People often think of Nairobi as a dirty and crowded city, which it is better just to leave as soon as you have the chance. Myself I just had a couple of days there, stopping by mainly to get money that I could change at the blue market in Ethiopia and Sudan.
Sure Nairobi has its mess, but what is fascinating is that it at the same place as a dirty street can have a brand new skyscraper. You will find old churches next to a cell phone vendor street full of neon signs and you can find small mosques hidden between narrow streets. If you strap up a pair of good shoes and walk around for a day you will see the small things that make the city more interesting, like a blind man playing his harmonica, local buses that have been decorated and pimped after movies and sports teams and businessmen in suits walking next to street kids in their rags.
Chicago Bulls bus with horns on the top
Nairobi has sights too! The Karen Blixen Museum, national museum and the railway museum, exotic meat restaurant “carnivore” and a place called safari walk which is a mix of a zoo and a national park, just 10kms outside the city.
My favorite spot was on the top of the Norwegian designed K.I.C.C Tower, which is one of the tallest buildings in Nairobi. For just 3$ you could take the elevator all the way up to 27th floor and climb from there to the top of the building the get a view from its helicopter landing pad. There was also a museum explaining everything from the history of Kenya to its sports, music and culture.