Kenya Part 1: Travel

My December and early January has been busy traveling around East Africa. My friend Hailey, who I met on medevac, flew in from Niger and we traveled around Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. I had a great time and got to see some pretty amazing places. Hailey was a fantastic travel partner.

We took a 20 hour bus ride from Kampala to Mombasa on the coast of Kenya. We paid extra for a large seat but discovered it wasn’t worth the money. It was too big! On the way back we decided to go with the regular seats.

The Kenyan visa can be obtained at the boarder which is how we did it. We were not impressed with their professionalism. They didn’t even write our full names on the visa!

We only had a day and a night in Mombasa and were not impressed with the city. I had heard such great things about the city but we found it hot, dirty and not too interesting. Later, we found out it was because we never made it to the developed part of the city and the beach.

Kenya was the country for robbery against us. I think we lost count of how many times we were robbed but it was usually just minor things like water bottles and food. However, in Mombasa $50 was stolen from me out of our hotel room. Hailey and I shrugged our shoulders and made sure we locked our bags to the beds from that night forth.

Mombasa did have great Swahili food. I found a fish dish I absolutely loved. It was rich in spices and had so many good flavors. After all the bland food I eat in Uganda it was a welcome change. There was also creamy and flavorful ice-cream! This was a real treat in the stifling heat.

I’m glad we stopped in Mombasa. We needed a break from our long bus ride to our next and it was fun to see the biggest port city on the East Coast of Africa. Also, it provided my first view of the Indian Ocean, a truly beautiful and warm ocean.