I’ve been looking forward to this week-end away for a few
reasons. Firstly I have seen beautiful
pictures of other people who had travelled to Mombasa and its beaches and the
place looks like paradise. Secondly I am
seeing more of my adopted country and thirdly I was spending it with 3 amazing
women who I have met over the last few months that have become fast and steady
friends and I just know we were going to have a great time. Katie and I were originally travelling down
together early Friday morning, but as it worked out, Katie was already in
Mombasa on a team building week with her work, so I was to fly down and we would
meet at the airport and then head out to the resort. Jess and Jo were taking a half day from work
and were following us down on a 4pm flight.
My flight was at 9.30am and knowing how pedantic the Nairobi traffic can
be, Isaac and I didn’t want to take the risk and I was picked up at 6am to be
on the safe side. In hindsight, being a
domestic flight, I could have left and hour later, but then the traffic may
have been worse the later we left it and it really is a gamble and 6am sat fine
with me. As luck would happen, we got a
pretty clean run, with only a snag or two and I made it to the airport at
6.50am.
This is the first time I have flown a domestic flight in
Kenya and the same rules apply to getting into the terminal bar there was
no-one checking your ticket and ID like they do at the international
terminals. All your bags and scanned and
you walk through a security scanner and then you are through. The check-in counter wasn’t even open yet,
that’s how early I was, so after checking with Fly540’s customer service that
they knew Katie wasn’t flying today but would be returning on her ticket and
asking when the check-in would open I took a seat and played the waiting game
for check-in to open. I didn’t have to
wait long when a Fly540 staff member came over and asked if I was waiting to
check-in and when I said yes, she said she would check me in so that I could
get through airside where there was a café and more seats to sit. It was super nice as officially it wasn’t
open and after asking for my window seat and checking in my 6.8kg bag I was
through another security scan and into departures. I bought a stale chicken sandwich and an OJ
and then found my gate to park myself for the next few hours. There are only 3 departure gates for the
domestic departures, so I pulled up a window seat, stuck some music in my ears
and I was smart enough to bring my internet modem and I fired up my IPad and
got stuck into Facebook for 2 hours.
That modem has been my saviour on numerous times and the best 70AUD I
have spent. It was funny as I was
messaging Elsabe who was at the international terminal waiting for their flight
to Cape Town-we were so close yet still so far apart at the airport!!!
I was flying a ‘discount’ airline called Fly540. I think there is a stigma with discount
airlines that they generally don’t run on time and I am a firm believer that
you do get what you pay for. But if you
know JKIA (Kenya’s International airport) only too well, flights hardly ever
leave on time, discount airline or not.
In saying that I have been lucky and out of the times I have flown out
of Nairobi I have only been delayed 1-2 hours maximum and it didn’t affect my
flow on of flights. Today was no
different leaving only 15 minutes late, which was nothing to complain about,
taking into account JKIA’s track record, I would still count that as an on time
departure. Five Forty Aviation Ltd,
trading as Fly540, is a low-cost
airline based in Nairobi. It currently operates domestic and
international passenger and freight services, but in 2012 Fly540 was sold
to form the basis of the new pan-African airline Fastjet,
and its services are expected to be migrated to Fastjet over time. Fly540 started operations between Nairobi and Mombasa on November 24, 2006. The
service initially operated twice daily using 48-seat ATR 42 aircraft
and the airline's name refers to its price of Sh5,540 per adult return fare
between the above-mentioned cities. I
was looking out the window at a Fly540 flight that was preparing for a flight
and it was a Dash 8, the small propeller type plane and I just thought that
that was going to be our plane, but it was boarded for a different destination
and when our flight was called 20 minutes later I was pleasantly surprised we
were in a smaller jet. I was hoping to
have the seat next to me free as Katie and I had been booked in the same
reservation, but she had let the airline know last week that she would not be
using her ticket down and I think the sneaky buggers resold her seat, pretty
forward thinking for an African discount airline. So needless to say the seat was taken by a
Middle Eastern man who had no idea on personal space. When you sit next to someone on a plane,
there is always the initial ‘settling’ in period when you sit in close confines
next to a stranger and I think the biggest silent war is on the arm rest. I am not that bothered about the arm rest, if
the person next to me wants to snaff that they can have it, so this guy immediately
snaffed it, and aggressively I think, but it didn’t stop there with his elbow
pushing over the armrest encroaching into ‘my’ personal space. This is NOT cool. I did the fake ‘you’re elbowing me’ shuffle to
which it didn’t make an iota of difference with him. He was that arrogant that 3 seconds,
literally, after take-off he pulled out his phone and made a call as we were
still ascending. What a flipstick. He was just lucky I was tired after a 5am
wakeup and the flight was only 45 minutes that I let his elbow sit permanently
in my side the whole flight and went to sleep.
