Note: This is an article on my third trip to Nairobi. The first two articles can be found here:
Nairobi, Kenya, 2018
My third trip to Kenya was in July, 2019. To noone's surprise I flew Qatar Airways via Doha.
I visited the Al Maha lounge on my way to Nairobi and the Oryx lounge on my way back. The two lounges are adjacent on the second floor and of you do not hold a membership card both would charge you 200 QAR (50 EUR). Both are of similar quality and offer a very nice variety of food and drinks as well as smoking areas.
This time the Hamad airport in Qatar was rather crowded, which has never been the case on my previous trips. Even so, the airport stood to its high quality of service as always.
The weather
This time I went to Nairobi in July, which is winter there. I would not say that the temperatures we very different though. Average was between 13 Celsius at night to around 22 during the day. Still a shirt and a light jacket worked perfectly for me.
This time I noticed some local people were wearing winter hats and jackets despite the fact that the actual drop of temperature was only a couple of degrees.
Accommodation
This time I stayed at the Ngong Hills hotel. A place of moderate quality, offering a level of service corresponding to the price. Wifi is available and free, however you need to log in and the redirect to the log in page does not always work, at least not across the entire DHCP range. I requested assistance from reception, they promised to send an IT guy as soon as he comes to work, which never happened.
Breakfast was ok, yet what was on offer was pretty limited. Can not complain though, the quality was all right.
One thing I noticed was that they charged me differently at the bar for one and the same beer I had each evening - one day it was 300KES, another day 250KES, then again 300. All with proper receipts.
I noticed virtually noone but me smoking in Nairobi. All public buildings do not allow smoking inside, some even forbid smoking in the yards so I had to walk out on the street. This is definitely good and in addition to the ban on plastic bags shows that the country is putting a lot of effort towards health care and preserving the environment. I guess.
The poor infrastructure can not go unnoticed though. I took several short walks and got my shoes and clothes dusty pretty soon.
The central part of Nairobi is full of modern buildings, including some pretty tall ones. I was told that the tallest building in Africa will soon be built there.
All other relevant information on acceptance of credit cards, electrical plugs, safety and especially vaccines is available in my other articles on Nairobi here:
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