My Hovercraft Is Full Of Eels (Aug. 8-10)

After a long day of airports and airplanes, this morning got off to a good start. Yes, breakfast. A very comprehensive breakfast. Plus, there was also a little bit of clarification as to the itinerary for the next two weeks. Not a detailed itinerary because, well … that’s just the way things are. And generally the way I like them anyway.

That said, as I understood it today we would be travelling around Nairobi and seeing some of the locations involved with the documentary. As I said, that’s not a particularly detailed summary but it’s more details than I had yesterday. Once I learn more I’ll be sure to provide more details.

As Gage and I waited in the hotel lobby, I decided to look up a few Swahili phrases that might come in handy over the next two weeks. Yes, I probably should have done over the past several weeks while I WASN’T learning Dutch. As I browsed, I found a page with a reasonably comprehensive list of basic phrases. Harabi (Hello), Habari? (How are you?), Jia langue ni … (my name is …), Jabari ya asubuhi (Good morning), etc … As I continued to scroll through the list I also learned that “Gari langue linaloangama lime na mikunga” is Swahili for “My hovercraft is full of eels”. Needless to say I found this more than a little amusing. And as would be expected, that was the point. For the record, I have NOT purchased a hovercraft. Nor have I seen any eels. Ever. The origin of said translation comes from a Monty Python sketch involving English and Hungarian translations and it’s a rather amusing sketch. As a public service, the phrase in question can be viewed in a plethora of languages by clicking here.

Given the less than stellar WiFi access so far in Africa, it’s safe to say there won’t be daily updates over the next two weeks. Instead I’ll summarize some of the highlights along the way.

The biggest surprise so far has been the weather. It turns out that Nairobi doesn’t get all that hot. One could argue that it’s somewhere in the “warm” range. The temperature since arriving has been in the high teens and low twenties and dropping down to the low teens in the evenings. And apparently that’s seasonal. Who knew!

Over the first three days in Africa, we’ve visited some documentary locations, driven around Nairobi, and visited the Nairobi National Museum and Snake Park. For the record, driving around Nairobi is an adventure unto itself as the traffic and drivers are absolutely nutty. Bordering on light chaos. I’m glad we have someone to do the driving for us! The highlight of our activities though has been the Giraffe Center where we got up close and personal with some giraffes. Truly beautiful and gentle animals. I remember being fascinated with them when I was in Africa in 2011 but today I got a much closer view.

We’ve since moved on from Nairobi and are now in the town of Wote. Side note: Gone are the days of 10:00 PM sunsets – today it was dark by 7:00 PM. How sad.

The drive to Wote was about three hours and included some of the biggest speed bumps I’ve ever seen. And there were a lot of them … even on major highways. On more than one occasion the bottom of the car actually scraped said speed bumps. While it may seem odd to have speed bumps on a highway, it makes sense when you consider there are a lot of pedestrians trying to cross said highway. Without the speed bumps they wouldn’t stand a chance.

Tonight’s hotel in Wote is Hotel Le Panda which is much nicer than I expected although still a bit of a work in progress. On the upside, the beds have mosquito netting because, well … apparently there are a lot of mosquitos here although we didn’t notice any upon arrival. That said, I think it’s safe to assume that we’ll be encountering more than a few of the pesky insects in the days to come. As for the netting, I consider it an upside because Gage was actually advised to bring mosquito netting – which she did – but it’s much more convenient to use what has been provided. At the moment, the only downside to the hotel is the lack of WiFi of any sort – that’s one of the work-in-progress elements of the hotel. Apparently they’re working on it but there won’t be WiFi during our stay.

The lack of WiFi is probably a good thing tonight as having it would likely have meant I would’ve been up to all hours of the evening using said WiFi. Considering tomorrow’s plan is to start at 7:00 AM, I’m thinking going to bed at a more reasonable hour would be wise. And that reasonable hour is now.

Zzzzzzzzzz.