As I landed in Athens from Frankfurt on August 3rd, 2008, I had not imagined that it would be so hot. The first thing that hit me was the heat. Though all my childhood I spent on the coastal belt of Udupi in west of Karnataka, which is South of India such scorching heat was something that I could not remember feeling. Probably the last 15 days of May would be unbearable in Udupi, but it was always a relief that it would rain in June and cool down. As I spent more days in Athens and Argos I realized that the heat of this place is much different to what I was used back home. August is not the month to be in Greece. The best period would be just before winter October/November or just after winter April/May.
I took the train from Airport to Monstreaki train station (cost was EUR6) to reach my bed & breakfast hotel. The first impression I got while traveling in the train and while reaching the hotel was that the city was shade better than the city of Mumbai. That is Mumbai minus the slums. Probably the slums of Mumbai are here replaced with vertical slums.
Like in any part of Europe the B&B gave a very tiny clean room with bathroom attached. Enough for one person to spend nights with TV and free internet made available. I was told by the receptionist that air condition during the night will be charged an extra EUR5! There were no fans in the room so it was inevitable that I purchase the air condition remote from the reception for the extra EUR5. Interesting way of increasing your price as one could never survive a day or night inside the room without air condition when the heat is around 38 to 40 degree C outside!
I discussed with the receptionist and charted out the sight seeing program for the next three days. First day Delphi, second day 3 island cruise which was the receptionist favourite tour and the 3rd day city tour of Athens. The last two days I had planned to visit my pen friend who lives in Argos which is 145 kms from Athens.
It was a Sunday evening and hence most of the places were closed except for the hotels and restaurants. I went to a nearby restaurant to have some dinner at around 7.30pm, the sun was still active in the horizon. I had stuffed tomato and capsicum with rice which is a traditional Greek vegetarian dish. Rice mixed with some herbs and spices is stuffed inside the tomato and capsicum and baked or boiled with oil. I must say, iwas very tasty and this became my menu for the coming days that I spent in Greece. There are other two vegetarian dishes that they offered– Tatsaki – cucumber with yoghurt and one more dish is the rice covered with leaves ( I think Olive leaves) dipped in vinegar. Both these are offered as starters.
Delphi is 185 kms from Athens and hence the tour started early in the morning on Aug 4th at 7.00am. I had to go to a nearby hotel to take the sight seeing bus. After having every one picked up we left the Syntagma square at around 8.00am. We had a family of 3, a young couple, looked like students – Chinese lady and her boyfriend probably American , mother and son (approxnine years) from north of Europe fully tanned but made a very happy pair, A father and son (teenage son), two ladies probably friends could not guess the language that they were speaking and a couple from US. This was the group and our guide was a lady with good English and good knowledge about history made this trip a memorable one.
The way to Delphi is beautiful the unfortunate part was the wrong timing of my trip. Probably it was greener than it looked now just a month ago. The hills had dried up and the grass, trees wore a very dried look. Most of the fields that we passed through were being cultivated probably with wheat and vegetables. Athens is surrounded by hills and it is visible when ever you get into a high rise building or land in the airport. Our Guide explained to us each of these hills as we passed by. Delphi hosts a sacred ancient temple where it was believed it was the centre of the world. The centre of the world then was described or was a point where two eagles met. The two eagles were flown by the Zeus (who was the primary god of ancient Greeks) one from east and one from west and where they met was called the centre of the world. They met in Delphi. Apart from that Delphi also hosted Zeus son, Apollo, god of music as its primary god. The god of earth (Gaia) was also worshipped here before Apollo. It was famous for its Oracle and people all over Greece came during the 6th/5th/4th century BC to ask questions about anything and everything and to get directions from the God. The religious process was that once in a month the priestess called Pythia used to take questions from the people and profess the Oracle which was also sometimes interpreted by the priest. A sacrifice of the goat was a must before the question. While listening to this story, I could not resist but think about the “Spirit” that we worship back in my home town. Every place had some Spirit that the local people worshipped and asked question either once in a month or once in a year. And the person who possessed the spirit would answer after a sacrifice of goat or hen. The spirit that was in our part of Udupi where I lived was called “Jumadi”. Even today this ritual is carried on but in grandeur that was not seen by me during my childhood.
In Delphi too, as Greece progressed with various kings and Romans, Delphi too progressed with each of them adding a building or a stadium to the temple. Each of them built their treasure house which housed lot of treasure etc…. to show their respect through these gifts to the god. Though all these were looted in subsequent years by other invaders.
Delphi was excavated by removing a village which was housed on the ruins of Delphi. Though when I first saw the ruins from the bus, I wondered whether I made this trip all the way from Athens spending so much of money (for me it is INR to EUR, which is prohibitively expensive!:)) to see some pillars! However, I started appreciating the pillars and the ruins along with the story from the guide which was very interesting and the museum next to the site housed most of the statues and the remains that was excavated from the site made it really interesting.
The other interesting part of the Oracle reading was the Pythias. I believe initially these were young women and later on these roles were played by older women. The reason was that the young women could not be virgins forever! I can never understand one’s interest in virginity of women! It seems to be a big obsession for all religion and practices around the world. Take for instance the belief of so many virgins that one would meet in heaven for some deed that you perform in the earth or the expectation that one’s wife to be a virgin. Can we ever leave the women alone to safeguard their virginity or do what they please with their virginity and it would be accepted in the society?
Coming back to my Delphi trip, we had a nice lunch at around 2.30pm at a nearby village restaurant. I was chatting with the couple from US who were doing their Doctorates in Europe. One was in INSEAD and the other was in Geneva University. Needless to say I was very impressed with them as our discussions progressed. There was a small break before we left to Athens for some shopping of fur coats and honey for interested buyers. The accompanying landscape is actually very spectacular if not for the dried look of the hills. There are many huge lakes that are passed by during this trip. We reached Athens around 6.00pm. I walked back to my tiny room in the hotel lingering on the thoughts of Oracle and the praying to god of earth, music etc.. by the ancient Greeks. It never occurred to me as something unusual as back in India we do that even today unlike in Greece.
Second day, I went on the cruise to see the 3 islands – Pores, Hydra and Aegina. We left early in the morning at 7.00am from the pick up hotel and reached the port at around 8.00am. There were buses from all over places and as the ship filled up we started at around 9.00am. As I was sitting alone on the third floor of the ship deck a Australian couple came along and shared the table with me. They had gone to Venice on a cruise and had come back to Athens to spend some days in Greece. As we were cruising to the first destination of Pores, we got a call from the cruise guide to come over to the ground floor of the deck for instructions. This was for English speaking and understanding tourists. We learnt our timings at each destination and an optional tour called the Classical tour to see the temple of Aphaia at the island of Aegina for EUR25. There were other optional tours there with just the panoramic view and swimming tours for EUR22 each. I decided to take the Classical tour and so did the Australian couple. The wife did say that swimming on a beach is something that she could do when she feels like in Sydney and need not come all the way to Greece to swim!
The first two stops of islands Pores and Hydra are mainly for shopping and going around. They are very small islands with the population of 15,000 or less than that. They are beautiful and very picturesque, except that I would have loved more green on the mountains. It is my fault for choosing the wrong season!
We had lunch in the ship at 11.30 as they were serving batch by batch. The lunch was good with salad, main course and desert. We had to pay extra for all beverages. I could get vegetarian as they were expecting some vegetarians as their customers too!
I dozed of inside for a while reading the book by a Japanese author that I was carrying to be woken up with some strange dreams and realized that I was in Greece on a cruise and not in Japan along with the hero of the book! Anyway, I realized that I dozed of for an hour and a half thinking it was just a few minutes that I closed my eyes!
We reached Aegina at around 4.30pm. The heat was unbearable at 38 degrees C. The air conditioned bus was a relief which took us around the island to the temple of Aphaia.
The island is very beautiful with Pistachio trees and Olive trees. They have a big port too. The goddess Aphaia was supposed to be the caretaker of ships. It is an island of 15,000 people and seems to be doing well economically. Actually I felt all places out of Athens richer and cleaner than the city of Athens. 50% of the population in Greece lives in Athens (approx. 4.5M) and the rest 50% are spread over outside Athens. So, one can imagine the overcrowding of the city.
