Friday 27 April 1984 – Mombasa
I packed my
suit etc and very efficiently laid out my clothes for the morning and went to
sleep like an angel until about 02.30 when I woke up feeling awful.
I had taken
my two malaria pills (the disease is said to be rife on the Coast, although I
haven’t seen or heard a mozzie up here) just before retiring – the chemist was
insistent that I should only take them after a heavy meal. I’m pretty sure that
was the problem because when I read the pamphlet it said that one of the side
effects might be a feeling of nausea. I even tried to vomit but couldn’t, so
putting it down to the pills
I tried to
get back to sleep. I dozed on and off until finally I got up at 04.00, shaved,
dressed and read my book until 05.30 when I checked out, having been told that
I should be at the airport one hour before the 07.00 takeoff. There was no one
at the airport at that ungodly hour apart from a bunch of disgruntled Arabs
from Saudi whose flight to Mombasa had been
diverted to Nairobi
where they had been offloaded at 02.00.
Staff
members and more passengers started trickling in about 06.10 and, surprisingly,
we took off on time at 07.00. it was quite a circus getting the Saudis aboard
as they had about twenty pieces of hold luggage plus umpteen bits of hand
luggage and were 105 kilograms overweight. Asians are not the most popular
people in Kenya
and the ground crew gave them a bit of a hard time before relenting.
It was a
very good flight down to Mombasa
with some lovely views of Kilimanjaro which of course was in full view. The
countryside is very flat however and looked pretty dry as we headed towards the
coast. There was thick cloud over Mombasa
and it was raining pretty solidly when we touched down. The hot humid air really
hit me as I got off the plane. Mombasa
is surrounded by mangrove swamps and the tide was out. So the fresh air was not
quite as fresh as I had hoped it would be after sitting surrounded by Saudis
who smelt rather strongly – dirty bums was the predominant odour – and who were
smoking rank tobacco. I was in two minds to remind them about Allah’s views on
the subject but thought better of it.
The
breakfast on the plane was nice – fruit salad, rolls and croissants although I
stuck to the fruit and the coffee, which was surprisingly good. (I’m not sure why I was surprised. Did I not
know that Kenya
was a major coffee producer?) the luggage came off quite quickly and I
shared a taxi with another passenger – a Belgian named Freddie Finch – since we
were both going to the Nyali Beach Hotel.
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| Nyali Beach Hotel |
We went
through the most squalid area of town with badly thatched mud huts apparently
sinking into the mud which surrounded them, wrecks of cars and everywhere an
air of desolation. The hotel foyer was pleasant however and our welcome was
warm. Since I was on a “special” at $25 per day for dinner, bed and breakfast I
was in one of the rooms furthest but four from the foyer – 250 metres to be
exact and up three flights of stairs. The room looked a bit sparse at first
glance, having no carpeting, but of course it is a beach hotel and the local
sand is very fine. The reason for the long walk to the room is fairly sound
too. The hotel has obviously grown over a period of time and as expansion
northward is not possible it has spread slowly south – and thus ensured that
every room is sea facing. The view from my room is rather exotic with an old
wreck on the reef being framed by waving palms.
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| Nyali Beach |
It continued
to rain the whole day. Mainly a fine drizzle but occasionally a heavy squall
would sweep in from the sea. It seems that this may have kept the temperature
down a bit because it was only about 28C today. I went down to the beach however to have a snouse
around and a swim. That was also a little disappointing because it was dead low
tide – which meant there was a bit of a smell about. Maybe that was from the
weed which covered much of the beach and the bottom of the sea. Not that any of
this really bothered me, but I could see
any chance of persuading Rab and Matt to accompany me on a return visit fading
rapidly into the distance.
There were
all manner of water sports available so I had my first lesson in Windsurfing. A
very pleasant little lad – Selima – was my tutor and he did the job pretty well
I thought. I spent all my time in learning how to balance on the board.
Actually that is not correct. I actually spent most of my time in the water
having failed to balance on the board. My lesson was cut a little short by a
squall but Selima continued the basics of sail handling on land before grabbing
the board and hurtling off at high speed, making the most of the wind.
I was torn
between another lesson in the afternoon and a visit to town. I finally decided
on the latter so I could give a full and accurate sitrep on my return home. I
bumped into Freddie in the foyer. As he had finished his business a little
earlier than he had expected, he was also heading into town. He offered to
share the taxi fare. I would really rather have gone on my own, but it was
awkward to decline his offer, so off we went in a dilapidated Peugeot 404 taxi
which I thought would cease to function any moment. It didn’t however and the
driver carted us around pretty well, all things considered.
Prices in
the shops here are higher than Nairobi
so I didn’t buy anything except a Muslim fez which you can’t get up there.
Freddy and I had agreed to meet the taxi back at the Castle Hotel so I made my
way there. I bought Rab a rather unusual T-shirt with a sequinned leopard on it
in one of the shops at the hotel which surprisingly enough were more
reasonable. It is not much of a town I must say. It reminds me of the poorer
Indian quarters of Durban.
Very tatty and dirty and rather smelly.
There were
plenty of pretty flash local girls hanging around with the tourists at the hotel
and some pretty awful looking blokes who were presumably pushing drugs. I had a
couple of offers in town and at the beach for marijuana or cocaine. We had a
drink at the hotel while we waited for the taxi. Unfortunately mine came with ice
which I whipped out rapidly as our hotel brochure had said that the local water
is suspect. I couldn’t have been quick enough though because b y the time we
got back to our hotel I had the gripes and the trots. By this time Freddy,
pleasant as he was, was getting on my nerves a bit, so I used this as an excuse
to return to my room.
I did feel a
bit grim actually and just lay and read, replacing my lost liquids with tonic
and bitter lemon from the mini bar being reluctant at that stage to even try
the drinking water supplied. By 20.00 I was feeling a little better and rather
peckish not having eaten since the previous night so I ordered a very pleasant
meal from room service – prawn cocktail, grilled kingfish and fresh fruit. And
so to sleep at about 21.30.
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