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Other entries in Mombasa

Onto the Kenyan Coast

For ease and financial benefits we decided to take a bus from Jinja straight through to Mombasa - a 24 hour journey in total with a 3 hour stop over in Nairobi at 6am. It was a surprisingly swift and painless journey although the roads did cause it to be a non-stop bone shaking experience. Over the course of the ride it was incredible to watch the landscape transform from the red clay earth of Jinja and lush hilly Ugandan landscape to a drier, sandier and flatter landscape dominated by palm trees at the coast. They make up for the lack of colour in the earth however by decorating their businesses with brightly coloured paints and murals.
We settled quickly into our hotel in Mombasa with a quiet inner courtyard blocking out the noise and busy streets below. It's really quite a nice and very laid back city though. One thing we're coming to love is that the guaranteed response to every question/request is 'No Problem' with a smile and slight shake of the head. And usually it is no problem which is very nice. Can we have breakfast up outside our room? No problem, smile and nod. Do you know of a place where we can get a watch battery? No problem, smile and nod, just go to.... Is it alright if we...and the answer is always the same. If it is a problem they'll sort it for you.
Instead of one night we stayed for two running errands and making it down to Fort Jesus and the Old Town. While wandering around the streets we immediately attracted a 'friend' who conveniently toured us around giving us the low down on the city and the sites of interest. Not surprisingly when it was time to part ways he requested a small sum of money to buy a refreshing coke. Ah well.

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