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Day
12
(September 21, 2013) Mombasa
Before
This could take a tour to Kisite marine National Park for
this
day, including swimming with dolphins and snorkeling in Wasini Island.
We could make the transfer to Mombasa to be included, as the lunch is.
We’ll try to see the highlights of the city before
going to rest.
If we're finally not going to any tour we
would look for a transfer to Mombasa and would explore the city.
The night is going to be short as our flight to
Istanbul is scheduled for leaving at 4:10 AM.
The spots marked at map are:
0- Hotel Papillion Lagoon Reef
1- Kisite Marine National Park
2- Mombasa
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After
We’re breaking our fast and saying good bye to
these buffet meals around 9 AM. The only thing to do next in this
resort is taking our baggage to the reception desk and checking out and
leave. There is from where I call our driver to let him know our deal
is still up. Then we check out and pay 900 ksh by the T-shirt we bought
in the gift store and remove our magic bracelets which give us right to
everything here.
Our car arrives late, around 10:30 AM, and the
driver blames the lines for the ferry for it, but we don’t care as we
don’t have any rushes for today.
The trip is like the one the day before yesterday:
straight between palm trees until Likoni ferry. This time we’re not as
lucky as the previous one and we must join a log line through Likoni
market, which we watch from the car.
 
The amount of vehicles in the line makes us wait for more than one
ferry to get full before our turn comes, as an example of what our
driver’s explained.
This time we don’t leave the car until it parks,
once in Mombasa, after a fence, in an area belonging to New Palm Tree
Hotel. We deal with our friend he will pick us up at 5 AM for the trip
to the airport by 2000 ksh. It seems too much but as we’re happy with
him I just get his agreement of the tip being included there.
The hotel is close to the city downtown and from outside it
is a building just as the others in the street. This is the least
touristic of all the hotels of this travel and when it was booked we
were looking for a place to leave the baggage and resting before going
to the airport, but after the change in the flight time we’re going to
sleep here and the room is valid for that too.
We go out for a walk and explore the city. My
thought is to find the petrol station I just see from the car before
reaching the hotel because it is a Pizza Inn in it and, since Naivasha
we want to eat pizza.
Somehow, walking is complicated on these streets
which recall us the ones in Cambodia: peeled sidewalks, puddles, mud…
and the streets are full of tuk tuks!
When I’m thinking about getting one of these tuk
tuks as we’re not finding the station, it appears after a turn.
Inside, it is very clean and there are two restaurants, one
pharmacy and a supermarket looking pretty modern. We ask to the
pharmacy about something to treat the burnings we’re bringing from
Diani but we’re sent to a Nekumatt supermarket far from here. Here,
we’re interested mainly on eating and we get a pizza with coke menu by
750 ksh which we share.
Before leaving the place we do some small shopping
in the supermarket. Then we go back outside to the street, looking
after some pictures with the tusks. But after some roundabouts and
crowded streets we are not finding them. I know they’re in Moi Avenue,
and I think we’re in the right street but, as there are no signs for
the street names, I cannot confirm. When we are in the entrance of a
big supermarket we get in because Eva is looking for local coffee to
bring to home. We find a pharmacy in the lower floor where we buy some
special cream for burnings looking better than an after-sun.
 
We’re sick of walking the streets without knowing where we
are so, when leaving the building, I ask to the closest tuk tuk how
much is going to be a quick stop in the tusks and then going to Fort
Jesus from there. As he answers 150 ksh I don’t bargain and we get into
it.
We weren’t in Moi Avenue, but in a street parallel
to it. We do some pictures with tusks and our driver offers for helping
us with the photos for the couple photos.
 
Then we do the trip to the fort and I give a 200 ksh bill to
our driver, saying good bye while taking the way up to the entrance
from this sort of circled and closed square, with drinks and souvenirs
shops all around.
I'm surprised by the most expensive ticket for a
monument in this travel: 1200 ksh per person, but we pay for it as this
is the only visit for this city and the last one in Kenya. We refuse
any offering for guide, though.
The entrance goes to a huge courtyard with palm
trees and only one restored building, the rest of them are wearing a
layer of years with peculiar colors going from red to dark.
 
But it is by exploring the corners of this place when we enjoy
the visit and take a lot of pictures which demonstrated how photogenic
this historical place is. Some rooms of the buildings are with some
trivial objects in display and others are still showing tracks of how
they looked like in the times of yore with their original wall
paintings.
 
Very characteristic of this place are also its walls with canyons and sea views.
We get into the gift shop where the man shows us, as if it was a
mystery, the place was used as kitchen. But we finally buy nothing in
there as it is an expensive place.
 
When we leave the fort we’re having in mind this is the end of
our travel in Kenya. A short tuk tuk ride takes us back to the hotel,
where we rest connected through their free wireless. Although the
signal is only stable out of the room, in the courtyard they have in
this second and last floor.
 
The hard rain makes us be back in our room and, when we go
downstairs for some diner in the hotel they tell us restaurant is
closed. It is 8:30 PM, what time do they diner here!? As we don’t want
to go outside we order to the take away place in front of the reception
desk a couple of each of the two kinds of pastries they have: balls and
triangles. They have a specific name, but I cannot tell them.
We take our diner on the bed and go to sleep early as we must be ready at 5AM.
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