Masai Market

Considering we’re sleeping in dorms, it was surprisingly quiet last night, so we managed to get a good night's sleep. I really needed it after the long journey from Denmark to Kenya. After breakfast—where they really love their beans here—we took a stroll into town to find an ATM. Jan already knew the city pretty well, so we found our way easily. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that we were wandering around a big city. To me, it felt more like we were in a jungle. There was greenery everywhere, and we had to walk a bit before we reached the paved road. All the buildings are surrounded by tall fences topped with barbed wire, making them look like little fortresses. It’s necessary since the government hasn’t managed to clean things up properly yet. So, no one is out and about after dark—not even the locals; it’s just too dangerous. There are a couple of Danish girls at our hostel who joined us on our trip to the Masai market. It doesn’t set up in the same place every time; it’s in a new location each day. We haven’t quite figured out the strategy behind that yet. Everything you can buy there is so beautiful! The craftsmanship is stunning, especially the wooden items—huge carved animals, particularly giraffes about a meter tall, and carved Maasai warriors around 1.5 meters high. There are spears, masks, bowls, platters, jars, jewelry, and more. The prices are high, so you really have to be a good negotiator. We’re used to people calling out “my friend” to get our attention, but here they say “my brother” :) Of course, we left with some good purchases—at least we hope so. We definitely negotiated in style. I got a painting for 900 shillings, down from an initial price of 16,000 shillings. And a solid wood Maasai woman for 1,050 shillings, starting at 5,000 shillings. But I have a feeling this won’t be the last of our shopping :) We had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Tratoni. When we were about to leave, someone at our hostel said we could easily walk there. It turned out he didn’t work there—thank goodness, because new travelers might take his word and walk after dark. Unfortunately, it’s almost certain you’ll get attacked if you walk even a short distance after dark. After enjoying a really good dinner and a bottle of red wine, we spent about 2,600 shillings. They eat a lot of beans down here. Jan had chicken a la Kenya with beans, and I had shrimp risotto—without beans :) Like all the houses, this restaurant was also surrounded by a tall fence and had its own guard at the entrance. They even had their own taxi, which we took back since they said they didn’t trust the taxis on the street. Maybe just a trick to get us into their taxi... It might sound a bit wild, but when we got back, we found out that the night before, a guy had been attacked right after getting off a bus to take a taxi to our hostel. It was dark, so he couldn’t see the guys running towards him. They stabbed him with a knife. He just managed to raise his arm to protect himself, so he was only stabbed in the arm and thankfully not in the chest. He lost everything—his luggage, money, and passport. Luckily, there are also some really kind people here. A taxi driver picked him up and took him to Nairobi Backpackers, where we’re staying. They quickly got him to the hospital to get stitched up.