Nairobbery

There appears to be no such thing as a decent mid-range hotel in Nairobi. Our last stay was at the Boulevard Hotel, and whilst this was adequate, it's very overpriced for what it is. This time we tried the Kenya Comfort Hotel, a city centre hotel, which is well recommended by the Lonely Planet. In reality it is pretty dingy, but after camping for so long, any bed is better than none. Also the staff, whilst not exactly efficient, were at least accommodating.














Rich and I's first full day in Nairobi was spent doing very little indeed. We did manage to brave the mean streets of Nairobi and make it round the corner to a branch of Java Coffee House, for a decent cup of coffee and a pleasant meal. In the evening we ventured out to a cinema in a mall in Westlands, one of the posher suburbs. I had persuaded Rich to see the new Harry Potter film, and at least he seemed to enjoy it more than the last one as this time he managed not to fall asleep.














The next morning we welcomed my old friend (long-standing that is rather than elderly), Kiri, to Nairobi and the splendour (cockroaches and all) of the Comfort Hotel. We spent most of the day taking taxis between different shopping malls, as Rich needed to stock up on a few last minute items for his Kilimanjaro assault. Kiri gamely fought off the jet lag (she had been awake for around 34 hours having flown in from Edinburgh) in order to join us for a very good dinner at Trattoria, Nairobi's 'best Italian restaurant'.

Rich left early the next morning by minibus for Arusha in Tanzania, leaving Kiri and I to our own devices. Unfortunately, most of the day was spent dealing with last minute hassles for our Masai Mara safari (apparently the Swift payment for the deposit had not arrived). We did, however, manage to hop in a taxi to the Giraffe Centre where we were able to both feed, and kiss, Rothschild's giraffes. Whilst the centre is targeted at children, this was still a real treat for me as I definitely have a soft spot for giraffes, and it is great to get so close.














As we were not sure of the quality of food we were to get over the next six days on our safari, we decided to spoil ourselves with dinner at 'Nairobi's best fish restaurant', Tamarind. This was a very smart affair with excellent food and service. Particularly impressive was when the power went off and the pianist didn't even miss a beat, and the waiters calmly and quickly lit torches and continued as if nothing had happened. Power cuts appear to be a regular occurrence in Nairobi. After desserts, which came complete with a personal message written on the plate, we went back to the hotel, slightly tipsy and pleased with ourselves that we had survived another day in the big bad city.