We went to the temple of Aphaia and were given half an hour to go around. It is a nice structure with round pillars (very classical of Greece). This was built around 6th century BC and was out of its glory by 3rd -2nd century BC when the island of Aegina was ruled by Athenians. The ruins are the result of the findings in the eighteenth century.
Almost every one in the bus ate the Pistachio ice cream available near the monument as that was supposed to be the specialty of the island as informed to us by our guide. Then we headed back to the port and on our way visited one of the oldest (now getting renovated) orthodox monastery in the island. The head of the Orthodox Church is in Istanbul (erstwhile Constantinople) and the main priest is there. Also there are around 300 chapels in the island of 15,000 inhabitants making it almost one chapel a day for the inhabitants.
We headed back to Athens from Aegina at 6.00pm and reached Athens at 7.30pm. Our respective buses were waiting for us to be dropped back at our place of pick up. Another eventful day had to come to an end.
The next day was the city sight seeing trip. I later realized, I should have done this on my own (to save money!). Nevertheless, I must admit that our guide Hera was brilliant (Hera is the name of the sister of Zeus who married her and had children with her!). No regrets.
We were picked up at 9.00am in the morning and assembled quickly by 9.30 am. We were first introduced to the brief history of Greece which was very interesting. After the glory of Alexandar and the likes before, the Romans occupied Greece for a long time till they could not handle the big empire of theirs and the empire got split into two. That is when the Byzantine era in Greece starts and the era of orthodox Christianity. This is when formally it was made illegal to pray to mythological Greek Gods. Also, Constantinople the current Istanbul was made the capital at the later stage. Lot of wealth from the temples in Greece has found its way to Istanbul during this regime.
After that it is the Ottoman Turks who ruled Greece for 400 years from 14th Century till Greeks fought the first independence battle in 1821. It was during this war that some of the Acropolis was ruined due to use of gun powder which exploded. The Acropolis which was not ruined or destroyed due to natural calamities had to suffer due to explosion of gun powders. One admires the architectural ability of the ancient Greeks in conquering the natural calamities. Probably they were not aware of man’s ability (in the future) to invent one’s own destructive ammunition.
Since Greece was without a lineage of Kings for some centuries now, the rich European countries decided to install a King in Greece after the independence. First they had a King Otto from Bavaria (Germany) and then it was from Denmark. Greece was attacked by Italy to a great resistance and defeat in the World War II. However, later, Germans and Italy defeated Greece and occupied Greece till 1943 during which lot of wealth was taken away. Acropolis stands as a witness to all occupations, liberations of Greece from the foreigners. Greece was given to Great Britain in exchange of some Balkan countries to Russia and England did its bit in Greece before handing it over to US for quasi Governance. It is only in 1970 did Greece come out of having Kings and for a few years was under military rule later on to move to democracy. The history of Greece after the Alexandar the Great is full of invasions and resistance.
Acropolis is very interesting site to visit, with the temple of Nike (means Victory) inside. Agora is also a nice place to visit. It was a market place where philosophy, democracy was all discussed by Aristotle and later Plato and the likes. When you see the hill where democracy was born, you can't help thinking that "yes, it was not in US where democracy was first discussed"!. There is also Temple of Zeus which was built in BC and later on renovated by Roman kings to show solidarity and respect to ancient Greek Mythology. All buildings are mostly of marble which I believe is available in plenty in Greece. The marble was absorbing the heat of 40degrees C and was still cool when touched. Greeks also used lot of Ivory trading from Africa and Egypt in their sculptures. Most of the ancient wealth and sculptures are housed in various museums in France, Germany, England and now also in the US.
After a great trip around these places and seeing the birth place of democracy, which is the hill which can be viewed from Acropolis I headed for a Greek vegetarian lunch in a restaurant close by to Plaka. Plaka is another tourist attraction for shopping apart from the shops in the Syntegma square. It was starting to get hot in the late afternoon forcing me to take shelter in my Air conditioned room for the rest of the evening.
The next two days I was to spend with my pen friend in Argos which is 145kms form Athens near Nafplion. We are pen pals for the last 23 years. We started writing to each other when we were studying in 10th class! She is staying with her parents with two kids and her husband.
Argos is beautiful and was much pleasant than Athens. 12 kms from Argos is Myceneian excavations housing one of the oldest civilization approx 2500 years old. It is a very interesting site. For the beach lovers and the ones who wants to be tanned, the beaches around Argos, Nafplion is wonderful. The colour of the water is actually blue like the way we see it in pictures. One could also see lot of Orthodox churches around. We visited one of them where my friend had got christened when she was a baby.
I did have a good time at my pen friend’s house with her parents, sister, and kids. Though understanding Greek is very difficult! Hardly even a word resembles to something that one would have heard before. I had to depend on my friend for interpretation assistance all along and communicate with her family. It was of course stress on my friend as she had two small kids also wanting her attention all along apart from me! I could truly feel the meaning of the English sentence which people often use “It sounds Greek and Latin to me” ! I had a good vegetarian meal after long time – rice, boiled potatoes, carrots and green peas curry. It was wonderful to taste the spice of the curry after a gap of 10 days.
The next day my friend took me to excavations nearby a theater which is even now used for live concerts. Most of the theaters, stadiums excavated are being used for live performances of plays and music all over Greece. She also said that when people build their houses it is seldom that they do not find some antique pieces of ancient civilisations! We then went to Epidavros to visit the excavations of a hospital which again dates back to 6 BC. It is the birth place of Asklipion, son of Apollo who happens to be the god of medicine. The place also houses a huge theater which is used for live concerts and plays even now. The place was being used by Romans too till 5th to 6th century AD.
The route to and back was very scenic (probably would have been much better if it was May/June) surrounded by small hills and lots of olive and orange plants.
This was my last day of my trip. I had another sumptuous vegetarian meal at my friend’s place and bid adieu to her and her family by 8.30 in the night. I took a bus to Athens and reached the bus stop at 10.30pm. There are plenty of buses available to Airport from the bus station and reached the airport past midnight. I had an early morning flight at 6.00am to Frankfurt and from there to Bangalore.
This was a wonderful trip though the heat in the late afternoons were unbearable and forced one to look out for an air conditioned restaurants or idle back at the hotel room. Argos was much better though I had been to visit most of the places in the afternoons bearing the heat. Since most of the excavation sites are on up hill, there was a cool breeze that was blowing through out.
Next time I would like to visit the Macedonian region where Alexander the Great came from. After his regime it appears that Greece was always in war and ruled by Romans, Byzantine regime, Turks till they chose to become democracy without the monarchy in mid 90s. Most of their mythology stories resembles to what we grow up with in India. With these thoughts in mind I was back in Bangalore late evening next day.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Inspiring Masai Mara
I reached Mumbai at 12.00midnight and got to the International Airport. I saw the line to Kenyan Airways to be one of the longest in the check in terminal! The flight starts at 3.00am (almost during the best hours of night sleep!) and reaches Nairobi at 6.00am Kenya time. It is 5.30 hours flight time over the Indian Ocean. Kenya is 2.30 hours behind India. Flight was on time and departed at sharp 3.00am. Since there were some seats empty in the back rows, I decided to take the 3 seats and slept off till we landed. So did many others!
Flight landed on time in Nairobi. I was surprised to see the airport. I thought it was hundred times better than Bangalore International Airport (HAL). I had to produce the “yellow fever inoculation” certificate in the immigration. The immigration officials were friendly and did wish me luck in Kenya! It hardly took 15 minutes to be out collecting the luggage. That was cool I thought!
I had to wait for my sister at the airport. She was coming from Sweden, via Amsterdam to Nairobi. Her flight landed at 7.00am. Our travel agent representative, Joseph was waiting for us at the reception lobby. We were taken to the van that was waiting for us, a Toyota safari vehicle. Geoffrey, the driver who would be with us for the next 8 days greeted us with his warm smile and a handshake.
