Haven't done too much since the last email, Climbing Mt Sinai was fun. I didn't realise quite how busy it was going to be, there were hundreds of people on the mountain which made it quite crowded, especially in the dark. The egyptians also sell camel rides to the top, and so while walking up someone would shout camel and with half a second a camel would be ploughing through you. Near the top I felt some hot breath on my neck, and jumped to the side just as a camel came through. The foot of the tourist on top knocked me, and I had to grab hold of the camel to avoid falling over the cliff edge. It would only actually have been about a metre, but it still would have hurt. Once at the top people were renting these smelly old blankets from the egyptians, and with everyone crowded at the small summit wrapped in blankets in felt like we were in a refugee camp. We watched the sun rise which was really good, and then went back down the mountain, which was also good as this time you could see the surrounding scenery. Towards the end it was pretty tough, I took the 'Steps of Penance' route, which are these 3000 roughly cut steps built by the local monastry as a form of penance. Not having slept for 36 hours and having climbed a mountain in that time, we were all pretty dead. The day after I left Dahab and went back to Cairo, and caught the plane to Nairobi, which apart from a half an hour delay went smoothly. My hostel in Nairobi was nice, it was on the outskirts and was like a mini camp. I had only meant to spend a day in Naiorbi but ended up staying two or three, waiting for my safari to the Masai Mara. I went with two german ladies from my hostel, it was a long drive to get there on largly unpaved roads or roads which are so potholed that it was smoother to drive on the dirt either side of the road. It was nice seeing the Kenya countryside though, there villages are set along the road and are a mixture of mud and stick housing and stone housing. It reminded me of the American midwest, the way they were set out, and some buildings had Pub, Cafe or Hotel painted above them. Coke and the two main mobile networks sponsor buildings, I think, and they get painted in either luminous red, green or purple, with the logo on, which brightens up the village alot. When we got there we had a two hour evening game drive, we saw a family of Giraffes, and then a leopard in a tree. The game vans all are connected via radio, so when one spots an interesting animal they let everyone else know, and by the time we left the leopard there were about 25 vans crowded round. I felt a little sorry for him, but he didn't seem to bothered. The sunset was also really good, and being 200km south of the Equator the moon was rising at the same time, and was massive. We got back and met some more people in our little camp and chatted for a bit. Dinner was quite good, though instead of spearating the meat from the bone before cooking it, Kenyans tend to just smash up the bone with the meat on a cook it, which means that you are constantly picking bits of bone out your mouth. The next day we went for a full game drive, saw a pride of elephants including a massive bull elephant, and then later laods of elephants everywhere, loads of different kinds of antelope, zebra, a cheetah with three cubs and a fresh kill, four young male lions, buffalo, more giraffes, warthogs, hyenas, vultures, ostriches, a pride of lions with two males, lots of females and four cubs, crocodiles and hippos. So pretty much everything apart from Rhino. The wildebeest migration was really good, no wild river crossings but an endless line of wildebeast traipsing through the savannah, miles long but only about 5 wildebeast thick. In the distance you could see them snaking up and down the hills, and at river they wait until enough of the group has caught up so they can all do it at once, rather than one at a time. That evening I went for a little walk outside the camp and talked to a couple of the Masai, they have done well at modernising but still keeping their culture. If they go out of the camp to other towns then they were western clothing, otherwise they wear traditional dress, and all have massive holes in their earlobes, known as spacers in the west, and when they get big enough they tuck it over their ear. To be honest it isn't the most attractive of tribal decorations. They also all support english footbal teams as well as local ones, and like working over at the nearby luxury lodge so they can watch the games on TV. The next day we got up v early to go for a morning game drive, which wasn't that amazing but we didn't see some more nice animals. We had breakfast and then went back to Nairobi. The next day I went with one of the German girls and a scottish bloke we met on the safari to the Nairobi National Musuem which wa good, a lot better presented tna the Egyptian one, and it was better than many western musuems. I caught the bus, after a bit of a caffuffall, to Homa Bay on Lake Victoria the next day. I got there quite late and found the hotel Lonly Planet had suggested, when they said it was simple and minimal they were right, there was a hole in the floor for a toilet and a bucket from which you got rainwater from the water butt to wash yourself with. My room was clean but minimal, and as I discovered the next day the roof leaked. I went to bed early, as because it was raining there was a power cut. I also