It was checkout day from the Masai Maara camp. Knew it was going to be a long drive, alteast 7-8 hrs before we get to Nairobi. This time we had a breakfast at the camp before we headed out ~ 8 am. Wonderful coffee as always. Started our drive, nothing much along the way. Did a pit stop for a bathroom break, always touristy spots to lure you into more shopping. I was given good advice to hold off and purchase at the markets in Nairobi. These are spoilt by other tourists.

We stopped at Artcaffe for lunch. Our 3rd time at this coffee shop chain. After our long lunch, reminder that service cannot be willed to be any faster 😂. Continued our drive and hit a tense traffic situation near a narrow road next to a deep valley. We felt almost sure one of the vehicles was going to go down the valley due to the general impatience all around. In hindsight it’s funny thinking of my dad and uncle encouraging our driver to speed along the side of the road 😅 at that time though I felt they needed to lay off and let him drive.

Got to Nairobi finally, hit traffic in a Nairobi too. Got home by ~ 5 pm. We had dinner plans with Vatsan uncle, Shruthi and Shalini, they had picked an upscale Ethiopian place. Was good food, injeras and the sides.

Next day was rest day for everyone. I had my flight back to SF that night. Flights was at 1 am and we planned to leave ~ 10 pm. I wanted to do one more trip to the Masai market at whichever mall it would be at that day. Just mom and me headed out ~ 10:30 am. Kiddos were happy to be home with Thatha and Arun uncle headed to a golf course. I had already run two loads of laundry the previous evening and put it out to dry.

Mom and I got more local currency for USD at our apartment front desk. Had to decline a couple Uber drivers who were asking for higher fares than what was quoted in the app. Our apartment front desk advised the same. Shalini did say that people weren’t happy about the economy and they were recovering from insane inflation. Anyway, headed straight to the market. I knew exactly what I wanted. It was still early and many folks weren’t there. Even with that, one person will cover for another and do their trades for each other. I was satisfied with all my shopping. I did feel like I had to stop my mom and pull her out as she went over her budget and was now in direct USD transactions 🤦🏾‍♀️

We then looked for a place to eat. Went to a nice looking place and ordered a veg sandwich and fish curry with rice. This place had very little foot traffic. 45 mins later we were still waiting for our food. Let’s say my impatient American self came out when someone checked on how we were doing. Our waiter looked visibly stressed every time I signaled to him to check on our food and would acknowledge but not come to our table. Totally lost my appetite. The veg sandwich when it did arrive was a mess. Anyway, we took an Uber back to our apartment.

We had planned for to-go at this place for dad and kiddos but decided against it with the slow service. I got to the apartment and ordered in food. Neither kids or dad were very hungry surprisingly. I tried to order over phone but even with t-mobile at 1 gb in Kenya, I couldn’t get through for the payment part until I got Wi-Fi at the apartment.

At the apartment I got busy with the packing. Got my shopping stuff in, kids stuff all packed. Throughout our trip the Olympics was constantly on whenever we were in the Nairobi apartment. By evening I was pretty much done and ready. Vatsan uncle, Shruthi and Shalini stopped by again, with gifts for kiddos ❤️ we told them about our restaurant experience and they confirmed it wasn’t surprising as that mall gets very little foot traffic. And that was it. A wrap on our Kenya trip.

Our driver got us to the airport as scheduled. At one point we had to offboard and walk across a gate and then get back into the jeep, strange. Flight was ok. Had a longer layover in Doha. Flight back to SF was long and then immigration too 🤦🏾‍♀️ so much of this could be automated, why hasn’t this been solved yet. And then SF traffic to get home, joy 😅 phew, finally home sweet home at 5 pm. I had work starting at 8 am the next day.

Headed out before sunrise, everything packed and loaded I.e. our breakfast and lunch. In hindsight, this was one of the best games drives for me. Also loved how the food was packed, everybody had their own box and labeled.

We realized that hot air balloon rides are quite popular here. As we started driving through the park, we saw so many. From what we saw, people do the balloon ride, land someplace when a safari driver picks them up and they continue the game drive. Pretty cool. I’m glad we didn’t do that as I’m sure we would have had to wake up even earlier. We got wonderful photos on the balloons and sunrise 😍 as soon as we entered we saw thousands for wildebeest. That’s what this park is known for, to see millions of wildebeest in their migration path. The sights were pretty awesome.

