KENYA

September 4. NAIROBI  The Jackie Chan movie didn't really give us that movie fix.  We thought we would be leaving Nairobi that day but found ourselves with two more days to kill and Shrek 2 playing at the noon showing.  To kill the morning we thought it would be fun to check some of the old hotels.  The first one we tried was the Nairobi Safari Club but it disappointed. The second one, the Norfolk, was better but nothing had the grandeur of the Victoria Falls Hotel in Zimbabwe.  

The Shrek theater was different than the Jackie Chan theater but it was fine as well.  At least there wasn't any dance club pounding on the walls.  And, Shrek was a much more satisfying movie fix.  After the movie we stopped for a snack at the Thorn Tree before returning to the hotel.  It felt like a rather weak day but we had really done most of what we had planned to do in Nairobi.  We just spent the afternoon in our room and went to the restaurant downstairs for dinner. 

September 5.  NAIROBI  There was just one thing we left for ourselves to do in Nairobi on our last day, visit the National Museum.  All of the taxis in front of our hotel were colluding at this point and none would give us the local rate to the museum so we just walked.  It wasn't a bad little museum and kept us busy for a good two and a half hours.  The portraits of the various Kenyans tribes were justifiably recommended.  We also found ourselves interested in the bird exhibit, honing our bird knowledge before heading to Uganda.  The detached Asian museum was an interesting addition as well, acknowledging the culture and contributions made by Kenyas Indian population.  Brought as indentured servants by the British to build the railroad the industrious community has become an important part of the economies of several East African countries.  

In front of the museum we gave into a reasonable cabbie that drove us downtown at the local rate.  I wanted lunch at that Green Corner again but we found it closed for Sunday.  Most of Nairobi was closed on Sunday except for some cafes and  entertainment venues.  There were plenty of people about but it was a marked reduction from the weekdays or Saturday.  We settled for a pretty good cafe just a couple of doors down.  Rob bought a paper and read about 16 car jackings that happened on Friday, as well as a shooting that killed a local man carrying a briefcase with money.  Friday was night we saw the cell phone stolen but all of this stuff happened in broad daylight!  Again, very sobering.  We were really quite ready to leave Nairobi.  It had been better than we expected in many ways but the longer we stayed the more we felt that we were testing our luck.

After lunch we tried to relax in our hotel but the tone deaf singing from some Sunday bozo in the park across the street made it impossible.  We tried the cafe downstairs.  Not much better.  We went to the bar at the Comfort Hotel across the street.  A place on the corner called Titter's Pub and Butchery always caught my eye but somehow we were never tempted to try it out.  Where did they get that name?  At the Comfort Hotel we still heard the singing but it was better.  At 5:00 it finally stopped.  We stayed at the Comfort Hotel for dinner and while we were only a block from our hotel we were mindful of finishing our meal before the sun went down.