Day 2 in Mombasa

Hello everyone! Day 2 in Mombasa and my lord is it hot! I have not taken my hair out of a braid, which, for those of you who know me well enough, its rare that my hair is even up! Today we went into town and did some sightseeing, passing by Fort Jesus (don't ask me what it is, I wasn't paying attention), and our Khane here (very pretty and very old, like from 1892 or something!). The town is so beautiful and old, but oh my goodness, the cars and TUK TUKs (auto rikshas brought over from India) make the road crazy and I almost got run over once or twice!


After visiting some family that remembered me as a 2 year old, we went to Old Town and did some shopping (typical!). I found and bought some wooden carved monkeys that will be coming home with us to Cold Toronto! The people here are SO friendly as well. Random people will help you pull out of a spot or drive through an alley. Oh my goodness, people put regular sized cars through little gullies meant for walking, WITH cars parked on the side. There is NO way I'd be able to drive here. OH! I almost forgot, we literally bought bhajias and batteta from the road side where these two ladies were sitting on the ground, frying them in a big thing - and they were SO GOOD! i wish I'd taken a pic of that but I thought it might be rude to do so.

All in all, it's been a pretty relaxing day. We just lounged around by the beach and did some DISCO with the resort people in the evening. I must say, it's so surreal to be here in Africa and I'm looking forward to the rest of our trip. Probably should have done the resort after all the Safari-ing though, because I have a feeling I may need it after the rest of our hustly-bustly trip.

Zeenat here:
Drove around Mombasa through the crowded narrow alleys where you can get just about everything and anything - from food to shoes to jewellery to mattresses to kitchen utensils. What a sight - old, run-down buildings with retial stores on the ground floow and 'flats' above, street vendors, crowds of shoppers and bypassers, people pulling carts to transport goods, crowds crossing the roads and, of course, cars driving through with an inch to spare on either side. My foot was on the brake most of the time (even though I was NOT driving).  In  many ways this reminds me of parts of India, just replace the Africans with Indians and this could be India.

Visiting khane, again, was both tranquil and sad.  A beautiful stucture, old majestic architecture but very few Ismailis around.  Walked through old Mombasa and did some shopping (of course), Something to be said about the local Africans - their warmth and hospitality.  We purchased some stuff from a small African vendor who didn't have change to give us back.  We suggested if he could hold the goods, we'd be back after finding some change.  He asked us to take the goods and  come back and pay him later.  So we did.  These are Africans for you. 

Ah, those coconuts and roasted corn on the street by the beach, mmmmm yummy!!!

More tomorrow.