Nairobi

Chaos, Culture, and Creatures

After a surprisingly smooth red eye flight with Turkish Airlines out of Istanbul, we landed in Nairobi at 3am. Thanks to our youngest kid, we were moved to a shorter customs line and the proceeded to hunt down our luggage and car seats before meeting with our driver. Due to the size of our family and luggage, they booked two cars to drive us to our apartment. Booking through our host was good because the driver was able to get us all the way to our apartment and show us how to open the many locks. We stayed in a spacious 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom apartment with a gym, pool (though the water was chilly), and daily housekeeping. We also had windows overlooking the oasis in the middle of the complex. The older kids enjoyed sitting by the windows and reading.

Our first full day we explored the community we were staying in and then ran across the highway to find a place where K could get a Safaricom SIM card and set up m-pesa. We managed to find a delicious lunch at a local restaurant and shopped at the Maasai Market, where A5 got a little messenger bag and J got a new wedding ring. We also got a little stone elephant for the kids’ cousin that we managed to break before we left the market. To reach a Safaricom shop, we walked 1km along narrow streets, crossing the road safely with the help of a chicken on roller-skates, to an indoor mall. The kids enjoyed an indoor jump park while K bought a SIM card, accidentally waited in line without a ticket, and then waited in line again to set up her m-pesa. At the end of the day, we decided no more running across highways and took an uber home.

Our second full day we went to the arboretum and walked to Amani Garden Cafe for a lovely lunch where the kids could play in the shade. It was during this outing that we discovered Nairobi has acrobats that perform in the streets. We found this the most fascinating find of the day. We went to our pool after our outing, which was too cold for K but the kids had a good time.

The next day we headed to Karura Forest. We first had lunch at the River Cafe, offering open air seating and delicious food and juices. Since A3 was sick, he sat and napped with K in the park while the rest of the family hiked to see a waterfall, a cave, and butterflies. After everyone met up again in the picnic area full of people, monkeys, and hawks, a hawk tried to steal A3’s beep-beep. A3’s beep beep was rescued but the hawks succeeded in taking the little bucket that was nearly lost so many times in the past. He was devastated and now does not like hawks.

The next day we headed to the Central Business District to follow a GPS My City walking tour. We had some hiccups getting there due to an Uber strike and heavy traffic. We managed to make our way to the national archives, where we learned much about Kenya on a private guided tour. After, we moved through people and car traffic to a yummy lunch in a little oasis, Habibi Haven.

The following day was a big adventure out of Nairobi to a Maasai Village experience through Happy Tribe Travel. We were dressed in traditional attire by our hosts, learned to make Maasai beaded jewelry, herded and milked goats, made a fire, made Ugali, and danced. Everyone was kind and the children were so sweet, some very much enjoying touching A3’s hair.

Our last full day in Nairobi was focused on a safari in Nairobi National Park where we saw many animals including rhinos and a lion. After our search for animals around the park, we headed to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT) Nursery to see a baby zebra, baby rhino, and baby elephants drinking bottles of milk. We then headed over to the Giraffe Center to feed giraffes. After a long and lovely day of animals, we went back and watched The Lion King since the kids were pretty wiped, especially the ones not feeling well.

Our departure day was very low key in that we finish packing and explored our little community before leaving. We were lucky that our host gave us a late check out so we could relax before heading to the train station to catch our train. Our experience with the train was new and interesting. We had to go through security, including lining up our luggage to be sniffed by dogs. We also waited in an unusually long line to print our passes before sitting to enjoy the first class ride to Voi.