This trip to Kenya has been pretty good so far. I had an incredibly long flight from San Francisco to Dubai, but managed to sleep almost the entire way there. Of the 15 hours I managed to sleep for about 8, which is pretty good, even for me. I arrived in Dubai around 7:30 and managed to get through immigration incredibly quickly. I just checked in with customer service to arrange a hotel room to stay in for the night and asked about a visa application and was told I didn't need one at all. So I just waltzed right through immigrations -- didn't fill out any forms or anything, although I had nothing to declare anyway -- and just went on out to my hotel. My hotel room is all adorned in purple -- literally, all purple.
Dubai is hot as anything I have ever experienced. We're pretty close to the equator here, and being right on the ocean I am not surprised that it is also really, really humid. I am hoping to go on a tour tomorrow, but haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to get to a tour since most of them get back to the airport after I need to check in for my flight. I might just visit one or two tourist spots in a cab and leave my possessions with the hotel staff before I go, but I am still a bit undecided. I also have to get cash if I intend to do that, so we'll see how it all goes.
==========================================
So the Dubai stopover was a total flop in terms of sightseeing, but generally a really pleasant experience. Let me explain.
I woke up around 5 AM Dubai time on Friday morning. I had slept almost the entire flight to Dubai so I was, understandably, not exactly in it for a long haul night time sleep. So what I had was a lot of lying around in the dark broken up in the middle by a 4 hour nap, and then I called it quits and started reading and tooling around on the internet again. After biting off all my nails, and doing some pretty serious damage to my cuticles, then making a resolution (which I promptly broke five hours later in the Dubai airport) to have this Kenya trip be the Once and For All that I would stop biting my fingernails, I got on the internet and tried to figure out what to do with my morning. I investigated the Dubai metro to the Ibn Butatta mall; it looked pretty easy and Vivek said it was cheap, so I tried to run with it.
Only, as the counter staff at the hotel I was staying at told me, because it was a Friday and a holiday the mall would be closing at 1 and the metro didn't open until 2. Well damn. I asked about other options and was told that for 300 UED I could get a car tour of the city, but since that was nearly $100 USD (and would be after tip) I decided to try my luck with the "Big Bus Tours" that I had read about which could be booked from the airport. (It was after 5 AM at this point, I had showered, tooled around on the internet, "watched" Josie and the Pussycats while I got ready to leave, and checked out.) Upon arriving at the airport, however, the desk that organized the Big Bus Tours was also closed, and I couldn't find any other tour desks in the departures terminal. At that point, I decided to give up on my quest, get a cheap breakfast, and just head on through to the famed departures terminal to await my flight.
I read for the next 7 hours, bit my fingernails as previously mentioned, got my last coffee and burger for the next three months, and boarded my plane around 2:40. The flight to Nairobi was very smooth and I almost managed to stay awake the whole time. Since I had stuffed myself -- and given myself a bit of a stomach ache actually -- immediately before my flight with some BK (I was tempted to order The Royale so I could feel like John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson had given me some direct advice, but went with a smaller, cheaper burger, and boy was it a good choice) so didn't really eat much of my inflight meal, although it was quite good. I watched I Am Number Four and the first 2/3 of Jerry Maguire (the only 2/3 I think I've ever seen, I even woke up for "you had me at hello" and realized that I knew nothing about that speech except for RZ's response) and then napped for a bit since there was too much cloud cover to see any of Africa sailing away below me. The boy sitting next to me got dumped with all of his family's immigration forms to filled out, and the guy on the other side of him helped him out while I snoozed away.
Upon arrival in Nairobi all of my anxiety from Wednesday had departed me. I was here, I had made it, from my previous experience it could only be smooth sailing from here to Ol Pejeta. The first hiccup in that logic came when the guy at Immigration decided it was his personal duty to protect Kenya from my wallaby antics and grilled me for a good 10 minutes about why I was coming to Kenya for a 3 month vacation. He asked what I was doing there, how long I stayed last time, what was I doing there again?, how long I was staying -- "Really? (growly voice and eyebrows raised) A three month vacation?" "Um, yes, I like animals. (and I'm an overly entitled American brat and can spend three months of my life mucking around in another country; didn't say that, obviously)" -- and then he demanded to see my return ticket, which I promptly showed him, and then he grumpily stamped my passport and waved me on.
Baggage claim was where the anxiety really started to hit me. There were a lot of people on my flight so I didn't expect my luggage to come out too quickly, and I got a good spot by the baggage carousel that wasn't too crowded, but after my trunk came out and I waited another 15 minutes for my blue camo bag I got more worried. What if someone saw its magnificence and had stolen it? What if they had confiscated it because of all the jam and sriracha I had shoved in there? What if they took George's computer charger, or my bird ID book, or my swahili book, or my binos?! Then it arrived and I felt better.
