Today was my first full day in Nairobi and it was my lazy day. I decided I was just going to take the day off and chill. I am staying in one of those travellers’ hotel this time around. It is in the middle of the bustling heart of Nairobi city. On my previous visits I have always stayed in a posh side of Nairobi close to where the presidential palace is. The advantage there is that it is quiet and after working all day one could always return to one’s hotel knowing there was peace and quiet bordering on boring. The hotels there are also of high standards and you paid good money for those standards and the peace.
Breakfast in Nairobi!
All covered up!
After doing that on previous visits, this time I wanted to be in the thick of things in Nairobi city. I really needed to experience the city without the back-up of going back to my peace and quiet every night. I wanted to feel the people, the smell and aroma of the city, the chaos of the matatus fighting for right of way with the pedestrians and the boda-bodas and the Tuk-tuk and the taxis. I wanted to travel in a matatu from A to B within Nairobi and spend 3 hours covering a distance of less than 5 kilometres! Before you think that I have some kind of masochistic predispositions, I should tell you that I have a back-up plan. If it turns out I am too sanitised and westernised and couldn’t take all of the things that are parts and parcels of normal life in Nairobi, I could always check back into a hotel in the posh side of town. But I am determined to be a Nairobian for the length of my stay here. After all I grew up in a city that is maybe 4 times as big and 20 times more “lively” than Nairobi! If you grew up in Lagos, surviving in Nairobi should be a walk in the park!
People in Nairobi
Funky Matatu
So my hotel in town is really in the middle of all the action. In my room I can hear the noise of the matatus. I can hear the music playing somewhere in the city even though my hotel room is on the 3rd floor and almost all the windows are closed. I can practically smell the glory of the city. One other thing, it might be in the city, it might not look it from the outside but my hotel can stand its own when compared to other hotels I’ve stayed in during my previous visits. The food and the restaurant are really nice, the staff members are very friendly and helpful (they picked me up at the airport too) What’s more, I am paying half of what I used to pay and enjoying services as good, if not better than I used to get at posh!
Matatu with WI-FI
Night view from the hotel
In spite of the vehicular chaos, Nairobi is still an upward mobile city. Even some of the funky matatus (the bigger buses) are now equipped with free Wi-Fi to aid your travelling experience while listening to music which can be a health hazard to your ears. So what did I do today? I went round for a walk to check out my new surroundings, changed some Euro into the local currency, caught some sleep, met an old friend, messed around with some of the hotel staff, sat and ate in the hotel restaurant with high decibel Africa Night-like music entertaining the eating guests whether we liked it or not! I love it!
Street shot Nairobi at Night
My lazy day will be over tomorrow. I am meeting with the Nairobi reporter/correspondent of Africa Web TV in the city. We are going to discuss Africa Web TV’s presence, and map out its growth plan in Kenya. We are also going to discuss and start working on 2 documentaries we plan to make in Kenya. There are a couple of people we are meeting that I am not at liberty to mention here for now. But in the late evening we are probably going to perform a rather long inspection of some of the discotheques here, check if their drinks will fall instantly in love with our mouth and discover if their dance floors can caress our feet for hours on end on a Friday night. As always we work very hard and party even harder! Wish us luck!
