MOMBASSA, KENYA
19 November 2006- Sunday
Awoke not feeling well, but not really sick either- maybe a touch of nausea and the occasional gurgle. But since I had signed up for a tour of Mombasa I decided to start the day with a couple of Pepto-Bismol tablets before a breakfast of French toast, bacon and tea. Tour left at 0815 and I admit that they really have the drill down perfectly. With the addition of the 198 people who had started our tour in Nairobi along with the people who started their crusie in Venice we have over 700 on the ship. And I hope the ship's luck improves, because several of the stops were canceled- especially the one to Petra in Jordan- seems the Israelis warned the ship off because it was too close to their border. When these passengers got to Mombasa they had been on the ship for 8 straight days. Had a very nice air conditioned bus with curtains for a hot muggy day in Mombasa. We visited a Hindu temple where they were having Sunday service- they arrange in rows youngest in front, oldest in rear- sit on the floor American Indian fashion and have a right angled red sock on their right hand which contains prayer beads. Great illustrations of what happens if you go to hell in painted bas-reliefs in lobby. Then to the steel elephant tusks on the main drag in honor of George VI death and coronation of Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth was still a young lady in 1952 when she was visiting British East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika) and was called back to England when her father died. All the mentioned countries were still colonies and did not gain independance until 1963.
We then went to the market- colorful and dirty. Then to the rich section of town on the water front. Baobob trees along the way- These are stubby looking trees with short branches sticking out of the top. Swahili legend has it that the tree got so boastful that God uprooted the tree and stuck it into the ground so that its roots became the top. Anyway, when the Portugese were here they planted Baobobs over their graves and that's why there are so many of them. Drove by the presidential compound (no pictures) when Jomo Kenyatta was alive he prefered Mombasa to Nairobi and a residence is still kept here. Then on to the wood carving cooperative.
There are 42 tribes and languages in Kenya. The biggest tribe is the Kikuyu who are described as the Jews of Kenya since they are aggressive business men and politically astute, the second is the Masai along the southern border, the third is the Mkamba and the 4th the Lao near the Uganda border. The Mkamba are the wood carvers and there are 5000 of them in this cooperative- the cooperative supplies them with the wood and the carvers get 80% of the selling price. We got to see examples of some of the trees, mahogony, rosewood, ebony and the neem tree. ( I don't know how to spell neem, but it is a useful tree I've heard called the "toothbrush tree" because the natives use it for gum massage and there are other herbal remedies such as brewed leaves which are better than viagra.) While I'm walking around through the hovels they use as their wood working shop I begin to feel lightheaded and notice I'm sweating a lot more than most. Finally made it to the showroom which was loaded with carvings but badly lit and no air circulating so i went out to sit in the airconditioned bus but driver was busy shooting the breeze with his buddies even though the bus engine was running. After 15 minutes of being nice guy, I went over to ask him to open the bus- to the relief of several of us. By the time the shoppers arrived I was cooled down enough to try the next site visit- Fort Jesus. The Portugese had built the fort but it was used by the Arab sultans for a long while. The chapel was gone but they recently discovered where the Christian cemetery was and found a skeleton which is on exhibit at the site.
The next stop is a walk through "stone town" the oldest part of the city, but I'm not tolerating the heat very well, pretty much drenched in sweat, so back to the bus. by the time we make it back to the pier I'm pretty exhausted so instead of bargaining with the local sellers who frequent the pier, I head straight for the ship. It's almost 1pm so instead of a nap I hit the buffet to wolf down a salad and some crab cakes and then slept until 3:30pm. We have an RC priest on board so went to 4pm mass- there were probably 20 of us total and even though there's a lot of Brits on board I expected a better turnout til I remembered many of the passengers were on the safari tour. Life boat drill at 5pm, again many pasengers missing. Had tomato bisque and bread for dinner because by now I feel like I've been run over by a truck. Went to the variety show at 7:30 where I chatted with Jane until the show started. Two of the three acts I had seen before- "Richocet" a husband and wife team who is an illusionist and had a couple of new acts; Paul Adams, a British comedian who had a lot of the same jokes; and The Marco Polo Company- 4 guys and 4 gals who do sort of Broadway production numbers. They were all new kids but from the other cruises these kids can be interchangeable. Was asleep by 9pm. We had left Mombasa for Zanzibar about 8:30pm- a delay of about 2 1/2 hours because there was a water shortage in Mombasa and we had to wait to top off our tanks. I fell asleep considering my differential diagnosis as an atypical MI, dengue fever, impending gastroenteritis or just knocked out by the bad bus ride- in that order.
