A pretty good few days down here in Nairobi. We moved from the King's Palace to the Pinnacle Court which while lacking the fireplaces and balconies is much closer to the restaurants, shops and illegal DVD vendors of Westlands. Our senior manager arrived on Thursday and to be honest I've been pretty impressed, he's smoked hookah with us till 1am, hung out and played pool (slight aside - I've continued to be the streakiest foreign pool player ever, missing incredibly easy shots then going on a three ball banking tear to win a match), ventured into Kenyan markets, ridden around in matatus and they don't even know! Anyways, on Friday went to this great place for Indian food called Diamond Plaza where there are like twenty different stalls, you sit down at a table and are swarmed by tons of people with menus, order a bunch of dishes from a bunch of different places and have one of the better family style meals out there. Also interesting, avocado shakes which are much, much better than the weird tapioca/pasta milkshakes (I wish I was lying).
On Saturday we matatued into town and had a good wander around. Ended up next to a really big mosque and figured what the hell, why not ask if we could go inside. They found a security guard who took us on a tour, told us a bit of the history and took us to meet an Imam and a Sheik. It was my first time inside a mosque, but once again, the people were really friendly and welcoming, invited us back for Ramadan (take that Israel Birthright) and generally seemed really pleased we were there. Went to the Stanley hotel and had a drink in the Thorn Tree cafe (of Lonely Planet fame), a Nairobi landmark where travelers used to leave notes to eachother pinned to the tree. Tried to check out the soccer match featuring Gore United (ok ok, Gor United) vs Mathari (the top team) which should have been quite good and packed but got mixed up and the five of us ended up being about 10% of the crowd for a match between two shitty teams. Oh well, at least we saw all terrifyingly huge (2~3 foot tall) birds that are a cross between vultures and pteradactyls.
Continuing the animal theme, on Sunday we started at the elephant orphanage which is pretty awesome. They get all these baby elephants whose parents have died, been poached or who have fallen into water holes (that seemed particularly common), raise them for a few years and then slowly (over five to ten years) reintroduce them to the wild. They are really social animals which is why it takes so long to reintroduce them to wild packs and apparently live for seventy years and can remember people they meet once for ten years (on a good day I can remember for about ten minutes). The elephants are pretty cute (though honestly really fucking strange looking creatures) and run around playing soccer and smelling all the tourists.
Followed that up with the giraffe center which was also pretty cool, they run a breeding program for the endangered Rothschild giraffes and then introduce them into the wild. You get to actually feed the giraffes which is cool if a bit slimy. You can also get a giraffe kiss which is a little cool, a little weird and (also) a bit slimy. Both places were good though a bit zooey and a good warmup to a proper safari.
Capped off the day with the best Ethiopian food I've ever had (coincidentally the only Ethiopian I've ever had, but it was really good). We got a big plate of injallah (sort of like a savory crepe) covered with mixed veggies, fish curry, a chick-pea dish and some grilled meat. You eat with your hands and end the meal with incense and super strong coffee. Phenomenal.
Today we were back to work (rough life) and went with two of the Kenyans to this nearby open air market area which was awesome and really felt African. Good mix of fruit, veggies and chaos. Had a lunch of ugali and nyama choma (ugali is like firm grits made with corn, nayam choma is grilled goat) at this very little, very local restaurant (6 bucks for 5 people, pretty good). Then picked up this nifty DVD that has like 40 movies on it, most still in theatres (Dark Night, Wall-E, etc). Phenomenal.
So hopefully fun with Masai Mara and wildebeest migration this weekend. Denverites - enjoy the convention (not surprisingly, Obama is hugely popular here). Cheers!
Buy the photo book!
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