February 16, Thursday February 17, Friday February 18, Saturday

February 16, Thursday     February 17, Friday      February 18, Saturday

I'm just resting, working on my blog, reading and watching bad TV.  I almost lost my voice on the 16^th ,and kept taking medication, so I’m feeling better today (17^th). I went to the grocery store to buy a few supplies since I have a small fridge in my room.   Again I was surprised by the low prices, but it is so people can afford to eat.   

  Delta Hotel is the middle building

  The beige and burgandy colour is carried from the outside to the inside.  And I have a pink area rug that has sparkles in it ! ! !
  It is spacious, clean and has free internet !
  The view from my room !   Not so great.  The white building on the left is the back of the Parkside Hotel, where I should have been staying.  But it is closed for renovations.

O’sesmus came by to check on me a few times;  I have his phone number if I need any help.   He has been very helpful!   
I guess the 11 pm cut off for music does not apply on Friday nights (17^th), because the music blared on until about 12:30.  There was also a lot of yelling and screaming going on down there.   

Although I woke up at 5 am on the 18th, I was able to go back to sleep until just before 9.  When I went down for breakfast, I noticed that one of the marble table tops had been broken !   Must have been one hell of a party last night.
The breakfasts here are probably the worst I’ve had yet.  It’s a big breakfast that consists of dry cold toast (no butter or jam), an omelette (not really !  it’s a very flat piece of egg, fried beyond recognition and folded up) a few bits of bacon and a sausage.   The bacon I’ll eat, but I’ve never been able to digest sausages or wieners.  The coffee is instant and I need to order it black because of the experience I had with the Latte at the Outpost Lodge.  Otherwise they serve you a big steaming mug of whole milk, to which you add your instant coffee or bag of tea.   I opted for tea this morning and forgot to mention that I just wanted boiling water.  I asked for a separate cup of hot water and made myself a cup of weak tea with a bit of milk.  Just can’t manage to swallow anything with milk right now.   Thank God there is also a serving of fruit (usually mango) and a juice (some kind of blend that is dark reddish pink).   If I close my eyes and just concentrate on the taste, it’s not so bad.  Bought a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread, so I can skip their breakfast once in awhile. 

I’m drinking lots of water and juice with Sprite or Coke every once in a while.  There is also a water kettle in my room so I can boil water for tea, instant coffee or “cup-of-soup”.   I don’t think the dinners here would be any better than the breakfasts. 
At 1 pm I got a call from O’Sesmus, saying that he was at the travel agency again with some clients and wanted to know if I wanted to join them for a bit of a tour.  Sounded like a good idea so off I went, back to the Convention Centre and the 2^nd tallest building in Nairobi to see the view from the top.
Half an hour later, I found O’Sesmus exactly where he said he would be, but they were not finished with the other couples’ reservations, so I went up to the top of the building to look at the view while I waited for them. He had told me that there was a revolving restaurant at the top. When I got off the elevator on the 27^th floor, there was no security guard, so I climbed to the next floor where the restaurant “used” to be located. The area was in really bad shape ! But the views were spectacular.

 City views of Nairobi

  A tourist market below.  Must go check it out.
  Can you see the tall narrow blue building?  My hotel is about 7 blocks further down that street, just in front of the University of Nairobi Campus.
  Found a nice café "Java" near the tall beige building with the burgandy banner.
  Central Park & Uhuru Park

   A view down to the streets where the first hotels I was shown (and rejected) were located.
   Picture of what used to be the rotating restaurant at the top of the building.  In need of a complete revamp.   Some of the floor boards were dangerously springy.
  Looking down at the main plaza where the Kenyatta statue is located.

I had been waiting for more than half an hour when I decided that enough was enough and I headed back down to the elevators.  The security guard was there and seemed surprised to see me coming down from the restaurant level.  “Have you been up to the top?” he asked.  “Yes I was” and I pointed up to the restaurant area.   “No, no…. the roof top” replied.   So off we went, up a different staircase, up two levels, and VOILA I was on the roof on a helipad.  
  Me on the roof top !

He gave me a bit of information about the city, pointing out historical and tourist attractions (very few !).   I indicated that I had been waiting for my guide but he had never shown up and I was worried that somehow I had missed him since I had been on the wrong level.   He escorted me back to the elevators and I returned to the lobby area where there was no sign of O’Sesmus or the couple he had been with.  The travel agency was closed !  So I asked the security guard at the desk if he had seen the man who had been escorting me.  After he enquired of others, someone remembered seeing them leave the building.   So I exited in the direction the guard had pointed and tried to locate O’Sesmus and the couple.  No sign of them anywhere.

Well I knew where I was and where my hotel was and I now had a clear idea of what lay around the surrounding area, so off I went to look around.   I decided to go check out the market area I had seen from above.  Beautiful hand-crafted objects, but no way to just relax and look around since everyone is saying “You need a guide”  “I will help you Mam”  “I remember seeing you at the airport when you arrived, let me help you”   etc, etc.     “Des  vrais mouches-à-merde!”    

After a very brief walk around the market area I made a quick exit back onto the streets and started walking back slowly to my hotel, looking at the sights along the way.  Can’t flash the camera around too often however since there are hardly any tourists around.   I remembered seeing a nice restaurant the day I walked around with O’Sesmus, so I went off to find it again and have a very late lunch / very early dinner.   FOUND IT !   Nice Italian restaurant with an outdoor terrace.  I had a nice vegetable salad, followed by some delicious tortellini (four large pieces).  YUM.   No wine, and no dessert however.  I was full !   I was surprised to find most of the shops closed, on a Saturday afternoon, but was informed that this was normal for the downtown area since it was the weekend and the workers were back in their homes, not shopping downtown.

Made it back to my hotel and called O’Sesmus from the front desk to let him know I was OK and describe what had happened.  Turns out we really had missed each other;  he had not thought of checking the rotating restaurant level and he needed to help out the other people he was escorting.  Hakuna Matada !

He was still concerned however and dropped by the hotel to discuss the need to pay cash in advance for the other nights at the hotel I would require.  He offered to take me out for dinner, but since I had already eaten I politely declined.  We talked for awhile.  I spent the rest of the evening updating and publishing my BLOG. 

The music was blaring away, even louder than the 2 previous nights, but this time it was about 1:15 am before it finally shut down.  The music was so loud that the floor of my room was vibrating !   I guess the 11 pm curfew only works during the week.  

Oh well, at least I don’t have to get up tomorrow to go to work!   (Sorry…..   I couldn’t resist !)

Good night everyone