Hot 'n' Sticky!! (Mombasa)

Member Name: Critchyboy

Product:	Mombasa
Date:	25/01/02 (670 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Get away from it all., Great beach and snorkelling, Very Hot!

Disadvantages: VERY hot! 34 degrees!

And now for part two of my Kenyan experience – Mombassa! Mombassa is a port town – newly designated as a city (the President’s New Year present) – on the Indian Ocean coast. It is a bustling, vibrant place, sadly lacking in anything resembling the levels of cleanliness we are familiar with in our major cities. The Town centre is no safe place to be after dark for tourists, but is well worth a look round during the day. Just remember the golden rules – carry no valuables in obvious places, not even jewellery and keep money well hidden away. Take a taxi if you are not sure – it is better to be safe than to be sorry. But there is much to see in the centre of Mombassa – most notably Fort Jesus: a stop off for slaves in the 18th century. And now onto the op…

**TRAVELLING TO MOMBASSA**
There are a number of ways of getting to Mombassa – as we were staying in Nairobi beforehand we had a choice of three: the bus, the plane or the train.

The Bus – Incredibly cheap but not advisable. Costs about £6.00 one way but takes around 7 hours to get to the coast and there are no toilets on board. There is also no snack service nor is there any air conditioning. Only advisable for the masochists among you.

The Plane – My initial choice! At £120.00 return it’s not exactly cheap for an hour long flight, but it is reliable, comfortable and if its within your budget go for it. Flights from Jomo Kenyetta International Airport with Kenyan Airlines. Don’t forget to add on money for the taxi at both ends.

The Train – This is the way, in my opinion, to travel to Mombassa. The Lunatic Line, as it is fondly called, is part of the East African Railway – nicknamed as when it was being built no-one knew where it was going or how much it would cost to build! There are a number of classes to choose from but bear in mind the journey takes 12 hours travelling through the nigh
t! Third class costs roughly £10.00 and you get a seat – and that’s about it. Not advisable if you have lots of luggage as you are sat with the locals and security may be an issue. Then there’s Second class – this is how my group travelled – at around £42.00 return for an evening meal, breakfast and a cabin. The cabin is four berth so you may still have to travel with a stranger! However, there were three of us in my group and we paid for the extra bed to make sure we had our own cabin so we ended up paying £56.00 return for our journey. The cabin was comfortable and beds were made while at the evening meal. The meal was three course – soup, choice of meat or vegetarian and a dessert followed by the foulest coffee I have ever drank. (To say this is a major coffee producing country the coffee served is mostly awful – but then I guess the good stuff is exported.) Breakfast was served at 6.00am so can’t comment on that as I never made it! Arrival in Mombassa at 9.00am and it was already very hot and humid.

**TRAVEL AROUND MOMBASSA**
Again, as with Nairobi – take the taxi. Bargain for the price before you get in and go for it. However, they are more organised here!! All the drivers have a printed sheet with fares on so if you require picking up after your holiday bargain for the fare when you are dropped off. A friendly little man helped us at the station by carrying our three suitcases – tip the porters is always a good idea. We tipped about 50 Kenyan Shillings – roughly 50 pence – so it is not a big deal to tip people although it can be tiresome.
**STAYING IN MOMBASSA**
When we arrived in Mombassa we had nowhere to stay as our arranged accommodation had fallen through – so we got hold of a taxi driver told him the area we wanted to stay in and he drove us around a number of different places. There are many different places to stay from top hotels like the Serena Mombass
a Beach Hotel to some of the ones that have been described in other reviews. You will pay more for an air-conditioned place and if you don’t like the heat and humidity it may be a worthwhile investment. We were travelling through high-season at the beginning of January so everywhere was a little more expensive.

**SELF-CATERING**
As each of us had tummy-trouble - sadly this is a fact of life and you will spend at least one whole day on the loo – brought on by eating hotel food we decided to go self-catering to try and sort our tummies out. We headed for Diani Beach – south of the city – and at about 30 mins by taxi cost roughly £25.00.

