Nairobi. Kenya. A beautiful country with amazing people. The K-sisters gave us a little bite-size of what their nation had to offer a couple weeks back when I flew with them both. Remember ? That was in Frankfurt. Not exactly the African continent, close enough when you have these two on board ! So we arrived there and jumped on the shuttle to the hotel. I was told the ride would take approximately 25-30 minutes. Minus the traffic. We ended up having a very close look at how bad traffic lights can be to a rush hour splurge of automobiles. We were sitting in the bus for almost an hour and 15 minutes. But, truth be told, I was enjoying my closer look at Nairobi’s road systems and inhabitants. Kids selling peanuts in carefully handcrafted paper cones. Elderly, making a little money selling a range of tools, from nails to drills. You name it, they had it… Mother’s with kids strapped to their back selling a rather sharp set of knifes. You could literally do your groceries sitting in traffic, planning your house renovation, buying tools and all: sitting in traffic. We finally made it to the hotel, right bang in the center of Nairobi. I had heard through crew talk and recommendations of a must-do restaurant named ‘Carnivore’. So after storming our rooms for some quiet mind restoration after an uneventful flight over, we met in the lobby. The purser had arranged a taxi for the night. A taxi to take us to the restaurant. I thought it was closer, within walking distance, but obviously had misjudged. Greatly.
It took around 20 minutes to get there. So walking wasn’t an option. It was Friday night. Nairobi felt very still as we were speeding around those roundabouts. We got there and were greeted to a Tusker beer (local alcoholic beverage). The national beer. Tasty. Exactly what I was in need of. A few minutes later, we got to our table. The place was heaving with people. Just as well we booked a table. Sat down and ordered straight away. We were on the edge of starvation and walking past what looked like hell on earth for any four legged edible animal, was a real good first mouthwatering sight. A giant barbecue with skewers packed with all kinds of meat sizzling on top of red hot ashes. The whole thing was lit with a a few red spotlights pointing downwards, adding some drama to the whole woohaa. Unfortunately that day, they didn’t have any exotics such as Crocodile or Bambi (are they called Deers??)
We had spud (potato) soup for starters and then let the waiters unleash their carving skills upon us. We each had a red hot plate with nothing in it. Instead, a center piece with different sauces and salads to accompany what was to come to our table.
If you need a visual here is how I would describe it :
Imagine yourself at a – let’s say… erm… – Chanel Fashion Show only the model is meat and the dresses are the sauces. They came round our table one after the other with different skewers of meat. We had chicken, porc sausages, beef, turkey, duck and more. One after the other. Until we couldn’t fit any more. That’s when you put the little flag down from the centerpiece, so the waiters stop serving meat.
Of course, we had to soak all that in Beer. I had another round of Tusker beer for good measure and was feeling a little tipsy at that point. They had a dancefloor further apart from the restaurant, which is huge by the way. So we had a good chat with a musical background. We had a good laugh. We spent 31 hours in Nairobi. The next day was spent digesting for most of us. I watched Discovery Channel and unfortunately OD-ed on Mythbusters followed by Megabuilders. I fell asleep only to wake up right before our wake up time. Perfect timing. Got back to Dubai safe and sound.
Got to rest a little before I was bound for Beirut with Deon (he owns a blog and his good friends with Clauderic). We had a right laugh all the way and even managed to take footage of our antics. Not to be published though. I’m sorry. I’m still flying like a maniac. I forgot to bid last month for this one and ended up with an astonishing amount of turnarounds. Serves me right. Not to mention I made sure to bid for October. I just came back from an empty Bombay which is so different from what it was only two/three weeks ago. I’m so used to having full cabins that only having 55 passengers where we can cram 310 is somewhat… strange. Good for them, they got some excellent service. So there was no room for complaints. As hard as they wanted to try, they really couldn’t find anything wrong. I even scored a nice written comment. That is going straight to my manager !
I now have two days off and will venture out of Tecom for the first time in years. Will be riding the newly open Dubai Metro, which was inaugurated yesterday at 9pm by His Highness. Will most probably go all the way to 21st Century Tower and pay a visit to Greg and Nivine (the remaining french gang). Update, I haven’t in fact. I tried though. Got to Mall Of The Emirates tried to get a ticket but seeing the place was packed and the queues to only ONE FRIGGIN CASHIER was open, I decided in a very wise move, to grab a cab. Will go back there when people have stopped playing with the new toy and it’s actually time-saving. Otherwise the thing looks pretty decent. I’m just worried about the frequency. It seems trains run every 15/20 minutes. If wrong please tell me !
Before I leave you to it, please enjoy these two tracks. One is an oldie, but a goodie. The other is a kinda cool, kinda sexy but not too old kinda track. It tends to be punk rock. It’s a band called Queen Sea Big Shark and I discovered them as I was skating around on the Playstation 3. The song is called “Hold Your Hand”. The band hails all the way from China and are making a few gigs there ! Download or die :
Sam & Dave - Hold On I'm Comin' | 55 downloads
Queen Sea Big Shark - Hold Your Hand | 47 downloads
So that’s that so far. I have Bengalore (ohh joy) soon, a red-eye Hyderabad (double oooh joy), a Gatwick (meh…), a Tripoli (kind of pumped about that one) and a Cape Town at the end of the month. So until I manage to finally get internet at home, my updates will be very sporadic. We’ve subscribed for internet and waiting to see if they’ll actually be moving their asses sometime in the coming two weeks.
PS. I would also like to thank all the peeps that sent in some kick ass bollywood tunes over. I will be compiling them soon, and will share them. When I get some time between flight and mopping that is !
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