Travel Diaries I

There's nothing I love more than indulging in a bit of traveling here and there.

Since the year began, I have been effectively focused on trying to find something to occupy my time. A job, a hobby, a little pampering once in a while, being brave... but my all time favorite has always been traveling. 

In Early March, I found myself in Ukunda for an interview. Of course the trip was utterly exhausting, considering the fact that we were on the road for close to 24 hours. We began the journey from Eldoret at about 11pm on Monday of 27th February. We were in Nairobi before six in the morning. By around seven thirty, we had tickets to Mombasa, and we were headed out of Nairobi. 

We got to Voi at around half past two, and were in Mombasa by around four or five pm. My dad and I were utterly drained, and still had to go on a ferry to Ukunda. A sweet tempered gentleman picked us up in his tuktuk and took us on the ferry over to the mainland and straight to Ukunda. We took a bit of a turn around Ukunda before booking a room at Diani Forest Lodge. 

Hunger Games
While at Ukunda, my dad and I realized that somehow we missed lunch on all the nights we slept there. We'd get distracted, then find ourselves leaving the premises to go find food. 

On our first night there (Tuesday) we went out and purchased milk, some fruit and a loaf of bread. We were lucky to be up for breakfast early. It was something similar to continental. There was fruit juice, jam and margarine for bread (which was either white or brown, your choice), tea, a sausage or egg (can't remember if they came together) and lots of cool breezes blowing in from the ocean which was about two to three kilometres from the hotel.

Lunch was buffet. Can't remember what they offered, but we ate till we were too full to get up for the next thirty minutes after eating. Then, at about four, we went out walking to the town, before convincing my dad that we weren't really in Ukunda unless we went to the beach. We were taken by a tuktuk driver and walked along the beach as the tide came in. The sand was powdery and white, and there was alot of seaweed deposited on it. I took off my shoes because sand kept getting in them anyway. 

While we were at the beach, a local fisherman doubling as a tour guide regaled us with tales of an island that only reappeared when the tide went out. He told us about the boats with glass bottoms, which the tourists love d to go on. I listened as I tried to get the sand off my feet. I was utterly at peace in that moment, hearing the local language being spoken, seeing the waves crashing on the shore, and half heartedly trying to shake the wet sand off my feet.

Once again, we were late for dinner, so we had to go look for a place where we could grab a bite before going to the lodge. Our tuktuk broke down before we got to the main part of town, so we took our feet to the tarmac roads and sandy paths.



Hot, Long Nights
Ukunda was really hot at night. I found myself getting up in the middle of the night to drink water and turn the fan on. 

Luckily, i packed a dira so that problem was lessened by half. My hair bore the brunt of the sweating, so much it was actually frizzy the entire time we were at Ukunda. I had to wash it in the morning when we were leaving Ukunda. 

The heat at the coast does not allow women the freedom of putting protective hairstyles like weaves and heavy braids. It also limits your dark wardrobe, so you have to invest in lighter coloured and thin materialed clothes. Some women spent the entire day in khangas. 

The nights were definitely longer because it was winter in the northern hemisphere, though the sun was overhead the equator roughly a month later. Kenya does not get severly affected by the sun being overhead both the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, but there are some deviations from the Equinox. Days either become longer, or much shorter. The heat at night makes everything worse. The fans were not a luxury, rather a necessity, despite the breeze coming in from the ocean. 



Alarm clocks
Diani Forest Lodge was literally in the lowland forest. As such, there were monkeys playing on the roof of the rooms every morning. Once they started, they only got louder. 

Exactlyu like an alarm clock!

Despite the obvious irritation these playful creatures displayed, I kept thinking about the encroachment of human settlements into their natural habitat. I wondered about the conflict this would bring. Being naturally curious, they could eventually end up being exterminated by us. Which sort of made me very sad, because this reminded me of a documentary aired on National Geographic about monkeys in India. Human beings have inadvertently spread urbanization smack into the habitats and ecosystems of animals, leaving them to respond almost instinctively to the threat humankind poses to them. Was that why they bounced on the roofs from dawn? Was that why they sat on the roofs of other houses and stared at us? What would be next? Throwing fruit and stones at us?

Eventually, we left Ukunda, feeling much healthier due to all the sweating we encountered. I had never gone beyond Likoni, and it was quite an experience for me. The journey back was just as exhausting, but it was totally worth it. 

Next time i will be blogging about Eastleigh in Nairobi. Enjoy your day! I have quite a busy one ahead of me.