The journey to our lodge in Nairobi took us more than 2 hours from airport. The distance was hardly 15 kms, but the traffic was too congested. It gave us some time to catch up with each other and look on both sides of the road. Indians would feel at home as we saw people crossing the traffic in between (i.e. not using the zebra crossing as there is not many of them!), walking in pathways made by them across vast lands, peeing on the sides of the roads, behind big trees! I was very happy to see a TATA motor showroom as we crossed the Industrial area of Nairobi.
We passed the Uhuru Park (Freedom Park) to reach our lodge. We had to wait for an hour to get the room as it had to be cleaned. We were eager to have a cup of coffee and go over the 8 days travel itinerary with Joseph. Though he and Geoffrey joined us for coffee, they were cautious to discuss the itinerary and asked us to wait for the director of their tour office (Diwaka Tours and Travels) Mr Henry. We spent an hour chatting with Joseph and Geoffrey understanding about the city and the safety aspects for us to walk around. They assured us the city is safe. We did felt that later when we walked around within half a kms range from the lodge.
The room was ready and was clean. The toilet was attached with hot water during morning 6-10 and evening 6-10 being available. It was bed & breakfast place and quite popular among the tourist. We slept till 1.00pm as Henry was supposed to meet us to brief us about the trip schedule at 1.00pm. Henry eventually landed up at 3 (due to traffic!) and came along with the Chef for our trip – Arthur.
My sister and Henry had designed the itinerary -
DAY 1: Nairobi - Amboseli - DEC8
Depart after breakfast at 8.00am for Amboseli drive through Masai country via Namanga on the Kenya Tanzania border and arrive Amboseli National Park in time for lunch. Proceed for an afternoon Game Drive with dinner and overnight at camp site. Tents will be hired in Nairobi and pitched in the camp site.
DAY 2: Amboseli DEC 9 – overnight stay
DAY 3: Amboseli to Mt.Kenya via Nairobi DEC 10
Depart Amboseli after breakfast for Mt.Kenya via Nairobi . Stay overnight at Lions court lodge at the foot hills of Mt Kenya
DAY 4: Mt.Kenya to L.Nakuru DEC 11 - After breakfast proceed to Nakuru arriving in time for lunch. Afternoon Game Drive. Stay over at Lake Nakaru town
DAY 5: Nakuru to Masai Mara DEC 12
Depart from Nakuru for a journey south along the floor of the "Great Rift Valley" and then climb the western wall entering Hemingway's country 'Serengeti Plains" arriving in time for lunch. Stay overnight inside Masai Mara – One of the camp sites.
DAY 6: Masai Mara DEC 13
Full day Game Drive with picnic lunch. Overnight stay at the camp
DAY 7: Masai Mara - DEC 14
Full day Game Drive with picnic lunch. Overnight stay at the camp
Day 8 - Masai Mara to Nairobi - DEC 15
After breakfast proceed to Nairobi with game viewing on the way to arrive at Nairobi to be on time for flight back
We would be using the vehicle (Toyota van) all the 8 days and use the same vehicle for safari as it was enabled for safari viewing from the top! Chef Arthur would accompany us and cook food in all camp sites. We had to give the food preference, so that he is ready with the ingredients. We did tell that we are vegetarians; it did appear that it was expected by both Henry and Arthur for some unknown reason! We gave our preferences of vegetables and suggested to cook most of the time Kenyan dishes. There was a delightful smile across the chef’s face and he was all ready to feed us Kenyan vegetarian for the next 8 days! Later I did realize that there is lot of Indian influence in cooking, as Indians had come to Kenya 400 years back along with British to assist British in laying railway tracks across Kenya! So, I did not miss any Indian masala through out our stay in Kenya!
In the evening we went around and got our hairs beaded like the African women. We thought it looked good and were looking like one of them! It costs us 1000 Kenyan shilling each and approx. 3 hours!
Though we were told that we would leave the lodge at 8.00am the next day, eventually we left at 9.00am.Both the chef and the driver were busy with purchases for our stay in the morning. I was not sure how both of them were, however, started the trip with smile on my face! I thought they were happy to see that we had done our hairs like African women! I was excited to see the new place to meet the people and understand how they live in this part of the world. I did not find the place to be different from India, probably, Indian cities are shade better than Nairobi. We can compare smaller Indian cities to Nairobi. The country side was much similar to ours - green, vast land area, poverty, dust, dirt, garbage, small shanty markets etc.. Since it was election time in Kenya, we could see lots of people reading news paper to catch up on the election news!
Ambosali is approx 250 kms to from Nairobi. The roads were not that good but manageable. However, 50 kms to Ambosali is bad but the vehicle manages the bad roads very well! And probably in the excitement to see all wild animals, I did not really mind the bad roads! Both men told us that the bumps on the roads provide “free African massage”!
On our way, we were introduced to one of the famous tribes in Kenya – Masai tribe. They are easily identifiable due to the colourful clothes that they wear bright red & orange. They are tall, walk straight and mostly have a stick in their hand. They decorate themselves with ornaments made out of small plastic beads and have long pierced ears. Driver guide Geoffrey appeared not so happy with them because of one main reason, that even this generation of the tribe refuse to wear “inner wears”, he meant “under wears”! It seems to annoy him a lot, as we had this dialogue with him through out the next 8 days of our trip! Masai people both men and women are tall, dark and fit. It appears the fitness comes due to their walking across jungles, outside jungles everywhere they just walk!
Geoffrey and Arthur, belong to Kikuyu tribe which is another large tribe in Kenya. I believe there are 42 various tribes in Kenya. They were proud that the current president Mr Kibaki who is running for a second time also belongs to their tribe.
We reached Ambosali in the afternoon stopping midway for tea. We entered the park area and I was surprised to see a vast area of desert land. I was excited to see the Mirage in the desert on the hot afternoon and started taking pictures!.... after 4-5 kms we could see marshy land and water bodies and further down grass lands. The first animal that we saw was a Zebra and a Thomsuns Guzzle. I was excited to see a Zebra in the wild. We also saw the beautiful colourful birds which are always in pairs, Grey Crowned Crane. Geoffrey, politely told us, it would be better to get to the camp site first have something to eat and then come at 4.30 for the Game Drive. We obliged and reached the camp site, which was overseeing the Kilimanjaro Mountain. It was cloudy that evening, we could see the mountain in clear range the next day morning and the following morning.
Once we reached the camp site, there was assistance from the camp site people (Masai’s) to pitch the tents. Once the tent was pitched, our chef started to organize himself to cook some food for us. We had cup of tea and lodged ourselves in the tent and by 4.30 was out of the camp site for the Game Drive leaving the chef behind to cook dinner!
Elephants, elephants and elephants! Big, small, baby, brother, sister, mom etc..etc.. Elephants are such a treat to the eyes, magnificent and dignified eating grass, feeding the child, standing and watching…you can catch them at various moods!
We had a very nice Game Drive, with spotting a lion – needs 10 kilos of meat to survive a day!
Hyena – will not hunt if something is taller than itself, hangs around to find if there is any food left over from lion’s killing. They are always in a group of 60-70 and hunt together. Needs lots of meat every day!
Hippos – settling in the water during day time and coming out to eat grass in the night. We could see its face outside and body immersed in water…plenty of them
Wilder Beast popularly also known as Gnu…. You cannot say whether it is ugly or beautiful to look with the cow like structure and the long hair beneath the neck! They are one of the favorites for carnivorous animals like crocodile, lion, and hyena to hunt and eat! Crocodiles wait for them, while they cross the rivers (especially in the masai Mara river) to have one of them for their breakfast!
Warthogs – I remembered seeing them and their trunk in one of our mythological story. Out of one of the eight avatars, lord Krishna dawns to protect the earth, is Warthog! In that story, the strength of a Warthog is picturised as if it is carrying earth in its trunk under the water!
Jackal – It seems that they are intelligent, but I thought they look good too!
Birds were in plenty – Secretary bird, Lap ling, Gray crowned crane (in pairs) Helmeted guinea fowl, Egyptian Goose, Grey Heron, Marabou Stalk, Egrets, Ibis and lastly Ostrich!. I believe the kick of an Ostrich can make anybody faint! I had never thought I would see an Ostrich live!
