More Than Meets The Eye in Kenya Plane Spotter Arrests

Posted by Go How

There’s something very strange about the news out of Nairobi in which four British men were arrested after taking photos of airplanes at the city’s in-town airport.

According to a BBC report, the self-described plane spotters said they had permission to take photos of airplanes at Wilson Airport, but the sight of them with their cameras caused concern among some folk who noticed them, “from the airport bar,” and I’m quoting directly from the BBC report.

After the men were picked up, they were taken to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on the far side of the city and incarcerated there for nine days. Stephen Gibson, 59, Ian Glover, 46, Edwin Swift, 47 and Paul William, 47, will have to cough up $2,000 to get out of jail and out of the country according to the Kenya Star newspaper.

During my visit to Nairobi I roamed Wilson Airport on four occasions, once after having a lovely lunch with Doug Morey, a former pilot at Air Kenya, at the colonial-era-styled Aero Club of East Africa, complete with photos of famous aviatrix Beryl Markham on the walls and aviation-themed movies playing on the lobby television. I wandered around the property including the guest houses snapping away.

It is worth noting these days while we are doing so much talking about women in aviation, that Wilson Airport, was named after Florence Wilson, a British widow and heiress who invested in an airline in the twenties with her lover, the pilot Thomas Campbell Black.

Florence Wilson

While Campbell didn’t treat Wilson like a lady, (he left her, the story goes for Beryl Markham), even after he was gone, the business thrived. In 1939, however, the British government absorbed Ms. Wilson’s fleet along with the flying school into its Kenya Auxiliary Air Unit. In 1962, shortly before becoming the independent nation of Kenya, the airfield was renamed to honor Florence Wilson.

In February I transited through Wilson airport several times as I changed planes en route to Keyna’s famed wildlife parks; Amboseli and Maasa Mara. I took photos from inside the airport and out and from inside my airplane and out and I was far from the only one with a camera.

Two of many travelers taking photos

I recorded 5Y-IHO the DeHavilland Dash-8 and ET-AMV, the Cessna Caravan, both of which are being used by the United Nations World Food Program. 5Y-FDK the Phoenix Aviation’s King Air used by the Flying Doctor Service and the arrival of a fancy business jet from which emerged several men acting important and tailed by an entourage of what seemed to be journalists. Helicopter touch-and-gos, pilot pre flights, security screenings, I shot it all without seeing a raised eyebrow.

Kenya is justifiably cautious as it faces a terrorism threat with Somali violence on its eastern border. I don’t know what about this particular band of Brits made them more threatening to the authorities than other camera-wielding travelers. But my photos show there’s more to this story than what meets the eye.

Beautiful hangar door at Wilson Airport

A Train Called the Lunatic Express

Posted by Go How

When I remember Kenya, I will think of trains. Not because I saw so many of them on my recent visit and not because I traveled in one. But the Kenya the world knows today would not exist except for a rail line that, during its design and construction, was considered such a bad idea it was dubbed the Lunatic Line.

Maybe it was crazy and maybe it was not. There are arguments on either side. All of which you can explore at Nairobi’s Railway Museum.

Elias Randiga at the Nairobi Railway Museum

I was lucky enough to have an interview with the museum curator, Elias Randiga, an excellent storyteller who kept me spellbound as he explained how in the late 19th Century, Britain had little use for the great swath of East Africa populated by dozens of indigenous tribes.  The British Empire had its eyes on Uganda.

Building a rail line from Mombasa on the Indian Ocean west to Uganda was the only way to ease accessibility to Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile.

View of Nairobi’s modern skyline from the Kenyatta Conference Center

I arrived at the museum after viewing Kenya’s capital city from the top of the Kenyatta International Conference Center, at 344 feet, it is the city’s 4th highest building. A vast metropolis that is home to six million people spreads out below. So how surprised was I to see the photo showing that 116 years earlier Nairobi consisted of nothing more than the pitched tents of the construction workers and supply stores for the rail line.

Colonization, urbanization and the dissolution of once-isolated cultures are attached to the construction of the railroad just as surely as coaches are hitched to powerful locomotives. So it is ironic that in contemporary Kenya, trains play such a small role.