We saw a pack of hyenas early on and watched as they ran along our jeep. Next we saw a lioness having her breakfast of wildebeest. Some pics will show you how close to the wild animals we get. I was nervous and then noticed people filming or watching from open jeeps, no option to close if the lioness changes her mind. Rithvi was a bit grossed out watching the lion 🤷‍♀️

Throughout many of our game drives we noticed that the drivers are tuned into stations or walkie talkies to hear where there are animal sightings. It’s all in Swahili. We then came to a place wondering what we were going to see here. It was a bit strange but all worked out. Our driver told us there is some animal in a restricted area of the park, pointed us to a jeep with rangers. He mentioned we may have to pay a bribe, and quickly go in and out of the restricted area. There are heavy US $ fines and prison time for violating park rules. The adults quickly decided we were ok with the bribe and handed 1k shillings. The kids were not happy to which Arun uncle said that such transaction should happen without kids knowing 😝. We agreed with the kids and said it won’t happen again. There were 2-3 jeeps just waiting near the rangers jeep. Then the rangers drove away which was our signal to quickly get in and get out. It’s debatable if this was worth it but we got to see a mamma leopard and her two cubs 😍 Rithvi forgot all about the bribe and was ready to take the cubs home. It was sooo cute but we got back into the unrestricted area quickly.

After that we drive to a spot where there 5-6 cheetahs. This one was amazing too, so close to the animals. One walked almost up to our jeep before walking alongside it 😅 I absolutely loved this.

After this sighting we drove to a spot where there was a massive herd of wildebeest near a river. Typically they wait long times, one nudging the other to go first before it becomes a stampede situation. Our driver had told us to be patient, this could take a while. While there wasn’t any movement yet, we drove a little away to have our picnic breakfast. Set a mat on the ground and had our breakfast. Pretty cool and well organized.

After breakfast we headed back to the spot with wildebeest. This was a decent amount of time, maybe couple of hours almost. This is why you need a lot of snacks 😝 we finally decided to drive away. We got to a spot near the Kenya-Tanzanian border where we saw herds of wildebeest and zebras running across. Was pretty cool.

After this we headed for our picnic lunch. We could do a nature walk with a ranger here and tip them. The walk wasn’t much, walked along the river and saw hippos. We then settled down for picnic lunch. Lots of baboons around,which you had to watch out for in case they came for your food. At one point, Tanush and Rithvi jumped out of picnic mat before I even realized what happened. The baboon was 10 feet away!

After this it was heading back to camp. Our driver had heard of a lion nearby and drove around a bit but we couldn’t spot it. We got back to camp. I felt pretty good about our last game drive of our trip. I was honestly ready to be back on paved roads.

At camp, we rested and the rest of the evening was relaxing, caught up with family over video, backed up of our pics and videos. Dinner was good and our drive back to Nairobi was going to be another long drive. Had a restful night. Showers and amenities in both Malu lodge and the Masai Maara camp were good.

Headed out as planned in the morning. breakfast of omelets, toast etc. was loaded into our jeep. Hit the road to Masai Mara. Passed a valley, which is a popular lookout point but decided not to stop and continued driving. Drive was largely uneventful and long. We stopped for breakfast at a touristy place aka market with refreshments attached. We got some chai, crepes aside from our packed breakfast, some samosas too.

We got to Masai Mara and it was a dditonal drive into the park to find our camp. We got confused a couple times on where to go to reach the camp, our driver had to course correct a couple times. He wasn’t very familiar with this place too. This place was amazing as well! A lot like Amboseli, very integrated with its surroundings. The main area with dining was really nice. As soon as we got her we saw some hippos in the river across. Relatively close by to the camp. I was exhausted from the drive. We got our lunch and our driver asked if we wanted to go for a game drive at 4 pm. Rithvi and I opted out. I was beat. The 3 seniors with Tanush were “yes! Let’s go!” – impressive.

I couldn’t be happier to relax in our luxury tent. It was so well done! Rithvi as usual settled down with some downloaded movies on my iPad, that’s what she had done at Malu Lodge too. No internet connectivity in the tents, only in the main area. I settled down for a nap again 😂 we had seen some wart hogs across the river from our tent. Later during my nap, I heard some animal sounds which I groggily told myself could be warthogs or a lion! 🤪

It rained a bit here as well but for not as long. The guidance here was that you could walk by yourself between your tent and main area during daytime. Very early in the morning or late evening needs someone from camp to escort us. Rithvi and I freshened up and headed to the main area for Wi-Fi and dinner. I lounged on the couches while I backed up my photos. The camp folks started a campfire that Rithvi and I could sit near and also provided for you with salted peanuts and popcorn ❤️

The rest of the group joined us after their game drive. They had a good one and saw a cheetah. We settled in for dinner when I heard the same animal sounds during my nap. Tanush confidently stated that it was lion. It sounded fairly close by and all of the main area is completely open, no concept of doors. I asked him to confirm and camp folks said yes it was but didn’t want us to step outside to find it until they did. While we continued with our dinner, one of them told us to quickly come over as they could see it now. It was a dark and the lion was right across the river, maybe 100 feet away! It was a large lion! As soon as the torch light was put on, it was figuring out where to run. It thankfully ran away from the river. That was exciting for the night!

