Nairobi
KENYA
Safaris, Seizures and Scooby
By AARON
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
I must admit, I was a little on edge when we pulled up at 4am, once again to the seedy bus area in Nairobi. Maybe it was because we had just finished our 24 hour marathon from Lamu, or maybe it was because we had read and heard all these bad things about Nairobi- mostly occurring at night. Regardless, due to the strange arrival times of flights and bus rides, this would be the second time I had been in Nairobi, and still hadn’t seen sunlight!
We took our taxi from the bus stop area to Milimani Backpackers Hostel just outside of town. We arrived at 5am and to the continuous barks of the resident dog and assistant security – Scooby. After sniffing us a bit, Scooby calmed down and allowed us to go inside and check in, which considering the time we arrived, was a nice gesture on the hostel’s part, since check-in really wasn’t until about 2pm.
After a much needed nap of about 4 hours, Lyndi and I woke up around 9am and ate a huge English breakfast at the Milimani restaurant, and then proceeded to strategize about what we would do with our time here in Nairobi. One option was to do a safari, but unfortunately, as of March 1st (we arrived on the 3rd), all parks across the country had raised their prices around 30%!!! The famous, Maasai Mara game reserve (normally $60USD/pp/day, was now $80USD/pp/day) was on our list of things to visit, but after being quoted $150/pp/day for the tour, we hastily declined as we couldn’t justify spending $900USD (about 1/11th of our budget for 6 months by the way) for a 2 ½ day tour.
Feeling pretty down, our hopes were soon rekindled as we remembered our friends from Poland that we met in Lamu. Thankfully Lyndi had written down the name of the safari company they used, which had only charged $95USD/pp/day and they had nothing but good things to say about the tour. After a couple of phone calls, we got the directions to “Big Time Holiday Safaris” and started walking into town to talk to them about pricing for the safari.
On our walk to the center of town, I had noticed a guy about 20 feet in front of us. Not sure why this guy stood out, but I remember thinking something about his fedora he was wearing, and also the fact that he walked with a confident purpose, as if he knew exactly where he was going and how he was going to get there. It turns out he was going to the pharmacy – unfortunately he had been diagnosed with epilepsy and no sooner than I looked away, when I looked back he was on the ground, body convulsing, having an epileptic seizure.
Lyndi and I walked up to him, and at first were a bit surprised that everyone else was just walking by as if nothing was going on. I must admit my first instinct after taking all of this in was “possible scam?”, but after a couple of seconds, realized that this was not the case. Lyndi asked a couple of people as they passed if they could do anything and thankfully, one by one, a couple of people stopped to help the man (he spoke Swahili) and got him in the shade. As he didn’t have enough money for the full prescription, it was nice to see even the locals all pull out their wallets and start donating to the man so he could purchase his medication (about $5USD in total). One well-dressed man even volunteered to take the man to the pharmacy and help him get his prescription.
After that rare event, it was refreshing to think back on the 5 or 6 people who all came together to help out their fellow man. Again, from all the bad things you hear that go on in Nairobi (robberies, carjacking, murder, etc.) we had just witnessed the exact opposite, which in a city with a reputation for violence and mayhem; we were able to see the good side.
As we headed into town, we were then met by our “friend”, who “worked at the hotel we were staying at” and “knew of Big Time Holiday”. Fortunately we knew where we were going as well, but despite our gentle protests to our new “friend”, he proceeded to “guide” us to our destination. After talking with Big Time Holiday Safaris in their office, we were able to get the tour for $100/pp/day, which when considering $80 of that each day is going to just the park entrance, we couldn’t pass it up. Our friend was waiting outside for us, and after assuring him that he was going to get nothing for his unsolicited help, he slowly trudged off and finally left us alone.
That night Lyndi, Scooby and I enjoyed a couple of beers and got to know a couple of other backpackers at our place, including a rude Swedish guy who upon hearing that 3 of us were from America responded drunkenly “Americans are superficial”. Lyndi, who is no longer a tour leader and doesn’t have to hold her tongue when people make idiotic comments like that, proceeded to tease and prod him (along with a couple of others from America), until in his drunken state, he apologized and changed it to “Some Americans are superficial”. Hey, I can’t argue with him on that one.
Next morning, Lyndi and I went out with Gina and Robin, two girls we had met the night before, and the four of us decided to go shopping for earrings. Okay, the three of them decided that, I decided it would be fun to visit some of the markets.
After visiting them, a couple of things surprised me about the markets in Nairobi (and Kenya in general).
- They are very aggressive sellers.
- Five guys will all try and sell you something from one guy’s stall (how do they make money?).
- They seem to want anything you have on you. Ex: “give me your watch”, “give me your hair tie”, “give me your t-shirt”.
- If you refuse to give them anything, then it is up for swapping. Ex: “let’s trade t-shirts”, “give me your watch and I will give you this deck of cards”.
The markets were definitely an experience, and Lyndi and I even walked out with a nice set of Masai candle-holders, originally quoted $130USD, but ended up paying $12, which is maybe $2 more than they’re actually worth. The rest of the day was spent exploring downtown Nairobi, eating lunch at a local restaurant, and enjoying a beer at a local beer tent.
I must say that Nairobi wasn’t anything like I thought it would be. The city is colorful, clean and never once did we feel unsafe. The people were friendly and helpful, and the chapattis and egg (“rolex” is what they’re called) at the local street stalls are out of this world for breakfast. I’m sure if you’re wandering around at night it can be dangerous, but during the daytime, it was like any other city we’ve been to. Well, except Mombasa.
