Kenya day 9: Madaraka Express

Overnight at Easy Hotel. Clean, comfortable, much better than any of the previous. Not perfect though. 

Water temperature takes 10min to regulate. If you are impatient like me, you'll get scalded and scream loud enough for Manuel to hear on the adjacent room. Our toilet seat leaks from the bottom and I had to use one of the towels to seal it. Manuel's walk-in shower has a slope and it started flooding his room. He had to build a dam out of the available towels.

Half of the hotel isn't finished. The half adjacent to the lift. It's like work in progress. Why wait for it to be finished before opening for business?

The finished rooms are all by the stairs which look very impressive. Unfortunately, the stairs aren't levelled. The steps are either tilting backwards or forwards. I am amazed to find out how difficult it makes to walk up and down! One needs to grab the handrail properly. Last night, as me and Manuel were coming up the stairs after dinner, I lost my balance. In a bid to help me, Manuel lost his balance and ended up crashing on the fire alarm bell. There was some noise and we had to shout down the stairs shaft 'Mistake. Sorry!' for the security man on the ground-floor. Ups!

Both dinner last night and breakfast this morning were à la carte. It takes a while to order as the waitress doesn't seem to know what is and what isn't available. It took her several trips to the kitchen and back before we knew what we were going to eat. She was nice though so we were patient.

Jorge is having a serious case of constipation. We came kitted up for diarrhoea: anti-motility drug, rehydration salts, antibiotic. We were not prepared for constipation! I keep telling him all he needs to do is to drink a glass of tap water. It will solve his problem fairly quick! He is reluctant to take my advice...
The hotel is close to both the airport and the train station in a very industrial area. Getting to the hotel from the main road means going through a pretty derelict road with makeshift stalls selling fruits and vegetables. As usual, we feel like we are in a compound: high walls, barbed wire, security at the gate.
A couple of nuns share the breakfast room with us. Black outfit, covered head, crucifix and rosary beads on the belt and a large abdominal circumference. As one would expect nuns to be! There are many catholic schools in Kenya so they could be part of one.

We spend the morning at the hotel's roof top bar. It's not open for business at that time of the morning but it has seating with a view and good wifi.

At midday we get picked up and taken to the train station. May I just say I am very impressed with the Kenyan punctuality. All our drivers arrive on the dot or shortly before. I would go in so far as to say Kenyan punctuality is better than British punctuality!

Today we are leaving Nairobi and heading to Mombasa, by train.

The Kenya-Uganda Railway (Meter Gauge Railway), 660 miles, links the Indian Ocean (Mombasa) to Lake Victoria (Kisumu), passing through Nairobi. It was built between 1896 and 1901. It's extension to Uganda is possible via a maritime connection from Kisumu to Entebbe, near Kampala. The British press called it the 'Lunatic Express' because of the colossal waste of wealth and human life suffered during its construction. It cost £3-5.5M (at the time) and 4 workers died for each mile of track laid.

I was looking forward to take this train and experience its renown many hours delays and 15h journeys between Nairobi and Mombasa. The train passed through Tsavo National Park and it was so slow that passengers could easily do a train safari as it travelled through the park.

Alas, the last trip was on the 28th April 2017 so we are effectively 2 years late!

The Chinese have built for Kenya a new fast Standard Gauge Railway line between Nairobi and Mombasa. Operation started on the 21st May 2017. The train is called Madaraka Express, it takes 5h to do the journey at around 100km/h and has 2 departures a day for each direction. The afternoon trains are direct and the morning trains call at 7 intermediate stations.

The first thing you notice on arrival to Nairobi Terminus station is that it is grand. Sleek modern design in a colossal size.

The second thing is the security. After going through all the security, we finally realise why we were picked-up from the hotel 3h before the departure time. The security stages are as follows:

• 1st check point: car stops and security opens the car to look inside, doors and booth, and checks the bottom of the car with a mirror.
• 2nd check point: all bags are laid neatly on a platform for dogs to sniff. The dogs are Labradors and they are super cute!
• 3rd check point: x-ray the luggage.
• 4th check point: a security guard checks each person with one of those hand held devices. A female security guard checks the women and a male security guard checks the man - it has been like this since the beginning of the trip, very segregated. As there are usually less women, I am always quicker at the check points than the boys.
• 5th check point: security checks our tickets and passports.
• 6th check-point: inside the building, luggage gets x-ray checked again!

