This is Julian with the fifth episode of Sleepless in Singapore. Today, recording from back home in Singapore again. And this episode will be about a very recent trip to Kenya, an African Indian wedding, a trip to a remote island, and a one-day sightseeing tour in Dubai. So for the next hour or so, please make yourself comfortable, get ready for bed, sit down, lie down, and let my voice be your guide to a restful night.

Why Kenya? That's an easy question with a complicated answer. But long story short, my friend had him, was getting married, and he is somehow Canadian with a Canadian passport, but he's got Indian roots and he is living in Kenya. So if you put all that together, that makes going to Kenya for his wedding a reasonable choice, I guess.

How does one get to Kenya? Well, it turns out it's not that easy, because there are no direct flights. And so I ended up doing something I haven't done in quite a while. I did flight research. I haven't done that in quite a while because living in Singapore and having Singapore Airlines as the flag carrier and usually having a lot of miles from you know credit card spend and stuff like that, it really makes flying to most places I go to very easy because I usually end up going to the Singapore Airlines website and I see where I can get a mile redemption flight, and I might try to find the saver awards, but sometimes I do an advantage flight too if I have to. And that way I kind of haven't paid that much for flights for the last couple of years, and also I didn't have to do much research. But of course, I still know how to do it so I hopped over on Flight Scanner and Google flights and I tried like all kinds of different combinations which if you're looking for cheap flights and good combinations I can really recommend doing because you save a lot of money and you more importantly also save a lot of time and hopefully you get to pick a proper airline and a product you like. So the routing I came up with for our trip to Kenya was a flight from Singapore to Dubai with Singapore Airlines luckily and then from Dubai after a day of layover, a day of where we wanted to do some sightseeing, we had an airline called Fly Dubai, which is kind of like the cheap sister airline of Emirates, which we used for the leg from Dubai to Mombasa. And then, because it turns out all our friends are flying into Nairobi and they are going to spend a weekend in Nairobi before they move to Mombasa, we booked a third flight with Kenya Airlines from Mombasa to Nairobi for the way from Singapore to Africa that kind of worked all right. The flight with Singapore Airlines was as expected very good and then the flight with FlyDubai from Dubai to Mombasa was actually also really good. The food was very nice on this FlyDubai flight. And the seats were comfortable and wide and absolutely no complaints. It was a great flight.

So in between, we had our stopover in Dubai. I really don't like the Dubai airport. It's way too big. It's not organized very well. We had to wait for, I don't know, maybe half an hour in the immigration line. I feel that could all be organized much better. What was nice in Dubai at immigration, they handed us a SIM card. You could just pop it in the phone and you had one gigabyte of completely free data. I think that's a very nice gesture and I think for most people that probably is very helpful. I actually didn't use it myself because my Singtel contract in Singapore comes with 30 gigabytes of free roaming data every month because I kind of need that for work. But I assume for most people, for most tourists, a free SIM card when you arrive, handed over directly by the immigration officer is a very nice thing. What also wasn't too great was the experience getting a taxi or an Uber. wasn't too great was the experience getting a taxi or an uber i feel like again we waited for more than half an hour for an uber to get from the dubai airport to our hotel which in fact was just like opposite the road of the airport but there was also no bridge no tunnel nothing to cross this road so our only option was to wait for half an hour for a taxi or Uber in that case and then drive for 15 minutes around this like highway thing when really the hotel was literally 500 meters from where we were standing. The hotel we were staying at was the Le Meridian. The rooms there were okay, we got a standard room. The dinner for the price unfortunately also only was okay. We went to this meat place, barbecue. I forgot the name. Directly at the hotel, there was like a Chinese place, a sushi place, a barbecue place, and I think some kind of seafood or something place. We picked the barbecue place and, yeah, sadly it wasn't too good. The waiters forgot to bring our water and the burger I ordered medium rare and it came extremely well done. It seems like everyone was listening to us, everyone was hearing our requests, even noting down our requests. But then nothing else happened. Anyway, we still had a good time. A not perfect restaurant is certainly nothing that can ruin our moods. So we walked around a bit and then also, because it was late in the evening already, and then also because it was late in the evening already we went to bed early because the flight on the next day was 8 a.m. somewhere around that time. We slept very well, the beds were very comfortable and then on the next morning we went for breakfast which was one of the best and the most beautifully arranged breakfasts like buffet breakfasts I have seen in