And of course, Zebras were in plenty!
We came back to the camp site very happy and pleased. Seeing wild animals and forest is like good unadulterated oxygen! Our chef was waiting, with “meals ready” look on his face! He had fried the pumpkin (which tasted wonderful!), fried tapioca, sweet potato. He had made lentils and local spinach curry. It was very tasty and I had never thought, lentils can be cooked for a full meal instead of rice or chapatti! I was pleased with this additional knowledge and idea for cooking back home!
The camp site has a common toilet and one or two tap water sites. There were two more camps pitched that night. We did get invitation from one of the masai’s to visit their villages next day for a fee of $20 each! One of them said, that his village is good to see as there will be a wedding the next day!
We did have some general discussions before going to sleep. We slept by 10.00 am as next day early morning at 6.30 we wanted to go to the Game Drive. I should say, that by this time, both me, my sister were comfortable with the company of Geoffrey and Arthur.
Day 2 – Ambosoli – Game Drive, visits to the Masai village and Game Drive!
Morning after tea at 6.30 am, we went to the Game Drive. We did see lot of animals and birds. We came back at 9.30am after a good view of Kilimanjaro, with the snow covered top! We had our breakfast – bread toast and cut fruits!
By 11.30, we had Masai’s wanting us to go to their villages. Two of them were arguing as to whose village we should go to! Both had valid reasons – one arguing that since we took a photo with him, we should visit his village, the other arguing that since there is a wedding in his village we will have more to see in his village. Our driver guide, Geoffrey had to intervene and arbitrate between them to decide we will visit the village with the wedding.
We walked probably 3kms from the camp site to the village. The Masai’s have two names, one is the Christian name and the other is their traditional name. Christian Missionary schools and chapels are in most of the Masai tribal areas, giving the Masai’s an avenue to learn English and the Bible. So, it is easy to converse with them, if you know English.
The village (called Enkang) comprises of approx. 100 huts surrounded by a fence made up of dried sticks, thorns and branches of trees. Huts are made from mud and cow dung is applied on the walls and roof. Our Masai guide (calls himself as John), told us the huts are built by women folks! We did ask, what’s the share of men? What work do they do? He proudly said, Masai men call themselves as “warriors”, they build the fence of the village, and they rear the cows from morning to evening! They were hunting lions earlier to prove the warrior blood in them. I believe, now, the hunting is stopped and one need not prove the warrior blood via hunting!
Before we entered the village, we paid him the money. Though he wanted in Dollars, we paid him 2,300 Kenyan Shilling! After that, John went inside the fence, and came with his other fellow men and women! They surrounded us, and performed a welcome dance and song followed by a prayer. They are tall, lean and known for their jumping skills! I was a little embarrassed with this show! However, my sister had a view point, saying that in Las Vegas you pay more than $100 and see shows, so it is fine if you pay the Masai’s and see what they have to offer in natural surroundings!
We went inside the village, they took us inside a hut – it was a 3 bedroom hut with the kitchen in the centre. We had the lady of the house with her small baby sitting with us and explaining some of the customs & traditions of theirs. The most interesting part is Masai’s practice polygamy, a man can have as many number of wives as he can afford. The man has to pay the girl’s parents “x number of cows” to marry the girl. It is also common that all wives live in one hut together! We did check with her, what about women, can they marry many times too?? She answered with a naughty smile on her face, they cannot marry, but they probably could have secret affairs! This was sounding quite French to me!
It is surprising to see, that there was a school and a chapel, but no hospitals in the near vicinity of 100kms from this place, and yet, we could see healthy men, women, children walking around! They have their own traditional medicines using the herbs available in the forest. Cows are their main livestock. They rear cows, they trade cows, they drink the blood of the cow, they eat the meat, they use the skin as the bed cover etc..etc…I think their lives will come to a stand still if cows are not with them!
We did see the bride of the village; it appeared that she would be probably 14 years! She was dressed up traditionally with their ornaments around the neck, bangles and anklets. The ornaments are made up of small plastic bead (mostly blue, red, white colours) tied with strings. I was wondering how they got introduced to these plastic beads in this remote part of the world. I got to know that, when the Indians came with British they got it along with them and thereafter the Masai’s started using them in their ornaments!
We saw, few old and young Masai men playing the traditional games of beads (Mbau). As soon as we saw that we got excited as we used to play the same game in our home town during holidays and especially during rainy season. We used to call the game as “Chana Mane” in our local language (Kannada). However, as kids we played innocently, but we saw that the Masai’s were gambling with their cows!
After that we were introduced to their traditional way of making fire without matchsticks!
Then, we were asked to go to their shopping arcade, again manned by women! They displayed some ornaments made up of beads, lion’s nails, teeth, etc..etc… But we did not buy as the prices have to be negotiated, and we had no patience left in us for negotiation in the hot sun!
We headed back to our camp site and on our way back visited the school. The school is also used as chapel and we saw one of them preaching from Bible.
We came back, and took rest till 4.30pm. We had tea and went for another Game Drive. Our Chef accompanied us this time. We had a treat of all animals and after an hour, our drive wanted to speed in some direction. We stopped in a place and started searching, the animal that he wanted us to show. And there we see, two Cheetahs! The colour of their skin was pale and it had camouflaged with colour of the soil and grass! Very hard to spot, it looked like moving soil or even moving grass! We thanked Geoffrey, for his commitment to show us the animals. He was pretty pleased with himself too. He did go out of his way to show the Cheetahs!
That night we had fried potatoes with corn flour, lentils and cut fruits for dinner. We slept by 10.30, so that we wake up early and start from Ambosali by 8 to Lake Nakaru via Nairobi.
The next day, we started at around 8.45 am after breakfast to Nairobi. On our way, while exiting Ambosali, we saw Hyena’s feasting on their hunt! Some more taking rest in the water, after eating!.... It was Hyena fest that morning! We also saw some beautiful Jackals on the way.
We left Ambosali and headed towards Nairobi. The plan was to give the tents back at their office (since it was hired and we no longer needed them) and then head towards Lake Nakaru to see Flamingos! We reached Nairobi in the afternoon; it took an hour in Nairobi town to reach their office due to traffic! The roads, from Ambosali to Nairobi are manageable, except the 50kms stretch.
We started our journey to Lake Nakaru via Mt Kenya base and both Geoffrey and Arthur were excited to show us this part of Kenya. They say, they belong to these areas, it is green, they grow coffee, banana, mangos etc… They also have tea growing areas along these belts. It was another 2.5 hours journey to reach the place to stay at the night. We stayed just after the line of Equator! I was pretty excited that we crossed the equator!. We stayed in a place called “Lions Court lodge”. The rooms and bathroom looked clean. It is on the foothills overseeing Mt Kenya. It was a pleasant evening.
Later while taking bath, we found out that the plumbing work in the lodge was very peculiar. If we open the tap in our bathroom, the water would start coming in the other room’s bathrooms as well and vice versa! This was very funny indeed! As the whole night, though we were sleeping, we could hear the water from our bathroom shower on and off!
We had a nice dinner ordered by our Chef – Chapatti, Green peas & Potato curry and rice. Geoffrey and Arthur had “Ugari” (traditional dish) with goat meat curry.
We started our journey next day morning at 9.00am towards Lake Nakuru. We stopped after an hour near the equator, as we were crossing equator again. We were asked by one of the person (John!) to see his experiment of water and stick. He showed us that on the equator line the stick in the water does not turn and it stands still. Whereas toward the north of equator, it turns clock wise and south of equator it turns anti clock wise. After that, he said, he will give us certificates that we have crossed Equator line. It would cost us 300 Kenyan Shillings each! My sister refused and said that we can prepare the certificate ourselves! However, I insisted that we pay 200 Kenyan shillings at least to John, as I was impressed with his enthusiasm!
Though we stopped through out our journey in the curio shops, where they sell artifacts, it was difficult to buy. The price that they quote is very high. They expect us to bargain. We are really not sure whether we have paid the right price or not! We decided that we do not buy anything at all, lest we feel cheated!