We stayed in a gorgeous beach chalet at Diani Beachalets for a reasonable rate. Three of us sharing a two bed-roomed house at a cost of £21.00 per person per night. There was no air conditioning so as at was so hot we spent most of our time sat beneath the ceiling fans trying to cool down! Bathrooms were basic, but at least there were our own(!) and the kitchen was well equipped – buy matches for the gas cooker! The best bit was that the beach was about 200 metres away…and boy was it nice. White coral sands and warm, tropical seas – mmmmm, paradise!

**THE BEACH**
As I have described the beach was amazing but be warned you will be pestered by beach boys – not the band – but local lads asking you if they can take you snorkelling on the reef. It does get tiresome when you just want to sit and catch the sun (not advised at midday as it is really hot) but they are nice enough lads. I had loads of conversations with them as I couldn’t bring myself to ignore them, but they were never frightening nor overpowering – just trying to get some money to live. It cost about £3.00 per person to be taken in a canoe dug out of a tree out to the reef for a bout 2 hours snorkelling. Although I didn’t go – that was one of my days sat on the lo
o – my friends did and they had a fantastic time and highly recommended it. The difference between where I had come from and the village these guys lived in was astonishing and more often than not they are trying to keep parents and younger siblings with the money them make from the snorkelling trips. But it’s up to you…

**OTHER THINGS TO DO**
The guide books will be able to tell you more than I could. We had planned to do so much, but as it was so hot and we were so tired having been in Kenya for five weeks sitting by the beach seemed a good enough option! Should you want to venture out there is much to do… Travelling round the Diani Beach area is very easy – taxis are again available but expensive for short journeys so i would advise you to take the Matatu – a little Nissan minibus that carries far more than is safe but is easy and cheap. 20 pence will get you most of the way along Diani Beach to the shopping centre for your groceries or pressies and the locals will gladly hang out of the door to give you their seat!

**SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS**
There are a number of companies that offer the chance to swim with wild dolphins, but it seemed that the only reputable one was ‘Dolphin Dhow’. There are a lot of cowboys but our day with ‘Dolphin Dhow’ was an experience not to be forgotten. It cost around £50.00 for the day but was well worth the price. We were picked up from our chalet at 7.00am in a big air conditioned bus to pick up other punters before an hour long drive to Shimoni to pick up our sea transport. This was a traditional Arabian Dhow with a motor! In no time at all we were speeding across the sea to, hopefully, an encounter with dolphins. A small boat had gone ahead to spot the dolphins and radio back to our boat and within 30 minutes we saw them. Then it was mayhem! Those who wanted to swim with the dolphins were given masks and snorkels and put in the small boat before c
hasing across the sea to the dolphins and spending the next 40 or so minutes jumping in and out of the boat when the dolphins were around. We got so close to them it really was a truly amazing experience and most highly recommended. There were other dhows spotting the dolphins but we were the only ones who swam with them!

Following this we sailed to a marine reserve in the Dhow, before jumping once more into the small boat to snorkel on the reef with a guide pointing out fish we would have completely missed seeing had we been on our own. Then it was a three course meal on board the Dhow before an island walk and a traditional sail back to home base. An amazing days experience – and one I will never, ever forget. If you ever go – do it. They’re on the web so check them out!

**EATING OUT!**
Sorry, can't say much about this as I went self catering! There was one place in town - the name of which escapes me - easily reconisable though as it had an adjoining cyber-cafe. A huge range of foods from traditional African fare through to burgers and pizzas at resonable prices. Don't forget to ask for your Soda from the fridge though!

**OVERALL THOUGHTS**
I really enjoyed my time in Mombassa, relaxing by the beach and catching the sun. Beware of the town centre and of being out at night – not advisable at all. Check out prices as you may get some good deals. We spoke to a travel agent in Nairobi who told us that the Serena hotel usually has good offers on. They had an offer of two nights half board, return flights form Nairobi and all transfers for just under £200.00. Great offer, but just out of our budget. But do shop around – you may get a great deal. However, if you truly want to get away from it all go self-catering in a beach chalet – there are so many around – and put your feet up. Highly recommended...!

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