Greetings and salutations
You could hear a pin drop around here. What happened?
Couple of notes, one question first: any good suggestions for cheap places to stay? Couple weeks at a time? Thanks.
Notes: people are mentioning good eatings in the downtown and nobody's saying anything about Island Dishes. For ages this was the heart of good eating on the Coast. The Carnivore of Mombasa even. There are now two of them, neither in the old original spot. But worth a quick, cheap lunch. The main one is on Nkrumah Rd. Just before you get to the DHL office, just up but across the road. Across from the road that goes down to Lotus Hotel. The other Island Dishes is down on the left side of the street that cuts into Old Town off Makadara across from Central Police Station. That's the main Island Dishes. Fight the crowds at lunch.
Speaking of food, of course, despite the election, food is super expensive. So is gas. And that means so are taxi rides. You are probably not just being ripped off. For those who haven't been following the news, the stupidity that was the drive to turn the world's food aid into ethanol fuel has been a disaster since it takes more energy to make it than you get in the end. And now the world is out of corn. Rice prices are through the roof. While Kenya is real lucky and only just starting to feel it, some predictions have food riots breaking out in urban Kenya by August. By December I know several researchers who already want to be on the ground to cover the chaos that will be unavoidable.
So you may want to see that coming.
In the meantime, eat local! Learn to love muhogo, or cassava. Ten bop for a big, long, fat, juicy, cooked up piece of cassava will last you for several hours, half the day if you put some masala on it. The most filling ten bop in the world. Great way to save money. But stop buying your food at the grocery store, it's all imported and messing up the food markets. Again, try to buy and eat local. And don't blame it on me, blame it on George Bush. It's fun.