So after the drive into town on Friday afternoon, I decided to try the restaurant in the hotel. It's called Sokoni, which means marketplace in kiswahili (as some of you would know) and the smells coming from it were mouth-watering. They have an open kitchen, which works really well. Pictures and artefacts on walls and shelves, as well as 2 huge large-screen TVs and a normal size TV.
There are tables out on the balcony. This in itself is not unusual. But there is no doorway to the balcony, just a window opening, so to get to the tables you literally climb out the window! No wonder the waitresses are not wearing skirts. Last night it was quite comical to see a couple come in (they were white, I think Eastern European) and to watch their faces as it dawned on them how to get to their table ....
So, to the menu as by this time I was quite peckish, and the aromas were wonderful from the open kitchen. They called entrees "Bitings". Comical at first reading, but you can understand why. They had the usual chips, chicken wings etc but I decided to give the "fried chicken gizzards or goat liver", at 200/= for a small serving (about $2-50) and 300/= for a large serving ($3-75). The smells weren't tempting enough for me to try the Grilled mbuzi (goat ribs), delicately marinated either. I was in a boring mood I guess. The Chef's Salad was an interesting mix of lettuce, onion, tomato, spaghetti and croutons. I ended up with a delicious spiced lamb stir fry, vegetables and chipati which was filling and delicious, and cost all of $4-35!
The wines for sale, bottles only, ranged from 800 - 1200/= and I thought that they're good on the marketing because the 1200/= bottles "include bottle with bead work - treasure as a momento of Kenya" (the same bottles are 720/= in the Nakumatt Supermarket). No, I haven't tried the wine or bought a bottle.
So, yesterday morning after breakfast I headed off down to the Thorn Tree Cafe. Anne, remember when we were here last together? The New Stanley Hotel is now the Sarova Stanley, "THE" hotel in town by the look of it. Plush to the n-th degree. The Thorn Tree Cafe is still there, and I remembered the huge thorn tree where travellers used to pin notices up for fellow travellers, or asking for travelling companions or advice. I was more than surprised to see a skinny, tall sapling there and the waitress said that since our visit, they're on to their third tree. The good news is that they will ALWAYS have a tree there, but now the notices are on boards all around the tree. I had to have a coffee there - in Kenya, you can't go past a good coffee and a pot of coffee, with refills if required, in this hotel was 300/= ($3-75).
Then I went to the open air markets - as well as the city markets, they have a weekend market in the large carpark area of the Law Courts behind City Square. I spent a few hours here as it was great to have the time, and just to be able to wander around, look at everything and talk to some of the people. Leanne, some of the hand made items for sale reminded me of you when we were in Unity Square in Harare last. And of course that led to thoughts of the customs guy at Sydey airport and "show and tell".
Yesterday I went to the supermarket to check it all out. So a litre of milk is 78/= (almost a dollar), a loaf of sliced white bread the size we have in Australia is 52/=, a 17kg bucket of Vegetable Cooking fat is 2600/=. I'm not sure which surprised me the most, the price of about $32-50 or the size of the bucket!
I learnt today that an average office worker (not a Manager) would earn about 30,000/= per month, and most young people and married couples can afford to rent an apartment on their own. Rich people buy houses.
Today, being Sunday, the streets were largely deserted and in the morning, all of the shops were closed. The exception to this is the Nakumatt Supermarket, which never closes. Seriously. I went down to the main Catholic church in town. It's a large church, fantastic stained glass "wall" behind the pulpit area. The church is so large inside that they have TV screens on either side so the people at the back of the congregation can see what's going on. One service finished, and the next service was starting and I'm sure the church would be full again. I don't know how many services they have on a Sunday morning, nor if one is in kiswahili and one in English.
Then I went out to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and elephant orphanage. Fantastic. I never get bored watching elephants - they were wonderful. Then to the Giraffe Centre, to see the Rothschild Giraffes. This is in Karen, an area of Nairobi most of you would know from the Karen Blixen books and it looks towards the Ngong Hills. Some of the houses in the area were unbelievable - it would be great to see inside them and their grounds.
In keeping with seeing the outskirts of Nairobi, I got a taxi driver this afternoon to drive around some really different parts of Nairobi. We went through the area where all the Embassies are and he showed me a boys school in Levington. St. Marys School has 800 boys, and in the last few years they have girls in the top two years as well. I'm sure the boys would love that! The school is huge, the grounds amazing and the 2 swimming pools looked good enough to try out. Then we drove to the other side of town, to Woodly Estate. At first this sounded like it could be a really rich area, but entering the area it was like the most extreme contrast you could imagine from the school. Rough dirt roads, real shanty town with people everywhere, "basic" shops and tin shacks which were both shop and housing. If you haven't been to Africa, I don't think you could imagine it. The front part of Woodly Estate was much better - the taxi driver seemed to think that the shanty part of this has sprung up in the last few years but I wasn't sure - as the front part was on a good main road, with service station and a shopping centre which looked really good. Such a contrast to a block or two back. Houses and apartments were around the shopping area. Then we drove back into town and it only took a few kms to be back into a really rich area - the areas change so quickly.
I am still amazed at the way the city is so clean. A couple of years ago the people running the city decided to really clean it up. Smoking out on the streets is banned, and there is a fine of 50,000/= if you are caught smoking. There are a couple of the Public Smoking Centres I mentioned and also some designated areas where you can smoke without being fined.
So that's my weekend. Tomorrow is Monday, so I'm off to school ... The bus is scheduled to leave here at 8am, and depending on how the border crossing goes, we should be in Arusha by 3pm and Emma from the school will be meeting me there. Stay tooned!!!
So, from yesterday at the open air markets, some of the bangles made by Jenny - fascinating to watch her make them
Some of the masai women stallholders, making items and then selling - or hoping to anyway
Playtime this morning
And that's it. If anyone is interested in more really 'cute' elephant photos, let me know! They're still my favourite.
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