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| Erin's Journal for Nairobi (10-31-02 to 11-03-02) We spent most of Halloween laying around our hotel room in Nairobi. We were exhausted and wanted to relax rather than moving around. The only chore we'd assigned ourselves for that Thursday was to find a laundromat to clean our filthy safari clothes. We went looking for one that was listed as nearby in our guidebook, but after wandering quite a ways on foot, figured that the place had shut down since the book's last revision. From there, we stopped in every laundry & dry cleaner we passed, but they all had outrageous per-piece prices that we couldn't afford (almost $2 US each!). We spent more than 4 hours going from one place to the next, being referred further and further away by each one, and finally gave up. Nobody was very helpful and we were really tired, so we gave up and took our stuff back to the room and washed a few essentials in the sink. We stopped off only briefly to check emails and send a few 'we're ok' emails to family & friends, then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in our room. Friday we'd decided to 'preview shop' for souvenirs. A guy we'd met in the Masai safari who was now living in Nairobi referred us to a curio shop in the Hilton complex which had reasonable, mostly fixed prices - everywhere else is bartering, and we wanted to know some base prices to work from. As we left the hotel, we noticed some dark clouds, but didn't go back for our raincoats. Wrong move! It started absolutely pouring as soon as we got about 4 blocks away, and we ran into a bookstore for shelter. While there, we picked up a couple of new books for me, as I had just finished up the last book we'd brought from home (we brought 9!). We continued on through the rain, checking out a few theaters as well along the way. I'm in movie withdrawals by now, so this would be my special treat. We settled for 'Enough' with J-Lo, and found lunch and internet while we waited for the 2:30 start time. The movie was pretty bad, but it was a nice escape. The city is very aggressive and poor, and I was starting to feel extremely homesick. We went back and did more emails after the movie, but had to leave for our hotel at 5:30 to make sure we'd be inside before dark. Saturday was our shopping day, so we got up earlier than usual and had a fortifying breakfast before heading down to the city market. This place is the most hectic market I've ever been in, with the vendors literally grabbing onto you to get you into their shops. We started at one end and worked our way all the way around and upstairs. This took over 4 hours, and we managed to find a few really great pieces for ourselves and gifts for people at home. But by 2:30pm, we were both worn out by the bartering and went to get lunch (as well as more cash to go back and get the pieces we'd selected). We bravely headed back in to get our last couple of things, and managed to make it out by 3:30, promising we'd go back and rest. Wrong again, as we were picked up in the street by a guy we'd spoken to the day before. He had a shop too, and we gamely agreed to give it a look before quitting for the day. Well, it was a very crowded place, but had some good stuff, so in the next hour we picked out a few more pieces and spent another half hour bartering for them. By the time we left, we were ready to drop. We went back to the hotel and rested, and hardly had the energy to get up for dinner! Sunday was our last day in Nairobi, for which we were very grateful. We'd planned to try to get some photos resized and put on the website, but the connection and computer speed was very poor in the local spot and we gave up after a few more emails. We did some grocery shopping for snacks and spent the rest of the day in our room, writing journals and resting for our flight to Cape Town in the morning. |
| Once we returned to Nairobi, sunrises like this one in Masai Mara were something I missed |