Our last day in Cairo was spent walking across the Nile and the Nile island of Zamalek. On the other side we visited the Mr & Mrs Khalil museum which has an AMAZING collection: Degas, Monet, Van Gogh (yes, more Van Gogh, but really, can you ever have too much?), Rodin, Manet, etc. And just like the National Egyptian Museum, security is almost non-existent. It was a good break to be away from the energy and fast pace of the city and have a quiet reprieve, although neither of us could imagine we would be seeing these works of art while in Cairo. (Check out the pictures a few posts back.)
We then went back to the hotel, hot, sweaty and tired and wanting to take a break before our early AM flight. I checked to see if our flight was still on Schedule only to discover we had missed it...for some reason we had thought and planned on the flight being a day later than it was. After mere seconds of freak out I immediately went into "mom-mode" and kept us calm and tried remedy the situation. We tried to call the airlines to discover they only open at 11:30PM due to only providing late night flights, no help there. We did not have phone service and couldn't call our travel agent so we sent out an email and then we booked new flights for ourselves. I am proud to say Nate and I did all of this without crying, yelling or hurling ourselves from our balcony. Our new flight also had us skipping out on a 24+ hr layover in Addis Adaba, so not all is lost. And there might be a chance that our travel insurance will pay for the new flight, but if this is the only blip on our trip, it is a welcome one. Nate and I have had no troubles and unbelievable experiences. We also feel it may be a form of financial karmic retribution for the little money we have spent so far.
After flying past Mt. Kilimanjaro, we landed in Mombasa. We met a couple who was staying at our same hotel and shared a cab. The hotel was about 25 mins from the airport and outside the city proper. When the wooden security gate opened, we were greeted by an expansive open-air lobby fit for royality, or, us. We were given fresh mango juice as we checked in and since our rooms were not quite ready, roamed the expansive grounds which include: a fish pond, pool, hot tub, two restaurants ( one enclosed in glass and one open air overlooking the beach and Indian Ocean), a pavilion that becomes a nightclub at night, a cafe, lush yard with palm trees, umbrellas and lounge chairs, and steps down to the white sand beach and full view of the beautiful Indian Ocean. The view literally took our breath away. All 4 of us were stunned into silence when we weren't giggiling and exclaiming about the accomodations like children on a sugar-high.
The hotel is more of a resort and since it is winter here (a frigid 85 degrees, burr ;) ) the place is pretty empty. Again, like Cairo was a shock following Amsterdam, the extreme luxury and leisurely atmosphere of the Kenya Bay Beach Hotel is another shock.
Once we checked into our rooms, we both did several loads of laundry in the bathtub. I have a new found respect for the luxury that is a washing machine. Nate and I then took some much needed naps.
That evening we met up with our new friends, Marilyn and Chris and walked to a nearby restaurant/bar for dinner, which was amazing. And I got to drink my first Tusker in Africa! Tusker, for those of you who don't know, is a deliscious beer made in Kenya which my Swahili teacher in college introduced me too.
We retired for the evening and met up with Chris for breakfast at our hotel and then some sun bathing. We don't know what adventures we will be up too in the next couple days, but relaxing has been amazing. We will update again before we leave Thursday for our overnight train across Kenya to Nairobi!
Kyle
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