Weekend Trips Part II – Nakuru

On another weekend recently, I left on Friday morning from Kisumu to meet up with my friend Alia and her sister, who was visiting from China, in Lake Nakuru National Park. For about 10 US dollars, I boarded the Easy Coach bus at 9:00 am and arrived in Nakuru at 1:00, after a beautiful drive through Kenya’s tea country (but the road, not so beautiful), just a little bit before Alia, who drove her own car from Nairobi. We spent all weekend in the park, staying at a very small, nice lodge called Sarova Lion Hill.

In the middle of the 180 sq km park sits Lake Nakuru, a soda lake, completely covered by pink flamingoes, like a big cake layered in pink icing. On the shores graze dozens of white rhinos and hundreds of buffaloes. The road around the park is jammed with baboons, warthogs, gazelles and waterbucks. We were even lucky to see some lions while out and about. We spent the weekend driving around the park, eating, reading and sleeping – very relaxing, and unlike other parks in Kenya such as the Masai Maara, not very crowded.

Sunday midday, I boarded the Easy Coach bus in Nakuru town to head back to Kisumu while my friends drove the opposite direction back to Nairobi. I had one of those favorite Kenyan moments on the way back. I managed to procure the single seat in the front, right by the stairs leading up on the bus, next to the driver. Typical of Kenyan bus rides, we stopped willy-nilly along the way, for people to go behind bushes to the “restroom,” to let people on and off at random places, and to buy goods from roadside markets. You can’t read on the bus because the road is too bumpy, so I just sat back, enjoying the scenery and listening to my Ipod.

Then, at one stop not too far from Kisumu, so that the passengers could buy produce I, literally, found myself in the middle of a vegetable fight. What has always fascinated me in Kenya is the lack of diversification among products sold at the little roadside shacks, and what leads customers to choose one vendor over the other. You’ll see a dozen ladies sitting on the side of the road, all selling the exact same thing – in front of them sit neat little pyramids of potatoes, stacks of carrots, and piles of cabbage. We stopped and three women from the back of the bus walked to the front, and stood beside me. All the women on the side of the road – about 6 of them – immediately ran to the bus and climbed the stairs, so they were right at my feet. There was no room for 9 women in the small staircase and aisle in the front of the bus, causing them to invade a little too much of my personal space.

The passengers gave some money and took some produce from a couple of the women sellers. But, apparently this upset the others, who did not receive anything. Before I knew it, shouting back and forth began, and those unlucky sellers started to throw their potatoes, carrots and cabbages into the bus. Of course, most of this landed on my lap. The three female passengers grabbed the vegetables, mostly from my lap, and threw them back, also shouting, loudly. Back and forth this went – vegetables, as well as some money, lots of words and a bit of light slapping – all over, around and at me. I kid you not, I was covered in produce…and the women.

What fascinated me the most was that the rest of the bus and the driver just sat there, like all was perfectly normal. After a few minutes of this, I looked over at the driver and yelled, please, can you do something! He then jumped up, pushed the veggie vendors back – with a bit too much force it seemed – slammed the door shut, and we took off. I, still covered in food, which was also all over the aisle around me, turned to look back at the rest of the passengers, hoping to find one person to make eye contact with and to smile, one person who would acknowledge with me how ridiculously funny the scene was. But, I couldn’t, they all just sat and continued to stare solemnly out the window. I turned back around, brushed myself off a little more, put my Ipod speakers back in my ears, looked out the window, and silently laughed to myself, loving the fact that I am in Kenya right now.

(Pictured: flamingoes on Lake Nakuru; 2 buffaloes relaxing in front of the Lake...we were really that close, sitting in Alia's car.)