visuals from the food corner

06-12k026

At Nakumatt Likoni (in Mombasa) the chocolate is stored in the fridge. A great idea!

06-12k012

Mombasa: Crispy chips, spicy beef kebap, lots of salads and 5 sauces to choose from.

06-12k000

Mandazi & other sweets as sold on Mombasa streets. I also tried some delicious Swahili Pizza (egg + minced meat) for 50/= as well as Kabibi, those rice cakes.

The Coast Region really is a culinary delight.

07-01a-012

Back in Embu I was welcomed by oily, half-fried chips. Hmmm.

You see, I met my butcher yesterday and he asked me why I had never come back to his shop. I told him straight away that his meat tasted like OMO and that I would just LOVE to see at least ONE person in this Githeri/Mataahaaa-infested rural town to come up with the smart idea of running a Nyama Choma joint where beef kebap is sold. Those beef cubes / shashlik skewered on a stick. I am sure ppl would buy and love it. Also because those sticks don’t take too long on a grill as mbuzi choma normally takes about 45 minutes or even longer. My butcher liked the idea but of course doesn’t have the funds to start his own Nyama Choma joint.

things I didn’t buy…

07-01a-001

1. A rather arrogant bumper sticker with a message for the uncreative masses.

07-01a-006

2. Came across this JoeDirt-styled shirt on a 2nd hand clothes market here in Embu. I didn’t buy it because it was a bit too short + unfortunately I have no muscles for showing off.
This shirt + a Kikoi + Bata sandoools, the keys to a worn out RangeRover and you’ll have the perfect KC look.

07-01a-007

3. Yeah, right!

07-01a-008

4. Now that’s for you, Twigamoja! :-)

07-01a-002

5. So I went to this one particular shop in Nairobi where they sold “Jesus souvenirs” as I call them. I liked the idea of having a nice calendar for kids which gives some meaningful (!) inspirations.
But then I saw this “Judgment Day will come – why not make Jesus your advocate?” message sold on a bumper sticker. WTF? Awesome messages like this one just scare me away as I don’t believe in any Armageddon-based religion. How can they actually try to convince people of Jesus’ message (Love) if they are scaring ppl at the same time with out-dated, medieval auguries?

SANY0016

6. I didn’t have to buy this special fruit – I found it on my way to the office. I had never seen something like this before and was curious to see what it’s all about. This fruit goes by the name of Fenesi in Kiswahili, or Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) in English and is about the size of two footballs. I cut it apart to see what it looks like inside and this (unfortunately) unripe fruit looked very promising to me.

People often oil their hands with kerosene/parafin before preparing jackfruit, as the rest of the mass of the fruit is a loose white mass that bleeds a milky sticky sap, often used as glue. (source)

Glue? SuperGlue! Aaarrgghhhh…. ;-)

the sunrise & Kikuyu Kenyatta Beach

Oh my oh my….SOOO many impressions from sunny Mombasa – and the most lasting one is the good food. Nice! And the weather is was much better.

For those who couldn’t make it to the beach last year, here are some visual impressions. Enjoy! :-)

06-12k019

@ 40 Thieves, Diani Beach on January 1st, 2007

06-12k018

All it takes is a matatu from Mombasa via Likoni ferry to Ukunda (70/= ), and from there good luck in form of a good samaritan (as all Matatus were awfully overcrowded at 10:30 pm) who stopped a minibus for us (thx, Pastor ??? of ??? Church in Ukunda! :-) belonging to girlshope.de. Now, what a coincidence. Anyways, thx for the free ride to 40 thieves!

There’s nothing better than celebrating New Year’s morning somewhere at the beach, and starting the year by swiming in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Hola Twigamoja – I started the new year in a very dutch way :-)

One “funny” incidence that won’t leave my brain for some time was the skipper of a typical Glass Bottom Boat approaching a Kenyan of indian origin at Diani Beach. The guy was SOOOO pissed off about being treated like a typical tourist (~ 3.000/= for a 2h trip with the boat) that he told the skipper in Kiswahili “I am even more Kenyan than you”. That phrase really made my day.

The agonizing reality of being a mzungu at the beach of course is that you’ll always be regarded as a walking money box. It sometimes stops by replying in Kiswahili or showing any local ID – but some of these beach boys operators are very persistent or maybe just dumb?

06-12k025

And then – of course – a nasty “traffic jam” of wananchi queueing for Likoni ferry on Monday afternoon. Waiting for 30 minutes in direct sunshine makes you feel like a Kuku @ Kenchic. Also, this is a disaster waiting to happen – if someone faints, there’s no emergency exit.

Reasons for going to Diani instead of other beaches are: Sitting is free!

06-12k043

Chairs = 50 bob At Kenyatta Beach. A PUBLIC beach!

06-12k040

Please note the “lifebelts” (inflated car tyre tubes) as well as other accessoiries such as swimsuits for rent to the public. There should be more public beaches – but then: Diani Beach is also open to the public. And better. Public in terms of affordable prices for the masses? Hmm..

