Nairobi is a lively, cosmopolitan city that's full of contrasts. It's a place of smart office workers and mansions and expensive suburban shopping centres as well as overcrowded slums and a lot of people trying to struggle on as best they can. Finding someone that wants to sell you a safari trip is easy; just walk outside in downtown Nairobi. Sooner or later, you will find yourself in River Rd, the matatu (minibus) centre of Kenya, which is full of energy and where manual workers, the unemployed, the devious and the down-and-out mingle with budget travellers, prostitutes, food-stall vendors and students.

The National Museum of the country, often touted as the birthplace of humanity, is a great place to start exploring the Kenyans’ cultural riches. It has exhibits on the material culture of the various Kenyan tribes. It also houses displays of rock art, fossils, the origins of humans and a bird gallery of 900 stuffed and mounted specimens. One of the major exhibits on show is the Peoples of Kenya portraits by Joy Adamson of Born Free fame.

Opposite the museum is the interesting Snake Park, where the exhibits are of a decidedly more living nature. The museum is a leisurely 1km (0.6mi) stroll northwest of the city centre just across the Nairobi River.

National Archives is not just a storage place for old documents, the archives house some impressive exhibitions of Kenyan handicrafts and paintings, as well as old photographs of Mzee Kenyatta and Moi visiting different countries. The National Archives are one block east of the City Square in the heart of town.

Nairobi National Park is the first national park created in Kenya is so close to the city centre that it’s possible to take a photo of a black rhino with Nairobi’s skyline in the background. The park, which is unfenced to allow animals access to a narrow wildlife corridor, teems with a surprising variety of animal and bird life.

The Bomas of Kenya cultural centre is located in Langata, just down from Nairobi National Park. Here you can see a display of traditional homesteads, or bomas, watch traditional dances and hear songs from the country’s many ethnic groups. There’s performances daily. Not far away is the Langata Giraffe Centre. The Bomas is south of Nairobi.

Also in Langata is the Langata Giraffe Centre, where you can get close to and even hand-feed Rothschild giraffes from a raised circular wooden structure. Across the road, but still part of the centre, is a small patch of forest through which you can take a 1km (0.6mi), self-guided forest walk. Southwest of central Nairobi, the Giraffe Centre is best reached by bus.

Tag: Nairobi