If it was a longer flight I definitely would have said something to
him. You can’t just hog the arm rest AND
then take up some of my premium room as well.
Flipstick. Add to that the small
child behind me who was tall enough to tuck her feet into the back of my chair
without her parents noticing, I just closed my peepers and I woke up 5 minutes
before coming into land in Mombasa. I
was hoping to get a small scenic flight of the beautiful beaches I have heard
about, but whether we were too far away from the coast or the flight path this
morning did not come in that way, we crossed some green farming land and landed
only 10 minutes late, which really is considered a good flight all round. Walking into the terminal it reminded me of
the old Darwin Airport, very basic, tropical feel to it and collecting the bags
took all of 5 minutes, seriously I don’t think I have ever received my bag so
quick, and for it to be in Kenya is just mind blowing and 15 minutes after
touch down I was out the doors with Katie waiting for me with our driver,
Moussa.
Welcome to Mombasa.
It was now 10.45am and we now had to make our way from the airport
through a part of the city and down to the ferry that was to take us from the island
of Mombasa that would carry us over the Likoni Channel to get us to Diani Beach
and the rest of the south coast. The
weather was a little dicey and then it started to rain, heavily. This was not a good omen, but I should know
the tropics by now and after we arrived to the hotel, the sun came through and
you would never had guessed there was a storm 2 hours earlier. As we drove I noticed that the traffic in
Mombasa is just as hectic as Nairobi, there is no sense of ‘life is a beach’ in
the capital anyway. It is a working port
city and the traffic certainly reflects that with the amount of trucks on the
road. Little did we know that the 20
minutes in traffic was the least of our worries when we saw the ferry
queue. It was as long as the eye could
see and we just had to wait patiently in line for it slowly to crawl
forward. While we were waiting, there
were street sellers trying to offload their wares from cashew nuts, DVD’s,
men’s singlet’s, bottles of water, grooming kits and there was even a Nescafé
Man selling coffee. There was a guy
selling chargers for electronic goods and as we were waiting he asked if he
could charge his phone as it was getting flat, and Moussa our driver was happy
to oblige. I guess we were in no hurry
stuck in the queue and with mzungu’s in the car I guess he thought we were a
safe bet. Imagine doing that in
Australia? As we crawled our way along I
was taking some photos and as we were about 5th to board the ferry I
snapped a photo out the car window and the port police saw me and as we drove
up what was a very steep ramp that was also slippery from the rain that was still
falling, he pointed to me and said he would see me on board. Oh crap.
That camera always gets me into trouble.
After the ferry was loaded he came straight over to our car and he was a
little scary, I got a lashing as did Moussa and then he left and I promptly put
my camera away for the 4 minute ferry journey.
Yes the ferry literally takes 4 minutes.
We waited an hour and a half for such a short trip, funny huh!!! The crossing has been done with ferries for
many years with the channel getting bad press for the delays and constant
breakdown of the big vessels that have facilitated travel between the two
points. Currently there are two new ferries operating between the North Coast
end and the South Coast end. The 60m long vessels can take up a huge cargo load
including people for each short haul journey to the other side.
The journey itself is pretty interesting. As the trip is so short, by the time the foot
passenger’s board and walk the length of the ferry it is just about time to get
off the other end. There are people with
luggage on their heads, handcart pushers, motorcyclists, and other vehicles that
compete for space on the ferry. The traffic can be overwhelming especially in
the morning and evening due to people going to and from work. It is best to try and avoid these times. Because the ferry crossing is so quick,
nobody gets out of their cars and it is advisable to keep the widows up and
the valuables away from sight. The ferry
runs on a 15 minute schedule during the day and on hourly basis from 10pm to
5am. It is free for pedestrians but vehicles are required to pay a small fee
based on weight. The average car pays approximately $2 for the crossing. When we arrived to the opposite side it’s a
rush to disembark and it took us longer to get off than the actual ride.
Once we were off the ferry, we passed the en mass of
people that had disembarked, driving past the growing queue of traffic heading
into Mombasa. We now pretty much had a
clear run of the final 35km road that would take us towards Diani Beach through
Likoni and Tiwi Beach. It was good
to be back on the road watching the scenery pass us by. There were small villages with people going
about their daily business and it was giving me a little taste of what will be
coming in 7 weeks’ time when I start my overland trip. The further we drove, coconut trees became
more abundant and after a 40 minute drive we pulled up to hotel for the next 3
nights. We teed up with Moussa our
collection time for Monday afternoon and then we proceeded to check-in and
after been given a form to fill in we were presented with cold coconuts to
drink the cold coconut milk inside and it was refreshing and delicious and then
we were shown to our rooms. Katie and I
had decided to get 2 rooms, and when we were shown the rooms we had an interconnecting
door. We opened it and then realized we
may as well have shared a room if we kept that open all the time!!! After dropping off our bags we were given a
quick tour of the small boutique hotel and then we changed our foot wear to
thongs/jandals/flip flops and headed straight down to the beach for lunch and a
cocktail.
