2 weeks in Nairobi (mostly non-sex info)
lodging:
a week at chester house. see my earlier post.
a week at kenya comfort hotel on monrovia. very pleased. simple. reliable hot water. no frills. one tv station (al-jazeera news, which i rather like). 65 dollars a night for revolving-door double. fairly tight and occasionally ridiculously-so security, or so it seemed to me (adolescent security girls sitting on the elevator and reading a book?). no in-room safe but the wardrobes have padlocks. i felt comfortable locking up my laptop (with its own laptop lock which i attached to the metal dowel for clothes) and money, camera, etc. here with a padlock. highly recommended.
incidentally, i would not let the whole wireless/broadband availability thing occupy a moment's thought in determining your choice of lodging (it involved several moments' thought on my end before i arrived): get a 3g modem for your computer. even if you're dumb, you can install the software, buy the orange top-up cards (apparently orange's new modem for about 35 dollars is superior to safaricom's, but who knows) and be internet-independent with excellent high-speed. and very cheap for most surfing purposes. only gets pricey when you're a baseball addict and watch streaming video.
all the internet-cafes i tried, mostly out of curiosity, had very disappointing bandwidth. some hot women, though.
food (disclaimer- i am a serious foodie, but not a snob. if the food is delicious and the atmosphere is shit, but appropriately and contextually shit, then a place will only gain points in my estimation):
renalo foods. just north of the nations center building in the city center. excellent kenyan cooking in a bare-bones but clean setting. no menu, napkins or utensils. you go to the booth on the left, survey the piles of cards on spindles with food-names, order what you want, sit, give your cards to your waiter and wait for your delectables to arrive. collective sink at one end near the bathroom for washing your paws and face when you are done feasting. open late.
express grill. just next to the terminal hotel. excellent, cheap home cooking, like your kenyan grandma might make if you had one and she could cook. they stop serving around 7:30 pm.
habesha. ethiopian. excellent and very authentic. i ate at the one just off the uhuru pkwy in the center of town on several occasions. supposedly the inferior of the two habeshas in nairobi. the service is pleasant and dreadful. the food is sublime if you are a fan. open late.
the mean streets:
vastly overblown reputation on isg and elsewhere, in my opinion, for danger at night. as noddy pointed out, there is security everywhere along the streets of downtown. every 90 feet, at any hour, stands, stoops, snoozes or lazes a security person. yes, he is there for the business he is stationed near and not for you, but he is also an excellent general deterrent. and deterrent from what? i found no evidence of menace, thuggishness, etc. no gangs of ravenous nairobi youth, no lone marauders. maybe i was just stupid and lucky. but maybe the reputation is unwarranted, a holdover from more lawless days.
touts are way less a pain in the ass than in accra, as a comparison. they are here. but they're selling safaris and not trinkets and they have way less stamina. will not follow you for two blocks.
beggars are abundant, especially with babies.
cabs:
can anyone truly claim to be an expert in what a muzungu should ultimately pay? my take: between 50 and 70 percent of the asking fee seems reasonable. e. g. i had drivers insist on 2000 shillings one-way for a pretty hefty drive, especially in traffic, from city center to ngong, where a lovely girl of mine lives. she pays 1500. so i paid 1500. which is also what you should pay to and from the airport.
pools and lounging about:
you need only white skin at the hyatt, stanley and laico to chill at the pools of these exclusive joints. the health clubs are also your oyster; just "sign in" and fabricate a room number. yes, it's unethical. but they don't feel the crunch.
girls:
i did imply in the title that i would not be writing much about the action. why say what's mostly already been said? but a few words are in order about afro, aff, alt.com et al. they were a wonderful resource for me. no scams. lovely girls. in my 2 weeks i had rewarding and ongoing encounters with 5 girls through these websites, which included socializing, meals, variably intelligent conversation and occasionally fascinating entre into local culture and life here in kenya as well as sex. if fucking prostitutes is not your thing (and it is not mine), then the internet can be a semi-pro and no-pro goldmine. simmers and florida just made me sad. but then the go-go bars and beer gardens of thailand do too. no chance to know, addict, charm and win the girl. the only money i ever laid out in kenya was for meals and, quite literally, for a girl's taxi fare. i must say i had very little time to approach shopgirls and the like, what with my internet-filled dance card. though, as in ghana, their obvious approachability (and more than occasionally their willingness to approach and flirt with me) is wonderful for the shy muzungus among us.
now, having prattled on about the sterility of encounters with prostitutes, i must say i had two very lovely experiences at the massage places which have already been referred to in the dev building on tubman. (in the end, if i'm going to fuck a professional, i prefer to dispense with the pretend socializing and conviviality leading up to the deed. of course, this is just me). one was a two-girl massage (sans massage) on the fifth floor. lesbianism, dfk, two-headed head the works. small space. unhurried. big return. 4k. second was with anita on the third floor. spent a good half-hour on the massage, lovely bbbj, fun sex. 2500. (i did not overpay, in my view. the massage was rather professional and i told her so). these places seem to run out of steam around 8:30 pm.
enjoy.
I had a Muslim girl named F---...
Fits this description to a T. (Aside from the fact that she did not hang out with anyone.)
My first Muslim and my first Somali and my first clitorally-altered girl.
I miss Kenya.