I left baggage claim and promptly lied to the woman at customs ("What's in the trunk?" "Um... chairs, books, clothes, socks, tampons--" "Okay you can go." not listed: tongue depressors [wtf Kim?!], e-coli food, poop vials...), and found my driver, Edwin, waiting right outside baggage claim with a sign with my name on it. I grabbed some cash out of the ATM, and Edwin showed me where to wait for him while he brought his car around to drive me to Joyce's house. While I was waiting, the anxiety dropped back into the pit of my stomach. I was literally so anxious I thought I could vomit if someone had handed me a trash can, and I leaned on my luggage nervously and guarded my twenty thousand shillings (check the conversion rate, it's not that much money), passport, and greencard like a tired, cranky dragon leaning on its pile of gold. Then I got hit on. Or cased for abduction; not sure.
A guy who I'd seen sitting across the road smoking with some other men walked up to me. After he said hello I immediately rebuffed him with "I have a driver, thanks."
"Oh no, I just wanted to say 'hello'" he told me.
"Oh well, hello."
"I'm just here to pick up a friend who is flying in from Dubai."
At this point I was thinking "well that's very nice, and I'm going to keep one hand on each of my purse and backpack and one eye on the two cops around me so that when your friend comes up and tries to steal me things I can scream and nut you." We made some idle chatter -- for less than a minute, and all I remember is that it involved Australia but not that I was doing research, as the vomit-ready feeling in the pit of my stomach was slowly but steadily deepening -- and finally he said something along the lines of "So if you want to hang out sometime, you should call me."
"I'm not going to be in Nairobi for very long," I told him.
"Oh, are you going on safari?" he asked.
"Yes, up around Laikipia."
"Oh well I'm doing a job in Nakuru next week. You should call me if you're there."
"Look," I told him, "I'm going to be really busy. I don't really have time to just... hang out."
"Well if you need anything, directions or advice or anything, just call or text me."
"I'm okay, really."
"Just take my number, it's good to have someone's number in Nairobi just in case, and if you need anything just call or text me."
Finally I relented and busted out my notebook to write down his number. He hadn't asked for my name at this point so I introduced myself and go his name, although he was perfectly happy to offer me his name without getting mine. (Perhaps it makes you feel less towards your abduction victims, not knowing their name.)
About a minute later he came loping back over, told me that his friend had arrived and that he was leaving, and impressed upon me again to just call him or text him. For whatever.
It was weird and sketchy, I will admit it. Fortunately I was under a bright light, there was a steady trickle of airport traffic around us including plenty of white people who probably would have objected had a young white woman started shrieking at the top of her ample, swimmer's lungs, and taxi drivers, and even a couple of cops, so I felt pretty safe at the time. Since I didn't give him any details or my number and I'm pretty sure you can't implant a gps unit in someone by shaking their hand, I think I'm safe.
Edwin arrived about a minute later and we took an arduous 2 hour drive to the house I am staying at in Mutheiga. No disrespect to Edwin, as he got me here safe and sound and in one piece, but he is a super aggressive driver! I cannot think of one time that we were in a merging or sketchy situation where he let someone else go first, even if I perceived them as being in the right in that situation. Of course, I said nothing about it, and we chatted amiably about traffic, giraffe and zebra that he often sees by the airport, and traffic. At Joyce's house we were greeted by two adorable but loud dogs that let me know I was a Stranger, and Joyce came out to give me a big hug as soon as she knew we had arrived.
Joyce is a long time family friend of Christian's grandparents from when they worked in the UN together, and thanks to them I have a place to stay in Nairobi, for which I am very grateful (Thanks Chris and Judy!) After I had put my bags in my room and been given a brief tour of the house, Joyce and her husband George had tea with me and asked me all about my research, my plans for Kenya and Nairobi, and other subjects including the economy, petrol (gasoline) prices, and instability in the Middle East (now I must thank NPR for educating me on those subjects).
All in all, it's been a fairly pleasant travel experience, and I actually have some travel advice to give out from it. So here we go: the first in what is most likely going to be a series of about one.