We reached Nakuru town by 2pm. We got into a lodge; Geoffrey said it was a new lodge, just 2 months old, so we will find it new and clean. It was in the heart of a busy street surrounded by similar busy streets. We could hear the election campaign in our room and the sound of the busy traffic. It was a decent lodge with clean room and attached bathroom.
We took rest till 4.00pm and then we went to Lake Nakuru. We passed through the town and a Government quarters to reach the reserve forest area of the lake. I was thrilled to hear the chirping sounds of the big Marabou Stalks, Pelicans and Flamingos! I believe the number of Flamingos were less this year! I was just wondering how many then they would be if it was normal year! We spent an hour there and went around the forest to see Rhinos and while coming back saw our first Giraffes in the twilight!
We had dinner in the Lake Nakuru town in a street side hotel. Our Chef had taken great care to ensure that we had clean dishes and went into the kitchen to personally supervise the cooking. We had Ugari and local curry from green vegetables.
We started from Lake Nakuru to Masai Mara the next day morning at 9.00am. We stopped to see the Tomsuns (Nyahruru) falls. We also stopped at a small town called Norak and purchased vegetables and fruits for our stay in Masai Mara. The roads after Norak to Masai Mara for about 50 kms were very bad.
We reached Masai Mara in the afternoon at around 2.00pm. We did break for coffee/tea in between but were shocked at the prices quoted for tea/coffee- 100 Kenyan Shillings!
As soon as we entered Masai Mara we saw the smallest antelope of African forest called Dick Dick! We reached our camp site (Ol Maran resort) with great difficulty due to lack of sign board and access road!
We were the only guests as the resort was under construction. We settled down and had some tea made by our chef. We got introduced to the Masai’s working in the resort as they are very eager to know their guests, to invite us to their village!
We thought we could go for a Game Drive in the evening, however, there was a surprise! It rained heavily in the evening at around 4pm lasting till midnight! This brought the temperature down as well! We had no hopes of going to the Game Drive next day morning. However, the sky was clear in the morning and we started at 7.00am. It was very pleasant morning thanks to the rains the previous night. We went inside the forest and Geoffrey was alerting all of us that we need to be with the other safari vehicles, because there are possibilities of skidding of vehicles or wheels getting stuck in the mud! And then, our vehicle does not move, it was stuck! Within two minutes, help was there from the other vehicles and we were pulled up! We were heading to see two lions resting under a tree! Anyway after we were pulled up, we headed towards the direction where the lions were supposed to be resting followed by another vehicle. We saw two big lions resting under a tree not concerned about the vehicles surrounding the tree and all of us watching and clicking photos!
Greatly satisfied with this sighting, Geoffrey who was listening keenly to the wireless radio (connecting all safari vehicles in Ambosali, Masai Mara) was rushing the vehicle for another surprise. Suddenly our vehicle turned 10 metres to the left and stopped (skidding!). Again, we had safari vehicles in the front and behind us assisting to get the vehicle right on track! It took nearly 20 minutes to and almost 8 of them to push the vehicle on track!
After that we moved on to join some vehicles near the bush. We saw a Cheetah resting with her grown up cub! It was a very close sighting and the cub was imitating her mother in all aspects! Sniffing, following the directions of her mother!
After the lovely sightings of the morning, all of us pleased with our lives and with big smile on our faces started admiring all other animals of the forest! The lovely Giraffes, Wilder beast, Heart beast, Topy, Waterbucks, Guzzles etc..etc… The herds of Gnu’s and Buffaloes are a treat to watch and one will have to see to believe the numbers!
Then we drove to the Tanzania border where we were allowed to get down in midst of the forest and take pictures! We then proceeded to see Hippos in the Mara River. We saw pool of Hippos probably 40-50 of them on the banks and inside the river taking rest. There were Hippo babies who were clutching to their mothers, probably 10-20 days old!
We saw two crocodiles resting and probably waiting for some Gnu’s to cross. They feed on the animals crossing the rivers or coming to river banks for water.
We had carried packed lunch – Chapatti’s, fruits and tea. We had our lunch near the Mara river sitting in midst of the forest! Geoffrey was greatly disturbed thereafter, as he got a call from his office in Nairobi (mobiles work in all forest ranges, as Masai’s use mobiles to keep themselves connected!) asking the reason for paying rent for bed covers in spite of carrying a sleeping bag. This whole conversation annoyed Geoffrey and thereafter he ensured that the caretaker of the camp site got his due from Geoffrey for the next two days that we were there!
We reached the campsite at around 4pm. I thought this was one of the best days of my life!
Night dinner was Githeri (corn and green peas) with pumpkin curry.
Next day, we started again for the Game Drive at 7.00am. We did see all our animal friends again with lots of beautiful birds this time – Vulture, Hawk, Eagles! Though our chef packed breakfast (boiled sweet potato and tapioca) and brought it along with him, he had forgotten to get the tea that had filled in the flask! However, he had got the cups for the tea! We did make fun of him and teased him saying that he had left the tea for the Masai’s brother in laws of his, as through out our trip he was showing his eagerness to marry a Masai girl!
We came back by 1.00pm and had lunch cooked by our chef at around 2.30 pm at the camp site – Vegetable Pulao and cut fruits
Later that night, the owner of the camp resort arrived. That day the generator was not switched on as there was some problem. We had lantern and torches for light. Once the owner came, the generator was repaired as he had got a mechanic along with him. I could hear from our camp lot of discussions for an hour late into the night. Next day morning we were told by Geoffrey and Arthur, that they did inform the owner about charging of the bed cover and Masai’s, resort caretakers drinking the tea that we left behind without asking us and also taking lot of cooking materials from our chef asking and without asking! Anyway, principle is principle, whichever part of the world we live in!
We rested that evening with the memories of the last 7 days and packed for leaving the next day. My flight from Nairobi to Mumbai was at 5.15 in the evening and my sister’s flight was at 11.00pm in the night. We decided to leave by 8.00am, so that we reach Nairobi airport by 2.00pm.
Next day morning we started at 8.00am and Geoffrey said he will take us through some short cut out of the forest range as he heard from the other drivers that the road was fine. We did see lots of ‘Dick Dick’ (the smallest antelope of the region) on our way and spotted a Jackal! As we were speeding we saw a stretch which we thought we could not pass as it was appearing like a drenched stretch, probably 100feet. We went around searching for an alternate route and saw a dried up water path. A Masai boy was standing and Geoffrey checked if vehicles have gone across that path. Masai said, yes and your vehicle should not have a problem. Alas, half way through that path, the vehicle refused to move an inch, with the wheels appearing to go deeper but not forward! We were stranded there for 30 minutes and nearly 20 Masai’s gathered in 10 minutes to push the vehicle! However, it was surprised to see that the vehicle did not move an inch! We went back to the path that we thought was drenched. Geoffrey risked his vehicle on that path, with Masai’s and Arthur pulling the vehicle from the front. We did manage to get out! Geoffrey had to pay the Masai’s for their help 500 Kenyan Shillings.
We did find it unbelievable, that 20 Masai’s could not push the vehicle. Arthur and Geoffrey explained, that the Masai’s just acted that they were pushing!
We were out of the forest range by 11.00am and came on to the main road connecting to Nairobi. The roads were very bad, and it was impossible to sit straight! The only good news at sight was the most part of the road was getting repaired or the Government was rebuilding the roads. Probably in a year, the road ride would be a pleasure.
We reached Nairobi airport at 2.15 pm. We bid goodbye to Geoffrey and Arthur. I think without them the Safari wouldn’t have been that interesting. They were good representative of their country, proud of their country, aware of their political, economic situation, honest to their jobs. It was very easy to relate to them and discuss various things apart from the safari and the animals!
Flight landed on time in Nairobi. I was surprised to see the airport. I thought it was hundred times better than Bangalore International Airport (HAL). I had to produce the “yellow fever inoculation” certificate in the immigration. The immigration officials were friendly and did wish me luck in Kenya! It hardly took 15 minutes to be out collecting the luggage. That was cool I thought!
I had to wait for my sister at the airport. She was coming from Sweden, via Amsterdam to Nairobi. Her flight landed at 7.00am. Our travel agent representative, Joseph was waiting for us at the reception lobby. We were taken to the van that was waiting for us, a Toyota safari vehicle. Geoffrey, the driver who would be with us for the next 8 days greeted us with his warm smile and a handshake.
The journey to our lodge in Nairobi took us more than 2 hours from airport. The distance was hardly 15 kms, but the traffic was too congested. It gave us some time to catch up with each other and look on both sides of the road. Indians would feel at home as we saw people crossing the traffic in between (i.e. not using the zebra crossing as there is not many of them!), walking in pathways made by them across vast lands, peeing on the sides of the roads, behind big trees! I was very happy to see a TATA motor showroom as we crossed the Industrial area of Nairobi.
We passed the Uhuru Park (Freedom Park) to reach our lodge. We had to wait for an hour to get the room as it had to be cleaned. We were eager to have a cup of coffee and go over the 8 days travel itinerary with Joseph. Though he and Geoffrey joined us for coffee, they were cautious to discuss the itinerary and asked us to wait for the director of their tour office (Diwaka Tours and Travels) Mr Henry. We spent an hour chatting with Joseph and Geoffrey understanding about the city and the safety aspects for us to walk around. They assured us the city is safe. We did felt that later when we walked around within half a kms range from the lodge.
The room was ready and was clean. The toilet was attached with hot water during morning 6-10 and evening 6-10 being available. It was bed & breakfast place and quite popular among the tourist. We slept till 1.00pm as Henry was supposed to meet us to brief us about the trip schedule at 1.00pm. Henry eventually landed up at 3 (due to traffic!) and came along with the Chef for our trip – Arthur.
My sister and Henry had designed the itinerary -
DAY 1: Nairobi - Amboseli - DEC8
Depart after breakfast at 8.00am for Amboseli drive through Masai country via Namanga on the Kenya Tanzania border and arrive Amboseli National Park in time for lunch. Proceed for an afternoon Game Drive with dinner and overnight at camp site. Tents will be hired in Nairobi and pitched in the camp site.
DAY 2: Amboseli DEC 9 – overnight stay
DAY 3: Amboseli to Mt.Kenya via Nairobi DEC 10
Depart Amboseli after breakfast for Mt.Kenya via Nairobi . Stay overnight at Lions court lodge at the foot hills of Mt Kenya
DAY 4: Mt.Kenya to L.Nakuru DEC 11 - After breakfast proceed to Nakuru arriving in time for lunch. Afternoon Game Drive. Stay over at Lake Nakaru town
DAY 5: Nakuru to Masai Mara DEC 12
Depart from Nakuru for a journey south along the floor of the "Great Rift Valley" and then climb the western wall entering Hemingway's country 'Serengeti Plains" arriving in time for lunch. Stay overnight inside Masai Mara – One of the camp sites.
DAY 6: Masai Mara DEC 13
Full day Game Drive with picnic lunch. Overnight stay at the camp
DAY 7: Masai Mara - DEC 14
Full day Game Drive with picnic lunch. Overnight stay at the camp
Day 8 - Masai Mara to Nairobi - DEC 15
After breakfast proceed to Nairobi with game viewing on the way to arrive at Nairobi to be on time for flight back
We would be using the vehicle (Toyota van) all the 8 days and use the same vehicle for safari as it was enabled for safari viewing from the top! Chef Arthur would accompany us and cook food in all camp sites. We had to give the food preference, so that he is ready with the ingredients. We did tell that we are vegetarians; it did appear that it was expected by both Henry and Arthur for some unknown reason! We gave our preferences of vegetables and suggested to cook most of the time Kenyan dishes. There was a delightful smile across the chef’s face and he was all ready to feed us Kenyan vegetarian for the next 8 days! Later I did realize that there is lot of Indian influence in cooking, as Indians had come to Kenya 400 years back along with British to assist British in laying railway tracks across Kenya! So, I did not miss any Indian masala through out our stay in Kenya!
In the evening we went around and got our hairs beaded like the African women. We thought it looked good and were looking like one of them! It costs us 1000 Kenyan shilling each and approx. 3 hours!
Though we were told that we would leave the lodge at 8.00am the next day, eventually we left at 9.00am.Both the chef and the driver were busy with purchases for our stay in the morning. I was not sure how both of them were, however, started the trip with smile on my face! I thought they were happy to see that we had done our hairs like African women! I was excited to see the new place to meet the people and understand how they live in this part of the world. I did not find the place to be different from India, probably, Indian cities are shade better than Nairobi. We can compare smaller Indian cities to Nairobi. The country side was much similar to ours - green, vast land area, poverty, dust, dirt, garbage, small shanty markets etc.. Since it was election time in Kenya, we could see lots of people reading news paper to catch up on the election news!
Ambosali is approx 250 kms to from Nairobi. The roads were not that good but manageable. However, 50 kms to Ambosali is bad but the vehicle manages the bad roads very well! And probably in the excitement to see all wild animals, I did not really mind the bad roads! Both men told us that the bumps on the roads provide “free African massage”!
On our way, we were introduced to one of the famous tribes in Kenya – Masai tribe. They are easily identifiable due to the colourful clothes that they wear bright red & orange. They are tall, walk straight and mostly have a stick in their hand. They decorate themselves with ornaments made out of small plastic beads and have long pierced ears. Driver guide Geoffrey appeared not so happy with them because of one main reason, that even this generation of the tribe refuse to wear “inner wears”, he meant “under wears”! It seems to annoy him a lot, as we had this dialogue with him through out the next 8 days of our trip! Masai people both men and women are tall, dark and fit. It appears the fitness comes due to their walking across jungles, outside jungles everywhere they just walk!
Geoffrey and Arthur, belong to Kikuyu tribe which is another large tribe in Kenya. I believe there are 42 various tribes in Kenya. They were proud that the current president Mr Kibaki who is running for a second time also belongs to their tribe.
We reached Ambosali in the afternoon stopping midway for tea. We entered the park area and I was surprised to see a vast area of desert land. I was excited to see the Mirage in the desert on the hot afternoon and started taking pictures!.... after 4-5 kms we could see marshy land and water bodies and further down grass lands. The first animal that we saw was a Zebra and a Thomsuns Guzzle. I was excited to see a Zebra in the wild. We also saw the beautiful colourful birds which are always in pairs, Grey Crowned Crane. Geoffrey, politely told us, it would be better to get to the camp site first have something to eat and then come at 4.30 for the Game Drive. We obliged and reached the camp site, which was overseeing the Kilimanjaro Mountain. It was cloudy that evening, we could see the mountain in clear range the next day morning and the following morning.
Once we reached the camp site, there was assistance from the camp site people (Masai’s) to pitch the tents. Once the tent was pitched, our chef started to organize himself to cook some food for us. We had cup of tea and lodged ourselves in the tent and by 4.30 was out of the camp site for the Game Drive leaving the chef behind to cook dinner!
Elephants, elephants and elephants! Big, small, baby, brother, sister, mom etc..etc.. Elephants are such a treat to the eyes, magnificent and dignified eating grass, feeding the child, standing and watching…you can catch them at various moods!
We had a very nice Game Drive, with spotting a lion – needs 10 kilos of meat to survive a day!
Hyena – will not hunt if something is taller than itself, hangs around to find if there is any food left over from lion’s killing. They are always in a group of 60-70 and hunt together. Needs lots of meat every day!
Hippos – settling in the water during day time and coming out to eat grass in the night. We could see its face outside and body immersed in water…plenty of them
Wilder Beast popularly also known as Gnu…. You cannot say whether it is ugly or beautiful to look with the cow like structure and the long hair beneath the neck! They are one of the favorites for carnivorous animals like crocodile, lion, and hyena to hunt and eat! Crocodiles wait for them, while they cross the rivers (especially in the masai Mara river) to have one of them for their breakfast!
Warthogs – I remembered seeing them and their trunk in one of our mythological story. Out of one of the eight avatars, lord Krishna dawns to protect the earth, is Warthog! In that story, the strength of a Warthog is picturised as if it is carrying earth in its trunk under the water!
