Skipping Christmas

Pardon for skipping on Christmas greetings, but the wilderness does not decorate, so I have lost track. Hotel decor has been from laughable to please stop trying. Our last hotel in Kenya was playing non-stop Christmas carols all day yesterday. There is something unnerving hearing Elvis sing about a blue Christmas when in Africa, or I am dreaming of a white Christmas. Well if I were, I would have stayed home.

So this Indian run, Chinese constructed, Tanzanian hotel gets poor marks also for sound quality. We are on the ground floor. In the bathroom, above the sink is a permanently open window with screening. Everyone walking by laughing, talking, yelling, comes filtering in. Keeping the bathroom door closed does not help since the room door is flimsy at best and not flush, so sounds vibrate it. For once and this may be a historic event to put on the calendar, I slept soundly and Ron was disturbed by the noise. Three cheers.

Anwar was ready for us by 8:30 and so were the animals. It was a fantabulous day of viewing. We found a lake of hippos, counting forty before we lost count of the rest and those coming downstream to join them. There was another leopard spotting in tree with its fresh kill in storage in the tree trunks waiting for chow time. A little leopard turtle crossed the street in front of us. Lions were everywhere. We found some in the kopjes (pronounced copies) rocks nursing young or just relaxing in shade. Kopjes are technically called inselbergs, ancient granite rocks that have cracked with erosion from sun, wind, and rain. They provide water and shelter for plant and animal life, especially important during the dry season on the plain. Other lions were on the ground under bushes.

According to Anwar, hundreds of thousands of zebras and wildebeests were spread across the plains up to the roadside. During migration time, 1.5 million of them cross the river in search of feeding grounds. This is the largest animal migration in the world. The best times for viewing is June to December. Their return migration is May and June. Needless to say, the migration causes a high percentage of deaths from trampling, drowning, or getting ravaged by crocodiles as they cross the waters. Watching hundreds of wildebeests line up to cross the plain was a sight I will not soon forget. Still thousands were spread across the plain as far as the eye could see.

Wildebeests share the same grazing area as the zebras. Wildebeests bite off the tougher grasses and swallow. They have stomachs like a cow, so they are able to ruminate the food later to chew and digest it. Zebras eat the tender grasses and chew before swallowing. Like the wildebeests, there were thousands of zebras interspersed. There were a group of six zebras all lined up with their backs to us. My first thoughts were they were having a best butt beauty pagent or they were asking "Do stripes make my ass look bigger?" Zebras are so funny. They seem to like to play this game of "Get me if you can". They will stay so close to the road or even cross it until you are very near them and then they take off like a lion is after them. Some of the less intelligent wait for us to pass them and then get spooked. "Oh, I should have run. Okay, let me do it now." Wildebeests have the sense to run as soon as you close in on them. Then they stop and turn around to look at you. "Are you chasing me yet?"

Stopping at the Serengeti Tour Center, we followed the metal wildebeest signs and footprints in cement to various levels, each offering education information about the park. It was entertaining, educational, and well put together. As we left, the sky became dark suddenly and it poured rain, the first time during our trip. Temperatures dropped from the mid-80s to about the 60s. All of the ruts in the road flooded immediately, causing our jeep to slip, slide and at some points spin like the pointer on a wheel of fortune. Anwar had it all under control, but we were concerned we would get stuck in mud that we would not be able to escape from. By the time we reached our lunch spot, our white jeep was totally muddy brown.

Tonight's stop over is the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge, run by the same Indian group as last night's hotel. It sits on the rim of a crater created by volcanic eruption. Tomorrow, we will venture down to view the wildlife as well as see the soda lake, which I don't know yet, what it is. Supposedly, only one day is allowed in the crater itself to keep it from being overwhelmed with tourism. The only lodges are up on the rim, none in the crater itself. Regardless, the vistas from the hotel were breathtaking, until the cloud coverage came in. Then it rained again obliterating everything.

Ron has been handing out Hungarian Christmas candies to staff member, who seem to really appreciate it. They do have some trees with lights, but only balls of cotton for decoration. At dinner, the dessert was a Royal Plum cake and Christmas pudding, but the Brits in line ahead of us disparaged both attempts. We tried both without complaints. African music and dance were tonight's entertainment. Same, same, but different than before.

Have to get to bed so Santa Claus will find me. I do hope he found that note I pinned to the door with my forwarding address.

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Passing Over

Once again, the sounds of silence were not to be had. Noise, noise, noise from next door. Six in the morning is an ungodly time to have eat breakfast. My digestive juices don't start flowing until 8am at the minimum even if we did get up at 5:15. Joseph would be waiting for us at 6:30 as we have a "long" day ahead of us, but he leaves us at the Tanzania border to be greeted and continue with a different guide/driver. The rendezvous was set for 10am, but that did not happen. For the first time, Joseph lost his way and could not find the right way to the border. Of course, since there are no street or directional signs anywhere, it is reasonable. He stopped 5 times to ask directions. People either seemed to not know or gave the incorrect information.

By 11:20, he finally had us parked in front of Kenyan Immigration Offices. The young officer had us fill out a short form and stamped our passports. A short drive across a lot had us in line at the Tanzania Immigration Office where we lined up with the rest. A young officer asked us where we were going. Duh, we are in the Tanzania office, we are coming to see you. He gave us each a short form to fill out and then told us to skip the line moving to the second window. After asking for US $100 for EACH of us, we had our one year, multiple entry Visa for Tanzania. Pointing out that there was some mistake, we were told it was $50 each and we only wanted a single entry Visa. No mistake, due to some treaty or other the US and Ireland of all places no longer get single entry, but only multiple. The cost is the same, so trying out a brogue would not have helped at all.

When we left the office, Joseph was antsy, ready to turn us over to Anwar, our new driver/guide. We moved our things from a room van to a less roomy, less comfortable jeep. Anwar showed me the sign he had ready. It showed "Run Shmitz and Ryan James". I asked Anwar if this were a transitional vehicle, but darn it all, it is all we get until we fly off to Zanzibar. Anwar is young, friendly and I am sure we will enjoy him. His English is moderate, so it takes some getting used to his accent. He was telling us that Tanzania has over 144 languages with Swahili the official one. Kenya has 44 languages with Swahili and English as the official languages.

