Kenya - The Rough Guide To The Music Of Kenya - Various Artists

Advantages: great selection, good variety
Disadvantages: somehow mistitled, mostly traditional stuff

...Rough Guide, best known for their budget travel guides, has been steadily expanding in other areas, and has been responsible for quite a few musical "guides" over the years. This 1998 album, marketed as "Rough Guide to the Music of Eastern Europe", does pretty much exactly what is says on the package: provides quite a wide ranging overview of folk and (occasionally) folk-inspired music of Eastern Europe. This is an album that pretty much started my liking for "world music" coming from my part of the world, and despite its age it remains a good compilation which really does showcase the variety of what's on offer quite well. One thing that this "Rough Guide" album needs is perhaps a better definition of what is considered Eastern Europe: this is a surprisingly woolly category (I always remember somebody commenting than Poland... Read review

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Advantages: Packed with information
Disadvantages: Not well illustrated, but not a problem.

...I have never been disappointed with a Rough Guide yet. To think I missed out on them for years because I found Magenta Devine so objectionable on the TV show… The Kenya Rough guide tells it like it is. Whether in the cities like Nairobi or Mombassa, or in isolated rural villages, it is a reliable guide to where to eat and sleep and what to see (and where to avoid). The Kenyans I stayed with were impressed with my knowledge (all from this valuable tome). It combines tourist information about attractions, travel, accommodation and eating with historical and social perspectives that add a lot. Undoubtedly the high level of detail means that some information will become outdated, but I found the latest edition completely reliable when in Kenya for a month in December 1999 and January 2000. The only area for improvement would be... Read review

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Advantages: Too many to list here - see review
Disadvantages: Been quite a lot of trouble there this year

...flight entertainment. If you are thinking of holidaying in Kenya I would strongly recommend choosing First Choice as we found them to be incredibly helpful right from the flight and throughout the whole time we were in Kenya. Arriving in Mombasa airport we faced a fairly lengthy wait at the airport and had to fill in a couple of forms which then had to be checked before we were allowed to continue to our respective hotels. We were probably at the airport for around 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours in total! Once we were allowed on our way our luggage was loaded on to the top of a minibus and on we got. I must admit at this point I was wondering what I had done! Here I was on a rickety old minibus with my luggage placed precariously on top in a place that looked really quite rough! The area around Mombasa airport is not the nicest but this does... Read review

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