a very long time it is kind of hard to describe um I think you can find pictures on my Instagram if you're really interested, but let me tell you, it was a perfect breakfast. That then only got disrupted by one very weird waitress when I asked if I can have a paper napkin to bring the half-eaten donut I had on my plate already. bring the half-eaten donut I had on my plate already. Because she said, that is not possible, it is not allowed to bring food outside, and then she made up weird rules about, it is possible when people are sick, but it's not possible for me. It didn't make a whole lot of sense, but it was kind of a silly experience. I just wanted to bring half my donut, and I got lectured and actually not in the most friendly way. It's kind of not really what you expect from a five-star hotel. Then we took the shuttle bus to the airport which took a while but otherwise went kinda flawlessly I want to say. There was one funny experience because apparently the luggage of all the people taking the bus even though there weren't too many, was too big for the luggage compartment, or maybe they just didn't want to put it in the luggage compartment, so they decided to put it in that little space between the seats, like the row you walk down to find your seat in a bus. And the driver decided not to put it in the back so that he and everyone else have enough space to walk. He decided to put it in the entrance of the bus, which led to a kind of comedy situation when he was trying to reach his driver's seat by trying to climb our luggage. I don't know, maybe it was just funny in the moment, but it somehow brightened up our moods this morning and it also made the drive to the airport shorter. made the drive to the airport shorter. At the airport we had enough time to check out the Emirates lounge which is big and good and then we boarded our flight to Mombasa, which kind of went very uneventful. I already said the flight itself was very comfortable. The seats at FlyDubai were comfortable, better than expected. And the flight itself was fine too. We slept quite a bit more and we landed in Mombasa in the afternoon. And again both landing in Mombasa and immigration went fine. There was an interesting moment when they checked my luggage at immigrations because I brought a lot of camera lenses migrations because I brought a lot of camera lenses and I brought the pajamas I've been telling you about in episode two or three, the Vietnam episode. And the lady was going through my luggage and she asked me, what is that? And I say, oh, that's camera lenses. And she said, too many. I said, okay. And then she said, oh, and what is this? And I said, well, that's the pajamas. And she said, too many. You make yourself? I said, no, I had them made and I'm bringing them for my friends. And she said, too many. And she was shaking her head and she was closing up my luggage and sending us away. So I guess it was not a problem or anything, it was just like her personal opinion that I'm bringing too much luggage to Kenya. So then we're flying into Nairobi and again that was pretty much uneventful except for a very harsh landing and we got picked up by a driver had him organized for us and we went to our hotel the glam hotel in Nairobi which was all guess. And finally, we met the first two of one of my very best friends, Mera and Marty, which was a very nice moment. There were a lot of hugs and kisses and everyone was very excited to meet and everyone was very very happy to see each other again after quite a while. So we checked in and after check-in we went out for a dinner to some kind of barbecue place. You know, the ones where they have the meat on big sticks, like swords or something, and they walk around and they cut off the meat and put it on your plate until you finally say stop. And that was great. There was a lot of laughing, there was a lot of talking, there was a lot of eating. It was a really nice evening. We stayed up late. And when we finally went to bed, we fell asleep like rocks. And then the next day, I guess after many days of only arriving the trip finally started we had a driver like a sightseeing driver sightseeing bus tour guide I guess who was driving us around the whole day in Nairobi and we went to I think the most impressive thing we went to was the giraffe place because I mean I've seen some giraffes at the zoo from afar. There are giraffes at the Singapore Zoo if I remember. But I was never so close to the giraffes and we could feed them and feel their tongues, which by the way are very rough. And apparently also antiseptic. Somebody said their tongues are antiseptic. I have to fact check that. And then we went to a very nice restaurant where we had absolutely beautiful local Kenyan food. I might see if I can find a link or a Google or Apple Maps reference I can put in the podcast links. And then we went to the Kenyan National Museum in Nairobi, which was so-so, I guess. And we went to a bunch of souvenir shops, because I wanted to buy a little statue or something. Not a statue statue, like something the size of my fist. Couldn't find anything I like in Nairobi, but then later on, on the last day actually, I could find something in Mombasa. So, mission accomplished. In the evening for food, we went for an even nicer place than the first day. They also had some kind of African barbecue and they had games. We were playing Cards Against Humanity. We had a couple of beers. We were six by then because Christian and Melina had