Travel Advice for Dubai and Kenya
- Do fly Emirates. I've traveled on a lot of airlines in my time and they go above and beyond to make your flight a pleasant experience. I even spoke with one of their Melbourne supervisors, as he rode the shuttle with me from the hotel to the airport, and he said that the "luxury experience" is what they pride themselves on to set themselves apart. The food was good, the seats reclined more comfortably than the Cathay Pacific ones (the next leading airline in my list of Really Nice Airlines) but less obnoxiously for space than most American airlines, they'll give you up to four bottles of wine in a flight (baby bottles, but that's still enough to do some damage), the flight attendants are still all really pretty and not jaded, they're incredibly helpful, and the ceiling has stars when it becomes night time. If you're a vegetarian or are inclined to want a vegetarian order, do order your veg meal ahead of time because with all the people with food restrictions that fly emirates (they are a Middle-East based company) you are not going to get the spinach ravioli in a creamy tangy chunky tomato sauce if you don't ask in advance.
- Do plan a long layover in Dubai, it's incredibly easy to get through immigration with an American or Australian passport as you don't even need to apply for a visa or fill out a customs declaration. You can have your airline book your luggage right through to your final destination if you can pack some overnight gear (for me: an extra shirt and some underwear, toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush) in your carry on. You can book an inexpensive hotel room and meal package (just breakfast, in the airport) right before you walk through immigration, and they give you tons of options: from the Holiday Inn Express to five star hotels further from the airport. Most of these include a cab ride or shuttle, I was led to believe.
- Do try to see Dubai. I hear it's awesome. Also, look out of your window as you depart, so you can see those artificial islands. One of them is supposed to look like a palm tree but looks more like a horse shoe crab.
- Don't do either of the above with the main part of your layover on a Friday morning, because you'll get nubbed for sight seeing, as I described earlier.
- Don't fly into Nairobi Kenyatta on a Friday night, because traffic is apparently the worst on Fridays. Edwin seemed to think it was from all those people going out on the town. Saturdays are supposed to be pretty good, but I imagine Sundays would also be bad as those people that took weekend trips into or out of the city go back home. Monday night worked out really well for Brenda and I last time.
- Do check out the Dubai airport. There are plenty of comfy seating areas (like Starbucks) that you won't get kicked out of for occupying the better part of 7 hours at even though you finished your coffee and muffin 6.5 hours earlier. There area a tonne of duty free stores there also, and a camel's milk chocolate stand, which I will be a patron of on my way home.
Finally:
- Do not be annoyed that this post has no pictures. I didn't want to seem like a total tourist today and my camera doesn't stow easily with the lens on so I left it in my camera bag to avoid forgetting things. I already almost forgot my cellphone once, I'm trying not to lose anything on this trip!
PS: I do know exactly when I'll be coming back again, just FYI.
Dubai is hot as anything I have ever experienced. We're pretty close to the equator here, and being right on the ocean I am not surprised that it is also really, really humid. I am hoping to go on a tour tomorrow, but haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to get to a tour since most of them get back to the airport after I need to check in for my flight. I might just visit one or two tourist spots in a cab and leave my possessions with the hotel staff before I go, but I am still a bit undecided. I also have to get cash if I intend to do that, so we'll see how it all goes.
==========================================
So the Dubai stopover was a total flop in terms of sightseeing, but generally a really pleasant experience. Let me explain.
I woke up around 5 AM Dubai time on Friday morning. I had slept almost the entire flight to Dubai so I was, understandably, not exactly in it for a long haul night time sleep. So what I had was a lot of lying around in the dark broken up in the middle by a 4 hour nap, and then I called it quits and started reading and tooling around on the internet again. After biting off all my nails, and doing some pretty serious damage to my cuticles, then making a resolution (which I promptly broke five hours later in the Dubai airport) to have this Kenya trip be the Once and For All that I would stop biting my fingernails, I got on the internet and tried to figure out what to do with my morning. I investigated the Dubai metro to the Ibn Butatta mall; it looked pretty easy and Vivek said it was cheap, so I tried to run with it.
Only, as the counter staff at the hotel I was staying at told me, because it was a Friday and a holiday the mall would be closing at 1 and the metro didn't open until 2. Well damn. I asked about other options and was told that for 300 UED I could get a car tour of the city, but since that was nearly $100 USD (and would be after tip) I decided to try my luck with the "Big Bus Tours" that I had read about which could be booked from the airport. (It was after 5 AM at this point, I had showered, tooled around on the internet, "watched" Josie and the Pussycats while I got ready to leave, and checked out.) Upon arriving at the airport, however, the desk that organized the Big Bus Tours was also closed, and I couldn't find any other tour desks in the departures terminal. At that point, I decided to give up on my quest, get a cheap breakfast, and just head on through to the famed departures terminal to await my flight.
