Today was going to be a busy day.
I had to pick up my passport from the Benin Consulate.
I had to drop off my passport at the Ivory Coast
Consulate.
I had to pick up my new cushion covers for my new day
bed.
It was also my Nest day and I also had a Nest meeting at
2.30pm.
Yes it was going to be a busy day and I was just hope
that everything would go to plan. On our
drive back the same way we had come we drive through a suburb
called Muthiaga, and this is one of the ritzy suburbs of Nairobi (I only live 10
minutes from them) and there are a lot of consulate residences here. I saw where the Australian High Commission
lives (well the gates as you can’t see jack past them) and the interesting one
that we saw was Senegal’s Ambassador’s Residence (well the sign) and after
searching high and low and call London and asking if they had a consulate here
and them telling me no, it seems strange that they would have an Ambassador
here if there is no consulate. It
doesn’t make much difference as I ended up getting the visa while I was in
London, but if I had of flown to Ethiopia to get it and then find out they had
a consulate here I would have been a little bummed. Anyway I thought that was an interesting thing
to see. Driving back the same way we
went yesterday, you really do see a ‘local’ part of Nairobi and Steve and I
called it the ‘real’ Nairobi. No
mzungu’s here, no Art Café’s, or movie theatres or shopping malls- we call that
part of town the ‘fake’ Nairobi and then where Steve and I live, we are calling
that ‘semi fake’ area. I’m living in a
‘local’ area, but I do have access to the mzungu facilities and I am just down
the road from fancy pants suburbs like Rosslyn, Runda and Muthiaga but I can
bet not many people would venture the way we travelled and Steve said even when
I get my own car-I am not to drive through this area on my own. It is a hive of activity though, lots of tuk
tuks, men pulling 2 wheel carts loaded with goods, street sellers selling
anything from hardware, CD’s, ladies clothes and anything in between. We passed Machakos Airport again (local bus
station) and it would be so cool to be able to take photos around here, there
is just so much happening-but being in the suburbs we were-I would want to
leave with all my belongings and it just wouldn’t be worth it. So back through the outskirts of Eastlands, one
of the roughest suburbs of Nairobi, again my window was wound up and as advised
yesterday I put my bag on the floor as a precaution. Even during the day time it can be unsafe and
at night time this place is dangerous even for locals, let alone mzungu’s
during the day. There were obviously no
mzungu’s this part of town and Steven said that it would be unusual and unsafe
for us to walk around these parts.
So I asked Benin if I could pick my passport up at 9.30am
(30 minutes after they open) as we wanted to try and make the Ivory Coast
Consulate to drop off my passport and they were located in the city and they
closed at 11am. Based on Nairobi
traffic, you just never know for certain if we were going to make it,
especially that time of the day, but we were going to give it a shot and hope
for the best. Based on getting to Benin,
based on a no traffic day would take 20 minutes, in 8am traffic it took us one
hour and 10 minutes. We actually made
good time and arrived just after 9am, and not wanting to rock on up bang on
when they opened, and I did say 9.30am, Steve and I waited in the car for 30
minutes. We had to pay for parking where
we were, it is the Nairobi City Council that patrol that area and cost us
140KSH (1.75AUD), which I thought was a little expensive, but after being given
the receipt that you have to display on your dashboard, Steve explained it is
good for the whole day, so when we go into the city and park, it will also
cover that as well. Now that makes it
all of a sudden good value for money and there is no way we could park in any
Australian capital city for a whole day for 1.75AUD-imagine! And it is just as well as we did pay as the
Clamp Squad were also in the area this morning, so if you had parked and not
paid, your car would be clamped and I think it is around 1000KSH for the clamp
to come off.
So 9.30am came around and I waited 5 more minutes and
then made the trek to the second floor to collect my passport. The same lady was there from the other day
and she gave me a great smile and told me that she hadn’t received the
passports yet-she made a call and then told me that the lady who has the
passports is not in and that she will be back soon and to take a seat. Soon?
Is that 10 minute soon? 30 minute
soon? So I took a seat-sent Steve a text
to let him know we would have to wait and after shooting a text message off to
Shelly, I was called back and my passport was ready. Smiley lady asked me to check it, which I
checked the dates-all was in order and with a wave and a massive thanks I was
back to the car at 9.45am and Steve was shocked to see me so soon and to be
honest so was I! The visa Gods were looking
down on us and we now had 1 hour and 15 minutes to get into the city and to the
Ivory Coast Consulate. It was not so
much a distance issue, we were literally on travelling less than 5km, it was
going to be whether traffic would be on our side as to whether we would make
it. We were lucky and Steve had me at
the Hughes Building in the city at 10.15am where he dropped me off and we
arranged to meet at the same spot when I had finished.
