Kisumu by Tuktuk
Kisumu by Tuktuk
Kisumu by Tuktuk
A couple of months ago, I got to visit Kisumu and got to explore the city in the most extra ordinary way.
I stumbled upon this mode of transport- the tuk tuk - quite by chance I had actually gone visiting relatives out of town in a small village near Siaya, and on our way back to Nairobi, decided to throw in an extra night in Kisumu. Having booked a direct bus to Siaya, which stops in Kisumu for only about fifteen minutes, we had not had a chance to look around Kisumu as we had arrived in the wee hours of the morning. After the visit to the relatives, we once again made our way to Kisumu by public transport and upon arriving at the bus terminal found ourselves stranded. For starters, I did not know much about the town I knew the hotel I wanted to stay at only by name and could not make my way there, and neither could my partner. There weren't many taxis at the terminal and we had a choice of motorbike, bicycle and Tuktuk. The first two simply wouldn't do with the amount of luggage that we had at this time my relatives do tend to pack a little bit of everything for a visiting daughter in law. We therefore settled for the only feasible means of transport the tuktuk. The Kisumu tuktuks are quite organized in that they ferry passengers by turn so when I approached them, I did not have to fight off unnecessary attention just mention my destination and hop on.
A few minutes later, we found ourselves in front of the hotel we wanted to stay at and requested the driver to hold on while I booked a room. I found the hotel full and at this point, I must warn future travellers to Kisumu to book their hotel sin advance Kisumu hotels, unlike Nairobi hotels,(or the type I was looking for anyway) do tend to fill up in advance as I came to find out in the next fifteen minutes as we drove from hotel to hotel in search of a vacant room. We finally found a hotel with room available and proceeded to check in. Our driver whose name we had established by now, had been quite patient all along and we figured that we would probably have to add a hefty amount to the earlier agreed fare. Imagine our shock when after fifteen minutes of jumping from one hotel to another John only asked for an extra thirty shillings! The ride had been quite breezy, enjoyable and revealing. We rode with the windows (canvas) down - something I would never consider doing back in Nairobi, out of fear of robbery. You see tuktuks are not exactly a speedy way of travelling, and with the Nairobi traffic, pick pockets can easily catch up and grab your bag out of the window. Come to think of it, I had never ridden in a tuktuk in Nairobi so I am probably speaking from paranoia. Anyway, now that we had sampled this mode of transport we would not consider anything else. John was very friendly and informative though he did tend to lapse into Dholuo from time to time nothing a loud throat clearing couldn't fix. My partner who speaks and understands the language was quick to interpret though, but the jokes must have lost their humour in translation as they did not seem to elicit the loud cackling laughter from me as they did my partner and John.
Deciding that he was a keeper we exchanged numbers with John and since we had not had lunch, asked him to give us a call at three pm to find out if we required transport to a popular restaurant that we had heard of. At five minutes to three, John did call us and as we were very tired, we told him to pick us up at five o'clock instead for a sight seeing tour around town, opting for a take away lunch from a nearby fast food caf. Left to shower, my partner dashed off to the caf and brought the most flavour filled Kebab I have had in my entire life.
John was at the gate promptly at five and proceeded to drive us around town pointing out important land marks. Our drive culminated at the Impala sanctuary where we asked John to drop us off and return in an hour. We strolled through the sanctuary and found that this only took about forty minutes, after which we returned to the gate, from where we had a great view of the ocean. The sanctuary was closing up so we had to sit outside the gate. We decided not to call John and spend the next few minutes chatting with a European trio who were just hanging around the gate like us. After a few minutes, a tuktuk pulled up and thinking it was John walked over to where it was packed. Just about to hop in, the trio that we had been chatting with hollered at the driver indicating that this was their ride my partner and I exchanged looks and burst out laughing Tuktuk transport was apparently more popular than we had expected.
We did not have to wait long though before John came and this time we took the trouble of memorising the plate number to avoid any further mix ups. We headed straight to the shopping mall where we hoped to catch a cup of coffee, but we were in for a disappointment as the mall did not seem to boast of any quality coffee lounges. The one that we knew of had apparently closed down and was now up for sale. Disappointed, we asked John to take us to one of Kisumu's bigger and better known hotels but again, we found ourselves disappointed as the place was completely lacking in ambience. At this point, we decided to say goodnight to John and walk back to our hotel which wasn't very far away. We did however tell him to pick us up the following morning. On our way back to the hotel, we spotted a restaurant specializing in local dishes and decided to settle down for an early dinner. Though we had to wait for long, the mud fish was all that it had promised to be. We ended up staying for two hours just soaking in the sights, but mostly the sounds of Kisumu - the older men chatted on endlessly about politics mostly in Dholuo, but the few phrases I did manage to catch made for the evening's entertainment.
Later we walked back to our hotel the streets were quite dark though, and empty and once in our rooms, we instantly went to sleep. It had been a hectic three days, and besides, there wasn't much to do in Kisumu on a Monday night.
Early the next morning, John was at the parking lot as promised and a short breezy ride later, we were saying goodbye.
Thought not nearly as long as I would have hoped for, my visit to Kisumu turned out to be quite eventful thanks to this reliable and very affordable mode of transport. Next time I am in Kisumu, I know where I will be having the most fun on John's Tuktuk! If you are on a Kenyan safari in this part of the country be sure to catch a tuktuk its truly charming.
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