Awoke not feeling well, but not really sick either- maybe a touch of nausea and the occasional gurgle. But since I had signed up for a tour of Mombasa I decided to start the day with a couple of Pepto-Bismol tablets before a breakfast of French toast, bacon and tea. Tour left at 0815 and I admit that they really have the drill down perfectly. With the addition of the 198 people who had started our tour in Nairobi along with the people who started their crusie in Venice we have over 700 on the ship. And I hope the ship's luck improves, because several of the stops were canceled- especially the one to Petra in Jordan- seems the Israelis warned the ship off because it was too close to their border. When these passengers got to Mombasa they had been on the ship for 8 straight days. Had a very nice air conditioned bus with curtains for a hot muggy day in Mombasa. We visited a Hindu temple where they were having Sunday service- they arrange in rows youngest in front, oldest in rear- sit on the floor American Indian fashion and have a right angled red sock on their right hand which contains prayer beads. Great illustrations of what happens if you go to hell in painted bas-reliefs in lobby. Then to the steel elephant tusks on the main drag in honor of George VI death and coronation of Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth was still a young lady in 1952 when she was visiting British East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika) and was called back to England when her father died. All the mentioned countries were still colonies and did not gain independance until 1963.
We then went to the market- colorful and dirty. Then to the rich section of town on the water front. Baobob trees along the way- These are stubby looking trees with short branches sticking out of the top. Swahili legend has it that the tree got so boastful that God uprooted the tree and stuck it into the ground so that its roots became the top. Anyway, when the Portugese were here they planted Baobobs over their graves and that's why there are so many of them. Drove by the presidential compound (no pictures) when Jomo Kenyatta was alive he prefered Mombasa to Nairobi and a residence is still kept here. Then on to the wood carving cooperative.
There are 42 tribes and languages in Kenya. The biggest tribe is the Kikuyu who are described as the Jews of Kenya since they are aggressive business men and politically astute, the second is the Masai along the southern border, the third is the Mkamba and the 4th the Lao near the Uganda border. The Mkamba are the wood carvers and there are 5000 of them in this cooperative- the cooperative supplies them with the wood and the carvers get 80% of the selling price. We got to see examples of some of the trees, mahogony, rosewood, ebony and the neem tree. ( I don't know how to spell neem, but it is a useful tree I've heard called the "toothbrush tree" because the natives use it for gum massage and there are other herbal remedies such as brewed leaves which are better than viagra.) While I'm walking around through the hovels they use as their wood working shop I begin to feel lightheaded and notice I'm sweating a lot more than most. Finally made it to the showroom which was loaded with carvings but badly lit and no air circulating so i went out to sit in the airconditioned bus but driver was busy shooting the breeze with his buddies even though the bus engine was running. After 15 minutes of being nice guy, I went over to ask him to open the bus- to the relief of several of us. By the time the shoppers arrived I was cooled down enough to try the next site visit- Fort Jesus. The Portugese had built the fort but it was used by the Arab sultans for a long while. The chapel was gone but they recently discovered where the Christian cemetery was and found a skeleton which is on exhibit at the site.
The next stop is a walk through "stone town" the oldest part of the city, but I'm not tolerating the heat very well, pretty much drenched in sweat, so back to the bus. by the time we make it back to the pier I'm pretty exhausted so instead of bargaining with the local sellers who frequent the pier, I head straight for the ship. It's almost 1pm so instead of a nap I hit the buffet to wolf down a salad and some crab cakes and then slept until 3:30pm. We have an RC priest on board so went to 4pm mass- there were probably 20 of us total and even though there's a lot of Brits on board I expected a better turnout til I remembered many of the passengers were on the safari tour. Life boat drill at 5pm, again many pasengers missing. Had tomato bisque and bread for dinner because by now I feel like I've been run over by a truck. Went to the variety show at 7:30 where I chatted with Jane until the show started. Two of the three acts I had seen before- "Richocet" a husband and wife team who is an illusionist and had a couple of new acts; Paul Adams, a British comedian who had a lot of the same jokes; and The Marco Polo Company- 4 guys and 4 gals who do sort of Broadway production numbers. They were all new kids but from the other cruises these kids can be interchangeable. Was asleep by 9pm. We had left Mombasa for Zanzibar about 8:30pm- a delay of about 2 1/2 hours because there was a water shortage in Mombasa and we had to wait to top off our tanks. I fell asleep considering my differential diagnosis as an atypical MI, dengue fever, impending gastroenteritis or just knocked out by the bad bus ride- in that order.
Labels: Nairobi to Rio 2006
posted by DT at 11:13 AM
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