A few commuter lines operate out of Nairobi’s threadbare station though its front plaza is choked with buses. And at night, people buy tickets for the 13 hour trip to Mombasa, now dubbed the Lunatic Express.

“There’s something antique and primitive,” about taking the train, Kyle Mero told me as he waited with his travel companion, Megan Anderson.

The two Americans from Michigan are currently working as teachers in Uganda. During their two week break, they opted to take the round trip journey between Nairobi and Mombasa and were ready for anything.

“They say it’s supposed to be 13 hours,” Mero told me “but the last guy I talked  to said it took 25.”

Still, the two were excited about the adventure ahead, what Mero referred to as “the romantic journey of the Kenyan landscape and imagining what we might see out the window.”

In a country well-known for wildlife tourism, Mero and Anderson may be getting a budget safari. The route takes them through a region famous for fierce creatures.

In his 1902 memoir, Man-Eaters of Tsavo, British rail engineer Col. J.T. Patterson described his many unsuccessful attempts to keep the lions from lunching on rail workers. Dozens of laborers had been pulled from their tents as they slept, before two of the lions were shot. In a morbid postscript, Patterson later found a lion’s den and human bones. It was not a leap to assume they were the remains of the missing workers.

Farther up the line, another audacious lion entered a rail car during the night and grabbed the Superintendent of Police Charles Ryall as he slept in the train berth. The lion jumped out the window, officer Ryall still clamped in its jaws.

Elias Randiga took me through the coach car, pointing out how the lion entered, how the door rolled closed behind the big cat, locking it inside and on top of another man sleeping on the carriage floor. Ryall’s blood still stains the cracked window, making this the most ghastly of the museum’s exhibitions.

The difficulty of building the train, challenging terrain, predatory wildlife, opposition from local inhabitants, harsh living conditions, these were such formidable obstacles even more than a century later the idea still seems crazy.

The grandfathers of today’s Maasi opposed building the railway

And yet, had the idea not powered its way through all resistance, Kenya would likely not exist as population of diverse tribes under one federal government into which is layered descendants of the Indians and British whose arrival created and then exploited the region’s new accessibility.

After my visit to the rail museum, I downloaded Patterson’s book and consumed it with the appetite of one his hungry lions.

Later, during game drives in the country’s magnificent parks, in conversations with people who still live in close proximity to Kenya’s untamed wildlife, and even among the city dwellers in bustling Nairobi with its overtaxed roads and overloaded buses, I would remember Patterson’s story.

Now I think the craziest thing about Kenya’s link to the rails is that anyone ever thought they could predict where the track would lead once the wheels of progress were put into motion.

Tortilis Camp: A Stamp in the 'Exotic' Portion of Your Passport

Posted by Remark Magazine

The Dawa: Kenya’s Beloved Boozy Cocktail

Posted by Eater

A mixture of honey, lime, white sugar, ice, and vodka—it’s ideal for the equatorial climate

The dawa cocktail is rivaled only by Tusker beer as the most beloved boozy beverage in Kenya. The concoction of honey, lime, white sugar, ice, and vodka is simple enough, and the acidic citrus juice and syrupy honey succeed in masking any alcohol. An ideal refresher for Kenya’s equatorial climate, it’s now an ever-present drink on bar menus at safari lodges across the country, stretching from the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro all the way to the Maasai Mara reserve.

It’s particularly popular during the safari equivalent of happy hour. During a traditional sundowner, the game drive breaks to drink cocktails and watch the striking sunset over the African plains. It’s a ritual rooted in British colonial rule that dates back to the 19th century, when sipping gin and tonics had the added benefit of preventing malaria. 

Dawa means medicine in Swahili, so one might assume the drink also has curative properties. But, unfortunately, it has no such romantic story. Samson Kivelenge, who has worked at The Carnivore restaurant in Nairobi since it opened in 1980, is credited with naming the cocktail. He explains with a laugh, "It treats your stomach so that you have an appetite for the meat."

"It treats your stomach so that you have an appetite for the meat."

