Driving in Kenya

Driving in Kenya is a challenge that I have almost mastered. The first challenge is driving on the left side of the road, everything is backwards in the car, the steering wheel is on the right, the windshield wiper is where the turn signal should be and the turn signal is where the windshield wiper should be, the gear pattern is backwards, and it is really hard to judge where you are on the road. I keep turning on the windshield wipers when I want to make a turn. The other day I hopped into the car only to realize that I had just jumped into the passenger seat. How embarrassing; rather then getting out and walking around I just jumped across the seat.

The roads are narrow with a huge drop off on the shoulder of the road. The highway swarms with Africans walking, biking, pulling carts, and herding goats. The Matadas (taxis) are everywhere, starting and stopping, picking up and dropping off. Everybody is rushing somewhere with cars passing on these narrow highways, when an oncoming car cuts it too close you start flashing your lights as the car darts back into their lane. When a car is broken down on the road they walk off into the bush and cut down some limbs that they lay in the road like cones to make traffic go around. That is highway driving, driving in a city is even more fun. Many times when you come up to a stoplight it is not working so you just stick your car out into the intersection and play chicken.

Today we went to Malindi which is about 90 kilometers north of Vipingo. We saw a lot of things we really liked but most were too big to carry home. After walking around for a few hours and enjoying our afternoon Tusker we headed for a restaurant that Peter and Carol had recommended, that is right on the beach.

As we sat down I realized that I was short on cash but figured they would take a credit card. Wrong, the waiter informed us that they only took cash so I asked him where I could find an ATM. He said there was one just down the beach at the Driftwood Hotel. I asked if I should drive and he said, “No it’s just down the beach.” So I told Lou to order up a drink and I would be right back.

This guy must have been using some sort of African measurement because I walked over a mile before I hit the Driftwood. To top that off, they didn’t have an ATM, so I walked all the way back. By the time I got there Lou was understandably panicked and felt bad that I had gone so far for nothing.

We paid for her beer and headed back into town to get some cash. This time we just stopped at a local dive. We were apprehensive about the cleanliness but when we got our meal it was awesome. Lou got lobster and they gave her two whole lobsters. Warm water lobsters are much smaller then Maine lobsters but it was an awesome meal for about $12.