Kenya 19 Aug - 01 Sept

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ THIS is the reason we travel ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

You Are Welcome!

We originally intended to go to Maasai Mara National Park and see more animals and hopefully more of the Migration, but the pricing was so high, $200 per person per day just to get into the park during high season, that we decided to change our plans a bit. And honestly, I don't think we could have been any happier than we were in the Serengeti, after seeing ALL of the animals AND their babies. What that meant was that we got to spend a lot more time with some wonderful new friends, Yuki and Tristan, in Nairobi. We actually met them over a turtle in a beautiful little city in Morocco, the Blue City - Chefchouen. It was one of the more unusual "Chris starts jabbering with the people at the table next to him" meetings. We were at this wonderful little lunch spot and the resident pet tortoise was wandering like a little drunken speed bump from table to table looking for veggies. It was bumping into table legs and people legs and the cat so I naturally started jabbering with the cute couple sitting next to us which turned out to be Tristan and Yuki. I was struck that (and not that I was evesdropping...OK, I might have been listening in, just a bit...) they were speaking to each other in excellent English. Struck since Tristan is French and Yuki Japanese. They met in Japan and English is their mutual language, which is impressive to me, as I have a hard enough time communicating with my wife in my first language. Which is also my only language, btw.

So, one thing led to another and we ended up meeting for dinner and really enjoyed their company and their travel stories. They've lived in some pretty far flung places and are prolific travelers, so their experiences are incredibly interesting. Yuki works for a Japanese NGO in Nairobi, so they now live in Nairobi. We hadn't completely planned for Kenya at that point but once we realized that we loved S. Africa so much and wanted to continue in Africa, we decided to spend a couple of weeks in Kenya, also. I'm not sure if they offered a room to us or if we pulled out the "oh, my wife is an excellent cook and I know how to wash cereal bowls so you should let us overstay our welcome with you at some point???" Either way, we ended up at their place and it was one of the highlights of a year full of highlights for us. Unfortunately for them, they were in the middle of a house move so we probably added a little to the commotion.

After months of hitting one spot after another in quick succession, it was REALLY nice to be able to stay in one bed for more than a couple of nights. And they had this amazing contraption that washes your clothes...what a luxury. Sink and shower laundry is great and all, but a real washing machine is a wonderful thing! And after a couple of weeks in the dusty Serengeti, I'm pretty sure I could grow a basil plant in my shirt bag, so laundry was high on the to-do list.

Before we were homeless we hosted a lot of people...cyclists, musicians, family, writers, random people that drank too much the night before; and I always hope that we were as gracious and welcoming as Yuki and Tristan were to us. Lyd mentioned it in a Facebook post that we've made friends along the way that we see lasting a lifetime and I hope that we'll be able to host them somewhere down the road. We probably need to get a house first, and possibly a country also for that to happen, though. As a bonus, they had this wonderful puppy, Loki (the black lapdog in the pics), and a temporary guest dog, Vanille (the white one in the pics, go figure), that we got to spend time with, also. Lyd got her puppy fix on in a big way. It was also wonderful to have access to a kitchen again. We love restaurants and local food, but it's nice to occasionally have a Lydia cooked meal again!

Lake Naivasha

Sunset over Nairobi

Nairobi is a wonderful city. Like many other large African cities, there is a craziness that you get at first glance. And second through tenth glances, also. But once you spend some time and gain some comfortability there are a lot of wonderful sights. It also helps to have some locals to guide you!!! On top of being lush and green, you realize it's an agricultural hotbed. Huge coffee and tea plantations dot the surrounding hills and the restaurant scene is one of the best we've encountered on the trip. American style pizza/brew pubs with excellent beer, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Indian, Thai and local BBQ restaurants abound. We visited a wonderful yuppie/hippie/local farmers/crafts market that would feel just as home in west St. Louis as it did in Eastern Africa. The coffee scene is top notch but the tea scene is amazing. Due to the topography and English settlers in the 1900's, there are huge farms for both coffee and tea everywhere. I have been to tons of wineries/distilleries/breweries in the past (and recently) but I haven't been to either a tea or a coffee farm before. I think I could easily become a tea snob, if given the chance. If you want to try something wonderful, both the Vanilla and Caramel Black Tea blends are awesome.

