The noise last night was indescribable. If it wasn't horns it was music and if wasn't music it was Kenyans banging on the side of the buses with coins to get people's attention. If it wasn't any of those then it was flying mice but I decided to stay an extra day (i know...I'm an idiot) but it meant I had the day in Nairobi to recover.
Breakfast came knocking at my door at half 7 so I was up bright and early with the city at my fingertips. I love this feeling, another day off for Chris 'Ferris' Harding in a big city, what shall I do? To be honest I wasn't fussed on doing anything. I knew there was a good National Park and Elephant Sanctuary but I have no money for that so I resorted to a standard walk around the city centre to take in the sights and smells.
I couldn't even be bothered to take pictures but I knew my Mum would want to see some so I just took pictures of random buildings. There are some pretty interesting buildings in Nairobi, mainly offices but it makes a change from vast plains that don't really show that well in pictures due to the hazy sky.
I took pictures of the usual stuff, a statue, the City Hall and some old building which i liked the look of. I felt like a right pleb doing it as well, everyone staring at me as they made their way to work. The pavements are crazy, there is more traffic on the pavements than there is on the road so you could imagine the attention I was getting.
I walked to the parliament building which was the most interesting of the lot. I didn't want to block the rushing business men so I took a quick snap almost without breaking stride. Next thing I knew I was being escorted to the Chief Officer of the parliament police department. Apparently its illegal to take pictures of any parliament building in Kenya, even if you are stood 30 metres away from the front gate, over the other side of the road!
I heard shouts from random Kenyans but I ignored them and carried on my merry way. Unless someone calls your full name, you should never stop for Kenyan's because what they have to do or say is normally completely pointless and only wastes your time, examples include "you look like Jesus" "hey, you!" then they don't say anything else, or they stop you and just wave their hand as if they're screwing in an invisible lightbulb (that is my ultimate pet hate!)
They wouldn't of caught me if I hadn't crossed the road but I was heading for the park behind the building. As I crossed the road I stopped for a second to check my phone and the policeman got me. Then I was gently escorted to the Chief's office where we had a lovely chat about my bike ride. He checked the picture and it was clear to see that you could see nothing... but the gate, "oh dear" he said, I thought he was being sarcastic so I replied "yeah I know, that gate's going to be tricky!" "You need to delete this" (he wasn't being sarcastic) There was absolutely no point arguing, I deleted it. After, I felt sorry for my mum who's the innocent party in all this, she'll never get to see what the parliament building looks like now...unless she googles it. After that i didn't know what to do, what do you do if the Chief Police Officer makes you delete your picture of the Kenyan Parliament Building? you take a picture of the Chief Police Officer instead don't ya! So I did just that and then continued with my walk towards the park.
The park was quite nice, I had a quick walk around and kept my camera firmly buttoned in my pocket incase it was illegal to take pictures of ponds or benches as well. I spotted a football team getting ready to start training so I wandered around the far side of the park and sat next to a man named Christian as the players got changed and ready. The team was a professional division 1 team so I was quite keen to see what they did for training. Over the course of 20 minutes 6 or 7 more players arrived in their dribs and drabs and when 95% of the players were ready, the coach brought them all in for a chat.
As this was going on I'm talking with Christian about all sorts of things. "Where you from?" He said, "Southampton" I replied, "and what do you do for entertainment, you ever been to Las Vegas?" I paused for a second, I have been to Vegas yes, but how is that related? Do I reply "yes" and talk about how great my time in Vegas was or do I turn this conversation into a geography lesson? I did both. "Yeah Vegas is great but its in America so I normally stick to local bars in Southampton" "you been to Miami?" Clearly Christian watched too much of the E! Channel so I continued to humour him with my answers as the coach proceeded to talk to his players.
Over an hour had passed, AN HOUR! I decided to take the hours I had left in my day and run. I had a nice if not random conversation with Christian (got his business card) and left disappointed that I hadn't seen a ball kicked in over an hour of a professional Kenyan football training session. As I walked back around the perimeter of the field to continue my walking tour of Nairobi they began training. All lined up, running pitch length shuttles...great, not exactly what I had in mind but this is Africa!
