My dad suggested meeting the kids over summer in Kenya. An old friend of his who had lived in Kenya for decades had been recommending it, especially to witness the animal migration in late July/ early August. I opted in to travel with the kids, just before the kiddos school starts. We were going to be a group of 6 – my parents, me with the two kiddos and a friend of my dad traveling from Southern California. 3 seniors and 2 kids 😊

I didn’t participate too much in the planning other than asking to limit the trip to no more than 10 days. That said, when the itinerary was finalized it was nice to be able to see it within a travel app that had descriptions of places we would stay, travel times and what we could do. All our bookings were by Ibis Tours and Travels. Our Nairobi stay was booked by us directly. The visa process was impressive. As of Jan 2024, there is no visa to visit Kenya. You fill out an online form to get electronic authorization and in 3 days I was able to add the authorization to my apple wallet.

Got all the recommended vaccinations I.e. yellow fever and malaria pills. I also sprayed all our clothes with a strong mosquito spray. I’m not sure how much this helped but we were hardly bothered with mosquitos throughout our stay. We probably used the bug spray we carried with us 2-3 times.

Day 0 – our flight was via Qatar with a 1 hr layover in Doha. It is a long flight to Doha. I was worried we would miss our flight to Nairobi but not only did we make it, they waited for others from our SF flight as well, a good 5-10 mins. Both legs of the flight were smooth. Immigration lines in Nairobi not so much. Not that it wasn’t smooth. It was late, we landed at ~12:00 am tired and the lines were long. Not so nice is when large groups of friends decide to stand haphazardly in multiple lines trying to figure out which line is moving faster. Let’s just say, I ended up being among the last few people to exit the airport. And these large groups all had kids much older than mine I.e. older teens. In short, fellow travelers, be considerate of others.

Dad was there to pick us up with our driver. Got to our apartment in Nairobi, a penthouse on the 5th floor and it was spacious beautiful home! Tanush said “I could live here”. Very nice 3 bed 3 bath apartment.

Day 1 – today was a rest day and the suggestion was to visit Nairobi National Museum and Masai Market. I connected with dad’s friends daughter Shruti. She had organized a day driver for us. Most of us couldn’t quite sleep late due to the jet lag. We got breakfast at an Indian restaurant that was part of the apartment complex. Breakfast was poha. The chai was amazing.

Side note – Kenya was colonized by the British and they won their freedom in 1963. Many similarities with India in that sense, almost everyone speaks English. Also, as part of railway construction during the British colonial rule, many Indians immigrated. There are 3rd and 4th generation Kenyans of Indian origin. My dad’s friend and his daughters are proud Kenyans. There is Indian influence in day to day Kenyan living. Masala chai is ubiquitous and some of the dishes have Indian spices. Also, there is no restaurant where you don’t get vegetarian food, it’s a default.

Getting back to day 1, our drivers first stop was taking us to Vatsan uncles house. Shruthi added a local SIM to my dad’s phone and we also exchanged USD for Kenyan shillings as well digitally added to the phone. Using “lipa na m-pesa” you can pay anyone, absolutely anyone with a cell phone number. Ubiquitous like google pay in India.

From there we went to the Nairobi National Museum. Relatively small museum, 2 floors. Lots and lots of school buses with school kids in various school uniforms. we had purchased the tickets from the e-citizen portal. I really enjoyed it, it was small but well done. Especially enjoyed learning about Masai traditional culture. I also found it curious that so many of the school kids were staring at us and would come up and introduce themselves to us. It was really sweet but I also didn’t expect it given the south Asian immigrant population in Nairobi. Shruthi clarified that they were probably out of town school kiddos.

After the museum, we went to junction mall where the days Masai market would be available. The Masai market is located in different malls across the city on different days except Mondays. They usually set up in a parking garage at a mall. We were provided guidance that you must bargain. We got lunch at ArtCaffe that is known for its coffee, the famous Kenyan coffee. I didn’t like the food as much, a lot of western options. After lunch we headed to the Masai market and this was really fun! I absolutely enjoyed looking at the sale and did some shopping of artwork, African themed sweatshirts, beaded bracelets etc. Junction mall also showed me how diverse Nairobi is, people of all colors and races live here.

We headed back to the apartment after our shopping. We were too tired to step out again to get dinner. Shruthi gave me some recommendations and I ordered some Indian food for all of us using the Bolt app (like DoorDash). That evening I also got to meet Shalini, Shruthi’s older sister. They were both so sweet to stop by and drop off sandwiches they had made for our Safari the next day. Their suggestions (1) be mentally prepared to start your day early for game drives (safaris). Animal activity is best very early in the morning (2) be patient and take plenty snacks and water to munch during your game drive. With that they handed us two large boxes of sandwiches and Indian savory snacks. That’s a wrap on day 1 and getting mentally prepared to head out to Nairobi national park at 7 am(!)