catch up on the Spurs match…probaby at Maasai Beach where they have a few TV screens.
Mon 11th. Richard had to do some work on his laptop. I sunbathed on the beach. I had a meal change at mama siti…chicken biryani..very tasty. Of course the afternoon/evening was spent between Reef and Maasai Beach.
Wed 13th Nov…After breakfast and a tea at mama siti, I walked the 30 minutes to Pirates. People recognised me and said that my friend Thomas was in hospital with malaria. What was even more shocking was that his beach plot that rented swimsuits and drinks was flooded , so I don’t know his business status at the moment. The little stream that passed his hut had been stopped from reaching the sea by a sand bank and the water backed up. Part of the reason for going there was to check on progress of all the mangrove trees he planted earlier this year. Did they survive? I don’t know…must find out.
Thurs 14th. R & M got back from safari around 4pm. A little later we met up at Reef for them to relate all their adventures. What a thrill to see all those animals.
Fri 15th Nov.
After breakfast, and it was nearer midday, we took a Bolt to Fort Jesus. The entrance fee for non residents was 1,200, but I did my usual…”oh no, I left my ID card in Taveta”…blah, blah in Swahili…and with no questions asked, I got in at the citizen rate of 200 bob.
Result !!
We stopped for lunch on the Coffee Pot roundabout. Well, I couldn’t eat anything…I just don’t do midday meals. Plus, my English breakfast at Tulia is very filling. We thought we could have a beer at Forodhani overlooking the entrance to Mombasa harbour but it was Muslim owned and we had soft drinks.
I phoned Tulia Mombasa just nearby, but they didn’t sell alcohol either.
At this point R wanted to go somewhere different, so we got the Bolt to take us to Nyali Beach Resort hotel which wasn’t too far from Reef. A nice hotel, and quieter than Reef. The tuk tuk back to Reef initially cost 100bob, but as it was further than I thought I gave him an extra 100.
Sat 16th Nov. We had one more excursion to accomplish. Richard had some work to do. But after a mama siti breakfast, I went to Reef. We took a tuk tuk to Mtwapa, and the Moorings (floating bar ) was just there in the Creek. The road is under construction so it’s bumpy and dusty, but we enjoyed the 30 minutes ride.
After a wonderful 2 hours there, when R & M had a huge seafood platter ( I had some prawns, a little fish fillet and a scraping of lobster), we went to Maasai Beach for the final time to listen to the music.
We were all leaving the next morning; I had quite an early start as well. R & M even earlier…about 05:30.
Wow…this visit/experience had been amazing for them. And for me too…being a tour guide for the first time. It went really well; made easier by the fact I knew them, and we had lots in common to talk about..Forest Row, Eastbourne. All my expenses were covered…accommodation, and Richard bought all the drinks.
Of course they had to experience Rubis/Kenol as well. A fantastic visit.