I had already gotten a little taste of security issues as we arrived at the Hilton hotel in Nairobi and each time you enter you have to pass through a metal detector. It was already strange for me not being allowed to wear any kind of jewlery, watches, or bags while leaving the hotel, and I felt even more awqward when we were seriousely being stared down because of our skin colour. Even my parents found it strange, as Nairobi had been more of a tourist spot years ago. During the first days we were allowed just to walk around the hotel premices, but not much further - the rest of the time (besides when we went on our safari) we stayed inside the hotel because it was just too dangerous.
On our second day, on our way back from an overly crowded supermarket close by (where the queue to the cashier was up to the entrance!) we came across people rioting - I quickly went up to our room to take some pictures
(click to enlarge)
while my brother took a video:
Video:
First outer hotel trip was to a Swiss training place for cooks where we wanted to have our Christmas dinner. Hearing what kind of place it was supposed to be had kept our expectations a little high, so when for example for desert, the chocolate sauce was soya sauce, and when the butter pudding was prepared with salt instead of sugar, we kind of left the place in a hurry! Christmas dinner - meat samosas from the hotel :D hehe
The next day we drove to our old house where we lived 27 years ago. Obviously I don't remember it at all but they had changed it a lot.We used to have a massive garden which reached all the way to a little lake which you couldn't see anymore now because they had build a wall and even built more around the garden to make more space for all the cars the current people had. Some neighbours had driven by and recognized my dad! That after 30 years, amazing!
Went to a supermarket close where my parents used to go shopping. I just wanted to buy a bag of chips and found some interesting flavours! Hot dog flavour? Lemon flavour? hmm :)
(Sign outside of the supermarket)
Later that day we took a walk to the national building which was only 5 minutes away from the hotel and went to the top of it where we could basically see all of Nairobi!It was a beautiful day so the view was astonishing! Definitely the best bit of the holiday so far :) We wanted to continue to a park called Uhuru (one of the most famous parks) but the hotel security had told us definitely not to go there because it's too unsafe.
(<<< Uhuru park)
View of our hotel.
In the evening we found a really beautiful Italian restaurant quite close to the hotel - just some info - they had written something like "We are proud to be the oldest Italian restaurant in Kenya and have been here since 1981" :)
The rest of our time in Nairobi we spent in the hotel. Election day was coming up, therefore again too dangerous to be outside. We headed off to our two day safari which was (for me!) so amazing I can't even put any of it into words (and even my pictures won't be able to show 10% of the beauty)! Unlike my bro and dad, I totally did not mind the uber bumpy 5 hour drive there - adventure!!! :D
The lodge was really beautiful as well and we already had a great start of our animal adventure when we had zebras walking around very close to our room. We ended up seeing loads of animals and our highlight was a cheetah right by the road!The safari was definitely the highlight of our holiday in Kenya. When we got back our joy was quickly brought down as the results of the elections were already delayed, people getting really annoyed, and the worst part was that there was evidence of corruption of the poll results. We had been watching the Kenyan news all day and witnessed how one person spoke up about the corruption - then no half hour later they announced the winner. It was the old president Jomo Kenyatta again to the disbelief of all people we saw.
Media was not allowed to broadcast anything anymore and we were advised to leave the country in case they shut down the airport... and so we did.
Just before leaving the hotel we already saw 3 fires around, loads of police patrolling the streets, and the rest I guess you know from the news :( Current death toll 250!
I will definitely not say it was a bad holiday. It was an educating experience and I see Kenya from a different perspective now, and I will keep watching the news...
(I will upload the rest of my pictures to the gallery soon)