arrived the night before. So it was another evening of a lot of saying hello and a lot of happiness to see each other again. And then again we went to bed and the next day we took a car to the airport and we took a Kenyan Airways flight from Mombasa, from Nairobi to Mombasa, where Hatim's driver picked us up and took us about an hour or so from the airport to the place where he actually lives. And while Christian and Melina had the chance to freshen up at the hotel, the rest of us were directly transported to the first wedding event, which was some kind of a coloring ceremony. So there were a bunch of family and close friends, and there was a bucket of yellow coloured mud or I don't know, something yellow coloured and for good luck and you know for religious reasons I don't entirely understand. Everyone could grab a bit of this yellow-colored paste and rub it on him, on his face, on his hair, on his chest. I guess it was interesting. That was the first time I've experienced something like that. We took a lot of pictures and we had a lot of fun. And then after that we had even more fun because it was socially totally accepted that we hosed off at him with a garden hose and then threw him in the pool. So that was a long day but also a quite fun day. It's always nice to see or experience something new, right? And then in the evening, finally, we also checked into our hotel. The hotel was the Sun & Sands Hotel in Mombasa, which I believe after a COVID lockdown just reopened, which you could tell not everything was completely ready yet. But it was okay to stay there for a couple of days.

Now I gotta get one thing out of my system because I feel like it is part of an honest review of that trip but then I also want to forget about it as fast as I can again and that is African Indian Hathim timing which sometimes was pulling our nerves a lot. So basically you're told to be ready at 4 because apparently the bus is leaving at 4 and then the bus doesn't even arrive before 5 p.m. which is not that much fun if you're out in the sun with a suit. And then after an hour or so of driving you arrive at the wedding venue and nobody's there. Like literally we're the first guests. Not even the couple who's going to get married is there on time. Ceremony starts at 6. It's 6.30. Couple is not there. So you again sit there in the heat and you wait. So you again sit there in the heat and you wait. It sounds funny and I think we managed to make it a little funny because for the whole following two weeks, whenever anyone asked about a time frame or about a timing when we should arrive or how long anything is going to take, the answer was always 20 minutes. Hey Julian, when do we meet for breakfast? In 20 minutes. When are we going to the pool? In 20 minutes. How long is the drive? 20 minutes. Everything is just 20 minutes. In the end, sometimes it was an hour, sometimes it was two, one time it was four. So the German in me could not handle that very well. Nat was very relaxed about it. I wasn't so much. But I am now. It's a fun anecdote and I don't think I'll ever forget it. And I learned a lot about local culture. So it's a win after all.

Alright, what else did we do? I think it was the same day on the evening which was absolutely beautiful. Hatim had organized a boat on some kind of fjord or something with a barkeeper and a bit of music and we were just lounging on that boat going towards the sunset and it was really beautiful. And it was a really nice end to a first day, I believe. Then on the next day, there was another event at Hatim's parents' house, where there was lunch again, and then there were more people, more friends and we got to meet Manny and Jenny who were part of our trip for the rest of the time, who we really liked immediately from the beginning. And then there was another dinner and more food and more dancing and more traditions. And honestly, it's getting a bit blurry. Not because we partied so hard. Actually, during the whole trip, there was very little alcohol involved. But just because there were so many events that I cannot divide them 100% apart. One thing I remember which was nice was definitely the henna, the henna thing, the henna tradition, where all the ladies got their hands painted. Oh, very beautiful. And also very efficient, the girls doing it, they were very fast doing it. And now it's like two weeks later and it's still there, it's still visible, it's losing intensity, but it's still there. So that was kind of cool too. So that was kind of cool too. And then on the next day there was another event at a different venue where we had to drive for an hour or so. Which was finally the first time we all got to see Hatim's wife Mubi. And that was quite fun too, because the two of them, they made an entrance, and Hatim made an entrance first, I guess, and then he was sitting on a sofa, and then pretty much like we know that from Western weddings too, Mubi was handed over to Hatim by her father and then they were sitting on this sofa and there was a lot of picture taking and exchanging of envelopes with the family. That went on for quite a while. Hatim was looking very beautiful. He was wearing a traditional Indian thing and he was wearing a little turban which made him look like well I guess like a fancy dressed Indian guy. And then after this ceremony we had a local African dish. The first two days lunch and dinner were mostly Indian food. But after that ceremony we had a traditional African food which was served on one