The Silver Springs, Nairobi

Written on Saturday morning:

I got here on Thursday night at about 11pm (GMT +3). Tony my taxi driver recommended a few places to go and would call me on Friday evening to arrange to drive me about on Saturday. The hotel seemed so quiet and the bar empty, but I guess it was midnight and people here seem to go to bed and rise early. Ho hum.

Friday the 8th
Woke up before my alarm at about eight and went straight down for breakfast. Wow. A huge buffet, with all the fried, baked, fresh and sliced stuff you could want. They do bacon they way I've always wanted it without realising - sort of big scraps all in a big tray - take a spoonful or two. I was looking forward to Kenyan coffee, but the stuff I was served was quite weak, although it had a pleasant nuttiness about it. Still really tired so I went back to my room for a snooze. Slept for essentially the whole day and went down for dinner at about seven. The place had come alive, with a barbecue, another huge buffet and live music. I think there are loads of conferences on here, as all these Europeans (ie whiteys) had come out of the woodwork and were all tucking in. Ate on my own again though as there seems to be as yet nobody else from my group around, and everyone else seems to be into their own thing. Went to the bar to find company but again, no one around. Guess I'm used to being lonely, and that coupled with the knowledge that from Monday I'm going to have no time by myself, meant that it didn't really get to me. Recorded the following 'voice diary' on my phone:

"So I'm recording this on my phone and this is my first diary, and it feels very odd talking to myself, but hey. It's um Friday night in the hotel and it's coming up to nine o'clock and there's nobody around; I went downstairs and had some food. There's plenty of people around, but you know, nobody that I necessarily would want to talk to. Nobody that's actually coming on the trip, yeah so it's a bit disappointing to be sitting in my room at nine o'clock; I've spent all day pretty much asleep, hopefully I'll get a decent night's sleep tonight and then tomorrow go with Tony the taxi driver somewhere constructive and take some photos and do active things, and maybe meet some people because apparently they're flying in tonight. That'll do for the moment I guess."

As I write this on Saturday morning (weird listening to myself from last night) Tony didn't call, so I'm kind of on my own again. Undecided what to do with the day - don't think I'll be asleep like yesterday, but I think I'll otherwise just drift with the sea and go where it takes me, at least until I come up with a desire worth chasing. I'm treating this as the calm before the storm; things will start to rumble in to place from tomorrow, so today is for me to experiment with myself and see how I react to things. I guess in any situation at the moment I'm more interested in myself and how I react, rather than the place I'm visiting, so what I'm actually doing and where I'm doing it seems comparatively unimportant. Part of me feels that I should be out exploring Nairobi, but at the moment I feel a bit like a butterfly fresh out of the pupa, drying my wings in the sun and getting used to my new body.