We drove into Mombasa through the heavily congested port area. There were huge trucks with containers coming and going and the road was a dustbowl with such heavy usage. All along the highway we passed container trucks and oil product tankers.
It was 34 years since I was in Mombasa too but when we arrived and headed up the main street there was nothing I recognised. The town is crowded with lots of taxis and Indian tuk tuks every where. The footpaths filled up in the evening with hawkers selling plastic products, shoes, clothing, and fruit and vegetables.
The hotel we checked into was on a busy corner and was pretty noisy but it was spotless and had everything we needed. We are used to sleeping with ear plugs and I use a mask to cut out the light and keep my ear plugs in. There were mostly locals in the hotel and a couple of white Kenyans. It felt a little like a boarding house as they sat around watching the "soapies" on TV all night. One of the soapies is an Italian one dubbed in Swahili and then later it is on again in English. We never saw any other travellers in the place.
We walked to a vegetarian Indian restaurant further along the street and although there were hardly any lights on in the street we felt comfortable walking after dark. When we go out after dark we leave our passports and other valuables at the reception desk and have them locked in a small bag. We then only take what we need for an evening meal and nothing else valuable.
Everywhere you look there are mosques and minarets.
Got up early and got a ticket on the bus to Lamu and will stop on the way back to Nairobi again here for one night to break the trip.
