I had the opportunity to spend 2 days in the homely city of Nairobi a few weeks ago and I fell in love. Despite the fact that I am African and have lived in this beautiful continent most of my life, Nairobi to me seemed to exude all the things that make Africa so great. The air so fresh with  nature all around, the warmth of the people with smiles and an outstretched arm to welcome you at every turn, the creativity born out of a genuine love and contentment with what is within its borders. All I can say is I wish I could have stayed longer but for the days I did get to spend, I would like to share a few things with you.

During my stay, I got to stay at the beautiful Sankara Hotel. One of my favorite things about the hotel were the keep sakes placed in your room for each night spent at the hotel. Each night, you were greeted by a pocket-size soapstone carving of an animal. There are 7 of them in the collection..a different animal and design each day and a card telling you something unique about the animal. However, what I loved the most was the use of Soapstone – a natural resource to make this. In many ways, it felt like I was actually taking home a piece of Kenya with me 🙂

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Soapstone (also known as steatite, or soaprock) is a talc-schist., which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is largely composed of the mineral talc and is thus rich in magnesium.
Soapstone on Wikipedia
Soapstones can be used to make many different things and one of my favorite is the bookend, unfortunately I didn’t get to buy one due to my short stay. If you are ever in Kenya, thats a hint to what I would love. To find out how these beautiful objects are made, here’s a video
So if you are avid lover of food like I am, you should pay a visit to the Urban Eatery . Its the one stop shop for most food cravings. It boasts of not 1…not 2 but 6 different restaurants in one. One of the things I love about this is its so cozy, artsy decor and perfect for any time of social gathering with different table settings to go. You wouldn’t believe it had 6 restaurants in it till you looked on the menu. Another restaurant that I would like to visit on my next trip is the Carnivore restaurant, as the name implies its for meat lovers
Urban Eatery Restaurants
  • THE DAILY – ALL DAY DINING, CAFE & BISTRO
  • BAR ASIA – NOODLE BAR, SUSHI, ASIAN
  • FIREPLACE – MEXICAN, MEDITERRANEAN, WORLD
  • HAANDI – INDIAN CASUAL FARE
  • MERCURY – SIGNATURE BAR
  • YOG – NATURAL FROZEN YOGURT

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Another amazing experience I had was  a visit to the Nairobi National Park. This was particularly exciting as my friends and I were looking forward to seeing the lions based on all the tales we had heard prior to our trip about lions running loose on the streets. This tale was born out of an incident earlier this year of lions escaping. However, the lions were returned unharmed and with no harm to humans as well. The Safari tour can last a whole day based on the immensely huge expanse of land with various animals all guarding their territory. Sadly, we got there too late in the day to see the lions but we definitely got to see many more animals we were often accustomed to seeing in books.
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All I can say is Kenya is fun, relaxing and homely and would love to visit again given the opportunity. Please share your experience if you have visited Nairobi or another city in Kenya. Also taking recommendations for other travel destinations

Asante Sana Kenya 
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