big metal platter, which was in between the six of us or so, that we were sitting around the table. And then on the next day we finally had a little bit of off time during the day, so we just enjoyed hanging by the pool or sleeping a bit and getting ready for the probably biggest event of the whole wedding week, which was the formal reception, I guess. Where everyone dressed up. Actually, we've all been dressed up for the couple of days before as well. We had different clothes. We went to Vietnam to have different kinds of clothes made, right? So I brought three different suits and a bunch of linen pants and shirts so I believe I always was a little bit dressed up but that day four or day five was the reception and we dressed up very nicely in a threepiece and the girls were wearing very beautiful dresses and again we went an hour or so to yet another venue at a hotel which looked beautiful with a lot of fairy lights and stuff like that and there was a big stage and there was an opening dance and then actually Natalie got recruited very spontaneously as the MC. So she was guiding through the whole night, organizing two games, a bingo game and some question and answer game for the newlyweds. And then eventually later that night, there also was a little bit of alcohol, which was like secretly poured under the table because, you know, Hatim being Muslim and most of the family being Muslim, I guess it's not 100% correct to drink. And maybe the elderly ladies, they also maybe didn't like it. But I've seen that before on the events before. There was always something. And sooner or later, especially the guys, including the older guys, were meeting up on the rooftop or pouring alcohol under the table. I guess everyone found their way to do what they wanted to do without being rude or without insulting the more traditional elderly generation, which worked out for us too. So that night was great. I had a little talk with Christian up there. We were on a terrace kind of thing, looking down on the wedding venue, having a good talk, watching everyone for at least an hour or so. I always appreciate these more silent moments where I can talk to Christian a lot. And then it was about time to leave and 20 minutes later the bus was there and brought us home and again it was at least midnight. We fell asleep like rocks. And the next day we had again a bit of a pool day, nothing too much to do during the day. Unfortunately the internet connection at the hotel was quite horrible, so it was pretty much impossible to do some work. Which if you know me is tough on me, because without my computer and internet connection and something to tinker on I'm always a little bit unhappy. But in general we had a nice day, I was just reading my book and everything was fine. Oh yeah, and then later on Mopensi and Emmanuel, two friends of her Tim, and Jenny and Manny and the two of us we went for a short sightseeing trip to some kind of ruins which was nice and then we went to a seafood restaurant and that was pretty amazing because we ordered the big seafood platter and an octopus and a giant lobster. And apparently they didn't have enough stock. So we had to wait for about three hours or so, which we've gotten used to by the time, so no problem. But what happened in that three hours was that we were watching the restaurant guy talking to another guy another guy walking into the ocean and walking around in the ocean quite far out actually and he was catching octopuses he was literally catching our food. Freshest seafood I've ever had. He went out there. He caught the stuff. He went back to the beach. Then he's smashing the octopus on the beach, which is not to kill it, it's dead already, but to make it more tender apparently. So the guy's like smashing it on the beach with a lot of force for about at least 50 times. And then he's walking over to the restaurant where they clean up the octopus, like remove the sand and the stuff, and then he's throwing the octopus on the grill and then they are serving the octopus freshest seafood i've ever had very interesting experience nobody complained that we had to wait a while for it because we had nice talks and a very interesting view on that guy catching our stuff. So that was pretty cool. And then directly from there we went to the last event, the last official event of Hatim's and Mubi's wedding, which was what they called the party for young people. Which I guess it was it was like another venue again they had like sofas and stuff outside and it looked nice there was a driving range where you could hit a few balls there were drinks there were games. And I think it was a good end of the wedding. We didn't stay that long. Sorry again, Mubi. Because the next day we had to leave at 5 am for our safari. The safari part and the Chalet Island part was the second part of our trip to Africa. But looking at the time, I think maybe that will be for a part two of this episode, instead of going on for another half hour talking about these two things and I think I should call it a day here make a break and go ahead and read some Tom Sawyer to you so if you want to hear about the second part of our trip to Kenya which will include a safari where we saw all kinds of animals, including lions. And then it will include a short trip to a private island with a hotel. And then it probably will also include on our way back a whole day sightseeing tour of Dubai, then please come back and listen to episode 6. And for now, here is Tom Sawyer.