Nairobi is Kenya’s capital and the
city’s Jomo Kenyatta Airport is the gateway airport
to East Africa. You will inevitably arrive in Nairobi before
starting an overland trip or safari to one of Kenya’s many
national parks. It’s a huge urban sprawl covering some
120 sq km with a population of just over two million. Nairobi
steadily grew from a swampy worker’s camp during the
construction of the Kampala-Mombasa railway at the end of
the 19th century. By 1907 it had replaced Mombasa as
Kenya’s capital. Back then it was called Ewaso Nai'beri,
a Masai word meaning 'a place of cold water', a reference to
the chilly Nairobi River. The fertile farmland around Nairobi
attracted some 80 000 British settlers between the 1920s and
1950s, including Karen Blixen of ‘Out of Africa’
fame. Her house is now a museum on the outskirts of
the city. Nairobi’s famous Norfolk Hotel opened in 1904,
and was once the social meeting place for this privileged
community. Today you can still enjoy a gin and tonic in
the colonial bar. The local Kikuyu moved into Nairobi and
the city swelled. Today it’s a modern commercial centre
and the largest city between Cairo and Johannesburg.
Like many African cities, Nairobi has its bustling markets,
alarming matatu (minibus taxi) drivers, pot-holed roads, dusty
shanty towns and leafy suburbs. While there’s not a
great deal to see in the way of sights, it has an energetic
atmosphere, a lot of bustle and is a place of contrasts. It’s not unusual to see a red-robed Masai tribesman
pass a sharp-suited banker in the street. It’s also
a great place to get things done, with plenty of internet cafes,
post offices, lively curio markets and bookshops. Nairobi
is fairly easy to navigate. In the city centre Moi Avenue,
Nairobi's major artery, is intersected by Kenyatta Avenue
running from west to east. Unfortunately, Nairobi has acquired
a reputation of being a dangerous city and petty crime is
rife. Stick to the main streets; keep your valuables
locked in your hotel room; never walk around after dark and
you should have no problems.
Most travellers to Kenya only spend one or two nights in Nairobi,
before or after a tour. Time enough for a bit of curio shopping. It’s a good place to pick up wooden carvings, particularly
that mandatory souvenir, the giraffe, and colourful kangas
and kikois (local sarongs). For Masai souvenirs, rather wait
until you get out of Nairobi where it is cheaper to buy directly
from the Masai themselves. Of the few sights around town,
the National Museum is worth a look for its extensive display
of bones and fossils, the Karen Blixen Museum depicts her
settler story in her old house on the edge of Nairobi, and
there’s some interesting wildlife encounters on offer
at the Giraffe Centre and the Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage,
both a few kms from town in Langata. The Nairobi National
Park is within the city’s boundary. It has a fine collection
of game that can be visited in half a day, though there are
wilder and more scenic regions of Kenya for game viewing.
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Nairobi lies 145km south of
the equator but it’s far from hot. The city is 1 660
metres high so temperatures are a moderate 15-25°C degrees
year-round.
The highest temperature ever reached in Nairobi was only 32°C
degrees. The main rainy seasons are from March to May and
October to December, when it gets slightly humid and Nairobi’s
streets become flooded and muddy.
It tends to rain quite a lot outside these months
and it’s difficult to determine when one rainy season
finishes and the other one starts. Nairobi is
often covered in a big rain cloud, so come prepared. |
The Karen Blixen Museum is
in the former home of the author of 'Out of Africa' a few kilometres
from Nairobi in Karen. Karen Blixen (who wrote under the pseudonym
Isak Dinesen) was the woman who uttered the famous
words, “I had a farm in Africa...” Or rather Meryl
Streep did, in the movie years later. Today Blixen’s
farmhouse, where she lived from 1914 to 1931, is part of a
Nairobi suburb. The house was presented to the Kenyan government
by Blixen’s native Denmark to be turned into a museum
of her life.
The National Museum in the city centre has a good display
of ancient man if you’re into skulls, bones and fossils. Many of them were unearthed by Kenya’s famous archaeologist
Dr. Louis Leakey. There’s also a fossil of a complete
elephant, some tribal artefacts, ceramics and beads, and
some of the 600 portraits of Kenya’s peoples that Joy
Adamson (of 'Born Free' fame) painted in the 1940s. Across the
road from the museum is a snake park, where you can see living examples
of most of the snake species found in East Africa.
The Langatta Giraffe Centre is home to both adult and baby
Rothschild giraffes. Visitors can feed them from a tall
giraffe-height walkway. The giraffes take pellets straight
from your hands as you look directly into their faces.
It’s a marvellous opportunity to see how a giraffe sees life from this lofty height.
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The arrival point for most
people travelling to East Africa is Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport located 15km out of the city centre.
Kenya Airways operates all over East Africa and there are
direct flights to Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Nairobi is well served with direct flights from Europe and
many other destinations. Airport facilities are good; there
are a couple of banks in the arrivals hall and a row of taxis
outside.
Taxi fares need to be negotiated, so ask someone in
the airport what you should pay. Expect to be charged roughly US$20-25,
but bear in mind this is much more than you would pay in a
taxi going out to the airport.