So bear in mind, we left the lodge we had stayed at for three nights, at 6:30. We road the bumpy, rutty, pitted, roads until getting out of the car when Joseph had to fix his shock absorber, and then not again until we received immigration. Climbing back into the jeep at 11:30am, we were cramped in there until we stopped for lunch along the way. We had an hour of reprieve, before continuing onward. In Tanzania the roads are paved, a real blessing; however, there is a speed bump every fifty feet. If it ain't one thing, it's another. Ride, ride, ride, doze, chat, ride. We reach the gates of the Serengeti National Park. This is an extension of the Masai Mara National Park on the Kenya side. The two are separated by the countries borders. The Serengeti is the size of the State of Connecticut, so that will give you an idea of the size of the country. Tanzania is the largest country in Eastern Africa and includes Zanzibar, which is an island.

Once we reached the park gates, we said good-bye to paved roads and back to the bounce by the ounce. Anwar kept stopping to show us animals along the way to the lodge. We had to remind him we had been on numerous safaris this trip and others in the past. As much as we appreciated this, we really wanted to get back on two legs and out of a vehicle. Miles and miles away, we finally reached the lodge by 7:00 pm. I thought for sure if the park was the size of Connecticut, we started in NY and drove to the MA border in the time it took us to get here. We are staying at the Serona Wildlife Lodge. People here are not nearly as friendly as any of the places in Kenya. Even  driving here, we received nasty to hateful looks from those we passed on the street, but this was similar to our reception here. There was nothing warm or welcoming about it; in fact, they could not find our reservation. It finally turned out that it was due to Run's Shmitz's name being misspelled. After wiping some of the dust off with the wet towel given upon entering, it went from sparkling white to dusty brown within minutes. Later, jumping into the shower, another coating turned the tub into earthenware.

Interesting note, we found that all of the places we stayed at in Kenya as well as this one and a number of others are owned by Indians, India Indians, though the land is leased only. The properties here in Tanzania are still owned by the government, but Indians run the business and Chinese laborers do the construction. This place is huge, but still under construction. My eyes sparkled when I saw an Internet Cafe sign, but they lost their luster when I looked in the window to see there were desks, but no computers. The gift shop is empty and the fitness room has all of the newest equipment stuffed into one corner. 

We are only here for one night, so we will survive. Interestingly, for as upper class as this is portrayed, the buffet is the smallest of any place we have stayed. I also am curious how places in countries like this receive their star rating. Under normal circumstances, to reach a 4 or 5 star, certain requirements must be in place. These include a phone and a television in each room for starters. Not one place has had these, though a television would be rather pointless, but a phone would be helpful with wake-up calls.

At dinner, we had a funny event. Eating away, a young person of the staff comes to our table and stands between Ron and I. I asked if there was something she needed, but she moved her head in Ron's directions, but he was not paying attention to her in the least. When I said something, she  started in saying "Sir, you forgot to sign for your drinks from the bar." The receipt book she had in her hand had whiskeys on it and 12,000 shillings as the amount due. We both said we did not order any whiskey, nor did we have anything from the bar. She walked away confused and disappointed. You know how it is; all white men with white hair and beards look alike. Of course, she was confused.

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Masai Tribe Videos

Masai Tribal Videos

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Zebra, Makes a Body Strong

Our 6:30am game drive for two hours...this is supposed to be a vacation right? Aren't vacations about sleeping in? Well, the animals are not going to wait for you to plan your day, so you catch them when they clock in for the day. Drive, drive, drive. Two female lions roaming the plains, when one starts strutting propelling into a full run. We could see small things moving around the grasses, but could not tell what they were. Joseph said they were mongoose. Then the lion pounced and you could hear an shriek. The last utterance from that mongoose making some snake rejoice.

A short distance away, there was an area with more vans than a used car lot, but half of the tourists are not staring in the direction that we are. We are staring at the two female lions sprawled on the ground under bushes, one obviously nursing, but no cubs in sight. Joseph pulls up the van when room allows. Now we know what the others were engrossed in; another lionness polishing off her breakfast, the remains of a zebra. As National Geographic as this was, I still felt for the zebra. Do other zebras miss him? Will he or she be missed. Gosh, Fred was such a great zebra; too bad about the lion incident. Oh, well, more grazing room for me. Someone pass me that greener grass over there.

The rest of the day was our own, but Joseph had offered to drive us to the Masai village for a 'cultural' experience. Ron said he wanted to go, so we arranged a time that allowed us a couple of hours of relaxation first. Even sitting in a van for hours can be exhausting as ridiculous as it may sound. As we were sitting on our balcony reading, Ron read in the tour book that the Masai village experience was 1,000 shillings per person, but you could bargain them down. Joseph had quoted 2,000 each. Just as we were debated whether or not we should go, Ron ensued "It is a once in a life-time experience" and then continued reading from the book that this was a touristy thing to do and we would not get much culture there. What to do, what to do? We voted 2-0 to go anyway.

We were greeted by "Ben", a new Masai warrior had just earned his promotion by returning from the wilds after a year of living off of the land, but with a group of other young warrior-hope-to-bes. Ben had excellent English. It seems he was schooled at a boarding school from grades 1-8, but the money ran out due to the drought, so was not able to continue. He told us there is no free education in Kenya, not even primary schools, so every parent has to pay for their child's education.

Their huts are made of tree branches with mud and cow dung and it is the women's job to build them. There is a 'room' for calves, one for goats, while the parents sleep on one side of a room separated from the children's area by the cooking area. All rooms combined do not make it 150 square feet. The children's sleeping area is for up to 5 kids, both boys and girls. We did not think to ask about toileting. Now that Ben is eighteen and finished his warrior training, he is living in a bachelor hut with 9 other young men, but they all still return home to mama for all of their meals. He said they move every 5 years, because termites infest the wood in the huts. To keep the environment clean, they burn down the entire village and move to an entirely new area.

