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It was a cold Friday as a few of us drove into Naivasha town, in Kenya, one early Friday morning. A small town in its own is how it appeared to be. It was eleven o’ clock and many people were bursting with life as they went about their day-to-day chores. Coming from Nairobi this town was not as lively since by eleven o’ clock the streets of Nairobi are usually a hustle and bustle to walk or driven in especially on a Friday.
The bus stopped at the La Belle hotel, which is by the narrow roadside. As early as at was, guests were already occupying the hotel with many coming in for a late breakfast. Naivasha appears to be a tourist town due to the many tourist sites and venues that are there which we saw as we walked down the road. Besides the La Belle hotel, there was: Lake Side Tourist Lodge, Blue Shade Hotel, Forest Shade Lodge and Restaurant, Sweet Banana Lodge and Flavours Bar and Lodge. These hotels receive not only international tourists but also local tourists.
Another tourist attraction is the Curio factory. This factory has various carvings from West Africa and East Africa such as elephants, giraffes, lions, rhinos, crocodiles, masks, Maasais, etc which it ships to different countries worldwide especially the US and Spain. Its high season of tourists between August and December which was quite evident because as a few of us were talking to one of the salesmen, three tourist vans came and the salesmen forgot us as they turned their attention to the incoming business prospects.
Another economic activity of the town is the flower company known as Homegrown, which is a flower exporting company. In addition to that is the cereal board for the storage of maize.
Despite the fact that Naivasha is not as big as Nairobi, it has a number of facilities for cargo handling that is found in a major city to make life easier such as DHL and FEDEX, which are adjacent to TELKOM, the Kenyan telephone company. For vehicle owners there were three scattered garages across the DHL office and less than two hundred miles from it is the Firestone company which manufactures tires. On walking back to the La Belle restaurant there are two gas stations and across them does the roadside park tankers and lorries.
For one who is familiar with Nairobi, this town looks like a small old town similar to some estates in Nairobi such as Parklands and Nairobi West. Kikuyus own most of the businesses in this small town.
When it comes to the nightlife just like any society there are a number of places for people to enjoy a few drinks over a little chitchat such as Texian and the above named restaurants. Just like in a number of places in Nairobi such as Koinange Street, Bavaria, Florida 2000 etc where commercial sex workers are found in plenty as soon as the dark creeps in.
From here we went to another tourist lodge known as Fisherman’s camp. A beautiful place where African curios are sold at the entrance and the structure of the lodging is made of wood. In the compound one can rent the mountain bicycles to go for a ride outside. Still in the compound are boats on the Naivasha Lake, which has unfortunately been swamped by the dreaded hyacinth, so, boating cannot take place.
Form the campsite; we started our journey back to Nairobi passing through the little Italian church. It is a beautiful site, which is by the roadside. On entering it, one would be amazed at the capacity that it held. Its sitting capacity was for ten people apart from the Father. From here went back to the bus and off we went to Nairobi.
After being in Naivasha a whole day and enjoying myself, I still believe my town, Nairobi is where I would rather be.
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maryanne njeri
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