The Carnivore claims to have invented the dawa. As one of Kenya's most famous restaurants, it's known for exotic offerings like grilled giraffe, impala, and wildebeest. The boisterous restaurant still thrives today despite the Kenyan government’s ban on game meats. This is partly thanks to the restaurant’s signature cocktail.

The dawa is actually based on the caipirinha. Company chairman Martin Dunford first tried Brazil’s national drink during a trip that inspired the restaurant, as The Carnivore is modeled after churrascarias combined with the Swahili tradition of grilled meats. He knew a Kenyan twist on the cocktail made with cachaça, sugar, lime, and ice would appropriately complement a meaty menu.

Samson Kivelenge mixes up a dawa, and dons his popular feathered headdress.  [Photos by Meredith Bethune]

Aside from its refreshing tang, part of the dawa’s allure lies in its eye-catching yet simple presentation.

Replacing funky cachaça (which probably wasn’t widely available in Kenya at the time) with neutral vodka may seem questionable. But the caipiroska, a variation that substitutes vodka, is quite popular in many South American countries. Adding honey also makes the dawa more authentically Kenyan, since the country has a long history of traditional beekeeping.

Kivelenge has specialized in mixing dawas ever since The Carnivore opened over 30 years ago. Today he’s more commonly known as Dr. Dawa, traveling from table to table wearing a 1920s-era cigarette girl-inspired tray carrying the libation's necessities. Not to mention a flamboyant pink feathered hat similar to those worn by African witch doctors.

While vodka remains the most popular spirit for building dawas, Kivelenge believes Kenya Cane is a worthy substitute. The highly-refined spirit is made with triple distilled sugarcane, yielding a clean and neutral flavor that is more similar to vodka than rum. Dr. Dawa doesn’t remain wedded to rules, though. He’ll even fashion a dawa with brandy by request.

Aside from its refreshing tang, part of the Dawa’s allure lies in its eye-catching yet simple presentation. The drink is always served with a large stick resting in the cocktail and leaning comfortably against the side of a tumbler. Beyond the honey, these "dawa sticks" are one of the drink’s distinguishing characteristics, and another key item on Dr. Dawa’s tray. Part swizzle stick and part muddler, it’s a decorative flourish that actually serves a purpose. "It’s a magic stick," Kivelenge states.

The Carnivore's dawa cocktail. [Photo: Facebook]

Dawa sticks are always dipped directly into honey and rolled until thoroughly coated. The stick then hits a glass already containing a mixture of vodka, sugar, lime juice, quartered limes, and ice. "Because once you're stirring and you mix the honey in it, you get a nice taste," Kivelenge explains, "It dissolves everything." 

The Carnivore’s dawa sticks look and feel like they’re made of wood, but they’re actually plastic. For sanitation reasons, the restaurant now prefers these to the originals. Although they're not as rustic, plastic sticks are superior because the honey slips right off (the wood sticks are more porous). Yet, decorative dawa sticks, almost always made of wood, have become a popular souvenir throughout Kenya. Many feature intricate carvings, or even the famous beadwork of the country’s Maasai people.

Despite its presence at sundowners, the dawa is truly a post-colonial cocktail. Of course, Kivelenge thinks it’s worth lingering in the city to try the dawa where it all began. "Yeah, it started here at The Carnivore and all of Nairobi and Kenya, they now copy us," he says. "And the way they make it, they can't make it like us." And he’s right, even though the drink is uncomplicated and easy enough to replicate. No one else, but Dr. Dawa himself, makes it with quite as much flare.

A Train Called the Lunatic Express

Posted by HuffPost Travel

When I remember Kenya, I will think of trains. Not because I saw so many of them and not because I traveled in one. But the Kenya the world knows today would not exist except for a rail line that, during its design and construction, was considered such a bad idea it was dubbed the Lunatic Line.

Maybe it was crazy and maybe it was not. There are arguments on either side. All of which you can explore at Nairobi’s Railway Museum.

I was lucky enough to have an interview with the museum curator, Elias Randiga, an excellent storyteller who kept me spellbound as he explained how in the late 19th Century, Britain had little use for the great swath of East Africa populated by dozens of indigenous tribes.  The British Empire had its eyes on Uganda.

