We made it into the Nairobi airport on time, about 9:30pm and were met by a driver who brought us to the house we’d be staying at for the next two weeks.
A few initial impressions of Nairobi and driving in Kenya.
The traffic here is kind of insane, but in an organized way. Merging is a game of chicken, pedestrians take their lives into their hands crossing the road, but everyone seems to know the rules. Similar to my experiences in Bangladesh, the traffic has an ebb and flow to it. There’s a lot less honking here, compared to Bangladesh which was a constant (polite and informational) cacophony of honking.
I have no idea what the rules of the road are, but everyone seems to know when it’s ok to honk, turn, overtake (lots of overtaking) and let others in. I’m glad I’m a calm person by nature or I’d be curled up in a ball in the backseat having a nervous breakdown.
The city is full of advertising. Full. I’m pretty sure there is no regulation about restraint and the billboards are two to two and a half times the size of what we have in Canada (same width but way taller). In the more rural areas it seems like every shack and roadside vendor has their store painted with either a SafariCom (wireless carrier), Coca Cola, or Crown (paint brand) logo.
Our place was outside the city and is fairly fancy, including a great pool, which I took advantage of the next day, which was our “readjustment day” (previously written about).
More soon.
