mombasa tour

we went out last night to the full moon again for josh's birthday (: i haven't got any photos from it because my camera ran out of battery but pretty much we all started with 'pre lash' drinks, as these english kids say, and some very loud drinking games.. the taxi to the club was a rave which involved a few girls trying to sit on the roof through the sunroof whilst singing really loudly to whatever songs popped into our heads.. there was an amusing moment where i completely staunched jane shouting eminem verses with my hair going spastic in the wind and all in all i think the taxi driver was fairly amused..

the night once again was a blur of dancing and drinks and a lot of happy people (: halfway through this shisha just magically appeared on our table and i think we ended up sharing 3 of them in a big shisha smoke-passing train which i was so happy about.. gladys, one of the camp leaders, came out with us which was much enjoyed by all and the boys enjoyed themselves riding this giant model bull in the courtyard. josh is i think the happiest drunk i've ever seen in my life and had this huge smile permanently glued on his face, even with his head halfway down a toilet bowl towards the end of it all.. and speaking of which, joe and i once again ended up caretakers to jane this time but once we arrived back at camp she was feeling a little better and we unfolded the club banner that the boys had nicked, broke into the kitchen to look for milk to have some cereal and alex pulled out a guitar which resulted in a mass karaoke session that lasted til around 3:30am.. i'm genuinely surprised that we've gone out twice since our arrival at camp already, i was really not expecting it!!!

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today was the mombasa tour.. we left camp at 8 and spent the first 2.5hrs in the bus just running errands for those who needed to change traveler's cheques, buy things from the supermarket, pull out cash at the atm, etc etc which was kind of annoying. the drive out to mombasa was long and as we got closer to the ferry across it became evident we'd be stuck there for a while.. there was traffic backed up for at least 3km and we literally crawled along this street for an hour or so, having to eventually ignore the pushy salespeople at our windows waving necklaces and sunglasses in our faces who just stood there and refuse to move on. i swear they target white-skinned persons to the extreme.. it's crazy how much of a minority we are here.

the dirt street was lined with stalls on either side - shopkeepers in makeshift shacks built from wood and corrugated iron with t-shirts, jeans, clothes, jewellery, sarongs and other bits and pieces on display.. i amused myself by pulling faces at the toddlers trying to occupy themselves in front of their parents' various items for sale. this trip has just re-confirmed how absolutely gorgeous i find african babies.. my god. there were random goats and cows popping up around the bends, big pools of muddy water drying in the sun filled with bits of plastic, rubbish everywhere.. this woman was carrying a huge, thick rolled up carpet and a stool on her head!! i have absolutely no idea how they do it..

when we finally arrived in mombasa after a packed ferry crossing in the burning midday sun we arrived at fort jesus to meet up with our guide. we were told we'd be getting a guided tour around the city and later given some spare time to explore on our own.. we were firstly taken to a restaurant as a toilet stop (as opposed to the fort as we'd expected) and had to pay for our usage of their facilities which was slightly irritating.. then we descended some steps to a stone platform near the water that our guide told us was the main trading area for trading ships arriving in mombasa back in the day. there was a fresh-water stone bath where the slaves would get washed and spaces to tie up the ships and unload their cargo. thinking we were indeed embarking on an informative tour, we all gladly moved on to the old town of mombasa.

the old town is nowadays where most of the somali refugees live and also mostly home to some of the more impoverished people of mombasa. it was a mirriad of little alleyways and side-streets, tangles of phone wires overhead, children playing barefoot in the dirt and stray cats scavenging for scraps in rubbish heaps. the walls were aged and cracking, clotheslines everywhere, bars on windows, random carts and small taxis going past almost running us over in the narrow street space.. i think most of the inhabitants we saw were muslims, the girls wearing headscarves sometimes completely tattered yet carefully folded into place, the scruffy children wide-eyed and sometimes shy around us foreigners. we walked onwards behind our guide waiting for our next stop until we were taken into a store he wanted us to look around.

basically from there onwards, we were taken to three different souvenir shops to buy trinkets that i assumed were owned by mates of our guide. i did buy a few mementos but was eager to continue the tour as that was what we'd trekked out to the city for.. but no, after spending a good hour and a half in the stores we were ushered back to our tour bus and asked to pay our guide for his trouble (which wasn't a small price). i think most of us felt quite ripped off by this as we at no point went out to visit the main areas of mombasa city, nor most of the historic areas, and the issue was brought up back at camp.. hopefully the camp director will ensure this doesn't happen again for next month's mombasa tour (:

from there we were taken to eat lunch at a relatively pricey restaurant, which we weren't told about, which resulted in us missing out on the giraffe feeding at Haller Park which we were all really keen on.. most of the group went into the zoo anyway for the last 40mins of opening time but i was part of a small percentage who didn't think the entry price would be worth seeing a few animals that we'd previously all seen at various zoos.. whilst waiting for them outside, we were annihilated by monkeys!! the trees were literally crawling with them and there were so many babies.. i must say i had a fit of hysterics when i saw the males as they have nearly fluorescent blue testicles and bright red penises.. it just looked so comical.. i also stupidly climbed a tree out of boredom and all of a sudden spotted a big, angry male sprinting towards me along a branch.. by the time i knew what was happening he was right in front of me hissing and i immediately just let go of the branch and stacked it to the ground in order to avoid getting mauled and possibly rabies-d to death. i only later realised the bracelet i'd just bought (and loved!!) fell off my wrist during my escape >.<

so yeh, that was pretty much what encompassed our 'city tour'.. i spent so much more money that i expected and we got caught up yet again in the evening traffic back across the ferry before returning to camp. i've gotta say i think the day was still worth it just for the half hour or so we spent walking through the old city. i was really glad to see that.. i am looking forward to next month though and hopefully ending that day with an actual experience of mombasa city (: