Travel Series: On Safari in the Maasai Mara National Reserve (Nairobi, Kenya)

A few months ago I was in Nairobi for a week. Unfortunately that meant that I didn't have the time needed to take a trip to Kenya's most well known safari area - the Maasai Mara National Reserve - I had to settle for the Nairobi National Park instead. That's OK though, cos for this trip I've got a weekend to spare, and so away we go to the Maasai Mara!

The Park is about a 250km drive from Nairobi, and takes about 6 hours by van. Doing some mental maths that's barely above a 40km/h average - that's because the roads are brutal. Sort of feels like being on a speedboat going on high speed in choppy waters, if you've done that before. If you haven't, well, the roads were so bad that the bumps triggered involuntary grunting. Losing control of your vocal chords aren't fun cos you know ... vocal chords now, what's next? The bladder? Ha ha.


Anyways, since we signed up for the budget package, we find ourselves at a ... campsite, which is where we'll be staying the night.


To be honest it's actually a pleasant surprise, because the tour company had advertised this as "camping" - which it certainly isn't. There are beds, blankets, mosquito nets, an attached toilet and shower, electricity ... it's enough, really.


... oh and there's also hot water! Gotta hope it doesn't rain though, cos if it does, the rain puts out the fire and the water turns cold mighty quick!


Anyways, a 2day/1night itinerary only gives you two 2-3 hour game drives - these are in 4WD's or vans with the roof specially modified to be propped up so us tourists can stand up to ogle the animals.



On to the photographs of the animals then! Lots of different wildlife here ranging from Lions:



Wildebeest:


Zebras:


Various Birds:




Haha, OK, that's a remarkably sexist interpretation of 'bird.' :P ... anyway lets continue, with different kinds of deer/gazelles (sorry lah, I no wildlife expert, don't remember the names of any of these):




Elephants:



Giraffes:


Surprisingly, I actually saw less animals in total here in the Maasai than in the Nairobi National Park - many more lions, though. Unfortunately, thanks to the 6 hour trip we didn't have a full day to go deeper into the reserve. If you ever find yourself with the opportunity to come, definitely go for at least a 3day/2night. And if you're able to schedule your trip, definitely make it around August-September when the Great Wildebeest Migrations happen.

Oh, and to sign off the post: Malaysia represent, yo!


I went with Kairi Tours and Safaris. Average all-in prices are about 18-20,000 KSh (rm 660) for 2days/1night, or about 25-27,000 KSh (rm 910) for 3days/2nights.

http://www.kairi.co.ke/
info@kairi.co.ke

Travel Series: Maasai Village, Maasai Mara, Kenya, Africa.

I am SO behind on my blogging. Looking through my pictures folder we've got restaurants in Kay-El that we ate at more than a month ago. I should really get around to blogging before I forget about they tasted like.

I think I've got something better though. Continuing my travel series, today I'll take you to the Maasai Mara game reserve in central Kenya for a sneak peek into the lives of the most photographed ethnic group in the world - the Maasai. Mammoth post below!



When going into a Maasai camp, it's customary to meet up with the chief (or his representative), and offer an 'offering' as an 'entrance fee' of sorts. For us, it was 1000 KES (rm36) per person, which buys entry to the village, the freedom to take photographs, and to watch the men do their traditional 'jumping' dance. The dance, accompanied by loud rhythmic chanting, is done to:

(i) celebrate the slaying of a lion, and
(ii) to entertain fair-skinned, wide-eyed tourists.



While I fail to see how entertaining visitors is a worthwhile replacement for the thrill of defeating the king of the jungle, I'm not complaining. And the men get some jumping practice. Which is useful, because apparently if you can jump really high, you get a discount on the dowry you pay when 'buying' a wife. I didn't really ask in detail, but I'd imagine as a man you'd go meet your prospective future wife's in-laws, and the conversation would go something like this:

You: How much for your daughter?
The In-Laws: 10 cows.
You: ** start to jump as high as you can **
The In-Laws: You have good genes. OK I give you discount ... 7 cows.

Easiest negotiation ever.


Anyway, this is the son of the chief. His dad was off somewhere attending an inter-village tribal meeting - you know, doing the important stuff - leaving him behind to entertain. You can't really tell from the photo, but that's a hat made from the head of a lion. It probably belongs to his dad. I mean you can just tell from his face that he's thinking "yay, dad's not here so I get to wear the lion hat!"


I kid, I kid. The women are up next, to perform their traditional dance, which is infinitely less interesting than the male dance. The dance, which involves chanting/singing and swaying their hands back and forth, is done to:

(i) celebrate a marriage, and
(ii) to entertain fair-skinned, wide-eyed tourists.


Just like in Western society, you can easily tell a married woman from a single one - the married woman has anklets on.




You might have noticed one of my pictures above has two lumps of fresh cow droppings. And you might be inclined to go 'ewwwwwwwwwww.' But the Maasai wouldn't eww at all - they mix cow dung with soil and use it to build the walls of their huts/homes. You wouldn't hold a brick and say eww, would you?

Anyway the entire village will only stay in one location for 9 years - because termites eat away at the soil/dung mixture and the walls sort of start crumbling. So 9 years in one spot, then they pack up and move to a new spot where it takes 5 months for the women to re-build their huts.




Those of you who are sharper-eyed might have noticed that all the children in my pics are girls. Where are the guys? From 7-9 years old they go to school to learn Swahili (the Kenyan national language). Then they tend to the goats, sheep and cows, bringing them to faraway pastures to graze and drink.

At nine years old. Our kids at 9 aren't even allowed to look at anything remotely sharp. Maasai kids are handed the family's entire livestock. You know, cos what better way to teach your kids responsibility than to give them a stick and a few dozen goats, say 'here, take the goats and make sure they stay alive, cos if you screw up and lose them our entire family will starve and die' ... right? No pressure.


Oh, and you know those survival shows you see on the telly about some Westerner survival expert taking forever to start a fire? The son of the chief demonstrated starting his fire in the rain - and didn't even need 5 minutes to do it.


Back to the huts, though - they're maybe 100 sq ft tops, and fit an entire family of 4-6, a store room, a dining room cum kitchen and a room to house the baby goats/cows. The entire house has one 'window' (which is really just a 3-inch hole in the wall), and a small wood fire that's used for cooking, boiling water, and providing heat and light. Naturally the lack of ventilation makes the entire house smell sort of like a pub/club in Kay-El. But smokier. And darker.

(And you thought your 2,000 sq ft apartment was cramped)



Before I finish, just a slight bit of a 'reality check.' If you're thinking "well hey their life isn't that bad," this particular camp is possibly the richest, most modern and clean camp in all of Kenya - reason being is that it's right next to the main camp grounds area of the Maasai Mara. Practically everyone here on safari will stop by this village - and pay the 1000 shillings entrance fee - so they're like the Berkshire Hathaway of the Maasai world.

I'll cover the Maasai Mara safari in a future post, hope you've enjoyed the tour!

Travel Series: Dubai International Airport

So I'm starting a new mini-series! Gonna be somewhat similar to the Mauritius and Kenya posts I've had up a few months ago. And what better place to start than at an airport - to be exact, the Dubai International Airport - which is possibly the busiest transit airport in the world. I mean, I know a lot of people who transit in Dubai on their way to Europe, or to the States, or to the Africa region, but none who actually get out of the airport (other than the handful of you who actually work there).


Anyway this is my 5th transit in the last few months - and since I only had about an hour's layover this time (i.e. not enough time to find a place to sit, get comfy and sleep), I thought I'd walk around and see if it was possible to snap interesting photos ... at an airport!










I thought these were decent shots - but you be the judge! And oh, since this is still supposed to be primarily a foodie blog, I did stop for some tea (or supper, depending which time zone you measure by) at Paul pâtisserie.


They've got a delightful selection of pastries, bread and assorted cake.


I have no idea if this Paul is related to that apparently très awesome French pastry maker of the same name, or if it's just some remarkably similar looking knock-off.


In any case, my regular cappucino was average in every way. The anglaise apple, while tasting decently good, was as cold as your windows on a rainy morning. Yuck. And before you point out that I could have asked them to heat it, I'll point out that for AED 32 (RM27) for a slice of pie and a miserable coffee, there shouldn't have been any need to ask in the first place.

Boo Paul, boo. I sure hope you aren't the real Pareesian Paul.

Photo Spam: David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, Nairobi, Kenya

More Photo Spam! This will be the last in my Nairobi/Kenya series of posts. David Sheldrick's Elephant Orphanage takes in baby and young elephants who are orphaned from their parents (most probably because the parents died to poachers who were after their tusks for ivory). Left in the wild, these young elephants would have no chance to survive, so the Orphanage takes them in, feeds them and nurtures them, and then releases them to the wild once they're big enough to fend for themselves.

The elephants are fed once a day at 11am, and for a token sum of KES 500 (RM 19.45), visitors get to come in and watch. It's actually a pretty fun visit, being able to see these young, playful elephants drinking milk and splashing around in a mud pool. The keepers will also give a short talk on the history of each of the elephants.












The Orphanage is right next to the Nairobi National Park, so if you're going there for safari do try to include a visit to the elephant orphanage - it'll definitely be worth your time.

Photo Spam: Safari trip at Nairobi National Park

If you're ever in Kenya for work, play, holiday, whatever, do make sure you keep at least two days free for Safari at the Masai Mara national park. Unfortunately I only had one day free, so I had to go to the infinitely less awesome nearby Nairobi National Park.

The park is right next to Nairobi, so you can actually see the city in the background! Click here for a bigger version of this picture ~


Anyway, on safari you go in these vans that have the roof cut off so you can stand up and have a 360degree view of the surroundings.


Random shot of the trails.


Dodo? No idea what bird this is, haha.


Buffalo! Yeah I know, 'never see buffalo before meh??' XD


Only saw these two lions the entire trip. And even finding them took almost an hour of stalking and searching.


Zebra ...


More zebras and a kind of animal whose name I don't remember ...






Giraffe. Didn't see many of these either, probably 5 or so.


I remember specifically asking the guide what this animal was ... but I can't remember what he told me :(


More Zebras!


Safari to Nairobi National Park, David Sheldrick's Elephant Orphanage, and detour to Masai handicraft place cost me 11,000 Sh - roughly MYR 430. Was a tad bit expensive cos I went alone - going in a group brings down the per-pax cost considerably.