Mombasa

The next weekend after the tear gas: Mombasa. My friends Dan, Kyle, Hannah, Paige and myself made the journey to Mombasa. We had Friday off of class so we left on a night bus Thursday night. I slept for about ten minutes out of the seven and a half hour cruise. We got in a little after 5 am when it was still pitch black. We waited out in the bus lounge for a half hour or so until we went to our hotel. After a much needed three hour sweaty nap, we headed out on the town. Mombasa is hot. Really hot. In St. Louis in the summer when its 95 degrees with 90 percent humidity, no one goes outside unless it’s the walk to their air conditioned car. Life does not stop in Mombasa. In fact, people continue to wear jeans and long sleeve t shirts. I will never understand. The first place we went was to an old military fort called Fort Jesus. I could explain its significance but after writing down the tear gas story, I’m all out of descriptive adjectives. I suggest Wikipedia. We took a tour with a local guide for about an hour. It was hot so our level of attention was very low. After the tour we continued with the guide to see old town. As the name suggests, this is the oldest part of Mombasa that is where the first Arabs settled. After the tour we went back to the hotel for showers and naps. We ended up going out to a club right down the street from our hotel. Unlike Nairobi, you can actually walk around at night with a fairly high level of security. That’s not because of police but because of witchcraft. Yes, witchcraft. Mombasa is heavily populated by Muslims and they believe strongly in witchcraft. People are so afraid to break steal or mug someone because they believe they will be cursed by a witch. For whatever their reasons, it was nice to walk at night. The club was a pretty good time. The only bad part was the large presence of prostitutes. As Dan and I walked to the bathroom, we were stopped multiple times by women asking if we needed anything. We felt pretty good about ourselves for all the attention until we realized they were prostitutes. We had some good laughs over it and then continued to drink our Tuskers responsibly and listen to the Kenyan remixed music. The next day was beach day. We went south of Mombasa to a place called Forty Thieves Bar, Grill & Beach on Diani Beach. It was the best day I’ve had in Kenya in a long time. The beach was a perfect white and there was not a cloud in the sky. Paige and I rode camels down the beach, Dan, Kyle and I had bro talk while playing Frisbee and we relaxed in the water. If there is one criticism I have of the beach in Mombasa, it is that the water is like bath water. The Indian Ocean on the Kenyan border gets the sun head on causing it to be very warm. When I first did my Baywatch run and dive into the water, I was expecting a great deal of relief from the hot sun. Nope. Not even refreshing. It was definitely colder than the outside air though. What a great day it was. That night we went back to the hotel, showered and then went to eat. After that, we retired to our rooms and went to sleep. Paige found a tree house hotel near Forty Thieves that we are going to stay at for a few days after the program. Beaches, tree houses and tropical weather? I’m excited.