Return to Nairobi

We returned to Nairobi today. Our driver (Felix) gave us a short safari at 7.30am on our way out of the park, before heading for Nairobi. The journey from Masai Mara to Nairobi was the usual mix of bumpy roads, shanty towns and begging people. We arrived at the Holiday Inn at 1pm.

The Holiday Inn is full of of Americans, Brits and an assortment of other fat-cats. The pool area is full of people with laptops and mobile phones. I overheard a conversation between two men: one owned a rubber plantation in South Africa and one was a "professor of three dimensional mathematics" from the US. They seemed pretty typical of the clientel.

Our plane to Mombasa didn't leave until 10pm so we had a lot of time to kill. The Hotel let me use the gym, sauna and showers. The gym was painful - too much eating, smoking and sitting on my butt during the last week - and the heat in the gym was oppressive. Still, I felt better after it.

We were picked-up at 8pm to go to the airport. The journey from the Holiday Inn to the airport took 45 minutes - much faster than the journey from the airport to the hotel when we arrived - and much less smog at this time of the day. Whenever, our car stopped, children came to the window to beg. Our driver advised us to keep the windows shut since the kids sometimes snatch bags.

We got the 10pm flight which left around 10.30pm and arrived at Mombasa at 11.15pm. We were then driven to the Indian Ocean Hotel. We arrived at 12.30am and when straight to bed - exhausted. We were taken to our "house" (number 451) in the dark so we didn't see much.