travelholicgirl

One night, my friend & I have decided to hit the road in the direction of the coastal city of Mombasa, 8 hours by bus, or 13 hours by train, locals say the reason behind the 5 hours delay is that sometimes animal herds cross the railways, hence trains stop completely until they traverse safely. Ultimately, taking the bus was our best option.

The bus was big, well ventilated, but the road was AWFUL, turned out to be very bouncy, believe it or not, we were told that it hasn’t been renovated since the British occupation. It was similar to riding a crazy roller-coaster, everyone slept except us, apparently they were more acquainted to the bumpiness of the road. Five hours later, it was already dusk, the driver had unexpectedly pulled-over, we thought something went wrong with the bus, all passengers including the driver got off, each heading towards a certain direction , and out of the blue they all disappeared in the bushes. Taken by surprise, with no one around to ask, we found ourselves alone in the middle of nowhere. Ten minutes later, one of the passengers came out of the bushes zipping his pants, we both burst into laughter, by then we realized that they were answering the call of nature.

Upon arrival, there wasn’t a single way to reach our destination but a ferryboat, it was so crowded to the extent that people were squeezed. On board there were humans, cars, matatus and bikes. In fifteen minutes, the ferry reached the shore, a quick tuktuk ride was required in order to catch a matatu from a distant station. After haggling with many tuktuk drivers, the one we picked wanted to give us the whole 30KM ride to the campsite instead of taking a matatu, but as it wasn’t the quickest nor the most comfortable ride, we decided to ride it only to the station. We were comfortably seated in the tuktuk, which was spacious enough to take the two of us and our backpacks, though it was slow, and too close to the ground. After finally reaching the station, we hopped on a matatu that was carrying 25 people while it should only carry 16. A lady holding her son were seated on a stranger’s lap, four guys were sitting next to the driver, some others squatted; were literally sitting on air and we got squeezed just like them. We finally made it to our FINAL DESTINATION; the campsite, exhausted yet overwhelmed with the amazing cultural encounter that we've been through, it was a true “live like a Kenyan” adventure that will never be forgotten.