Building a rail line from Mombasa on the Indian Ocean west to Uganda was the only way to ease accessibility to Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile.

I arrived at the museum after viewing Kenya’s capital city from the top of the Kenyatta International Conference Center, at 344 feet, it is the city’s 4th highest building. A vast city that is home to six million people spreads out below. So how surprised was I to see the photo showing that 116 years earlier Nairobi consisted of nothing more than the pitched tents of the construction workers and supply stores for the rail line.

Colonization, urbanization and the dissolution of once-isolated cultures are attached to the construction of the railroad just as surely as coaches are hitched to powerful locomotives. So it is ironic that in contemporary Kenya, trains play such a small role.

A few commuter lines operate out of Nairobi’s threadbare station though its front plaza is choked with buses. And at night, people buy tickets for the 13 hour trip to Mombasa, now dubbed the Lunatic Express.

“There’s something antique and primitive,” about taking the train, Kyle Mero told me as he waited with his travel companion, Megan Anderson. The two Americans from Michigan are currently working as teachers in Uganda. During their two week break, they opted to take the round trip journey between Nairobi and Mombasa and were ready for anything.

“They say it’s supposed to be 13 hours,” Mero told me “but the last guy I talked  to said it took 25.”

Still, the two were excited about the adventure ahead, what Mero referred to as “the romantic journey of the Kenyan landscape and imagining what we might see out the window.”

In a country well-known for wildlife tourism, Mero and Anderson may be getting a budget safari. The route takes them through a region famous for fierce creatures.

In his 1902 memoir, Man-Eaters of Tsavo, British rail engineer Col. J.T. Patterson described his many unsuccessful attempts to keep the lions from lunching on rail workers. Dozens of laborers had been pulled from their tents in the night before two of the lions were shot. In a morbid postscript, Patterson later found the lion’s den and the bones of some of the missing workers.

Farther up the line, another audacious lion entered a rail car during the night and grabbed the Superintendent of Police Charles Ryall as he slept in the train berth. The lion jumped out the window, officer Ryall still clamped in its jaws.

Elias Randiga took me through the coach car, pointing out how the lion entered, how the door rolled closed behind the big cat, locking it inside and on top of another man sleeping on the carriage floor. Ryall’s blood still stains the cracked window, making this the most ghastly of the museum’s exhibitions.

The difficulty of building the train, challenging terrain, predatory wildlife, resistance from the indigenous residents, harsh living conditions, these were such formidable obstacles even more than a century later the idea still seems crazy.

And yet, had the idea not powered its way through all resistance, Kenya would likely not exist as population of diverse tribes under one federal government into which is layered descendants of the Indians and British whose arrival created and then exploited the region’s new accessibility.

After my visit to the rail museum, I downloaded Patterson’s book and consumed it with the appetite of one his hungry lions.

Later, during game drives in the country’s magnificent parks, in conversations with people who still live in close proximity to Kenya’s untamed wildlife, and even among the city dwellers in bustling Nairobi with its overtaxed roads and overloaded buses, I would remember Patterson’s story. Now I think the craziest thing about Kenya’s link to the rails is that anyone ever thought they could predict where the track would lead once the wheels of progress were put into motion.

8 Breathtaking Islands You've Never Heard Of

Posted by Refinery29

Whether you’re looking to escape to a warm- or cold-weather destination, an island getaway is your best bet for a relaxing, mind-easing vacation. But more often than not, island paradises are teeming with crowds, making it hard to truly escape. Luckily, the more remote the island, the more tranquility you will find.

Read on to discover eight remote, yet accessible, island oases where a mix of local culture and seclusion make for an ideal getaway to find yourself, find peace, or simply find a tan. 

Funzi Island, Kenya 

Located off Kenya’s southern coast, surrounded by the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, and home to a large population of sea turtles, sits little-known Funzi Island. In an area consisting of four mangrove-covered islands, Funzi Island serves as the mainland and home to 1,500 permanent inhabitants of the Shirazi tribe. Travelers can go on a crocodile safari or stay at the island’s one hotel, The Funzi Keys. To get to the island, take a ferry from the mainland or hop on a 15-minute flight from Mombasa.