Mombasa: Day 1

Because of the Promulgation Day that E eloquently described in the previous post, we found ourselves with a long weekend. We took advantage and headed into Mombasa to explore some of the sites in the nearest large city. This journey began on Friday afternoon with a 40-minute matatu ride to the ferry, which shuttles cars and pedestrians from the “mainland”, to Mombasa, which is actually an island (more ferry info later). Once we arrived in Mombasa, we sampled some fresh cassava chips from one of the many vendors immediately off the ferry (delicious), jumped in a tuktuk (a three-wheeled cab-type vehicle, see below), and wove through traffic to a Penny’s (a colleague) house in Nyali (north of Mombasa), who had offered us a bed for the night.



We put down my backpack at the house, relaxed a bit, and then headed out for dinner. In hindsite, because of Ramadan, this weekend may not have been the best week to go to Mombasa to explore the cuisine. The vast majority of the Muslim-owned restaurants are closed for lunch, and many of them are closed for dinner as well. As Mombasa is primarily a Muslim city, this equals little selection. Of course, the restaurant we had previously identified was closed, so we ended up at Tamarind, a famous Swahili seafood restaurant in Nyali, by our host’s recommendation. It was rumored to be the top restaurant in East Africa so we hadn’t planned on visiting yet, but we are so glad we did. We walked through the entrance and onto the patio, which is perched on a cliff overlooking the river that flows past the north side of Mombasa. At this time (around 6:15), the sun was setting, and the view was amazing. See below.



While still admiring the sunset, an otherworldly sound arose from the city; a building cacophony wafted across the river, amplified by the water. We realized that it was the muezzin, or the Muslim call to prayer. The muezzin is heard at dawn, midday, afternoon, sundown, and bedtime. The muezzin (the person) at each mosque climbs the minaret and chants what roughly translates to “hasten to prayer”. Because it was sunset, on Friday, during Ramadan, the call to prayer is apparently more coordinated, so it was actually quite loud. I’m sure you could find a sound clip of the muezzin, but I don’t think it would do what we heard justice. After being here for two weeks, it is starting to feel a bit like home but this sound really brought us back to the fact that we’re sitting in Mombasa, on the Indian Ocean, during Ramadan. This isn’t any old dinner on a Friday night in Cleveland and we talked about how we are so, so blessed to be experiencing this adventure and we are reminded of that during moments like these.

But, as we marveled at the sound and took it all in, this is real life for the waiters of Mombasa and they’d like to seat us now. After eating homemade “upcountry” food for the past two weeks (hearty, little seasoning), we were very excited to try some authentic Swahili (coastal) cuisine. The coast of Kenya has been a hub for Indian, Yemani, Omani, and Portuguese traders for many, many centuries. As a result, the Swahili people are a mélange of these different ethnicities, and their food reflects this diversity as well, in very delicious ways as we soon found out. The flavors of our meal were incredibly robust; we tasted turmeric, saffron, paprika, cumin, and coconut flavors in various elements of our fresh seafood dishes, and I’m sure we missed some. We both agreed that it was the best meal we’ve had in a very long time, especially with the addition of the Tusker beers and the Pimms cup (Pimms is a British alcohol and something we associate with E’s dad; it’s delicious especially when served Tamarind style with banana and cucumber garnishes). All in all, it was a great meal and a very nice start to the Mombasa adventure.