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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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Hi!
We're still in Kenya, but we've just been to the coast. We were in a small place called Watamu Beach. It's about 2 hours north of Mombasa. After finishing off the safari, Cate and I were dropped off at the train station to catch our 7 pm train on Monday night. Overall the train ride went pretty well, minus the fact that the rooms had no electricity in them (fortunately, the train staff handed out mega-flashlights to everyone) and that there was only one bathroom with a western-styled toilet, the other one being a squat toilet (I looked at it and laughed and decided to wait in line for the other bathroom). Our first-class tickets also included dinner and breakfast, which overall was decent. It was funny though because the train's dining car was set up like something out of the 1930s. Overall the train ride went smoothly and there's not much to report. We (naturally) got into Mombasa about 2 hours late. This was okay because it gave Cate enough time to read the Lonely Planet disease section and work herself into a panic. I did my best to assure her that she didn't have malaria or meningitis. My reassuring words seemed to have no affect, but luckily the group of Norwegian medical students that we got to know were on the same train and were able to do a much better job at calming Cate down.
Once we got into Mombasa we got ourselves a cab driver who was willing to drive us 2 hours up the coast. Unfortunately, Cate's camera broke on the last day of the safari so we left her camera with a camera shop, did the typical ATM run, and made a quick stop by Fort Jesus. However, when we went by the camera shop, they hadn't bothered to fix Cate's camera. We lucked out and got a truly great cabbie who yelled at them in Swahili. The camera shop agreed to fix it while we were on the coast. So after a couple of hours of running around, we were finally on our way up to Watamu Beach.
We hadn't bothered making any reservations, but decided to trust our cabbie. It paid off because he took us to the most amazing guesthouse and even got us a deal! We arranged for him to come and pick us up on Thursday afternoon. Cate and I spent the rest of the day on the beach and spent the evening walking around and exploring the village.
The next day was naturally rainy, so Cate and I headed for the ruins of Gede instead of the beach. We spent about an hour wandering around the ruins before inadvertantly hitchhiking back to Watamu Beach. On the way to the ruins we had taken one of the mini-bus/taxis. We thought we were taking one back too, but then the 2 guys were like, "nope, this is a private vehicle." Oops. Fortunately, they weren't crazy and we got back to the village safely. The afternoon cleared up and we headed for the beach.
After spending the following morning on the beach, we headed back for Mombasa with our faithful cabbie who had fetched us a little late, but he had a good excuse. That morning he had gone to the camera shop to check on Cate's camera and had found out that they hadn't fixed it and instead were going to give it back to her broken. He yelled at them and made them fix it while he waited. See? Awesome cabbie. After another uneventful train ride, we are back in Nairobi.
Hope everyone is doing well.
I'll write more later,
Katie
previous travel blog entry
Susois says:
Hi Katie B I am going to Watamu in December and wondered what the name of the guest house was that you stayed in. (Apparently it gets booked up around that time so would like to book!) Thanks!