Jambo Kenya!

Note: I wrote this entry so long ago, but I have had a hard time finding internet connections fast enough to upload all the pictures. So this will have to do for now. I promise to add more pictures later.




After Egypt, Kenya was a breath of fresh air . . . both literally and figuratively. The people here are so nice and genuinely welcoming. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but I was expecting that it would be completely different than anywhere else that I have traveled before. Instead, I have been surprised by the similarities. Other than the obvious and expected differences--the skin color of most of its residents--it is very similar to many other towns I've visited in South America. Yes, there is some poverty in places, but there is also some wealth and lots of industry. One of our first days in Nairobi, we were directed to a mall to buy groceries and hit the ATM.

Some truly awesome differences are that you don’t get cat-called every time you walk down the street, taxi drivers don’t think that honking at you a bajillion times somehow increases the odds that you would take a cab instead of walking, and, for the most part, everyone speaks English.
Our first week in Kenya was spent on a safari of the Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru. We got there at the prime time too, while all of the animals were migrating to Kenya from the Serengeti in Tanzania. We were told that if we had arrived a few weeks earlier or later, there would only have been 1/3 or less of the animals that were there during our visit.
There were animals EVERYWHERE! By the last day, we were completely jaded, “Oh, another lion. That’s cool.”

On the first night, we got to our cabins in the late afternoon and did an evening game drive. Even in the space of that two-hour drive, we saw hundreds, if not thousands, of wildebeests, Thomson gazelles, Zebra, impalas, and African Cape buffalo. We also saw guinea fowl, ostriches, lions, maasai giraffe, elephants, huge storks, and vultures. We couldn’t believe it when John, our awesome guide from Mt. Kenya Tours, promised that we would see many more animals the next day. We had already gotten our money’s worth, and we still had two days to go.

The next day was incredible. In addition to seeing everything that we had seen the day before, including a ton more lions (and their cubs),
we also saw a cheetah (very briefly), jackals, hippos,
eagles with a fresh kill, foxes, Topi, pik-piks (sp?), warthogs, secretary birds, hartebeast, red bucks, crocodiles, and the suberb starlings.

During one truly amazing encounter, we were sitting directly between the lion and his six cubs that were gnawing away at their freshly slaughtered wildebeest. We also saw a lot of this . . . .

(picture to be added later)
Apparently lions mate 25 times a day!

John was also able to get us very close, although only briefly, to a cheetah and an ostrich nest.
The next morning, we did an early morning game drive to see if we could see the big cats in action. It was unbelieveable. At one point I was hanging out of a van taking pictures less than 20 feet away from a lion and lioness. I kept fluctuating between feeling thrilled, terrified, and maybe a bit guilty (it can’t be great for all of these animals to be so used to humans).

We also got to see a lion hunt, though, unsuccessfully. (video to be added later). Our guide told us that the lioness is actually a much better hunter than the male lions. Maybe they need to make a new disney movie, The Lion Queen.

Now I’m sorry to disappoint all you Lion King fans, but there were no baboons holding up any of the cubs. And, although we saw plenty of warthogs, we never saw any hanging out with any meercats (sp?).

At Lake Nakuru, the next day, we saw Vervet Monkeys as we drove into the park and as we waited at the gate, one hopped into our van long enough to steal the guide's banana. Although Masaai Mara and Lake Nakuru are very close in distance, the landscape was vastly different. Except for the Acacia trees that define Kenya's landscape, Masaai Mara could have been any desert plain. There were few water features, large distances between trees, and tall grasses. It was very brown. Lake Nakuru is a park surrounding huge lake and, as such, was very green. Outside of the wetlands surrounding the Lake, there are dense thickets of trees everywhere.
It was very strange to see so many of the same animals from Masaai Mara in this environment. I'm not sure why, but I have always pictured giraffe, rhinos, lions, etc., as living in landscapes like those present in Masaai Mara. In Lake Nakuru, we saw one black rhino from a distance and many white rhinos (we were now 4 for 5 of the Big Five, only missing the elusive leopard) in addition to thousands of flamingos, many Nakuru baboons, more lions, more zebra, the Rothchild giraffe, some rock hyrax, hyenas, and the colorful agama lizard and inaptly named gross starlings.