I read for the next 7 hours, bit my fingernails as previously mentioned, got my last coffee and burger for the next three months, and boarded my plane around 2:40. The flight to Nairobi was very smooth and I almost managed to stay awake the whole time. Since I had stuffed myself -- and given myself a bit of a stomach ache actually -- immediately before my flight with some BK (I was tempted to order The Royale so I could feel like John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson had given me some direct advice, but went with a smaller, cheaper burger, and boy was it a good choice) so didn't really eat much of my inflight meal, although it was quite good. I watched I Am Number Four and the first 2/3 of Jerry Maguire (the only 2/3 I think I've ever seen, I even woke up for "you had me at hello" and realized that I knew nothing about that speech except for RZ's response) and then napped for a bit since there was too much cloud cover to see any of Africa sailing away below me. The boy sitting next to me got dumped with all of his family's immigration forms to filled out, and the guy on the other side of him helped him out while I snoozed away.
Upon arrival in Nairobi all of my anxiety from Wednesday had departed me. I was here, I had made it, from my previous experience it could only be smooth sailing from here to Ol Pejeta. The first hiccup in that logic came when the guy at Immigration decided it was his personal duty to protect Kenya from my wallaby antics and grilled me for a good 10 minutes about why I was coming to Kenya for a 3 month vacation. He asked what I was doing there, how long I stayed last time, what was I doing there again?, how long I was staying -- "Really? (growly voice and eyebrows raised) A three month vacation?" "Um, yes, I like animals. (and I'm an overly entitled American brat and can spend three months of my life mucking around in another country; didn't say that, obviously)" -- and then he demanded to see my return ticket, which I promptly showed him, and then he grumpily stamped my passport and waved me on.
Baggage claim was where the anxiety really started to hit me. There were a lot of people on my flight so I didn't expect my luggage to come out too quickly, and I got a good spot by the baggage carousel that wasn't too crowded, but after my trunk came out and I waited another 15 minutes for my blue camo bag I got more worried. What if someone saw its magnificence and had stolen it? What if they had confiscated it because of all the jam and sriracha I had shoved in there? What if they took George's computer charger, or my bird ID book, or my swahili book, or my binos?! Then it arrived and I felt better.
I left baggage claim and promptly lied to the woman at customs ("What's in the trunk?" "Um... chairs, books, clothes, socks, tampons--" "Okay you can go." not listed: tongue depressors [wtf Kim?!], e-coli food, poop vials...), and found my driver, Edwin, waiting right outside baggage claim with a sign with my name on it. I grabbed some cash out of the ATM, and Edwin showed me where to wait for him while he brought his car around to drive me to Joyce's house. While I was waiting, the anxiety dropped back into the pit of my stomach. I was literally so anxious I thought I could vomit if someone had handed me a trash can, and I leaned on my luggage nervously and guarded my twenty thousand shillings (check the conversion rate, it's not that much money), passport, and greencard like a tired, cranky dragon leaning on its pile of gold. Then I got hit on. Or cased for abduction; not sure.
A guy who I'd seen sitting across the road smoking with some other men walked up to me. After he said hello I immediately rebuffed him with "I have a driver, thanks."
"Oh no, I just wanted to say 'hello'" he told me.
"Oh well, hello."
"I'm just here to pick up a friend who is flying in from Dubai."
At this point I was thinking "well that's very nice, and I'm going to keep one hand on each of my purse and backpack and one eye on the two cops around me so that when your friend comes up and tries to steal me things I can scream and nut you." We made some idle chatter -- for less than a minute, and all I remember is that it involved Australia but not that I was doing research, as the vomit-ready feeling in the pit of my stomach was slowly but steadily deepening -- and finally he said something along the lines of "So if you want to hang out sometime, you should call me."
"I'm not going to be in Nairobi for very long," I told him.
"Oh, are you going on safari?" he asked.
"Yes, up around Laikipia."
"Oh well I'm doing a job in Nakuru next week. You should call me if you're there."
"Look," I told him, "I'm going to be really busy. I don't really have time to just... hang out."
"Well if you need anything, directions or advice or anything, just call or text me."
"I'm okay, really."
"Just take my number, it's good to have someone's number in Nairobi just in case, and if you need anything just call or text me."
Finally I relented and busted out my notebook to write down his number. He hadn't asked for my name at this point so I introduced myself and go his name, although he was perfectly happy to offer me his name without getting mine. (Perhaps it makes you feel less towards your abduction victims, not knowing their name.)
About a minute later he came loping back over, told me that his friend had arrived and that he was leaving, and impressed upon me again to just call him or text him. For whatever.