Next stop on my tour took me to a cafe with wifi and then on to fight the familiar fight of finding some decent ear phones. This would be my 4th pair (3rd pair in Africa) as the previous ones I had taped up eventually gave up on me yesterday. I know they're not authentic because they come in a plastic bag with a Sony sticker stuck diagonally on the outside. I just want ones that will last longer than it takes for me to plug them in. Honestly, what do Africans use? They can't keep buying new ear plugs every couple of weeks! I told the lady about my previous performances and how I just wanted ones that could get me till May. "Well just be careful with them" she said. I laughed, if I keep these ones in the packet they still won't survive February. Place your bets now, I give them 3 days.
I went home for lunch as I had bought bread and sandwich meat yesterday. I need to get disciplined again if I'm going to nail this budget and that means making food when possible and no unnecessary expenditures. Whether something is unnecessary or not could change depending on how I'm feeling so it doesn't completely rule out chocolate biscuits or a brand of beer that I haven't tried yet...or one that I have tried.
I sat down in my room and as i put my hand into my bag to grab my knife, the mouse jumped out. This would be great if i was a magician but I'm not. I toured the hotel and spotted an empty single room that didn't back onto the Kenyan "Vegas strip" and hopefully didn't have Stuart Little waiting for me under the bed. I wasn't going to bother moving my bags but I don't have much stuff and there's no telling where I'm going to find the mouse sitting when I wake up again, I sleep with my mouth open sometimes...
I asked the lady at reception if I could move and she said yes so I found myself in a slightly smaller, slightly quieter room. I spent the rest of the afternoon in my room as I had seen all I wanted to see and was happy with my morning tour of Nairobi.
I ventured out again at half 5. I've heard a lot of stories about night time muggings and even though I had already cased where I wanted to eat and it was only 200m from my hotel, I decided to have dinner when the sun was still up and be safely back in my room as darkness hit. I'm sure the area of Nairobi I was in would be fine due to all the people but United were playing Arsenal later on and I wasn't really feeling getting mugged.
The moment I stepped out of the Hotel it was clear that it was rush hour. The queues of people lining the pavements went on for almost as far as the queues of beeping buses, it was mental! I made my way swiftly through the crowds to my previously chosen restaurant. I went for something African, rice and beans with a small spoonful of meat stew. There wasn't quite enough meat for my liking so i tried to get the waiter's attention to order some extra beef samosa's. I clicked my finger's...this is perfectly acceptable in African culture but not perfectly acceptable in Harding culture. I felt immediate regret, the same regret you feel when you get caught kicking somebody else's dog. The waiter didn't think anything of it but I did, it was a sign, I've been in Africa too long!
I sat alone and shamefully finished off my meal, (the samosa's were arguably worth the finger clicking) I still had at least half the plate left when a lady sat down in front of me and asked for the menu. I had no problem with it and clearly nor did she! Did I have a problem with it though? I suppose i wouldn't mention it in this blog if I didn't have a problem with it. It's happened a few times now and it just takes getting used to that's all. I can't complain about being alone I guess because even when I am, I'm still open to receive company from a random person...or rodent. I suppose i was asking for it anyway having sat at a table with spare seats, however special tables for loners aren't really that common!
I took a picture of her as well but did it a little more discretely than with the Chief of Police. She had no clue I did it but at least I can prove to my Mum that my blog is fact and I'm not just making it up. The absence of Parliament Building photo in my album also legitimises today's story.
I returned to my hotel room full and satisfied. The shame of the finger clicking I felt had been equalised by me letting a randomer sit at MY table. I put the footy on and relaxed under my holey mosquito net. About an hour had passed when I heard a russelling on the floor, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! If there's a mouse in this room as well then I've clearly checked into a pet shop but if there's just the one then I've only gone and transported it from my old room!!
As I got up he jumped into the wardrobe so I slammed the doors shut and pushed the chair up against it. At least he wouldn't be popping up anywhere unexpected now but instead I had the therapeutic scratching at wooden doors to deal with for the rest of the night!
I can't say that Nairobi is the best stop I've had on my ride but like a lot of Africa, it certainly won't be forgotten!
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