The highlight for me, though, was when we saw a lion near a fresh kill being chased off by a herd of buffalo. The buffalo, smelling the blood, all starting moving towards the lion. After the lion was pushed off to a safe distance, the buffalo also chased off the hyena and jackals that had been circling the area waiting for the lion to tire of his kill. The buffalo also helped a warthog mom and baby excape from the hyenas. I was amazed that the lion was scared of the buffalo, but apparently they move in herds and will work together to kill a lion that it deems a threat to their herd.

Goodbye Egypt

By the next morning, I was ready to leave Egypt. But I still had one very important task: the Pyramids. We arrived early, before it got too hot, but also before the pollution could burn off. I was surprised to see how close to the city the pyramids are. We rented horses, which took us around all of the pyramids and to the sphinx. This was the perfect way to see them.





The pyramids were truly spectacular and very worthy of their status as the only remaining Wonder of the World. The stones making up the pyramids are as big as 15 tons. Until the 15th Century, they were the tallest building in the world.

After catching up on air conditioning at the hotel and having our second-best meal in Egypt, we attempted to visit the Citadel. But it had closed early for Ramadan. We were able to visit the Al Kazahar mosque, though. It was beautiful from the ground floor, but the view from the minaret was breathtaking. I t was so peaceful, I didn't want to leave.


On our walk back to find a taxi, a nice guy who was studying English and wanted to practice came up to us. After being hustled so many times in the last week, our initial reaction was to ignore him. But he was insistent that we explore the handicraft market where we could see all of the crafts that we sold at the tourist market actually being made. He seemed genuinely interested in showing us around, and I'm glad that this impression was accurate. He took us all over a part of Egypt that I'm sure most never see. There were some scary looking alleys, covered in trash and muck. But it was all worth being able to see the locals at work.


We weren't hassled or hustled, only welcomed.

Now, looking back on it, there were so many wonderful people in Egypt that were genuinely concerned for us and that wanted us to have a good impression of Egypt and feel welcome. It's easy to focus on the negative, but the same night I was violated at the bazaar, two shopkeepers helped us. One warned me about a man that was following us and another let me stand in his shop while the mosh of people rushed past. They were both very protective. Although I felt violated, irritated, and overwhelmed at times, I never felt seriously in danger (well except maybe crossing the street or riding in a taxi cab). I don't think I would go back (at least not without my husband), but I'm glad I went and I feel that it is a place that one should see.

Back in Cairo

The next morning, we flew back to Cairo for our last two days in Egypt. We spent the afternoon exploring the Egyptian Museum. It was a "must-see". There were so many strange, beautiful, and interesting things to see. My favorite room was the Amarna Room dedicated to Amenhotep IV, the "heretic king" that wanted his people to worship only one god (the Sun "Aten") instead of all of the Gods. He even changed his name to Akenaten to show his devotion to Aten.

After his death, his son-in-law, Tutankhamen (better known as King Tut), reverted back to multi-god worship. There were also many artifacts from Tut's tomb, his funerary mask and the multiple tombs that fit together like Russian dolls were the most interesting.
I also really enjoyed the room full of mummified animals. The animals were mummified for three reasons: as pets of the deceased, as "food" for the deceased, or as idolized animals with special significance. There were also minature figurines depicting various events. I did not really understand their significance, but they were interesting. (Note: all of the museum pictures were taken from the internet because photography was not allowed at the museum).