We were only a couple of a handful of tourists visiting. We watched the dancing by the women, the dancing by the men, and their famous jumping up and down. The one who jumps the highest according to the chief is able to take a wife without paying the dowry of ten cows. All others pay in beef. Each man can have up to 10 wives if he has the 10 cows for each dowry, but the problem is that there are only two families in this village, so incest is rampant.

The reason they all wear red is because lions are afraid of red, so when they are tending their cows or sheep, they can scare away lions with their red clothes, which are imported from Nairobi. When we were ready to leave, Ben tried getting us to buy a beaded necklace with a lion's tooth on it. It supposedly was from the lion he had to kill for his warrior trials. Had it been me, I would have wanted every tooth as a memento of my stupidity, I mean bravery. Lions are endangered here. We went round and round refusing as politely as we could, when he pulled out his bargaining skills telling me that going back and forth was the way to make a deal. I explained a hard lesson to him. In order to successfully bargain, there has to be supply and demand. He had the supply; I did not have the demand. It seemed that I had to be really blunt by saying, you have something to sell, but I have no desire to own it at any price, therefore, there is no leeway for negotiations.

A different tactic was to show us the "elementary school" they were building, but had to stop due to lack of funds. We negotiated a donation of 1,000 shillings, half of what he wanted for the tooth, but with no cash other than the 4,000 we already paid, we could not do it. He rode back to the lodge to collect. He had to walk back and it was fifteen miles if it was a mile, just for the 1,000 shillings, so it must have been really important to him. It was not until later that I wondered what happens to the school house when the village is moved and burned to the ground.

Relaxation was the order of the day for the rest of it. We read, napped, relaxed, packed for leaving tomorrow. I had just finished a tremendous book called The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. Our mode of operations is to bring books with us that we will enjoy reading, but are not attached to, so they can be left behind lightening up the luggage. I had left an Elizabeth George book in our first hotel in Nairobi. When the young porter came for our luggage, he spotted it, calling it to our attention. When we said we were leaving it, we both have read it, he beamed and said he would love to have it. That is the secondary joy of a book. Back to the point. The Gargoyle is a book my office-mate gave me. I thought it would be a tosser for sure, but no. This is a keeper for sure. I will use parts of it for my creative writing course. It is Davidson's first book. Sincerely, I hope he did not burn himself out with this one. His storytelling is imaginative, realistic, yet all through the book, you keep telling yourself this could not happen, but what if... 

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High Five the Big Five

What is it with these places, skimping on insulation. We could clearly hear the couple next door so clearly at one point, I jumped up in bed, thinking they were at the foot of it. The original plan for the day was to do an early 2 hour drive, return to the hotel, go out again in the afternoon, and then call it a day. Joseph suggested we order picnic lunches go out at 7:30am instead of 6:30am and spend the day out, returning at  3;30pm. The rationale was that we could go deeper in the reserve if we had more time out, so we went along with the plan.

Drive, zebras, zebras, wildebeests, zebras, drive, drive, drive, elephants, antelope, elands, gazelles, Giselles, drive, drive, tupelos, dik-diks, but no spotted dick, zebras, mongooses or is it mongeese, drive, drive, drive, drive, drive, elephants, zebras, cheetahs, water buffaloes, lions. A group of three lions were parading across the plain as calmly as you please. Then we came upon a pride with 2 males and 3 females just lazying about on  a mound just twenty feet away from  our van. Like a rehearsed performance, they took time to stand strut, pose, and then back down to rest yet again.

We stopped for our picnic lunch at a picnic area that was swarming with monkeys. As cute at they were, we had to protect our lunches. Joseph had set our boxes on a stone table, no seating available, which was fine. We had been sitting for hours already. Under the shade of a tree, we opened our boxes to reveal what edibles we had. Faster than an Italian purse snatcher, a monkey that we had not noticed, dropped down from the tree's branch onto our makeshift table, grabbed one of my plastic wrapped sandwiches and was back in the tree stripping it to eat. No one has taught them not to litter. He flung the plastic onto the ground before savoring his newly stolen treat. He did not even have the decency to leave the area. He sat there eating within my line of vision with what I would swear was a smile on his face. I offered my boiled egg as a peace offering to those who tried sharing the sandwich with the furry thief, but was told not to feed the animals. As if... They seem to work in teams with others; one acts cute and does antics, so another can be slipping your food away while you are distracted.

It was getting close to 2:30 and we were to return at 3:30. Joseph went off the beaten path again to return to the tree where we saw the leopard's litter in the tree, but again no one was home. As we were driving back, all of a sudden he pulled off of the pathway again and when zooning through hill and dale, bushes and small trees to come to a small cliff where he stopped, pointed at a tree while announcing "leopard". We spotted our first leopard in the wild ever. This had now completed our Big 5 sightings.

At 7pm, there is the bushbaby feeding. No one could explain to us what a bushbaby was, so  we waited to see for ourselves. This creature has been conditioned to come for food at 7pm each night, but tonight his watch must have been off. We waited until 7:30, but he/she/it was a no-show. Just as we were going in to dinner, we did see this fat dark brown squirrel looking creature running around the rim of the inner walls of the bar. Someone said that was the bushbaby.

Dinner was a bit different tonight. They set up barbeques out by the poolside. They also had woman dressed in traditional clothing cooking on mats on the ground. Some were frying sweet dough and others were frying savory dough or creating a lentil dish. Inside was the buffet in addition, but the entrees were all outdoors. One dish that was different was mashed potatoes combined with mashed vegetables, making for green mashed mounds. As green as it was, the potato flavor was dominant. Many of the traditional African foods that I have sampled so far are rather bland, lacking spices.