It was weird and sketchy, I will admit it. Fortunately I was under a bright light, there was a steady trickle of airport traffic around us including plenty of white people who probably would have objected had a young white woman started shrieking at the top of her ample, swimmer's lungs, and taxi drivers, and even a couple of cops, so I felt pretty safe at the time. Since I didn't give him any details or my number and I'm pretty sure you can't implant a gps unit in someone by shaking their hand, I think I'm safe.
Edwin arrived about a minute later and we took an arduous 2 hour drive to the house I am staying at in Mutheiga. No disrespect to Edwin, as he got me here safe and sound and in one piece, but he is a super aggressive driver! I cannot think of one time that we were in a merging or sketchy situation where he let someone else go first, even if I perceived them as being in the right in that situation. Of course, I said nothing about it, and we chatted amiably about traffic, giraffe and zebra that he often sees by the airport, and traffic. At Joyce's house we were greeted by two adorable but loud dogs that let me know I was a Stranger, and Joyce came out to give me a big hug as soon as she knew we had arrived.
Joyce is a long time family friend of Christian's grandparents from when they worked in the UN together, and thanks to them I have a place to stay in Nairobi, for which I am very grateful (Thanks Chris and Judy!) After I had put my bags in my room and been given a brief tour of the house, Joyce and her husband George had tea with me and asked me all about my research, my plans for Kenya and Nairobi, and other subjects including the economy, petrol (gasoline) prices, and instability in the Middle East (now I must thank NPR for educating me on those subjects).
All in all, it's been a fairly pleasant travel experience, and I actually have some travel advice to give out from it. So here we go: the first in what is most likely going to be a series of about one.
Travel Advice for Dubai and Kenya
- Do fly Emirates. I've traveled on a lot of airlines in my time and they go above and beyond to make your flight a pleasant experience. I even spoke with one of their Melbourne supervisors, as he rode the shuttle with me from the hotel to the airport, and he said that the "luxury experience" is what they pride themselves on to set themselves apart. The food was good, the seats reclined more comfortably than the Cathay Pacific ones (the next leading airline in my list of Really Nice Airlines) but less obnoxiously for space than most American airlines, they'll give you up to four bottles of wine in a flight (baby bottles, but that's still enough to do some damage), the flight attendants are still all really pretty and not jaded, they're incredibly helpful, and the ceiling has stars when it becomes night time. If you're a vegetarian or are inclined to want a vegetarian order, do order your veg meal ahead of time because with all the people with food restrictions that fly emirates (they are a Middle-East based company) you are not going to get the spinach ravioli in a creamy tangy chunky tomato sauce if you don't ask in advance.
- Do plan a long layover in Dubai, it's incredibly easy to get through immigration with an American or Australian passport as you don't even need to apply for a visa or fill out a customs declaration. You can have your airline book your luggage right through to your final destination if you can pack some overnight gear (for me: an extra shirt and some underwear, toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush) in your carry on. You can book an inexpensive hotel room and meal package (just breakfast, in the airport) right before you walk through immigration, and they give you tons of options: from the Holiday Inn Express to five star hotels further from the airport. Most of these include a cab ride or shuttle, I was led to believe.
- Do try to see Dubai. I hear it's awesome. Also, look out of your window as you depart, so you can see those artificial islands. One of them is supposed to look like a palm tree but looks more like a horse shoe crab.
- Don't do either of the above with the main part of your layover on a Friday morning, because you'll get nubbed for sight seeing, as I described earlier.
- Don't fly into Nairobi Kenyatta on a Friday night, because traffic is apparently the worst on Fridays. Edwin seemed to think it was from all those people going out on the town. Saturdays are supposed to be pretty good, but I imagine Sundays would also be bad as those people that took weekend trips into or out of the city go back home. Monday night worked out really well for Brenda and I last time.
- Do check out the Dubai airport. There are plenty of comfy seating areas (like Starbucks) that you won't get kicked out of for occupying the better part of 7 hours at even though you finished your coffee and muffin 6.5 hours earlier. There area a tonne of duty free stores there also, and a camel's milk chocolate stand, which I will be a patron of on my way home.
Finally:
- Do not be annoyed that this post has no pictures. I didn't want to seem like a total tourist today and my camera doesn't stow easily with the lens on so I left it in my camera bag to avoid forgetting things. I already almost forgot my cellphone once, I'm trying not to lose anything on this trip!
PS: I do know exactly when I'll be coming back again, just FYI.
Thank you so much for sharing! I look forward to following you all summer only interrupted by my own travels to and from Africa. Lorril and I are super glad that you listened to your instincts, The Gift of Fear is an incredible read and I think you were spot on that something was up... and only the overly and inappropriately friendly guy knows for sure. Hugs from the Hayward House of Dogs... Lisa and Lorril
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