discovered the next day that Homa Bay wasn't actually a tourist area, which Lonely Planet had ommited, and I was in fact the only Wazumga (white man) in town, which everyone found fascinating, especially the kids. The next day I got up early, washed all my stuff because my shampoo had exploded in my bag, and then climbed Mt Homa with my bag. It almost killed me, as it isn't a proper path but a rough track which goes straight up the mountain. I met on the way a guy called Richard who was climbing it to say his prayers, as it was sunday, who was telling me a lot about Kenya. The burned out buildings that are scattered around Kenya are mostly from the post election violence, and he couldn't leave his home for three months because of the violence. There is a lot of favouritism from the government to tribes which they come from (there are 42 tribes in Kenya, some only 200 people), and although the government are fighting corruption, it is still rife. In Nairobi I had noticed the Anti corruption commission building and outside every government building there was boxes for people to put in anonymous complaints of corruption, as well as all parking attendants having 'Corruption is Evil' on their uniforms. When coming on the bus to Homa Bay we were stopped at road blocks twice by the police, and paid them, which was because the bus wasn't raodworthy or because we were carrying something we shouldn't have. Richard then took me for a tour of the town and through one of the ghettos, the nicer one as the other one was too dangerous for a white person, it was quite eye opening. The houses were made of corrugated iron, and the area had stagnant puddles, rubbish everywhere and livestock roaming, though it wasn't as bad as some places must be. His mum is better off than most poeple in the town as she runs a hotel, and was invited for lunch back at his mums. She lived in a flat, the block of flats being like a council flat in inner london, complete with the smell of urine. The inside was clean and well kept, but they dind't have running water and stored it in tubs where the sink should have been, and the shower and toilet were communal (with the block of flats), the toilet being a hole in the floor and the shower being sponging oneself down from a bucket of rainwater above the hole in the floor. I have discovered that there is a good reason for Kenyan cuisine not being world famous. Lunch was ugali, which is cooked maize and water, seaweedy stuff and avocado. The seeweed tasted of the sea, and the ugali tasted of the smell of goat, with an awful texture. Although when discribed it doesn't taste too bad, it really was and I had trouble eating it and wretched a couple of times, though was able to hide this from richards family and pretend I was enjoying it. They invited me to stay the night, which I did, and I stayed in Richards room, which was separate from the house and on the top floor. The roof was corrugated iron and just nailed on the the walls, so there was no sound proffing from the rest of the block, no electricity or heating, nor security. He used an oil lamp for light when it was dark. Dinner was the same as lunch with the edition of beef, which was actually quite nice, if a little stringey. The next day I said my good byes to Richard. The whole experience was very interesting, I was surprised that he lived like that as a middle class person, and was suprised at how people lived like that yet in Nairobi they are spending money on street plantings and other less vital things. | also saw aid in the form of clothes being delivered, I don't know whether this was given free or sold, but the community shares clothes when they get too small on someone. The main thing which depends on how much money the area gets spent on it seems to be whether that area is predominately from the president or prime ministers tribe. They do seem to be making progress though, corruption is slowly reducing, education up to university level is free and the government is increasinly the number of free university places and HIV and TB care is free. There is also a lot of American aid programs, even though the government spends 20% of it's budget repaying american debt. The bus ride to Nakuru was painful, I had my bag on my lap and we were crammed in, complete with crying kids and chickens, going over unpaved roads for 6 hours. I arrived in Nakuru, the town next to Lake Nakuru, the lake with all the pink flamingoes, and went out to a restaurant last night to get a nice meal, not having eaten much. I ordered a chicken curry, wanting something safe, but got half a chicken sat in a strange sauce, but it was actually quite nice. I also met an man from Argentia, and he was excited to see me as I was him, as I was the first white person he had seen in two weeks and he was the first white person I had seen in just under a week. It was nice to have a conversation with someone who spoke english well. I also seem to be the only white person in Nakuru again now, as he has left, which I was surprised about as I thought it was a touristy area, but I think most tourist just do a day tour around the lake, and go down to the Mara. I'm going to go and see Lake elksdkjbsjdf, or something, I forget the name, which is similar to Lake Nakuru but not a national park so not $30 to get in, and then tomorrow go and see the Menegray crator. I think after that I'm going to go down to Mombassa and the coast.