We had left our laundry to be done yesterday. Right after dinner, I went to the desk to ask the cost and pay cash. The young man at the desk asked my room number, shuffled through a pile of papers and then said 1,250 shillings. However, he stumbled over the numbers, which made me realize yet again that though English is an official language, many have difficulty with it. I gave him the exact amount, he marked the slip  and said okay, but without giving me a receipt. When we returned to the room, the bag of laundry was on our bed with the bill for 1,050 shillings, 200 less than I was told. That had me worried that I may have paid someone else's bill by accident. Since the man had difficulty telling me the numbers for the cost, I had to wonder if he understood the numbers when I told him the room number. I really don't want to pay another 12 euros for the laundry yet again, but I am hesitant to embarrass him by asking someone else for assistance tomorrow. Even with the accent difference, we have had to repeat things and change the words we use, but have had times where we still were not understood. 

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Where the Wild Things Are for Real

At breakfast this morning, the hostess asked how I slept. I said that the walls were very thin and I could hear the French couple in the next room for most of the night. What we heard was their child singing at 9:30pm and then I heard the father snoring all night long. They could have been in our room for the lack of muffling the wall made. Although I did not go into details with Betty, the hostess, she made her own assumptions and started to giggle. I assured her we did nothing to disturb the sleep of the French people. When I returned from the buffet, she looked at me and giggled hysterically, saying "I cannot get what you said out of my mind." If I gave her a laugh, why should I correct her.

We left promptly at 6:30 for our 5 1/2 hour drive to reach our home for the next 3 nights. We are staying at the Mara Sopa Lodge inside the Masai Mara Reserve. All around us, the Masai people still have their homes and live in their traditional ways. The lodge is once again more palatial than we expected. Our room is abundantly roomy and sits in a little building with one other room next to us. Covering the walls in the bathroom are tiles that resemble elephant hide, mixed with beige vertical tiles. I cannot begin to fathom how they managed to get the supplies to this area initially to build a complex such as this when there are no roads per se. It must have been some feat. I also wonder if the land is bought or leased. The latter is my guess, but have not asked anyone.

At check-in, we were informed that we could get hot water for showers from 6am-10am and then again from 6:30pm-10pm. There is no getting around having someone take your luggage for you to the room. Every place we have stayed at so far, they insist they take your bags for you. We were asked to please take our lunch as soon as we settled in the room, though they would still be serving for another hour and a half. The restaurant is humongous with a grand earthenware fireplace in the center. The bar has one similar. All meals are again buffet. I was thinking back to our last safari where our driver and guide did all of the cooking from a drop-down leaf off of the side of the truck. All of us chipped in to clean up afterwards. I kind of miss that.

Image via Wikipedia

At 4pm, it was time to meet Joseph for our late afternoon safari tour. He almost found us a leopard, the only animal of the Big 5, we have yet to see on any trip. The others are the elephant, water buffalo, rhino, and lion. Back to the almost, he did find a tree where it was obvious that a leopard had been. Hanging high up in the tree was the carcass of a wildebeast. It looked to be a calf. I cannot fathom the strength it must have taked to carry the poor animal up into the tree using his teeth and jaws. It is not like the leopard could have it delivered, hoist it up, or use an elevator, but he left and did not clean up his mess after eating. Must have been a male leopard.

We found dozens upon dozens of zebras, but I never tire of seeing them. A couple of elephants were eating in a ditch, but later we found a whole group of them with assorted sized babies. Joseph went off of the beaten path and seemed to know where things were going to be. It was a great spotting safari, but the cream on the cake was when he took off in a strange direction with no paths at all, really traveling through the bushes. There were 5 giraffes, the first we have seen this trip. Two were obviously babies; one tried nursing while we watched, but mom was not having it at all. They are such graceful and stately animals. I love watching them walk.

Back on one of the paths, Joseph kept popping his head out the window, and then he jumped out of the van. We had a flat tire. I think he may have suspected it may happen earlier. He looked at the tire a few times during the day. It was unnerving knowing he was out there fixing the tire, which of course meant jacking it up. I half expected he would ask us to get out to save on the extra weight, but he didn't. Just having the sliding door on the van was a little worrisome. One of the other tour guides stopped his van to offer assistance. I kept an eye in that direction, while Ron looked in the other. There were some water buffaloes close by and one of the bulls found us every curious. He started to walk our way, then turned abruptly and left. Other animals gathered around to see what was happening. One said what a wildebeesty thing to have happen here. Another stated that there was an auto club to call for assistance, but we knew he was a lion. A hyena just laughed at our predictiment.

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Loaded...

Loaded into the van by 7am, ready to rock or at least to drive over every single rock in the country. We had to drive back to Nairobi, pick up our train tickets for January, and then continue on to our night's lodging. I really tried sleeping some, but when you are being jostled around like bad turbulence in twin engine plane, during a thunderstorm, it is difficult to stay asleep for longer than 3 minutes at a time.

What disturbs the rest is the seatbelt. With jumps the vehicle makes, the seatbeat tries doing a Houdini act and cut me in two. I thought it and Ron said it; these vehicles should come equipped with seatbelts and neck braces.


Road side produce stands are ubiquitious and they all seem to be selling the same thing. If I wanted to buy some of their produce, I would be in a quandry who to choose from. Everyone had the same exact product. I can just hear the "Buy something from me too" chants as a person approaches one of them. They must feel like they are winning the lottery when they make a sale with chances about the same. What is scenic is that so many of them wear their native dress, not the typical Western dress.

Even today being Saturday, the traffic was heavy, causing us to stop and crawl intermittently. During these times, people are walking between cars selling things as diverse as you can imagine. You can purchase your groceries for dinner, decorate your home, or buy emetgency supplies. There were fruit sellers, men carrying framed prints ready to hang on the wall, top-up cards for mobile phones, emergcncy kits for cars, soccer balls, and even pool toys for children. Spider Man was really popular. If only they had neck braces, they could have had two sales. Up and down the street they would carry their goods hoping to trade their product for your cash.  A couple of times, we had to stop for cows or goats crossing the road. It was a long day in the van for us, but more so for Joseph. It is beyond me how someone can do this all of the time. Ron asked when he had a vacation, but the answer was when he did not have work. Out of nowhere, we heard this child whining "Daddy, pick up the phone." It was quite startling coming out of the silence. That is the mobile ring on Joseph's phone when his family calls. We would up hearing it a number of times that day.