After walking into the wrong entrance (it was for the
bank only) I asked where the main entrance was and walked in the pointed
direction-getting asked by security in the courtyard where I was going and I
told them the Ivory Coast Consulate and they cleared me and told me 2nd
floor. I got to the main doors of the
building where there was a doorman and he asked where I was going and when I
told him, he said that they are no longer in the building and they had have
moved to Hurlingham. WHAT???? I quickly phoned Steve to make sure he hadn’t
gone too far and asked him to come back for me and I made it back to the ‘drop
point’ as Steve turned the corner. Once I
was back in the car I booted up my internet to see what the next step would
be. Every single website I looked at
listed the Hughes Building as the current address for the Ivory Coast Consulate,
well it’s NOT people. I tried phoning
the 2 phone numbers I had and also Googled some other numbers (which there were
none) and they just kept ringing out, which is super frustrating but I did find
a listing that had a different address, also in the city, so we made a plan to
aim for that and in the meantime I kept calling the 2 phone numbers I could find
which just kept ringing out. As a last
resort I Googled the Ivory Coast Consulate in London, but due to the time
difference they were still closed. So
our last resort was to check out the second address before calling it quits and
me having to do some sleuthing to find where they had moved to. The traffic was just shocking (no surprise)
so when we entered the street where the building was located, I jumped out and
briskly walked the 300m and asked reception if they had the Ivory Coast
Consulate in their building and they said they used to be, but they had moved
out and they had no idea on where the new office was. This was turning out to be very
frustrating. As I came out of the
building the traffic had moved enough that Steve was right at the front
door-perfect timing, I jumped in and we decided to call it a day on the Ivory
Coast and I would have to do some more internet surfing and see if I could find
out where the hell they are now located.
I decided to head back home, pick up my cushions, have lunch and then
head to The Nest in the afternoon. I was
getting a little worried on our drive home as I had clicked on every single
link that had come up and I thought I could call London again when they opened
but in the meantime I jumped back on the net, and typed in the French
translation, Cote d’Ivoire, with not much result-the same links appeared as
before except for one, I found a Facebook page in Google for the Ivory Coast in
Kenya and I clicked on it and WALLAH I had the new address, new opening times
and also new phone numbers and a link to their web address. It was now 10.40am and the new submission
time was until 12.30pm-so with a quick phone call and with them instantly answering-I
reconfirmed that they were open until 12.30pm and then 10 minutes from home
Steve and I turned around and decided to try and make the closing time. Again on a ‘no traffic day’ this trip would
take 30-45 minutes, in really bad traffic it has taken us 2 hours and there was
a lot of traffic, but we made it with plenty of time after asking for
directions once, at 11.15am.
I was security checked entering the building, found the
stairs to the East Wing, up to the 2nd level and found the suite
number, and unless you actually knew where you were going you would have no
idea that there was the Ivory Consulate behind the door. It was a non-descript and locked door at that. So I checked I had the right suite number,
knocked and the door was answered nearly immediately and I checked it was the
Ivory Coast Consulate to which she replied yes and it was music to my
ears. Phew……….what a relief that we
found it. I was shown to a seat at a
table and Cate introduced herself and before I started to fill in the form she
checked that I had all the right documentation (which of course the anal
organised person that I am-I did). So I
went ahead and filled in the form while Cate copied all the stuff she needed
and she was a little thrown that I was travelling overland and not having an
air ticket. She said it was the first
time that she has even head of an overland trip and she kept making small
comments while I was there. But she did
accept my application, I paid the 130USD and I also paid 1000KSH (12.50AUD) to
have an express application and it would be ready for collection tomorrow
between 2.30-3.30pm. Cate did ask where
I got my Senegal visa from and when I told her in London as there isn’t a
Senegalese Consulate in Kenya and she said that is strange as it is Ivory Coast’s
National Day next week and an invite has been sent to the Senegalese Ambassador
and I told her it was funny that she mentioned that as I saw where he lived
this morning-it was a little random that we were taking about it after Steve
and I had spoken about it this morning!
While she had her invitation list out for next week I asked if she had
invited/was there representation for Guinea and/or Guinea Bissau and she
checked and it was a no-so these will definitely have to be obtained enroute on
tour.
So what turned out to be a good morning getting my Benin
visa, to a frustrating day on not being able to find the Ivory Coast Consulate
to Facebook saving the day and being able to FIND the lost Ivory Coast
Consulate and being able to collect my 2nd last visa tomorrow.
For anybody else who is looking for the Ivory Coast Consulate
in Nairobi let me help you out: Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/CIVKenya?ref=profile
Actual Address:
APPLEWOOD PARK
OFF WOOD AVENUE (opposite K-REP building)
2ND FLOOR EAST WING – SUITE 307
KILIMANI-NAIROBI
MOBILE: +254 (0) 786 888 022
PHONE: 020 5229899
Email: Consul@civkenya.com
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