11 August -- Mombassa (by David)

Before we left, we agreed to adopt a strategy employed by some friends of Caroline and Linda who had traveled to Africa a year or two before. That strategy involved an agreement to limit oneself to one “whine” per day (or per week, I forget which). This approach, which we all felt pretty positive about, is designed to keep fellow travelers from having to listen to unnecessary belly-aching and to keep the trip pleasant for everyone. Before we left, we discussed alternatives, such as caging a whine within a non-whine should one become really desperate for a whine. For example: “I feel the dust and bumps on the road to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forrest were much less significant than the dust and bumps on our trip today.” Or, “Interesting meal, what? I don’t recall a more ‘unusual’ preparation of chicken, do you?!”

So with that said, this is my unadulterated whine from the day before. (This may be a departure from Roger’s blog about the train….I don’t know. We rarely have time to read each other’s entries before posting them.) I did not fancy the overnight first class train ride from Nairobi to Mombassa. In fact, I am tempted to write Lonely Planet to tell them they might want to temper their recommendation of this particular mode of transport. In short, I just did not feel clean the entire time. The seats were ripped open, there was little to no water for washing your hands, forget about paper towels to dry your hands, the toilets either had no seats, no locks or no lights. I finally found one about 5 cars up that met all three of these minimum requirements. (But of course, no way to properly wash or dry your hands!) Service in the dining car was absolutely surly. And the food took forever to come out. We were lucky to sit with a very interesting couple. (Roger probably covers this so I won’t go into detail.) I’ll cap off my whine by mentioning that our car had no electricity so we were given a battery powered light….which promptly when out after about 40 minutes. So we were completely in the dark from about 8:00 PM until we went to bed. How fun was it to brush my teeth in the dark since I could not find the sink and could not properly rinse. So there is my whine. I feel better already. Thanks for your indulgence, dear reader.

When we arrived, having slept very little and having been rushed out of the dining car to make way for other travelers, I for one was thrilled to be off of the train. We took a taxi via a nice guy named “Martin” to the Voyager Resort in Mombassa. The Voyager is a massive, labyrinthine place, consisting of three pools on different levels, a water slide, a hot tub, a game area (video games, pool, ping pong, etc, etc), gift shops and, to the delight of our shaggy heads, a hair salon).

Soon after checking in, we got semi-successful haircuts and slept a few hours to help recover from our train ride. We stuck our toes in the Indian Ocean and visited the Maasai “market” set up on the grounds of the resort. Later, this same evening, the Maasai vendors also provided a lively traditional dance, which we both enjoyed a lot. There were several Maasai women that also sang their high pitched and very melodic song against the deep-throated chanting and signing of the Maasia men. Roger and I both agreed, the effect was pretty amazing. There was also another dance group that performed traditional dance as well….they were actually pretty good and provided singing as well. Very high energy.

Tons of Brits and French people at this resort….very much a family place. We enjoyed it but were glad to move on after a couple of days. Good food, as usual. The theme of the Voyager is kind of a nautical “cruise ship” sort of thing, so all of the workers wear sailor suits, etc. Lots of big groups of people….very removed from the local community and fairly touristy.

Tea at 3:00 PM sharp every day…..enjoyed watching the Brits knock each other over to get to their tea and cakes.