As soon as we made it to our lodging, Sarova (www.sarovahotels.com) they again greeted us with wet cloths and juice. After a day on these roads, using the wet towel on our face, created our own Turin shroud. This is again more upscale than we anticipated. We were immediately ushered to lunch, a tremendous buffet of choices. We did not have much time to eat; Joseph had us ready to meet him for our safari drive in the Lake Nakuru Reserve. Here they are known for tree climbing lions, white rhinos, and flamingos. A couple of Finnish people who work for the Finnish Embassy asked if would be possible to join us. They did not come on a tour and to rent a car was 100 euros for the day. Joseph did not care, so they joined us. During the drive, we came across a large number of birds. The Finnish man asked me if it was called a flock? When I said it was, he asked if we used the same word for all groups of animals. No, we have a herd of cows, a gaggle of geese, a pride of lions, and a pod of whales. Not that we were going to see any whales, but I was explaning how we had different words for different animals. Then I began to wonder why? I could not think of the word for a group of hippos, though there is a special word for it and no Google access to check it out.

We were rewarded immediately with herds (if this is corrct) of zebras, and families of hyenas, and white rhinos. This reserve is too small to hold elephants as they need more room and cause too much damage to trees. Within an hour, we found 3 lions resting on a dead fallen tree, but as we moved forward, there are actually 5. The animal life was substantial and many of them were not shy about crossing the road in front of us or being close enough to enjoy their majesty. The park was known for its millions of flamingos, but Joseph was telling us that the lake has not been at full capacity since 1970. With the draught they have had for three years, the lake is disappearing and so is the flamingo population. We could see them from a far distance, but not even close enough to tell what they were, let alone photograph. We have heard a few stories already about global warning ruining the animal population. I cannot help it, but everytime I see a zebra, I want to run it over a bar code scanner and see what happens. Trivia:  Every zebra has its own set of stripes unlike the others, like people's fingerprints. A mother zebra and her offspring can recognize each other by their stripe pattern.

This lodge also had a Masai dance and chant performance, but at the reasonable hour of 7:30 pm, so we were able to watch it and then have dinner.  Speaking of which, it was again a magnificent buffet. It would be so easy to overeat at each meal, but I have been trying to diligently keep my selections sparse and the portions minimal. Even at that I feel like the Santa in the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, but I am certain it is more the sitting all day than anything else. It could all be straightened out with more water, but more water means more rest stops.

As upscale as this place is, we preferred the first place over this one.

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On a Safari We Will Go

I thought Joseph said we should have breakfast at 6am and be ready to go by 6:30. Ron heard 7am and 7:30. Allowing him to be the fall-guy if we were were wrong, we slept in until 5:45am. Big whoop! Our day was going to include 8 hours of driving around the reserve, hunting for animals to shoot with our cameras. With that in mind, I thought it best to skip out on breakfast. It is not like you can pop out of the van just anywhere if a bathroom need arises.

I forgot to mention that our van has a pop top roof, so we can comfortably stand up in it and view animals without the hindrance of a window. From what we have seen, this is the most common, though we did notice two vans with window viewing only. Initially, knowing we would return to camp around 3:30 seemed like a waste of the rest of the day. What rocked me back to reality and to sleepyland were the roads once again. As comfortable as the van seats are, 8 hours of shaken, not stirred is quite enough. It is like being in a children's bouncy house on steroids without any control over the motion. I would have fallen asleep, but was too paranoid about missing some fleeting animal while trying to adjust my eyes.

The animals were much more gracious with their time today. Within our first hour, we came across a single bull elephant just wandering across the road. He looked like he has seen better days. Joseph guessed he was quite old and ready to retire permanently. Shortly after the elephant was out of viewing range, we encountered some hyenas along the side of the road, posing for our camera. Not long after, we spotted two more hyenas feasting on a dead elephant. This was a bit unnerving after seeing the old bull elephant. As much as this is the cycle of the natural order, we were not witness to this much in past safaris.

Keeping it brief since I taxed my reader's patience with yesterday's post and numbed my fingers in the process, I will keep this to a minimum. What is difficult to grasp in how completely the scenery changes within the reserve. In one area, it may be littered with scrub brush and umbrella trees, while a few miles later, it is completely empty savannah wasteland. After making a turn on another dirt road, you may find a swamp filled with enough water to almost submerge a baby elephant. We drove for hours over a vacant dusty area with no vegetation in sight for miles. Joseph said that during the rainy season, this was a lake with so much water; a 4WD vehicle could not cross it. You could just about fit Rhode Island along with a touch of Delaware into what would be the lake. For the amount of time we drove, we could have been 1/2 way across the State of Pennsylvania.

For lunch, the camp packed us box lunches since we would miss out having it at the camp. We stopped at a look-out hill, where we had to climb over a hundred steps to reach the top. Not being normal steps, they were the kind that required two paces before reaching the next step to elevate you up the hill. Not being the energetic outdoorsy type, I had an inward groan loud enough to shake up the organs not yet in turmoil from the van ride. I did it; it was worth the effort, though besides carrying my body, I had our lunches. The bag must have weighed ten pounds.

The view was incredible, including another swamp area where two hippos were bathing, grazing, and then bathing once again. We were joined by magnificent birds with electric blue wings, but yellow and orange underbellies who wanted to share our lunch. This was certainly possible. They packed a box for each of us that could have supplied a small tribe. In addition to a sandwich, there was fried chicken, papaya cut and ready to eat, watermelon, a local fruit we have yet to identify, cookies, a fruit juice box, candy bar, a hardboiled egg, and more.