I was nervous about the night but it was fairly quiet, no more sounds that I heard at-least. Early start tomorrow for a full day game drive in Masai Maara. Both breakfast and lunch were going to be packed,

We started our day early as usual. The first stop was lake Naivasha with a 1 night stay at Malu Lodge. This would be followed by a 2 night stay at Masai Mara and head back to Nairobi.

We had some light leftovers in the morning as well as packed them for our drive. It would be 2-3 hrs to get to lake Naivasha. Some of us ate enough so we could skip breakfast at Lake Naivasha. When we got there half the group chose a breakfast buffet, seemed like a nice but expensive place. After breakfast, we headed for the boat ride. To future travelers, I would say this pit stop could be skipped. It was a nice lake, definitely popular with locals but the main point about it was that it was where “out of Africa” was filmed and I haven’t even heard of this movie. I saw a poster and I don’t think I want to watch it either. The movie makers had a number of wild animals brought to an island on this lake for the filming. After the movie shooting, they just left the animals there and they roam around freely. It had all the animals you would see at a national park I.e, impala, gazelle, ostrich, giraffes, wildebeest, baboon etc. I wasn’t impressed about seeing something created artificially but the lake is natural. I was meh honestly but ok. Rithvi had a good time, she said the lake was clear and not smelly (our recent experience in Cali was less than ideal, too much algae due to high heat).

After this we headed to check in to Malu lodge. Now, when we got to the lodge, it was beautiful! Large open meadow and very English style cottages, that make you feel like you’ve been transported to 1930’s. However the drive to get there was nuts. I get driving on dirt roads but this was on an incline for almost a couple hours. Given that, I would say this stop could be skipped too. It’s unfortunate that such a nice place is so poorly accessible. It didn’t really feel worth it, and that too for just one night. I was exhausted from the drive. Our driver also mentioned that many of the estates/resorts are owned by English/white folks who have also cut down a lot of tress and driven away the elephants that used to live here. So overall, I felt all the more like this stop could have been skipped.

Anyway, reaching the destination was a relief. The kids, especially Rithvi ran in the meadow and they also had a swing that she totally enjoyed. The view at the top was also picturesque but knowing the truth also made me feel salty. The staff were all very nice locals, we had a nice outdoor lunch. A naturalist said he could take us on a nature walk at 4 pm. We had ~1 hr to rest in our cottage. The cottage was really cozy and nice too.

I thought I’d take a nap before the nature walk. When I woke up ~4 pm it was raining heavily, it truly did feel like we were in England, I was sort of relieved and went back to sleep. That drive was something. I woke up ~ 6 pm when then rain had stopped and freshened up for dinner, the naturalist had told us that if it rained we can’t do the walk. We had thought we could walk from the cottage to dining hall but given the rains and mud puddles everywhere decided to have our driver take us there.

Dinner was inside, it was cozy, service was Kenyan speed. Food was good. We shared the space with 3 other families with their very young children. I told myself they must be from nearby if they are traveling with such young kiddos and choosing to stay here 😄

Headed back to our cottages after dinner and hit the bed. There is no internet connectivity in the cottages so not much I could do staying up either. We were going to head out ~ 7 am to Masai Mara and requested our lodge to pack breakfast for one the way.

Our driver was supposed come between 6:30 and 7 am to take us to Amboseli National Park. He came in just a few mins before 7 am. I was impressed that our group was ready by 6:30 am and waiting downstairs. Headed out after loading up our bags packed for the next 3 days. Our Nairobi apartment was kind enough to hold the rest of our bags when we would come back. We had technically checked out of the apartment.

We asked our driver about breakfast and I don’t know if he hadn’t expected it. We stopped at a very ok western food kinda place 1 hr into our drive. Ok food – American style pastries etc. and then there was a chai too – it was ok. From there we continued our drive. The country side is a lot like rural India, shacks, huts and children waving at us 🙂 surprise, lo and behold, we passed giraffes and zebras grazing on the side of the road! You don’t have to go to a national park to see these animals!!

We reached amboseli at ~ 2 pm. Perfect timing for lunch. Absolutely loved elephant gorge camp, our stay for the next couple days. So beautifully done! Integrates so well with nature. While our host was walking us through property rules, I spot an elephant on the property! Later I saw a whole herd of them, sipping water not more than 50 feet from the dining area of the camp. Don’t remember what we got for lunch, I was the designated accent translator for the seniors in my group 😊 the rule on this property was that you could never walk by yourself from main hall/dining to your room. You always needed someone from the camp to escort you as wild animals roam freely and anything unexpected could happen.