Jackal – It seems that they are intelligent, but I thought they look good too!
Birds were in plenty – Secretary bird, Lap ling, Gray crowned crane (in pairs) Helmeted guinea fowl, Egyptian Goose, Grey Heron, Marabou Stalk, Egrets, Ibis and lastly Ostrich!. I believe the kick of an Ostrich can make anybody faint! I had never thought I would see an Ostrich live!
And of course, Zebras were in plenty!
We came back to the camp site very happy and pleased. Seeing wild animals and forest is like good unadulterated oxygen! Our chef was waiting, with “meals ready” look on his face! He had fried the pumpkin (which tasted wonderful!), fried tapioca, sweet potato. He had made lentils and local spinach curry. It was very tasty and I had never thought, lentils can be cooked for a full meal instead of rice or chapatti! I was pleased with this additional knowledge and idea for cooking back home!
The camp site has a common toilet and one or two tap water sites. There were two more camps pitched that night. We did get invitation from one of the masai’s to visit their villages next day for a fee of $20 each! One of them said, that his village is good to see as there will be a wedding the next day!
We did have some general discussions before going to sleep. We slept by 10.00 am as next day early morning at 6.30 we wanted to go to the Game Drive. I should say, that by this time, both me, my sister were comfortable with the company of Geoffrey and Arthur.
Day 2 – Ambosoli – Game Drive, visits to the Masai village and Game Drive!
Morning after tea at 6.30 am, we went to the Game Drive. We did see lot of animals and birds. We came back at 9.30am after a good view of Kilimanjaro, with the snow covered top! We had our breakfast – bread toast and cut fruits!
By 11.30, we had Masai’s wanting us to go to their villages. Two of them were arguing as to whose village we should go to! Both had valid reasons – one arguing that since we took a photo with him, we should visit his village, the other arguing that since there is a wedding in his village we will have more to see in his village. Our driver guide, Geoffrey had to intervene and arbitrate between them to decide we will visit the village with the wedding.
We walked probably 3kms from the camp site to the village. The Masai’s have two names, one is the Christian name and the other is their traditional name. Christian Missionary schools and chapels are in most of the Masai tribal areas, giving the Masai’s an avenue to learn English and the Bible. So, it is easy to converse with them, if you know English.
The village (called Enkang) comprises of approx. 100 huts surrounded by a fence made up of dried sticks, thorns and branches of trees. Huts are made from mud and cow dung is applied on the walls and roof. Our Masai guide (calls himself as John), told us the huts are built by women folks! We did ask, what’s the share of men? What work do they do? He proudly said, Masai men call themselves as “warriors”, they build the fence of the village, and they rear the cows from morning to evening! They were hunting lions earlier to prove the warrior blood in them. I believe, now, the hunting is stopped and one need not prove the warrior blood via hunting!
Before we entered the village, we paid him the money. Though he wanted in Dollars, we paid him 2,300 Kenyan Shilling! After that, John went inside the fence, and came with his other fellow men and women! They surrounded us, and performed a welcome dance and song followed by a prayer. They are tall, lean and known for their jumping skills! I was a little embarrassed with this show! However, my sister had a view point, saying that in Las Vegas you pay more than $100 and see shows, so it is fine if you pay the Masai’s and see what they have to offer in natural surroundings!
We went inside the village, they took us inside a hut – it was a 3 bedroom hut with the kitchen in the centre. We had the lady of the house with her small baby sitting with us and explaining some of the customs & traditions of theirs. The most interesting part is Masai’s practice polygamy, a man can have as many number of wives as he can afford. The man has to pay the girl’s parents “x number of cows” to marry the girl. It is also common that all wives live in one hut together! We did check with her, what about women, can they marry many times too?? She answered with a naughty smile on her face, they cannot marry, but they probably could have secret affairs! This was sounding quite French to me!
It is surprising to see, that there was a school and a chapel, but no hospitals in the near vicinity of 100kms from this place, and yet, we could see healthy men, women, children walking around! They have their own traditional medicines using the herbs available in the forest. Cows are their main livestock. They rear cows, they trade cows, they drink the blood of the cow, they eat the meat, they use the skin as the bed cover etc..etc…I think their lives will come to a stand still if cows are not with them!
We did see the bride of the village; it appeared that she would be probably 14 years! She was dressed up traditionally with their ornaments around the neck, bangles and anklets. The ornaments are made up of small plastic bead (mostly blue, red, white colours) tied with strings. I was wondering how they got introduced to these plastic beads in this remote part of the world. I got to know that, when the Indians came with British they got it along with them and thereafter the Masai’s started using them in their ornaments!
We saw, few old and young Masai men playing the traditional games of beads (Mbau). As soon as we saw that we got excited as we used to play the same game in our home town during holidays and especially during rainy season. We used to call the game as “Chana Mane” in our local language (Kannada). However, as kids we played innocently, but we saw that the Masai’s were gambling with their cows!
After that we were introduced to their traditional way of making fire without matchsticks!
Then, we were asked to go to their shopping arcade, again manned by women! They displayed some ornaments made up of beads, lion’s nails, teeth, etc..etc… But we did not buy as the prices have to be negotiated, and we had no patience left in us for negotiation in the hot sun!
We headed back to our camp site and on our way back visited the school. The school is also used as chapel and we saw one of them preaching from Bible.
We came back, and took rest till 4.30pm. We had tea and went for another Game Drive. Our Chef accompanied us this time. We had a treat of all animals and after an hour, our drive wanted to speed in some direction. We stopped in a place and started searching, the animal that he wanted us to show. And there we see, two Cheetahs! The colour of their skin was pale and it had camouflaged with colour of the soil and grass! Very hard to spot, it looked like moving soil or even moving grass! We thanked Geoffrey, for his commitment to show us the animals. He was pretty pleased with himself too. He did go out of his way to show the Cheetahs!
That night we had fried potatoes with corn flour, lentils and cut fruits for dinner. We slept by 10.30, so that we wake up early and start from Ambosali by 8 to Lake Nakaru via Nairobi.
The next day, we started at around 8.45 am after breakfast to Nairobi. On our way, while exiting Ambosali, we saw Hyena’s feasting on their hunt! Some more taking rest in the water, after eating!.... It was Hyena fest that morning! We also saw some beautiful Jackals on the way.
We left Ambosali and headed towards Nairobi. The plan was to give the tents back at their office (since it was hired and we no longer needed them) and then head towards Lake Nakaru to see Flamingos! We reached Nairobi in the afternoon; it took an hour in Nairobi town to reach their office due to traffic! The roads, from Ambosali to Nairobi are manageable, except the 50kms stretch.
We started our journey to Lake Nakaru via Mt Kenya base and both Geoffrey and Arthur were excited to show us this part of Kenya. They say, they belong to these areas, it is green, they grow coffee, banana, mangos etc… They also have tea growing areas along these belts. It was another 2.5 hours journey to reach the place to stay at the night. We stayed just after the line of Equator! I was pretty excited that we crossed the equator!. We stayed in a place called “Lions Court lodge”. The rooms and bathroom looked clean. It is on the foothills overseeing Mt Kenya. It was a pleasant evening.
Later while taking bath, we found out that the plumbing work in the lodge was very peculiar. If we open the tap in our bathroom, the water would start coming in the other room’s bathrooms as well and vice versa! This was very funny indeed! As the whole night, though we were sleeping, we could hear the water from our bathroom shower on and off!
We had a nice dinner ordered by our Chef – Chapatti, Green peas & Potato curry and rice. Geoffrey and Arthur had “Ugari” (traditional dish) with goat meat curry.
We started our journey next day morning at 9.00am towards Lake Nakuru. We stopped after an hour near the equator, as we were crossing equator again. We were asked by one of the person (John!) to see his experiment of water and stick. He showed us that on the equator line the stick in the water does not turn and it stands still. Whereas toward the north of equator, it turns clock wise and south of equator it turns anti clock wise. After that, he said, he will give us certificates that we have crossed Equator line. It would cost us 300 Kenyan Shillings each! My sister refused and said that we can prepare the certificate ourselves! However, I insisted that we pay 200 Kenyan shillings at least to John, as I was impressed with his enthusiasm!
