I took the train down to the coast which was a bit of an experience Id have to say... Its a very old train line and is "narrow gage" which means that the track rails are only about 60cm apart and that is a pretty narrow footing for a very heavy piece of travelling machinery. And though the line has been moderately maintained, its definitely not that smooth, so the result is that the train rocks around a lot and that means that it has to go very slowly over a lot of the journeys length... And that means that a 600Km trip takes about 19 hours to complete! But its much nicer than traveling in a cramped bus because you can walk around and sleep in a pretty reasonable bed while you travel...
But the down side is again that the train is very old. I got a "first class" ticket for about $60 (which is just about the same as it would have cost me in fuel to ride my motorbike down to the coast) but you need to have a very liberal view of what "first class" means... hint - Its a "relative" rather than absolute term :)
Where to start?,
Well, Ive said that the train line is old... So is the train... and it shows... everywhere!
I don't think there was a single fitting or fixture or window or door or hinge or latch on the entire train that was still working in its original form... Anything that was working (certainly not any of the lights or fans or any other electrical gadget) was only working because it had been jerry-rigged back together in terribly rough fashion using some randomly located and poorly applied hardware to replace the original part that had gone missing years ago.
And the "service" quality was pretty run down too... It wasn't only that the meals (which again is a bit of a liberal term) were rudimentary and served by staff that seemed to be "less than passionate" about their job (and really who could blame them), but the train and track seemed to conspire against them in that with all the lurching and bumping and rattling, it was pretty much impossible to do a descent job of filling a cup of tea even if the staff had been "feeling passionate" about it... More than one passenger got a bit of a spill :)
Its a bit of a shame that the experience isn't up to many travelers expectation though because it isn't actually a bad experience and in my opinion it is still way better than taking the bus... which I did on the way back just to compare.... yep buses are cramped and uncomfortable when they have vinyl covered seats, no air conditioning and take 10-12 hours to get to their destinations in the tropics :)
No pictures of the train trip but I did take a few in Mombasa...
And what is there to see and do in Mombasa??... Not a lot!
It was a bit of a let down for me... There are some nice white sandy beaches but I would hardly call them idyllic... And there is an "old town" with lots of 2-3 storie buildings on windy little streets, but Id hardly call that a romantic or particularly interesting region. And there is an old Portuguese fort... But its very dilapidated (not that you should use that word for anything other than a fur coat or skin rug really) and I didn't find it that interesting... Other than that it seems like its a fairly thriving little African city with lots of modern buildings and Western shopping malls etc... No doubt a great place for the modern and upwardly mobile Kenyan to live... And actually there is a pretty high percentage of residents and tourists from India in Mombasa,,, I think they were historically the money people here in old British East Africa (got a ride over with the British in the colonial days and stayed on to make their own "place" so to speak.)... and I get the feeling that "they" are not that well liked by the rest of the "Africans" in Kenya... But that's just the impression I got and it hardly seems that big a differentiator with all the other "tribalism" motivated biases there seem to be here...
... prepare for minor Rant!....
And on that note I guess Id say that "we" in the developed world seem to think that we are "so much more civilized" etc, and that Africa is being constantly "held back" and good efforts are constantly frustrated by this primitive "tribalism" problem... But as far as I can see "we" are barely any different at all... It seems to me that "Nationalism" is just a tiny step further on from Tribalism and that the "developed" nations are just as hopelessly ensnared in the same problems writ just slightly larger!
Look at the behavior of any nations residents/fans/expats/exported descendants with regard to the recent world-cup Soccer competition... win, loose, or draw... Why on earth does anyone get some sort of personal reward from the performance of a bunch of highly paid athletes who are essentially bought to play for a particular nations football team... and then peoples behaviors when "their" team wins or looses...so disappointing!!
Oh yes, we are soooo civilized and superior in the "developed world"!!!
Nepotism, Tribalism, Nationalism... They are all "attitudes for children" as far as Im concerned and for my part I wish that we would all just Grow Up! :))
hmmm enough of a rant... Mombasa not so special, but not bad either... on to something else...