A number of guinea hens came to greet us knowing food was on offer. Between the hens and the blue birds we were able to make some new friends as long as our sharing held out. Although the wind was horrendous, we managed to stay up there for about forty-five minutes enjoying the splendor. Returning to the van, we had a two hour safari drive before heading back to camp. This made me realize yet again that a safari has such romantic connotations, but it really depends on luck. This is not Disney World where the animals are lined up ready for viewing doing cute things. They are doing what they are naturally inclined to do and if you happen to be at the right place at the right time, you will be lucky enough to witness it. Sometimes, you can go for hours without seeing a thing at all. Honestly, by 3:30, I was more than ready to return to the camp. We were worn out; I cannot fathom how Joseph does this repeatedly.

We dropped our things off at the tent and headed to the pool. As lovely as it is, it was not being utilized at all allowing to take charge and do what we wanted. Although the water was chilly at first, it felt good after a few minutes. Allowing enough time for our suits to dry, we went for a beer, before getting dinner. At 9pm each night, the staff has a show of local dance. Strangely, in the dark of night, they build a campfire, but most of them dress in black, causing them to barely be visible.

Tomorrow is a 6:30 departure with another long day.

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A Walk on the Wild Side

Before I begin, there are a couple of generalizations I need to make. I usually abhor generalizations, so I have to admit these are based on my limited experiences thus far. The first one is that people here are Obamamaniacs in a positive sense. We have seen dozens of Obama stickers on cars as well as numerous people wearing Obama t-shirts. When we have spoken to people about it, they respond with toothy grins while letting us know this is his heritage. His paternal grandmother is alive, well, and looks well below her 72 years of age. Apparently, the US State Department is not aware of this in their travel warnings.

Next, all of the people we have encountered as staff members, be it in hotels, restaurants or other service industry providers, have not only been extremely solicitous, but highly professionally trained. Nothing seems to be too grandiose a request for them. They will do their best to fulfill it regardless of how many stars are attributed to their establishment.

We have not encountered one person, including security guards with big-ass machine guns, who has not been soft-spoken. They all seem to speak as if they are whispering a secret for your ears only. There is a real charm to this mannerism.

Besides being non-smoking, Nairobi is clean. More than once I had to take notice of how clean the streets are. There is not a single piece of litter anywhere. Of course, the smoking ban aids in not having cigarette butts all over, but there is not a single piece of paper on the streets either. The streets are not littered with trash cans to influence this cleanliness, so my only guess is that the people take pride in their environment. On that note, a number of hotels "harvest" rain water to recycle and have solar panels to cut down on their electric usage. As a green ecological country, Kenya could teach Hungary a few things. They could teach Hungary personnel a number of things about service.

Kenya is primarily Catholic. We passed literally dozens of monasteries, convents, Catholic schools and Catholic universities. The second most common religion is Islam. In addition to these, there are missionaries aplenty with little roadside churches all over the country.

As I had written in the past, we had transferred 2,000 Euros to the safari travel agency who was organizing our entire trip. The balance was to be paid on arrival. After we had settled into our hotel, Esther, the Kuja Safaris company manager had her assistant call to say that we would finalize the payment when they came to pick us up at the start of our safari. That was today. We did not know for sure when they were picking us up, so we were nervous. Two thousand Euros were gone from our account with nothing to show for it, but an e-mail. On a positive note, Ron had bombarded Esther with questions, queries, and suggestions. With each one, she answered promptly, professionally, and with complete grace.

Today, we were able to finally meet Esther from Ajah Safaris. She is young, beautiful, and just a wisp of a woman, but a real dynamo. No one else signed up for our trip, so it will be the two of us with Joseph, our driver/guide. It could have been up to six people. We were looking forward to the camaraderie of being with others, but this turned out to be perfect. We have plenty of room to spread out in the van. On the way to our first stop, Esther pointed out a sign and said this is a non-bribery zone in government; it includes the entire downtown area. I told her we had one of those in Washington, DC too, but it was only five square feet. We stopped at her company office, which could be an exaggeration. The office is about the size of our pantry without the shelving. Each business in their office building has just about the same space, including a barbershop. As we walked to her office, everyone came out of their little rooms to greet her and us. Esther and her assistant Winnie are charming, professional, and jubilant about being of service. She made the comment that the bank is going to call her to say "Esther, where did all of this money come from all of a sudden?" This begs the question, has business been really poor?

With final payments concluded, we rejoined Joseph to start our journey. He warned us that based on traffic; it could be from 5-7 hours drive. What we were not prepared for were the roads. Once we left Nairobi, where even there, the roads are not all surfaced, the rest of the roads are primarily dirt with ruts. If you can imagine those beds that some cheap motels used to have where you insert a coin and the bed vibrates, set that in your mind. Now, imagine that vibrating bed on a small ship in the middle of the ocean during a hurricane. That will give you sense of what the drive was like. There were not potholes, but gullies. Much of the road looked like corrugated dirt going across the road, not in the direction of driving. Every fifty miles, there could have been a sign that showed "Caution: Smooth surface for the next ten feet. Drive carefully, it will not last." For the first three hours, we were shaken, rattled, and rolled, before stopping for a break where Joseph shared that we were half-way there. For me, all of that vibration is relaxing and puts me to sleep. It was never verified, but I swear my mother was a quality insurance inspector for a Pogo stick company while pregnant with me. She became so proficient, it became her main means of transportation. Movement sends me to dreamland, which is why I have such difficulty sleeping in a stable bed; I need the motion to get me in the mood for meeting the Sandman. What makes this so difficult is that any drive over an hour, I get motion narcaleptic.  

When I asked where I could have a cigarette, he laughed and said anywhere you want. Nairobi is the only place where they take that law seriously, anywhere else in the country; you can smoke where you want. So much for laws.

When we finally reached the road that announced our lodge, I had this sinking feeling that our budget accommodations were going to be really budget. Driving down this long road, I prepared for the worst, but was greeted with something out of a magazine. We were staying at the Kibo Safari Campground at the entrance to the Ambeseli Game Reserve, best known for its herds of elephants. The reception is in a huge thatched building, made with all local woods. A gracious young woman greeted us with cold wet towels to wash our hands and face, while another greeted us with fruit juice. A young man appeared out of nowhere to take our suitcases to our tent. If you have ever heard the expression "My idea of camping is a hotel without room service", it closely described my ideas about camping. I was a Cub Scout, Weblo, and Boy Scout through Eagle. I had my fill of tents, sleeping bags, and backaches thank you very much. When we were told they would bring us to our tent, I had unkind thoughts. Glory to heaven, the tent has a permanent front veranda with sun screening on two sides. Inside, there are two twin beds, a full bathroom, including a shower. Each bed has a mosquito net over it and it is equipped with electric lights including a front porch light, but we were asked not to use the electric until after 6pm. This style of camping I can handle. Bring it on, baby!