Later that night, as Nici and I walked to Regina and Kaitlin's hotel, a group of young boys (8 as the oldest), started cat-calling us and a number of them ran up behind me and grabbed my butt. If it hadn't been so shocking, it might have been amusing. How pervasive is this behavior in the culture if 8-year-olds are doing it? This was the beginning of my worst night in Egypt. As we were walking to the bazaar, a man walked by and grabbed my chest. It happened so quickly, I didn't know how to react but to turn around and flip him off. I was so angry! At the market, the unwanted attention was non-stop. Some of the lines were funny--"I don't know what you want, but I have what you need"--but we all were feeling very guarded and did not give any sign of recognition or acknowledgment to anyone. I was mad that a few assholes had left me feeling so violated that I could not even interact those that were truly trying to be friendly. I wonder how many experiences I missed out on or what kind of impression I left--an angry, stuck up American--but at that point I did not care.

This reaction seemed even more justified after getting lost and ending up in the Egyptian market that connects to the tourist bazaar. We got caught in a bottleneck of people that closely resembled a mosh pit at a punk rock concert. Not being able to move, I felt someone's hand rub between my butt cheeks. I quickly turned around to confront my attacker, but there were so many people behind me that I didn't know who to slap. I glared at all of them and decided that next time I would grab the person's fingers before turning around so I knew exactly who to knee in the balls. I felt such relief to finally make it to the street. I have never been so excited to hail a taxi! This experience left me feeling so wounded and angry. It completely ruined my impression of Egypt.

Here are some random pictures taken on the streets of Cairo.





Mish-mish, the cat from one of restaurants we ate at.


A picture from a sweet shop in Cairo. It was filled with special goodies for Ramadan. Sorry it is so dark. I'll fix it in photoshop when I get back. :)

Luxor: West Bank

The next morning Ali Baba, our driver, picked us up and headed to the West Bank, where all the tombs are located. We had met Ali Baba at the airport and, during our drive to the hotel, he convinced us to hire him for our two days at Luxor. It was very convenient except that he had a huge crush on Nicole, who he kept calling Nicola. Every day he asked her to join him for coffee after Ramadan and for a stroll on the Nil. Nici was quite the hit in Luxor. I was even offered 10,000 camels for her. I was glad that I had on my grandma's wedding ring to quickly ward off any unwanted advances. Nici, unfortunately, got the brunt of it.
We started our tour of the West Bank at the Collossi of Memnon (I think Amenhotep)

followed by the Valley of the Kings, which has the tombs of the pharaohs. We visited the tombs of Ramses I, Queen Tausert/Serthnakht, and Tuthmosis. Our favorite was the second tomb, which had a huge arched chamber halfway through it and the most impressive hieroglyphics and artwork. Even early in the day, the tombs were like saunas. They would not let us take pictures so here is a picture of part of Queen Tausert's tomb that I downloaded from the internet.
Our next stop was the temple of Queen Hatsheput.

There were several very cool reliefs carved into the walls and statues of the Queen. Like most places, there were tons of touts who wanted to point out pictures that you would have eventually found yourself for a small baksheesh (tip). It was really offputing. It happened so much that we started all of our conversations with any of the locals at the temples with "No money, we have no money". Only a few still chose to "guide" us.


Next up, we visited the tombs of Sennefer and Rekhmire at the Tombs of the Nobles. Sennefer was really cool, with vines painted across the entire ceiling. Again, I couldn't take pictures so here are a few from the internet.

I did sneak a picture of Rekhmire, which was essentially just one giant hallway.



We crossed the street to snap a few shots of Ramesseum before heading back to the hotel to relax by the pool.

Later that night, I treated Nici to a massage to thank her for all that she had done for me on the trip. It was a strange experience. The massage itself was strange, mostly just rubbing without any pressure and a few strange stretches. But after the massage the women who performed them joined us in the dressing room, insisted on helping Nici put her shirt on, and told us that if we wanted to tip them, we needed to tip them directly because the men would take the tips away from them. We didn't mind, but it was another indicator of how women are treated in this Islamic society.