I must respectfully and qualifiedly disagree with Noddy
[quote=noddy; 1183615]hi hotzo,
i can absolutely gaurantee you, thailand is far cheaper than kenya, mombasa, in all departments. you have misguided yourself. perhaps you enjoy upmarket accomodation in thailand? there is not much accomodation under the $50 a day mark in mombasa, the girls are slightly dearer, again, depending on your preferences. in thailand accomodation can be had for $15 and less per day, minus bangkok. transportation must also be taken into account when in mombasa, getting about in the late hours of darkness can be an issue, do not forget this, perhaps things have improved on this front in the last two years, others can elaborate.
food wise, mombasa is a real let down however.
a trip to kenya is a must for all mongers, you should enjoy yourself imensely. i would suggest, take another look at your costing, use xe currencey converter to sharpen the focus.[/quote]let me first state for the record that i have never been to non-bangkok thailand.
but i do believe that there are some points to be quibbled with regarding noddy's assessment of costs in mombasa.
if noddy is referring to mombasa the city and not to surrounding environs, he may well be right about lodging.
but if one is willing to spread out north to mtwapa, just 30 minutes north by matatu with heavy traffic and 15 minutes without, clean lodging can be had for between 1000 and 2000 shillings a day. and, in my view, the experience is far less touristy and, therefore, far more desirable. (but that is not the point here).
and i had some wonderful culinary experiences in mtwapa as well as in mombasa: local cuisine and indian food respectively and quite reasonable (500-700 shillings for superb, abundant and straightforward indian food in mombasa town and nyoma choma with spinach and ugali [sic? ] in mtwapa, for example).
when i did pay for a girl in mombasa i never paid more than 1000 shillings. (please, no flaming about stinginess, blah blah blah. also not the point here).
bring a laptop, spend 1000 shillings a week for unlimited usb high-speed wireless access from orange, and your entertainment needs are taken care of.
quite cheap, in my view.