We are finally through! Kenyans are very hot on their security!!!

The station is as grand inside as outside. Huge panes of glass and granite floors. There was plenty of money lavished here. Manuel comments that the Chinese will make Kenya pay heavily for such luxury... 

On arrival to the waiting area we are asked if we are in First Class. Who? We? My quick reply was 'I don't think so!'. We wait in the large 'Standard Class' (Economy) waiting area. We are surprised there aren't any sockets to plug our phones and Manuel is very annoyed that there isn't wifi. If the station doesn't have it, the train won't either! 'Gosh! How are you going to survive?', my ironic comment towards Manuel. He shrugs his shoulders.

We had to provide full name and passport number for the train tickets.

Jorge notes that for such a big station, there are only 2 shops, both food shops. Why build such a big station and then only 2 shops and 2 departures a day? 'Maybe they are thinking about the future, the development of the economy', I say. 

We seat and eat whilst waiting for the train.

Mandazi - a Kenyan speciality, a kind of fried bread slightly sweet that we see Kenyans eating by itself but can also be eaten with dips. An item at breakfast, we eat it with jam and it's delicious!

Samosas (meat and vegetarian) are popular in Kenya.

Muffin - no flavour, dry.

Punctuality extends to the trains. It departed 6 min before the time and it all seemed very organised. I noticed that whilst the train staff looked African, all the supervisors, meaning the ones with a different uniform looking around and doing nothing, were all Chinese looking. I see what China is doing... spreading its influence abroad, getting countries indebted to them and then exporting their people as well. Smart!

The platform has enough space for 16 carriages, today's train has 11. The trip was slow, 100km/h for such a modern train seems very slow! Surely it could go faster?

Beautiful African scenery all the way. We traverse Tsavo National Park right in the middle, where Tsavo East meets Tsavo West and, as in the old times of the 'Lunatic Train', we do a bit of safari. Manuel sighted the following animals: elephants (plenty!), Lesser Kudu, Thompson's Gazelle, Common Zebra, Buffalo and Guinaefowl. This kept him busy for half the trip.

I decided to read a book. The train is stable enough to read without becoming nauseous, although Manuel disagrees with me. Xana lent me an historic romance set in Japan witch I was so into that I almost read the entire book in 5h! 

Jorge tried the toilets. No toilet paper, no soap. I skipped it!

The Economy Class seats aren't very comfortable, they are straight and hard. We have to change position periodically to relieve the numbness in our coccyx. Manuel wants to upgrade to First Class for the return. The Economy Class costs KSh1000 (£8, $10, €9) and First Class KSh3000  (£23, $29, €26). I immediately know his answer will be 'Oh, no, too expensive!'.

We arrived bang on time at Mombasa, the high humidity (74%) and the high temperature (27͒C) hitting us as soon as we leave the train. Wow! Tropical holiday now starting!

Luckily there are no check points to exit the station. We made our way out with the crowd, looking for our lift. I forgot that I needed battery on the phone to be contacted and it took us as while to find him. In the meantime, we were 'assaulted' by a ridiculous number of taxi drivers trying to get clients. I kept telling them we had a booked driver but they wouldn't listen! Boy, they can be annoying!

Finally we found our driver. The trip to the hotel would provide the remaining of the evening's entertainment.

His driving skills were poor. In such chaotic streets, one needs to be assertive, being afraid doesn't help at all. He was either inexperienced or afraid. 5min into the journey, both me and Jorge discreetly put on our seat belts...

Then he wasn't sure where our hotel was. I couldn't believe it! Luckily we had downloaded the area's Google Map so we were able to navigate him offline to the right hotel. How ridiculous! We were supposed to be driven, not the other way around!

At least we got to the hotel safe and sound!