This is a first-person vlog-style YouTube transcript (Nate and Kara Buchanan) documenting a day in Kisumu, Kenya. They eat local meals (pulao, chapati, beans), visit Kibuye street market and the Maasai market (observing secondhand clothing trade and buying souvenirs), and have dinner at a favored Pakistani-influenced restaurant (Al Noor) with friends/guides Keith, Aaron, and Erin/Andrea. The tone is informal, observational, and travel-oriented, noting differences in market intensity and local food flavors.
Chapters
Since your eye hurts, I brought you coffee Today.
We don't know what's happening right here, but I'm starting to look like scar off the Lion King.
I can only open it about halfway this morning, literally. It didn't get hit. No clue what happened.
It's the legal age limits of driving Kenya.
Apparently. 10 months.
Driving today. Cooper.
We are back in Kisumu staying with our friends Keith and Aaron yesterday. Today, Nate spent the whole day on the computer, travel planning, and I was.
Working on the vlog.
So we just took a day off from vlogging yesterday.
Today, we're about to go to a local hotel to have lunch. That's what they call their restaurants here, is hotels, and they call actual hotels guest houses. So we're going to have a local meal, and after that we're going to go explore several local markets.
This is the hotel we're eating at. It's called the eating room. I think we're going to have, like, beans and stuff. Rice, honey. Supposed to be really authentic. We just have to cross the road.
Quickly.
On the side. Just full. That looks fantastic. That's mine.
Should I have that?
Thank you.
This is called pala. It's rice. It has some chapati torn up down there and cinnamon, and that's all I know. Here we go. Smells really good.
Tastes really good.
That's delicious.
What's it taste like?
Nate's charm.
Went with the beans and chapati. I don't even like beans.
Good choice.
Tastes better than the beans in the US in my opinion.
Is the chapati soggy bean soup with soggy.
Is it good?
Soggy?
Very hearty. I feel like I'm going to be full for the rest of afternoon.
Lunch was great and now we're heading. We've been told to video discreetly, so if the next footage is kind of bad, that's fine. This is Andrea. She's lived here with her husband for four years.
Four years?
For four years. And she knows how this whole market thing works. Keep everyone together. Everyone count off, one, two. Everybody needs a buddy. Here we go.
This is crazy. It's like a big surface. People and stuff everywhere. Everybody's yelling.
Like this, man.
Kara, how much do shirts normally cost?
So all the clothes that you see laying around are sent over by organizations like Goodwill and other organizations. They're put into these huge bag, and these people buy the bags having no clue what's in it. And then they resell it here for a higher price after they open it. Aaron, what'd you buy?
I bought a skirt for 50 cents. It needs to be washed, but it's super cute.
Good deal. I'm excited.
After the crazy market experience.
Supposed to be caramel, but it's kind of pink with chocolate and nuts. How much did this cost?
Three waters, two ice creams, $2.
I like Kenya. So being in Asia for, like, four months, I thought I would be pretty prepared for the street market because we went to a lot of street markets, but this was on a whole new level compared to the Asian street markets we've been to. Much, much louder. Like, the street vendors in Asia were pretty quiet, but here, when they see you, they want you now.
Would you agree? They were definitely more intense, and I didn't think it could happen, but they were cheaper. Karen bought a skirt for 50 cents. Sor.
Now we're heading to the Maasai market.
It would have been a much better scene if you just would have shut the door.
I can't burn my hand.
This man is painting the postcards by hand.
Very good. Thank you. All right. I like this one.
This one.
And this one.
Say, this was a pretty good find. We'll be giving these away on the vlog shortly. Yes, perfect. Thank you. This man paints these. He does a very good job. And we just bought one with hippos on it. Thank you very much. Our shopping trip is over.
We came to what they call a Muslim restaurant for dinner tonight.
Is it a Muslim restaurant or is that what they call it?
That's what they call it, and I.
Think that's what it is.
And there's a call to prayer right now. This is Erin, who we've been staying with, and her and her husband have lived here for two years, and they've been our tour guides for the day.
Tell us what we're eating tonight.
So this is our favorite restaurant in Kisumu. It's called Al Noor, and they reserve our table every week because we are VIP in the bed.
Or you just come every Sunday.
Or we just come every Sunday. And they love that. It's true. Totally.
Vip. Yeah. And what kind of food is it?
So it is like Indian food, but the owners are actually from Pakistan, so it has a little bit of, like, a Pakistani flair to it. But we normally get chicken naan and rice with soup every week.
Speaking our language.
Keith, what'd you order for us? So we have 10 grilled chicken breasts, 14 cheese naan, rice with a red sauce on it. That's it. Like your style. More naan than people. And cola Frosties.
Tastes very authentic, like Coke and ice The Kenya Nicey. It's delicious. Here's our dinner.
I think I'm gonna melt the camera.
So Keith ordered all of our food, and apparently there's different levels of spice of chicken. The first level is wash. They literally wash off the spice that they cooked it in. I got the normal spice, and there's an extra, extra spice.
The normal spice is pretty spicy.
Keith says it's the best chicken in the world. What do you think?
I would think it's up there.
Yes.
I usually don't like chicken with bones.
There's too much work.
But this is really, really good. Really good.
And the best part of any meal. 9.
Dessert time.
What is this? This is a petal leaf. This is a sugar syrup. Okay, so far, pretty good.
Donut red stuff.
Another sweetener.
Looks like sprinkles.
This is more like honey.
Another form of aromatic coconut. Leander. Fennel. Fennel. Any seeds? I like fenne. Sweetener. Bitterness. More of that sweetener. Make it moisture.
Now is wrapping it up a bit.
Okay. Just in the mouth. Do you chew it? Yes. Chew it and take it in.
Wait, take it in.
Everything.
But I don't swallow it. You should keep on biting it. And you swallow the. Swallow the juice till it's finished.
There's a lot going on. Get used to this. But there's the other ones which give you a thickest. Very good. So good. I don't know what I'm tasting.
There's quite a bit of ingredients.
Sweet syrup making its way down my throat right now. So good, though. And what's the name? Pon. Pon. All.
Right. Aha. Heart in my mouth. Aha. Ahah. Aha.
Ew.
Feeling's very strong urge to brush my teeth.
We have no clue what's happening. Keith and Aaron went to sleep. Some really loud vehicle just drove by, and now there's smoke everywhere.
Hope I'm not getting poisoned.
Look at how they shape the mannequins here. It cracks me up.
