Nairobi

Another delayed flight meant that my sightseeing time was really limited again today. If I have to burn a few days waiting around in airports though, then it might as well be the days that I had budgeted to spend in big cities. Cities are fun, but nearly all of the really great stuff I've seen and done while traveling has been outside of the big cities.

After my flight to Nairobi this morning I took a cab to the Hotel Boulevard - the starting point for the three week safari that I booked with Gap Adventures. It feels really good to be with a tour group for a while. Traveling independently is incredible and I look forward to doing a lot more of it in the future, but I've been moving so fast for the past six weeks and doing it all on such a tight budget that it feels good just to have everything pre-paid for a while and to know that I can just tag along with a group that has every day all planned out for me.

I wanted to do a few things in Nairobi to feel like I've experienced the city at least a little bit, so after a quick shower I headed to a local market downtown with an American pediatricain named Nicole who I met at the airport. The market felt like another walk through my grandma Calder's basement, except for instead of Ethiopian pillows and straw baskets it was filled with Masaii handicraft and polished ebony carvings of rhinos, elephants, and giraffes. It's fun to go to these different places in Africa and to see what is unique about each country's culture. Now I feel like I could walk through my grandma's house and point out which things came from Ethiopia and which things came from Kenya.

There were quite a few things at the market that I really wanted to buy, but it didn't make any sense for me to buy anything because I don't have any means of carrying it home with me and if I did get it home I'd have nowhere to put it. When I get my own house a few years from now I really want to start filling it with the most amazing stuff from all over the world. I like walking through Z Gallerie at the Gateway sometimes because they've got imported stuff from all over Asia and Africa. It'd be nice to start off with a few cheap things from Z Gallerie, but as I travel when I get older I want to pick out the really great stuff for myself in foriegn countries and slowly replace all the cheap things that I bought in the US. Sometime I'll come back to Nairobi and buy myself a Kenyan batik painting or a rhino carved out of ebony and haul it home to put somewhere in my house.

If there's one world-class restaurant that Nairobi is known for, then it's the famous, appropriately named establishment, “The Carnivoire”. I split a cab with Nicole tonight and headed a few miles out of the city to visit the place and to fill my belly with fine meats. The Carnivoire is very similar to “The Rodizio Grill” in Salt Lake. It has the feel of a Brazillian chuascarria with exotic meats and men coming around with skewers, but there's a certain African flair to it that sets it apart from other places. Dinner started with a few appetizers and some tasty tomato soup, then got more serious as African servers came around with sizzling skewers of ostrich meatballs and crocodile, among other exotic delicacies. I sipped a glass of passion fruit juice as I ate and just enjoyed the lavish African atmosphere.

Later tonight I met up with the Gap tour group and listened for an hour as the guide reviewed all the information for the tour. This trip has moved so fast so far, but I really like it that way. Only two days ago I was hiking through the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia. Ten days ago I was rallying over red sand dunes in a Land Cruiser outside of Dubai. And only two weeks ago I was enjoying the mellow Himalayan Buddhist cultures of Nepal. Two days from now I'll be in the Serengeti spotting wild elephants, giraffes, rhinos, wildebeasts, and all kinds of other creatures. I've wanted to do an African safari for years. It feels great to actually be in Nairobi, Kenya right now, right on the doorstep of the greatest game viewing parks in the world.