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Easily the largest city in East Africa, NAIROBI is also the youngest, the most modern, the fastest growing, the largest and, at 1700m, the highest. The superlatives could go on forever. "Green City in the Sun", runs one tour brochure sobriquet, "City of flowers", another. Less enchanted visitors growl "Nairobbery". The city catches your attention at least; this is no tropical backwater. Most roads, particularly paved ones, lead to Nairobi and, like it or not, you're bound to spend some time here. But walking down Kenyatta Avenue at rush hour, or up Tom Mboya Street after dark, when the security men armed with whips and clubs cluster around their fires on the pavement, it's perhaps easy to forget how quickly you can leave the city and be in the bush.
Apart from being the safari capital of the world, Nairobi is an excellent base for travel. It's just nine hours by road or an overnight train journey to the coast; about the same time to the far west; and just a couple of hours northwest to the great trough of the Rift Valley or north to the slopes of Mount Kenya. A great day-trip, and one literally on the city's doorstep, is Nairobi National Park, a wild attraction where you'd expect to find suburbs.
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The Thorn Tree
The original acacia has gone, but its recently planted successor continues the tradition of pinning up notices for fellow travellers.
National Museum
As good an introduction to Kenya's natural and cultural attractions as you could reasonably expect, and by far the biggest – and best – museum in the country.
Markets
From the bewildering, muddy maze of Gikomba to the tourist oriented Maasai markets, these are excellent places to sample a slice of Nairobi life, eat street food or pick up trinkets at a fraction of the prices charged by curio shops.
Carnivore
Tacky, touristy but fun temple to meat-eating, on the outskirts of town.
Nairobi National Park
On Nairobi's doorstep, the park is home to most of Kenya's big mammals, and is the location for classic photos of plains animals against a backdrop of skyscrapers.
David Sheldrick Trust
Highly regarded elephant and rhino orphanage where you can get on petting terms with tiny pachyderms.
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