Sinister
JF-Expert Member
- Feb 18, 2013
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A tourist has wowed many with a recap of a ride aboard Kenya’s Madaraka Express train in which her friend was offered a husband. Rides aboard the SGR trains are no doubt leaving a memorable impression on the minds of passengers as was evident in March 2019 when the passenger service was listed among the world’s most remarkable rail tours.
Vanita Salisbury, an online editor at New York magazine, has now added to the positive vibes, piecing together an experience that has left many drooling for their first – if not the next - ride on the train. In an article published in the New York Post, Salisbury, a Brooklyn resident, details how she was treated to a surprise yet extraordinary train safari across the African Savannah as she traveled from Nairobi to Mombasa. “A few hours into your trip on Kenya’s one and a half-year-old Madaraka Express, which stretches from capital Nairobi to the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, long after the cityscape has given way to African Savannah, listen for the children,” she wrote. “They’ will be the ones on high alert: glued to the windows, eyes peeled for wildlife. After the squeals of “Elephant!” it’s the adults’ turn to beam with wonder”. Salisbury described the magnificence of viewing wild dust-red beasts (elephants) much closer than she could ever have imagined they would be as they went about their trunked business among the baobab trees and unreal hues of the African sky. “The best part? My first class ticket on this train - traversing Tsavo National Park on a veritable train safari - was only KSh 3,000 Kenyan shillings, or just $30. And my companion’s ticket, in second class — because neither of us were aware that we were supposed to buy the tickets way ahead of time or that the train is very popular among locals — was a mere KSh 1,000. Heck, you can’t even buy a beer in Brooklyn for that,” she recounted, describing the smooth five-hour ride as ‘small victories on a citizen level’.While Salisbury says her KSh 3,000 first class ticket did afford her tranquil surroundings, a dedicated dining car, and seats in pairs with their own tray tables, it was not the same case for her friend in the second class. “Seats in second class are so close that there’s no choice but to interact, and the Kenyans gleefully did so, especially when talking to my single friend about their marriage customs,” she wrote. She says it is here that her friend learnt that the man pays to marry you in Kenya; before she was ultimately offered a local husband. “By the end of the train ride, while I had seen the giraffes, zebras and elephants of the Tsavo and was happily on my way to dip my feet into the luxurious Indian Ocean, she also had a promise from some new friends to find her a Kenyan husband, if she was amenable. A safari and a husband? That’s quite a deal for KSh 1,000,” she concluded.
For $10, all aboard the cheapest safari in Africa
It’s a wild ride. A few hours into your trip on Kenya’s 1½-year-old Madaraka Express, which stretches from capital Nairobi to the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, long after the cityscape has given wa…
nypost.com
