A blog of my time in Kenya, volunteer teaching in the slums of Kibera, and exploring the country.
Thursday, 29 November 2012
Diani Beach/South Coast Backpackers
Friday night a group of 10 volunteers caught an overnight bus to Mombasa, to head to Diani for the weekend (with another 2 already being there, and 2 more on another bus). After 9 hours sat on a humid bus, with only one toilet stop at around 2am in what is quite possibly the dodgiest looking service stop I've ever seen, we arrived in a rainy Mombasa (oh and the windows leaked too!) just as the sun started to rise.
Luckily the rain cleared up pretty quickly, and as we got off the bus we were harassed by taxi drivers, and with us being white, they correctly assumed we were headed for Diani, which is far enough for them to earn a few thousand shillings. The most common taxis in Mombasa are tuk tuks, basically a motorised trike, enclosed with room for usually 3 passengers in the back. With 10 of us, this would get very expensive needing 4, so we opted for 2 standard taxis (squeezing 4 people in the back of each). The journey to Diani includes a ferry crossing across a river, (all I need to do now is ride in a tuk tuk and a train, to have pretty much every transport option covered in Kenya). It's only a 2 minute crossing, but with no bridge, the only option.
This is followed by a 40 minute drive through a couple of towns, all looking pretty standard for Kenya, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Diani, having heard good things about it. But as we reached Diani, with one main road running along the coast (though you can't actually see the coast from it so we didn't realise how close the beach was at this point), buildings became further spread, the area looked a lot more peaceful, and there were signs pointing to some nice looking resorts. Oh and of course, monkeys along the side of the road!
We were staying in a hostel, South Coast Backpackers, for only 850 shillings a night (and 3 for 2 as NVS/IVHQ volunteers). The taxi drivers were pretty confident they knew where it was when they picked us up. However, they took us to a resort, and immediately went to confirm with reception whether it was the right place. It was not. Their excuse was there are two backpacker resorts so they weren't sure which. There was no mention anywhere of 'backpackers' at this resort, but we got back in the taxis trusting they now knew for sure where they are going. Nope.
We drove down the road for a while until they decided to stop to ask people. This seemed to be of no help, so we got our driver to call the resort for directions. At this point the other driver disappeared off elsewhere. We arrived at the resort with the new directions, and waited 20 minutes whilst the other driver got lost instead of following us. When he eventually arrived, he then had the cheek to ask for extra money for the extra fuel used. Maybe next time he won't be so quick to say he knows where somewhere is just to get the business.
It was around 7-8am when we eventually arrived (hadn't slept much on the bus, so was a little tired to remember the time). Technically check in wasn't until 3pm, however we were welcome to drop our stuff off in the room, use the pool, and begin our tabs for drink and food. With 2 volunteers already there (1 of whom kind of works there temporarily, helping at the bar in exchange for cheap stay), we were shown around. For a cheap hostel, it was really nice. Large garden area, decent sized pool, fully enclosed with an electric fence on top of the wall (mostly to stop the monkeys getting in, disappointing for me I'm sure you can imagine), and security at night (Masai people with bow and arrows, again I was disappointed when they wouldn't let me have a go). Plus 2 guard dogs, a one eyed cat named Cyclops, and an unknown number of tortoises (there were 2 initially, but apparently they are at it like rabbits, with up to 20 babies having been spotted around). I had to educate some people on the difference between turtles and tortoises, though this resulted in everyone calling them turtles anyway, just to annoy me!
The guys that run the place are pretty awesome. Started by a Canadian named Scott and a French guy named Louis, they also have a couple of other friends working with them, as well as some Kenyans who cook, clean and help run the bar. They all make the effort to get to know all the guests, and are happy to advise on places to go, or even take us to the local bars. Unfortunately, most stuff is quite a way down the road, so there is a lot of travelling on matatus and motorcycles. After this weekend I am far more comfortable riding on the back of a bike than I was when I went to the ostrich farm, it has now become my favourite mode of transport. However I would still never touch one in Nairobi.
We jumped in the pool pretty much as soon as we had been shown round and dropped off our stuff. By 10am we had our first round of drinks and getting to know the other guests. We were having a relaxing weekend away so I think that's a reasonable time to begin drinking. Scott took us down to the beach to have a swim and play some football, and later in the day we headed to the local Nakumatt to get some cheaper drinks (the guys running the place are OK with this), and the whole day was pretty much spent around the pool drinking. In the evening a DJ arrived, and there was a buffet dinner, this was supposed to be a party for 2 of the workers returning, however they were delayed until Sunday, the party went ahead anyway though. Later in the night they took us down to come of the local bars, Forty Thieves. A bit expensive on drinks, but good atmosphere, music, and access to the beach, with a couple of pontoons you can swim out to.
Sunday we woke up feeling a little rough, understandably, so we didn't start the drinking quite so early. Instead some of us headed off to do some snorkeling. We went to the beach where some guys took us out in a wooden boat (slightly leaky, so there was some bailing of water to be done) to a coral reef. Although I've been snorkelling before in Egypt, something about this made me uncomfortable, perhaps partly due to the hangover. I was breathing heavily from the start and out of breath quickly, that I ended up getting back in the boat after about 10 minutes. As I sat watching the others, I began to feel sick. I figured a hangover and sitting in a boat rocking in the sea were just a bad combination. Fortunately the sickness feeling passed, however shortly after my hands began to tingle, followed by completely ceasing up. This is something that has happened before, which I guess is quite lucky, as having no idea what was happening would have been a lot more worrying, especially being stuck out at sea. These same symptoms occurred over a year ago, during a stressful period at work, it was diagnosed as an acute stress reaction, so I figured whatever it was about the snorkelling that had me uncomfortable had caused a similar reaction, though not as bad as the last time it had happened.
I was happy enough sitting there whilst the others snorkelled, and having explained to them the similar reaction before and that it would soon pass, they were happy knowing I wasn't going to die on them. By the time we were finished and back to shore, one hand had fully recovered and the other feeling was coming back to, and I've been fine since. Though unfortunately it seems that wasn't the only thing trying to ruin my weekend. I also managed to have a bottle of Jack Daniels stolen whilst I was at Forty Thieves one night, and chipped a tooth, on a burger of all things. Hopefully my hosts at the volunteer house can recommend a dentist, and that my travel insurance will cover it. Despite all this though, I still managed to thoroughly enjoy the trip. The 4 days were all pretty much spent the same, pool, drinking and playing card games until early hours of the morning. I'm looking forward to getting a good night sleep when back at the house, as I've only slept for a few hours the past 4 nights (on the overnight bus back to Nairobi as I type this so probably very little sleep tonight, and the night before Diani we were out in Nairobi, my body definitely needs a break from alcohol!).
This week back in Nairobi I need to confirm with NVS my extension and pay them the extra fees, as I would have been flying home tomorrow (Wednesday) night, these 4 weeks have gone so quick! And obviously I haven't been able to talk them due to being in Diani. I'll also hopefully confirm my next placement and what I'll be doing for Christmas. I'm hoping for a few volunteers to be at Madison House orphanage, though I think some plan to travel elsewhere for Christmas and New Year.
Anyway hopefully I'll have news on the new placement soon, and will get the chance to actually post all this, and hopefully it all makes sense, as I'm sitting on a bus at 1am with very little sleep.
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