06-12k039

“Jomo Kenyatta Community Beach CleanUp Coordination Committee”

A matatu from downtown Mombasa to Bamburi & Kenyatta Beach costs about 30/= ==> you don’t need to stay in an expensive hotel at the beach, but can instead rely on public transport, chose a cheaper bed&breakfast place downtown and also enjoy the typical Swahili cuisine in oldtown Mombasa. Beef Kebap, Swahili Pizza, etc. – I just WISH someone smart could introduce that kind of food to rural areas in Central Kenya (hint, hint!). Oh my…

06-12k030
a huge tortoise at René Haller Park

Another tourist attraction is René Haller Park, or Bamburi Nature Trail as it used to be called when I was there the first time in 1991. For an entrance fee of Ksh 200/= for Kenya residents (tourist 600/=) you get to see some animals (many many crocodiles) and, most importantly, a healthy forrest where there was nothing some 30+ years ago.

The bottom line to all this is that Kenya has so many different sceneries and interesting landscapes to offer, different cultures and customs which all mix up in cities like Mombasa. Spending the holidays in this hot and laid-back city just proved to be a very smart idea!

@ Bankelele (& entrepreneurs)

SANY9943

In case you can’t decide on the proper location for your duka project, or if you’d like to have total access/control on your business while sitting in that office chair, you might want to try out this (shaggz & nephew compatible) mobile duka solution I came across in Mombasa earlier this week.

And it also makes me think of other mobile solutions for Kenya (aka business ideas for the jobless youth – I just can’t stand these “all my friend are ideling around” phrases anymore): as more and more electronical services are becoming mobile and affordable / rescalable for resale, how about renting one of those pickups or smaller busses and equipping them with mobile internet surf stations (running on Linux or any other free software solution)? Electricity could be provided by solar panels (= one computer and 5 terminals) supplying batteries, and internet connection could be realized through a bundled GPRS connection. The technology is already there, customizable and doesn’t cost more than a normal (fully equipped) Internet Café (with maintenance & hardware costs).
In other words: I would like to see 2007 being the year when we see more and more younger people moving back to the upcountry side and trying their luck over there. I think there’s always a way to find a decent loan for a smart project. If YOU don’t try it, who else will?

on asking questions

There’s this friend of mine who thinks my life is all about blogging and that I’d only attend certain events in order to blog them later on.
She’s has therefore stopped asking me questions about my life as she argues “Oh, but I can read about it all on your blog!”.

Well, yeah?

Such statements really piss me off.

06-12k008
(random snapshot from my life)

downtown

“So you are also going to Mombasa”, the three girls asked me, “which part – North Coast or South Coast?”.
The three girls are working in Ukunda (= Diani Beach, South Coast), and took the same bus at 10pm back from Shagz, equipped with a heavy bag full of potatoes from Mama. Vegetabools are kinda expensive in Ukunda.

“I am going to Mombasa. Downtown”, I replied.

“They call this place a city”, the 18yrs old young Kenyan from Garissa seated next to me in the bus told me this morning? when we eventually arrived downtown. Sorry, downcity?
He also told me about that police stop at the entrance to Garissa town where I’d been to in November, and how they use the polio vaccination signs to spot the difference between Kenyans and Somalis. “My brother is from Somalia”, he told me, “and just the other day I saved his life by showing my arm (to the police) first”. His polio vacc sign is on his lower arm – his brother’s on the upper arm. “Refugees” are assumed to have enough money as many deal in US-dollars. Which is why they are often targeted by the police.

It worked. Bloging via OperaMini actually works. Wow. Ok ok, just 400 characters, but still. Nice!

“The Shining Hotel”? – lemme me pls call it this way – actually has a photo on the internet. The place is quite impressive – the rooms not so. But it works, I waited 3hrs for? an empty room? and: it is downtown. Just 5 minutes away from Fort Jesus and the sea. The SEA!

I stood there, earlier this evening, enjoying the view on the ocean and just breathing fresh air. Beatitude.

Dear upcountry hoteli owners: IF you don’t know how to make proper chips/french fries – and I know you can’t – pls leave it to the experts. Or come to Mombasa and learn how Mr JKE likes his chips to be: deep fried. Until they are crisp. Yeah!
Eating in Mombasa is a dream-come-true. YES, I had my first steak (a real steak!) here and for the same price I get a daaabool cappuccino in Nairobi.

Makes me think I should travel more often. And start blogging with a satisfied stomach. Actually, yeah, I saw a few (many, actually) men at my age (~30) who were rather fat. It must be the food here.

One last rant for the evening: surfing at internet cafes sucks.
First, some idiot allocates you one of those f***** up PCs with a lousy screen at the size of about the palm of my hand + a worn out mouse & keyboard, then the connection is damn slow (GPRS is faster!) and the worst: MS Internet Explorer.
Ppl like it though – everyone here is busy (video) chatting with their loved ones via MSN/Yahoo IMs and you start thinking to yourself: how many bloggers are there on KBW from Mombasa?

6am Mombasa

So this is my first bloging attempt using OperaMini on my Nokia6230i (yesss, Daudi:-) while sitting in the lobby of a 1930s Hotel in downtown Mombasa which somehow reminds me of Jack Nicholson’s “the Shining”. Interesting place indeed.

Upon arrival at 6am I just had to ignore all “yes, taxi, my friend?” calls and go for the mandatory mandazi na chai first. Mbo ndazi are just the best! :-)