Unfortunately the taxi drivers at the airport stick together
and charge an inflated price. Nairobi airport transfers
booked through your travel agent in advance work out cheaper.
Currently airport departure tax is included in the ticket.
If you’re coming to Nairobi from Kenya’s coast
then you have the option to take the overnight train. There is a
daily departure between Mombasa and Kisumu in western Kenya
that stops at Nairobi. Nairobi Railway station is in the centre
of town. It’s easy enough – and safer if you’re
carrying luggage - to jump into a taxi outside. |
Taxis are widely available
and convenient but don’t expect to get anywhere quickly.
Nairobi taxis are usually marked with a yellow line along
each side. Most are rather dilapidated and impossibly small
Toyota Corollas, though bizarrely there is also a large
fleet of London black taxis operating within the city.
A price should be agreed on with the driver before you get in. Just ask at your hotel roughly how much you should
pay.
The three-wheel bajaj auto-rickshaws, similar to the tuktuks
of South East Asia, are becoming increasingly popular as taxis
in Nairobi. Once again, fares need to be negotiated in advance.
The most popular form of public transport all over Kenya, and
a national icon, is the matatu. It's a minibus taxi, usually a Nissan,
with a three-ton capacity (tatu means three in Swahili). They are cheaper than regular taxis but they are far more dangerous: precariously overloaded and driven by madmen. Pick-pocketing
is a problem and large speakers booming music at maximum
volume are considered an essential feature of a Nairobi matatu. |
Walking around Nairobi is relatively
straightforward as the city centre is small and accessible.
However, due to the possibility of petty crime, leave all valuables
at your hotel and don’t walk anywhere at night.
As a general rule, anywhere west of Moi Avenue is relatively
safe during the day. Avoid walking in the streets to the
east of Moi Avenue, particularly around the infamous River
Road, as this a notorious bag-, watch- and even earring-snatching
district. River Road is one of the most vibrant,
bustling areas of Nairobi though. If you want to go and have a
look, just don’t carry or wear anything you don’t
want to lose.
Also be wary of Nairobi’s parks. Robberies take
on a violent edge in isolated places, so avoid Central Park
and Uhuru Park west of Uhuru Highway and Jeevanjee Gardens
on Muindi Mbigu Street. |
The best places to change money
in Nairobi are the bureaux de change found all over the city.
The banks and hotels charge commission to change both cash
and traveller's cheques into Kenyan Shillings.
Shop around for the best rates. Rates for US$ cash vary depending
upon the denomination of the note that you want to change.
For example US$50 and 100 notes receive a higher exchange
rate than the smaller US$5 and 10 notes.
Nairobi’s bureaux de change often have US$ cash for
sale, or to exchange for traveller's cheques or GBP cash.
You will have to negotiate a rate. ATMs that accept international
cards are available in Nairobi and some larger Kenyan towns
at Barclays and Standard Chartered Banks. Barclays can also
organise cash advances on credit cards but this can only be
done in banking hours. |
There are hundreds of places
to eat in and around Nairobi.
The city’s cheap canteens serve up the local staples
such as nyama choma (cooked meat), matoke (boiled, savoury
bananas), and ugali (maize porridge). Then there are the
popular South African fast food chains that are increasingly
popping up all over Africa. Steers serves burgers and steaks,
Nandos, chicken, and the more local brands of Chicken Inn,
Pizza Inn, Creamy Inn, and Photo Inn do chicken, pizza, ice
cream, and photo developing respectively. You’ll find
them all in a row on the same street - very convenient
if you want to eat and get your film developed at the same
time!
Nairobi has a good selection of excellent international restaurants
including Chinese, Indian, Italian, Ethiopian and Thai. There’s even a Japanese restaurant. The most famous
of Nairobi’s restaurants is the Carnivore, a few kms
out of town in Langata. Meat is their speciality ranging
from chicken, pork, lamb and spare ribs to exotic game meats
such as ostrich, zebra, crocodile, hartebeest and wildebeest.
The meat is hacked onto your plate from huge Masai spears
and the waiters keep coming around until you ‘surrender’
by lowering the white flag on your table. It may sound like
a vegetarian's nightmare, but they have good vegetarian meals
too. This gut-busting extravaganza is a great night out and
if you can still stand afterwards there are several bars and
the Simba Saloon nightclub at the Carnivore.
In the city are two notoriously wild discos known as Florida
2000, on Moi Avenue, and the New Florida near the city market.
Go if you dare - they are massive, loud, manic and crowded. A visit to one of Nairobi’s Florida discos could
easily be rated as an adventure activity! |
If you are going to call home,
do it from Nairobi, as communications are limited in other
parts of Kenya. You can make an international call or send
a fax from the telephone offices at the main post offices
on Kenyatta Avenue and Haile Selassie Avenue.
The Poste Restante is very efficient in Nairobi – you
just have to join a long queue to get your mail. Alternatively,
most of the hotels have international services. If
you get really stuck try the Hilton in the centre of town.
The Internet has embraced East Africa and there are cyber
cafes all around the city. |
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