Here's the important thing that I feel should be told, especially if you're wavering on making Kenya a destination or a part of a larger trip. I've said it repeatedly in other posts, but it really can't be overstated...the people are wonderful. I'm always a bit curious about the history of nations and what tensions are there. In S. Africa for instance, there is a bad history between the white and black populations and still needs to be sorted out. I asked a few people in both Tanzania and Kenya what they thought of relations, race/class/etc. and I know I'm not going to get a truly unvarnished answer, but they all say basically the same thing, that we are all brothers or sisters and they treat us like we're their guests...with a lot of respect and open arms. Do they look at me as a source of income...hell yes. I'm an older, gray haired tourist in their country so they should expect me to spend some money with them, but do I ever feel like I'm being treated with a lack of respect, say as I would in an American DMV office...hell no! We're treated with kindness and respect and hearty grins and big hugs...and I love it! I feel comfortable here.

That gets me to the 2nd line above...'You are welcome'. In America we use the term 'You're welcome' as an answer to Thank You, and not much more. We say 'Welcome' when we invite people in somewhere. But for the past few months and countries, people say 'You are welcome' as a greeting. When we enter their restaurant, their country, their shop, pretty much everywhere - You Are Welcome. Imagine if we all started off a conversation with 'You Are Welcome'. It just sounds so friendly and gracious and...welcoming. And I love it.

Tea Farm, Coffee Farm, Cheese Farm, Giraffe Farm...Nairobi offered a completely different set of opportunities to experience. And we didn't even go to the Nairobi National Park on the outskirts of the city - a wonderful national wildlife preserve where you can see the Big Five with the city skyscrapers in the background - quite different from the Serengeti. One of the interesting items we learned in the coffee farm relates to bees. The farm had various plants and trees surrounding the coffee fields, such as banana, macadamia nut, peach, mango, avocado, etc. Due to the bee pollenation the coffee nearest the surrounding plants would gain some of the same taste characteristics. One of the coffee beans had a definite aroma of banana while another took on those of the avocado or macadamia nuts, which was fascinating. My taste palette isn't that refined, but as long as I can taste caffeine in my coffee I'm typically pretty good. But I love learning about the process a bit more.

Fairview Coffee Estate

Kiambethu Tea Farm

We thought this was going to be touristy and kitschy but it turned out to be really fun - going to the Giraffe Center. It is a home for orphaned or injured giraffes until they can get them well and/or re-integrated back into Giraffe High Society. I really didn't have Giraffe Slobber on my "This will be cool" list, but it is definitely a must-do. These were our favorite animals throughout Kruger, Chobe and the Serengeti and getting up and close to them was fun...and wet. Just wish we could have enticed the baby to come our way!

Brown's Cheese and Ice Cream

The only side trip we took in Kenya was to Lake Naivasha, about two hours north of Nairobi. We intended to go to a park called Hell's Gate but we got lazy and ended up going to a little island that had a game reserve on it, instead. The island is close to Elsamere Lodge, the place where Joy Adamson of Born Free lived and the movie was filmed. The island was unique in that it allowed you to walk among the animals. There were no predators, only giraffes, impala, kudu, monkeys and hippos, so it wasn't supposed to be dangerous. And this is where our little party of two about became a party of one. We met this guy from Kuala Lumpur and were walking about aimlessly, just chatting about stuff and we realized there were two hippos in front of us, giving us the Evil Eyes. About the time Mr. Kuala Lumpur decided it would be good to keep walking toward the large killer fatties, I looked down to make sure I wasn't stepping in Kudu Doodoo. And that's when the lead hippo charged at us. I was fortunate in that Mr KL had a bum leg so I knew I could outrun him but then I realized my beloved wife was behind me and I bravely rushed to cover her from danger by throwing myself between her and the onrushing behemoth... at least that's how I remember it. But she was too busy laughing and cursing because she wasn't filming me get hippotomized. Fortunately the hippo realized we weren't vegans so it stopped chasing us, but damn, those things are BIG...and fast! We got separated from Mr. KL but saw him a bit later just as he decided to walk up to a giraffe...we started filming just in case the giraffe decided to giraffe-slap him but no luck.

Crescent Island, Lake Naivasha