Welcome to Diani Beach.
Diani Beach is a major beach resort on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It
is located 30 kilometres south of Mombasa. The beach
is about 10 kilometres long, from the Kongo River to the north and Galu Beach
to the south. It is adjacent to the town
of Ukunda, the
population of which nears 100,000 inhabitants.
The general area is known for its coral reefs, black-and-white
Colobus monkeys, and for the closely located Shimba Hills National Reserve, a wildlife
reserve which looks
out over the Indian Ocean. Diani Beach has high-class restaurants, hotels,
supermarkets, and several shopping centres and it is also a popular kite surfing location. This is where we were going to stay for the
next 3 nights! Life can be tough at
times-but someone has to do it. My first
view of the beach after we walked down a path that links our hotel to the beach
and was literally breath taking. I have
seen some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and Diani Beach rates up
there as one of the most stunning beaches.
The colour of the sand is pure white and the colour of the ocean was an
amazing colour of blue and to top all that we were going to eat lunch at a
place called Forty Thieves that had a perfect view of all that and only 5m away
from the lapping waves. The downside was
the beach sellers and their beady eyes that watched your every move and every
time you would look up they would raise what they were selling on the chance you
may have changed your mind from 5 minutes ago.
There was clearly a rule that they were not allowed near the tables, but
they were still only 5m away and it was quite disconcerting. Not so much for the safety aspect, but the
personal space as such. Remind me not to
have too many drinks as I will probably buy everything they have.
Forty Thieves Beach Bar is the one and only barefoot
bar-restaurant on Diani Beach and was ranked 17th “Best Classic Bar of the
World 2010" in the Bartender Magazine and I would like to see the other 16
places that are ranked before this one.
It was awesome to take off our shoes and to wiggle your toes in the
clean fine sand of the beach. The whole place
is sand based-and it has a great ‘beachy’ feel.
I ordered garlic prawns and I wouldn’t have been surprise had those
little guys literally jumped out of the ocean onto my plate, that is how close
we were, and even though they were expensive (surprising when we are so close
to the ocean) but worth every 1500KSH that I paid. It was hard to believe that we were finally
here, in paradise and to watch the hawkers pass by and there were also Masai
walking the beach trying to sell beaded jewellery, they looked a little out of
place, as the Masai Mara is a long way from the beach and a totally different
world from their home environment. Lunch
was washed down with 2 cocktails then it was time to head back to the hotel to
chill next to the pool and catch some rays.
It would have been nice to have camped on the beach, but there are a lot
of hawkers on the beach and guys trying to sell you snorkel trips and beads,
and it just wasn’t worth the hassle and we retreated to the safety of the hotel
for the last 3 hours of sunshine.
The Jo and Jess were due into Mombasa at 5pm. Based on how long it took us, assuming they
got stuck in a ferry queue for at least 40 minutes, we figured they would be at
the hotel around 6.30-7.00pm. When we
returned back to our rooms there was a message from Jo saying that their flight
had been delayed by 3 HOURS! I felt so
bad for them as they were only coming for 2 nights and this was cutting into
their time really giving them all day tomorrow and then most of the day on
Sunday before flying back Sunday night.
So Katie and I decided to not wait for them for dinner and we headed
back to Forty Thieves for dinner. We
were so sleepy and not much conversation was had over dinner and also just a
few quite beverages. We had plans of
waiting for the girls, but come 9pm, we just had to pack it in and we headed
back to the hotel. There was another
message from the girls saying their flight had been delayed another HOUR so we
sent a message back and told them we would just see them for breakfast in the
morning and we were tucked up in bed at 9.45pm.
It sounds so sad, but this is the new Katie and I and it has slowly sunk
in that there is nothing wrong with having just a few drinks and actually
waking up in the morning not feeling like dog poo. We like that feeling (not feeling like dog
poo) and not to mention it is better on the hip pocket, we have decided to not
go crazy in Diani with our drinking and have a few (let’s not get crazy and say
we’re giving up the booze) but we wanted to appreciate each day down here
without a headache and sleeping the day away and tomorrow we meet with the gals
to have a relaxing day in paradise.
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