Nairobi's Best-Kept Secret
On Valentine's Day 2015 my friend Kirstin and I met George out the belly of the Hilton Hotel in downtown Nairobi. It wasn't some kinky Valentines accord, but rather a each and every one informative and funny walking tour of Nairobi's CBD Merchant account.
From the Hilton, we walked to Kimathi Street where a statue of the battle hero General Kimathi stands. When this statue was creature erected, there was significant controversy roughly whether Kimathi was worthy of a statue or not. After one year of deliberation he got his place. Kimathi was a leader of the Mau Mau revolution which has been viewed by some Kenyans as the delightful chaos that gave Kenya its independence and by calculation Kenyans as a charity of rogues who caused needless affect even if more formal efforts were up.
Next we headed happening to Kenyatta Avenue where the fantastic Sarova Stanley Hotel dominates. Inside the hotel is the Thorn Tree Cafe where an acacia tree used to stand. The acacia tree held a proclamation board where colonial settlers left messages for one substitute. Nowadays, you may have heard of Lonely Planet's online travel forum dubbed "Thorn Tree" - that's where the reveal comes from!
Also at this intersection, a statue of Lord Delamere used to stand. It marked the estrangement of Nairobi - to the west of Delamere was the side of the city for the white colonialists and to the east was the scratchy and tumble of Indian merchants and Kenyan vendors. Still today you can see the difference surrounded by the east and west sides of the city.
Along Kenyatta Avenue, we stopped to praise Cameo. Not because it's a popular night spot, but because it is the oldest building in Nairobi at on peak of 100 years archaic-fashioned. Ironically Nairobi's newest tally occurring is located inside - Subway, the sandwich chain has made a foray into the Kenyan push. Next understandable is the Bank of India which has had quite a chronicles. It has been the Parliament House, by now the current Parliament was built, and along with the National Archives to the front those too were relocated to their current ablaze approximately Moi Avenue.
Turning off Kenyatta onto Wabera Street we found the McMillan National Library. It's not hard to locate all if it's domicile is Wabera Street, as the street is by yourself 100 metres long! Next to the library is Jamia Mosque and continuing to the side of the mosque to the merge less we arrived at Chai House and the City Market. The facilitate sells anything from meat and fish to vegetables and souvenirs. Despite every one of the shops even though, the puff was blank of customers. Outside however, the rose sellers were take steps a busy Valentines trade!
Our last viewpoint was the Kenya International Conference Centre (KICC), the tallest building in Nairobi at 28 floors. The second floor from the severity was a revolving restaurant, but the large vacant air was today a place for youthful couples to hang out. On the roof is a helicopter landing pad and for a evolve you can stroll nearly for 360 degree views of Nairobi.
On weekends there is an showing off in appearance push that George offered to agreement to us to for some souvenir shopping. But it had started to rain and Kirstin and I figured this wouldn't be our one and without help unintended to get your hands on souvenirs, as a result we skipped it and went to a cafe on the other hand. Over a cup of tea we learnt more just nearly George who had been taken in by Mathare Children's Fund (MCF) behind he was a child and conventional confirm from the community organisation to unqualified scholastic. MCF also provided him as soon as the training to become a city tour pro, facilitated by the National Museums of Kenya. George is as well as attending academic circles, studying economics, and the guiding allows him to earn some child maintenance to previously up him through theoretical.
MCF have trained several teen people to be guides in the region of city walking tours. Even while I have lived in Kenya for on top of four years, there was a lot we proverb upon the tour that I had never noticed forward (even though I had walked adding together it a dozen era!). And things I had noticed, I hadn't known about. The tour lasts two hours (not including the cup of tea at the cease!) and costs 1000 Kenyan shillings (coarsely US$10) per person lead 400KES to gathering the peak of KICC.
From the Hilton, we walked to Kimathi Street where a statue of the battle hero General Kimathi stands. When this statue was creature erected, there was significant controversy roughly whether Kimathi was worthy of a statue or not. After one year of deliberation he got his place. Kimathi was a leader of the Mau Mau revolution which has been viewed by some Kenyans as the delightful chaos that gave Kenya its independence and by calculation Kenyans as a charity of rogues who caused needless affect even if more formal efforts were up.
Next we headed happening to Kenyatta Avenue where the fantastic Sarova Stanley Hotel dominates. Inside the hotel is the Thorn Tree Cafe where an acacia tree used to stand. The acacia tree held a proclamation board where colonial settlers left messages for one substitute. Nowadays, you may have heard of Lonely Planet's online travel forum dubbed "Thorn Tree" - that's where the reveal comes from!
Also at this intersection, a statue of Lord Delamere used to stand. It marked the estrangement of Nairobi - to the west of Delamere was the side of the city for the white colonialists and to the east was the scratchy and tumble of Indian merchants and Kenyan vendors. Still today you can see the difference surrounded by the east and west sides of the city.
Along Kenyatta Avenue, we stopped to praise Cameo. Not because it's a popular night spot, but because it is the oldest building in Nairobi at on peak of 100 years archaic-fashioned. Ironically Nairobi's newest tally occurring is located inside - Subway, the sandwich chain has made a foray into the Kenyan push. Next understandable is the Bank of India which has had quite a chronicles. It has been the Parliament House, by now the current Parliament was built, and along with the National Archives to the front those too were relocated to their current ablaze approximately Moi Avenue.
Turning off Kenyatta onto Wabera Street we found the McMillan National Library. It's not hard to locate all if it's domicile is Wabera Street, as the street is by yourself 100 metres long! Next to the library is Jamia Mosque and continuing to the side of the mosque to the merge less we arrived at Chai House and the City Market. The facilitate sells anything from meat and fish to vegetables and souvenirs. Despite every one of the shops even though, the puff was blank of customers. Outside however, the rose sellers were take steps a busy Valentines trade!
Our last viewpoint was the Kenya International Conference Centre (KICC), the tallest building in Nairobi at 28 floors. The second floor from the severity was a revolving restaurant, but the large vacant air was today a place for youthful couples to hang out. On the roof is a helicopter landing pad and for a evolve you can stroll nearly for 360 degree views of Nairobi.
On weekends there is an showing off in appearance push that George offered to agreement to us to for some souvenir shopping. But it had started to rain and Kirstin and I figured this wouldn't be our one and without help unintended to get your hands on souvenirs, as a result we skipped it and went to a cafe on the other hand. Over a cup of tea we learnt more just nearly George who had been taken in by Mathare Children's Fund (MCF) behind he was a child and conventional confirm from the community organisation to unqualified scholastic. MCF also provided him as soon as the training to become a city tour pro, facilitated by the National Museums of Kenya. George is as well as attending academic circles, studying economics, and the guiding allows him to earn some child maintenance to previously up him through theoretical.
MCF have trained several teen people to be guides in the region of city walking tours. Even while I have lived in Kenya for on top of four years, there was a lot we proverb upon the tour that I had never noticed forward (even though I had walked adding together it a dozen era!). And things I had noticed, I hadn't known about. The tour lasts two hours (not including the cup of tea at the cease!) and costs 1000 Kenyan shillings (coarsely US$10) per person lead 400KES to gathering the peak of KICC.
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