Mombasa: Rainbow of tourism lures

Are diving and water sports your thing? Maybe you'd prefer to stay on dry land and watch exotic animals browse, or just shop or sightsee. Let this aged city of many cultures kick off your Kenyan visit.

By GORDON GARRISON

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 2, 2001

[Times photo: Laura Garrison] A tourist favorite is a brief cruise in a traditional dhow.

MOMBASA, Kenya -- It has been centuries since Arab merchants ruled this city. And after them there were Portuguese, Turks and most recently, British colonial masters. Nonetheless, there is still a strong Arabic flavor to the island community, now Kenya's second-largest city.

Visitors can now experience the flavor of the sea for a few hours by taking a cruise on a dhow (rhymes with how), those sharp-prowed vessels sailed by Arab traders.

Those little cruises are part of a tourism effort that is a significant economic factor in a city with a major industrial side: cement, brewing, food processing, petroleum products. Mombasa's "Old Town" is laced with meandering streets lined with shops of every description. Fabrics, in a world of designs and colors, are inexpensive and make for easily carried souvenirs. Visitors can bargain seemingly everywhere at street stalls offering carved ebony or mahogany gazelles, elephants, hippos, giraffes or Masai warriors. Masai beadwork is also available.

Mombasa, which calls itself the Gateway to Kenya, is the hub for vacations on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast. The most popular beaches and top resorts are south of the city.

A giraffe grazes on a tree at the Shimba Hills National Reserve.

Just a 45-minute drive from Mombasa is the Shimba Hills National Reserve, where visitors can easily view elephants.

During a port call from our ship, the Ocean Explorer, my wife and I and some other passengers visited Neptune's Paradise resort, an arc of upscale, modern cottages overlooking a large freshwater pool. A wide, white-sand beach gently sloped into a clear, warm sea.

Kenya's underwater sights are rated, with Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the Red Sea, among the top diving spots in the world, and Kisite Mpunguli Marine Park near Mombasa lets snorkelers and scuba divers enjoy coral reefs.

Other marine reserves are located to the north, at Watamu and Milindi. Dotting the route are relics of Kenya's Arabian heritage: ruins of forts, mosques, tombs, even whole towns.

In the city of Mombasa is the 16th century Fort Jesus of the Portuguese. Built to protect trade routes, the fort is now a museum and is in remarkable condition.

Probably the No. 1 photographic subject in Mombasa is two pair of gigantic elephant tusks, symbolizing the trade in ivory that helped develop the city. But most visitors now are more interested in seeing live elephants, and just 45 minutes' drive south is Shimba Hills National Reserve.

During our visit to the lodge there, we saw a half-dozen elephants that came to drink at a pond directly below the balcony of the lodge. And we took a tour that gave us close views of giraffe, buffalo and the endangered Sable antelope.

A daytrip from Mombasa gets visitors to one of the world's largest reserves, Tsavo National Park. Lions, cheetahs and leopards live here, as do elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes, several species of antelope and crocodiles. Travelers to Mombasa should also make time to visit Bombalulu, a cultural center. Activities include native dancing, display of typical costumes, and homes of diverse ethnic groups. A small factory on site builds tricycles by and for the physically challenged.

If you go

Contact the Mombasa Coast Tourist Association, P.O. Box 995996, Mombasa, Kenya; call 254 11 225428; e-mail mcta@africaonline.co.ke

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