Though we stopped through out our journey in the curio shops, where they sell artifacts, it was difficult to buy. The price that they quote is very high. They expect us to bargain. We are really not sure whether we have paid the right price or not! We decided that we do not buy anything at all, lest we feel cheated!
We reached Nakuru town by 2pm. We got into a lodge; Geoffrey said it was a new lodge, just 2 months old, so we will find it new and clean. It was in the heart of a busy street surrounded by similar busy streets. We could hear the election campaign in our room and the sound of the busy traffic. It was a decent lodge with clean room and attached bathroom.
We took rest till 4.00pm and then we went to Lake Nakuru. We passed through the town and a Government quarters to reach the reserve forest area of the lake. I was thrilled to hear the chirping sounds of the big Marabou Stalks, Pelicans and Flamingos! I believe the number of Flamingos were less this year! I was just wondering how many then they would be if it was normal year! We spent an hour there and went around the forest to see Rhinos and while coming back saw our first Giraffes in the twilight!
We had dinner in the Lake Nakuru town in a street side hotel. Our Chef had taken great care to ensure that we had clean dishes and went into the kitchen to personally supervise the cooking. We had Ugari and local curry from green vegetables.
We started from Lake Nakuru to Masai Mara the next day morning at 9.00am. We stopped to see the Tomsuns (Nyahruru) falls. We also stopped at a small town called Norak and purchased vegetables and fruits for our stay in Masai Mara. The roads after Norak to Masai Mara for about 50 kms were very bad.
We reached Masai Mara in the afternoon at around 2.00pm. We did break for coffee/tea in between but were shocked at the prices quoted for tea/coffee- 100 Kenyan Shillings!
As soon as we entered Masai Mara we saw the smallest antelope of African forest called Dick Dick! We reached our camp site (Ol Maran resort) with great difficulty due to lack of sign board and access road!
We were the only guests as the resort was under construction. We settled down and had some tea made by our chef. We got introduced to the Masai’s working in the resort as they are very eager to know their guests, to invite us to their village!
We thought we could go for a Game Drive in the evening, however, there was a surprise! It rained heavily in the evening at around 4pm lasting till midnight! This brought the temperature down as well! We had no hopes of going to the Game Drive next day morning. However, the sky was clear in the morning and we started at 7.00am. It was very pleasant morning thanks to the rains the previous night. We went inside the forest and Geoffrey was alerting all of us that we need to be with the other safari vehicles, because there are possibilities of skidding of vehicles or wheels getting stuck in the mud! And then, our vehicle does not move, it was stuck! Within two minutes, help was there from the other vehicles and we were pulled up! We were heading to see two lions resting under a tree! Anyway after we were pulled up, we headed towards the direction where the lions were supposed to be resting followed by another vehicle. We saw two big lions resting under a tree not concerned about the vehicles surrounding the tree and all of us watching and clicking photos!
Greatly satisfied with this sighting, Geoffrey who was listening keenly to the wireless radio (connecting all safari vehicles in Ambosali, Masai Mara) was rushing the vehicle for another surprise. Suddenly our vehicle turned 10 metres to the left and stopped (skidding!). Again, we had safari vehicles in the front and behind us assisting to get the vehicle right on track! It took nearly 20 minutes to and almost 8 of them to push the vehicle on track!
After that we moved on to join some vehicles near the bush. We saw a Cheetah resting with her grown up cub! It was a very close sighting and the cub was imitating her mother in all aspects! Sniffing, following the directions of her mother!
After the lovely sightings of the morning, all of us pleased with our lives and with big smile on our faces started admiring all other animals of the forest! The lovely Giraffes, Wilder beast, Heart beast, Topy, Waterbucks, Guzzles etc..etc… The herds of Gnu’s and Buffaloes are a treat to watch and one will have to see to believe the numbers!
Then we drove to the Tanzania border where we were allowed to get down in midst of the forest and take pictures! We then proceeded to see Hippos in the Mara River. We saw pool of Hippos probably 40-50 of them on the banks and inside the river taking rest. There were Hippo babies who were clutching to their mothers, probably 10-20 days old!
We saw two crocodiles resting and probably waiting for some Gnu’s to cross. They feed on the animals crossing the rivers or coming to river banks for water.
We had carried packed lunch – Chapatti’s, fruits and tea. We had our lunch near the Mara river sitting in midst of the forest! Geoffrey was greatly disturbed thereafter, as he got a call from his office in Nairobi (mobiles work in all forest ranges, as Masai’s use mobiles to keep themselves connected!) asking the reason for paying rent for bed covers in spite of carrying a sleeping bag. This whole conversation annoyed Geoffrey and thereafter he ensured that the caretaker of the camp site got his due from Geoffrey for the next two days that we were there!
We reached the campsite at around 4pm. I thought this was one of the best days of my life!
Night dinner was Githeri (corn and green peas) with pumpkin curry.
Next day, we started again for the Game Drive at 7.00am. We did see all our animal friends again with lots of beautiful birds this time – Vulture, Hawk, Eagles! Though our chef packed breakfast (boiled sweet potato and tapioca) and brought it along with him, he had forgotten to get the tea that had filled in the flask! However, he had got the cups for the tea! We did make fun of him and teased him saying that he had left the tea for the Masai’s brother in laws of his, as through out our trip he was showing his eagerness to marry a Masai girl!
We came back by 1.00pm and had lunch cooked by our chef at around 2.30 pm at the camp site – Vegetable Pulao and cut fruits
Later that night, the owner of the camp resort arrived. That day the generator was not switched on as there was some problem. We had lantern and torches for light. Once the owner came, the generator was repaired as he had got a mechanic along with him. I could hear from our camp lot of discussions for an hour late into the night. Next day morning we were told by Geoffrey and Arthur, that they did inform the owner about charging of the bed cover and Masai’s, resort caretakers drinking the tea that we left behind without asking us and also taking lot of cooking materials from our chef asking and without asking! Anyway, principle is principle, whichever part of the world we live in!
We rested that evening with the memories of the last 7 days and packed for leaving the next day. My flight from Nairobi to Mumbai was at 5.15 in the evening and my sister’s flight was at 11.00pm in the night. We decided to leave by 8.00am, so that we reach Nairobi airport by 2.00pm.
Next day morning we started at 8.00am and Geoffrey said he will take us through some short cut out of the forest range as he heard from the other drivers that the road was fine. We did see lots of ‘Dick Dick’ (the smallest antelope of the region) on our way and spotted a Jackal! As we were speeding we saw a stretch which we thought we could not pass as it was appearing like a drenched stretch, probably 100feet. We went around searching for an alternate route and saw a dried up water path. A Masai boy was standing and Geoffrey checked if vehicles have gone across that path. Masai said, yes and your vehicle should not have a problem. Alas, half way through that path, the vehicle refused to move an inch, with the wheels appearing to go deeper but not forward! We were stranded there for 30 minutes and nearly 20 Masai’s gathered in 10 minutes to push the vehicle! However, it was surprised to see that the vehicle did not move an inch! We went back to the path that we thought was drenched. Geoffrey risked his vehicle on that path, with Masai’s and Arthur pulling the vehicle from the front. We did manage to get out! Geoffrey had to pay the Masai’s for their help 500 Kenyan Shillings.
We did find it unbelievable, that 20 Masai’s could not push the vehicle. Arthur and Geoffrey explained, that the Masai’s just acted that they were pushing!
We were out of the forest range by 11.00am and came on to the main road connecting to Nairobi. The roads were very bad, and it was impossible to sit straight! The only good news at sight was the most part of the road was getting repaired or the Government was rebuilding the roads. Probably in a year, the road ride would be a pleasure.
We reached Nairobi airport at 2.15 pm. We bid goodbye to Geoffrey and Arthur. I think without them the Safari wouldn’t have been that interesting. They were good representative of their country, proud of their country, aware of their political, economic situation, honest to their jobs. It was very easy to relate to them and discuss various things apart from the safari and the animals!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)