Invited to please come to lunch once we were settled in our tent, the invitation was given with sincerety. All meals are served in a dining room, similarly fashioned to the reception area. They are all buffet style, but every table is assigned a waiter to get your drink order and to clear your dishes as soon as you finish with it. They do pamper in the best sense of the word. From what I have discovered after lunch and dinner is that both of those meals offer a soup, a choice of 8 different salad ingredients, 3 entrees, and 2-3 dessert selections. Lunch service ends at 3:30, dinner is served from 7:30 to 9:30 pm.
 

At 4:30, Joseph had us meeting up with him for a late afternoon safari drive in Amboseli National Game Reserve. We were going to drive around for about 2 hours. Just want we wanted after 6 hours on the road, more roads that will test whether or not a soul can be shaken loose from its host body. The drive was productive. We saw a number of elephants, particularly what this reserve is known for, but most animals were far enough from the road to get that WOW experience we have had in the past. Hippos, Crown cranes, hyenas, jackals, 2 lions, zebras, and others were spotted, but a telephoto lens or binoculars were needed for most of them. I have higher hopes for the rest of the safaris.

As I sit on our porch, patio, veranda, whatever it is, I am watching the monkeys play in the trees about one hundred yards away. In the background is Mount Kilamajaro. There is a swimming pool with an elevated deck, but we need to get up early for a full day game drive tomorrow, so we will forfeit a dip tonight. I can certainly live with this type of camping.

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Out of Africa, But Still Here

Image via Wikipedia

Before leaving home, Ron forced me to watch Out of Africa. I was only resistant because I really am not a Meryl Streep fan, but we did watch it together. I have to say, I was floored with Streep's ability to do the accent. The movie had me enthralled, but as it is Hollywood, they make changes for the movie version. Ron read the book, but I have not yet. One of the things he had on his "To do" list was to visit her house, which is now a museum.

His back is still bothering him, so we decided to do this today. It is located in one of the outer parts of Nairobi, a good taxi ride away. Since we were doing the taxi thing, we decided to combine trips. Our first stop was an African consortium of handicrafts with about 20 different vendors all in one place. Proceeds from sales either go to the support of the tribe that made the product or for wildlife preservation. We told the driver we wanted about thirty minutes here, but once inside, we could have spent more than an hour and thirty minutes.  Unlike some establishments of this nature, once you have really looked over the merchandise from one shop, you have seen it all. It was an unexpected surprise to find that this was not the case here. Each room, a different vendor, had unique merchandise not available in other rooms by other vendors. Knowing we would be back in Nairobi for three days before we return, we looked, made lists, but did not buy anything now. There was no sense in hauling it around for the next 4 weeks. Fortunately or unfortunately, they do take credit cards. I have quite the list and Ron found a number of things that grabbed his fancy too.

From here, we went to Karen Blixen's Museum, the Danish woman who wrote Out of Africa based on her life here, before returning destitute to Copenhagen. The movie really came to life as soon as we were on the property. They filmed the outside scenes using this house. The interior scenes were filmed in a different house, because this one did not yet have electricity. We were treated to have James as our tour guide. He was extremely knowledgeable, loved her books (Blixen wrote 9 total, but not all of Africa), and the movie. Though he could not have been but a mere baby at the time of the movie, he made sure he knew ever detail there was to tell. We learned which pieces of furniture were authentic, which were reproductions and which were left from the movie. We also were treated to seeing the pants Robert Redford wore during the filming. Throughout the house were paintings Blixen painted of using some of her native staff as models; she was an accomplished artist.

In the back lot, we saw the remains of her coffee works, the roaster and all. It was moved to this location for the movie, but was originally down by the river.  Everything was fascinating, but James added an infectious appeal to the tour that we would never have experienced with anyone less enthusiastic. He was charming.

Our last stop was the Ya-Ya Center, an upscale ex-pat hang-out according to Lonely Planet. It would better be described as a mall. It was a bit of culture shock, but totally appropriate that the women who served at the information desk were dressed as Santa's elves. Normally, this would not cause a second look at this time of year, except they were all black. Directly behind the elves, Santa was sitting on his throne, ringing a bell trying to get some kiddie to sit on his lap, but to no avail. He too was black. It reminded me of the movie The Perfect  Holiday with Morris Chestnut. It is a Christmas movie with an all black cast.

The worst thing about paranoia with potential crime is that I don't travel around with lots of money or my credit cards. We brought enough cash to last us for the first week or so I thought. Little did I realize that Kenya was not going to be the bargain I had anticipated, but it is the taxi costs that are eating into the budget. Before we left the hotel, I had changed 50 euros. When we said good-bye to our three trip taxi driver, I only had 1,800 Kenyan shillings left. Knowing we would need 500 to 800 to taxi back, we had little left for any drinks or snacks. If only I had brought my ATM card with me. We managed to get 2 coffees and a pastry each, so we were not about to starve. The ride back was 500 shillings, so I am almost on empty once again.

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High Alert

Our first morning in Nairobi, the breakfast buffet is complete with a cook who makes custom omelets. This is our one splurge for this part of the trip. Our room is about $140. a night, but since we arrived late at night, we wanted comfort to start the trip. 