After lunch, we headed to our rooms. 3 separate rooms for the 6 of us, rithvi with me, Tanush with his grandma and the two septuagenarian friends together. I absolutely loved the room! So beautiful!

We choose to head out for a game drive at 4 pm, after resting for a bit. The camp was fairly close to the park, 30 mins. The drive was dusty for sure, I wore a mask but that didn’t quite help. Amboseli is known the herds of elephants, they migrate from Tanzania this time of the year and we saw a lot! We were lucky and got to see them close up when they crossing the road. We saw other animals too, usual giraffe, zebra, wildebeest. The star feature was seeing a pride off lionesses – 7 or 8 of them sitting together. A lot of people got wind of where they were and there were at least 50 other jeeps/vans around us with many of them holding lenses thrice the circumference of my hand while we clicked pics with our iPhones 😂

It was a fun drive and we headed back to the camp. Rested in our rooms for a bit before getting back to dining hall. You summon someone to walk you by ringing a bell outside your room. They were always very prompt. Dinner was good. I appreciated them accommodating and making chicken strips for Rithvi, very American style. The speed of bringing food is not American though, takes 2-3 times longer. This wasn’t only at the camp, everywhere including Nairobi. Good day and got the bed for a 5 am start the next day. Had shared our orders for breakfast which was going to be packed and loaded into the jeep tomorrow morning.

The plan for the day was visiting Nairobi national park, tickets purchased via the ecitizen portal, the elephant orphanage within the park (I had to make this advanced booking more than a month earlier) and the giraffe park. The sheldrick elephant orphanage requires a confirmation that you have been confirmed to enter. You get to pet baby elephants that were orphaned through any number of man made causes – civil strifes, poaching etc. the giraffe park is where you feed giraffes and this is located outside the park.

Started our day at 7 am. Took roughly 30 mins to get to Nairobi national park. The first few animals you see on your safari is always so exciting. We started with some birds, then a turkey and very early on saw some black rhinos, this is rare. As we drove along, we spotted imphala, gazelle, giraffes, zebra and some wildebeest. We then spotted a lioness, our driver drew a hyena out using some audio. For a minute we thought it was going to run towards us. The highlight was a white rhino mommy and her baby. The baby rhino was so playful, jumping around ❤️ we also spotted warthogs, hippos and a summer cat (?). We almost thought it was a cheetah.

Very productive game drive and it was still 10:30 am. We had our time slot at the sheldrick elephant orphanage so headed over. For advanced bookings and getting a confirmed slot, I thought we would be sharing the slot with a few people to visit the elephants. There were over a 100 people at least! Silly me, thinking I’ll get some good 1-on-1 time 😂

We first met Raha, a baby rhino who had a pretty traumatic start to her life. Mom killed and she was badly injured by hyenas. She was rescued and nursed back to health. We then met herds of baby elephants, omg they are so cute. They come running and attach themselves to a giant bottle of milk, not very different from human babies 😍 there was a narrator who talked about what happened to each of them and how they are raised to be strong enough to live in the wild and join a herd. It’s a wonderful initiative!

After this we were off from Nairobi national park and headed to the giraffe park. I had a major laughing bout that Rithvi did not appreciate. As someone who grew up in India, I don’t get ruffled by bumpy roads. My very American daughter is a different story. To avoid a traffic jam, our driver decided to drive off road to overtake so we were basically driving at an angle. Rithvi was so stressed out that the van would fall and while I was reassuring her, another overtook us at high speed! I mean we were already sideways and this other one overtakes us from the left! I was shocked and doubled over in laughter and Rithvi thought I was laughing at her, poor kiddo! The rest of the trip she continued to get scared with all the bumpy game drives and was looking forward to the freeways in US.

The giraffe park was pretty small. We were tired and weren’t in much of a mode to read. We headed straight to feed the giraffes, did a bit of shopping at the gift store and were off. The whole thing may have been 30 mins.

We were done for the day, we had helped ourselves to the picnic sandwiches that were packed the previous day. I can’t remember but I probably ordered in lunch once we got back to our apartment. Mom and I wanted to visit the Masai market again and took an Uber to the mall it was going to be at on that day. unfortunately when we got there, that days Masai market had been canceled and replaced with a luxury apartment expo. Mom and I walked around the mall. I loved the store Kitu Kali, very trendy outfits and shoes, see insta handle @kitukali. Also maakat, denim jacket designs were super cool!

We were originally supposed to go over for dinner at Vatsan uncles house but since he was recovering from mild pneumonia, we postponed it. Had plenty food leftover from lunch and previous day. Mom and Arun uncle got some vegetarian food from the restaurant downstairs. We had an early start the next day at 6:00 am. All of us tried to hit the bed early. My jet lag was still on and I wasn’t getting the best sleep yet.

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(!)