To get to our room corridor, we need to use our room card key and then again to get into the room. Ron went back to the room to get something, but when he did not return, I went looking for him. He bend the wrong way and put his back out. This slowed our day a bit. When we did start our day's adventure, we noticed what passed us by the night before. We need our card key to leave the hotel, plus we need it again to leave the premises. High security for sure. Outside the hotel is a barrier at both entrances for cars coming and going, manned by guards toting machine guns. Our hotel has a pricier sister hotel at the one end of the road. In front of it, is a "Happy Security" sign and area with a strange roundabout, where all cars have to stop to be inspected before they are allowed to go through. It was not until later in the day that we found out that the Israeli Embassy is directly across the street, hence the high security.

What may be cause for celebration for some is that Kenya is a non-smoking country. It is illegal to smoke in public except in designated areas, which are few. I will either cut down on my smoking or have nicotine withdrawal headaches. We shall see.

What we did not take into account is the cost of taxis. Over 50% of Nairobi is slum, constituting 2.5 million people. The safest way to get around is by taxi. The fact that our hotel is in a better neighborhood also means it is not in the city center, thus a major hike via unsafe roads and areas to get to the center. Today alone, we spent about 30 euros, not dollars on taxis.

Being dropped off in the downtown area, we were told it is very safe, because armed guards are everywhere. They are too. We were used to this in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, but there seem to be even more here. To say the city is not pretty is like saying that a cold sore has appeal. It is close to downright ugly with only a few interesting, but not yet not attractive buildings scattered here and there, seemingly by accident rather than by design.

The streets are like migration times in the plains. Each block has what seems like thousands of people pushing through trying to get somewhere other than where they are, all at varying speeds. Interesting shops are rare to non-existent on most of the streets we were hustled through. Traffic jam has an all new meaning. It could be described as traffic molasses after a deep freeze or the speed of an Artic snail. If they can move 2 feet every ten minutes, they consider it progress. Thankfully, the taxis are not metered. You arrange the fare ahead of time, but hotel taxis have their fares regulated by the hotel. 

We did manage to get to the African Archives, where what we found was one man's collection of artifacts from throughout Africa. His sole concern was that the cultures throughout the continent were vanishing, so he wanted to preserve them as best he could. The guard turned into our guide, giving us a vibrantly interesting history of numerous things as we stopped to look at a piece of history. He is an asset to his community for his vast wealth of history. The only time I wanted to run screaming was when he defended female circumcision as being illegal, but "some tribes still consider it necessary to curb a woman's hot nature for sex". I could have forgiven him, but he continued alluding to his personal agreement with the idea. After listening to it for five minutes, I had to change the subject or scream "That is really called female genital mutilation and it only causes physical and mental damage." Once we moved on to a different subject, I was able to look him in the face again, but he did not get a tip at the end.

We had been downtown for about 2 hours by this point, but we had only seen one other white person, creating some strange feelings. We literally hunted for a place to sit and have a drink and snack. Most of the places we passed were stand-up only. Ron spotted a place on an upper floor, so we went there, receiving curious looks from all of the other patrons. Since we were allowed to smoke there, we probably stayed even longer than we normally would, but there was not a lot to go running off to do anyway. 

The one stop we did make was the US Embassy Memorial garden where the US Embassy was bombed in 1998. More than 250 people were killed in the blast. They now have a visitor's center with a memorial plaque listing the names of the victims in the center of the park. We relaxed on the greens in the park; all benches were filled. After I took a picture of the memorial, a guard came over to make sure I was not doing a video. He then admonished us for not visiting the center to watch the video of the historic day's events. We said perhaps another time, but it seemed rather depressing.  The ambassador must have had warning; she was on the top floor of the bank building next door 'in a meeting'.

Kenya only gained complete independence in 1963. That is not all that long ago when you think about it. We walked over to the Parliament, which offers tours by appointment, but did not pursue it. Many of the government buildings have signs stating "This is a no bribe zone. Anyone attempting to bribe an official..." I wonder how that is working out. The youthfulness of the country does help to explain the infrastructure. The roads are in incredibly poor condition. Most of the buildings downtown were built after independence and for utility, not beauty.

After a taxi ride back, we went to our sister hotel for a beer, checking menus at its 5 different restaurants for dinner options. If not there, it would mean another taxi ride to and from another place. We did return for dinner at the poolside restaurant, but it was so busy, we nary got a peek at the poolside. Dinner was magnificent. I had a Kenyan chicken dish; Ron had red snapper. Presentation is everything with food and they have it down to an art.

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Vienna, Zurich, Nairobi

The flights from Vienna to Zurich and then Zurich to Nairobi were nondescript. On the long haul, we had emergency row seats, so extra leg room. The movies were on a continuous loop, depending on the channel, so one could not start and stop a movie. If you tuned in too late, you missed out on part of the movie. Our screen resolution was not the best, so we did not bother with the movies after twenty minutes of eye strain. Most of the time, we either read or slept. I think I basically slept through the majority of the 7 hours - 50 minutes of the flight from Zurich to Nairobi. The flight attendants gave us six different forms that had to be filled in upon arrival.

When we landed, we had to get entry Visas. There are separate lines for Visas as opposed to those who can enter on a passport only or who already have their Visa. One of the airport attendants directed us around the corner where there was no waiting, supposedly. However, when we arrived, the line was just as long as the one we had left. It took us over two hours in line to get our Visas. I thought for sure our luggage would have been dropped off, ripped off, and forever missing during this time. Our flight was continuing on to yet another country after depositing us here in Nairobi. How little faith I have, it was there without a hitch. 

As we left the secured area, our driver was waiting with a sign in hand. He drove us to our hotel. Along the way, the modern buildings did not escape my attention. The three story high billboards were quite alarming also; each showing the latest in mobile phones and Vodafone being the mobile carrier of choice here. Had I brought my mobile, I could have connected quite easily. So much for this being behind the times. 

Our modern and tasteful hotel the Upperhill Country Lodge, where we will be spending the next three nights has free WiFi for guests. Get a clue Australian properties.  Regardless of the sleep we had on the plane, we were still anticipating a full night's sleep here too. It is two hours ahead from continental Europe. Although, it is approaching summer, it was dark out at 7:00 pm when we landed. We were told that being close to the equator, the dusk is about thirty minutes long. Sunset...boom...darkness.

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