Safari Park Hotel

Albert took us to our hotel for the night. The Safari Park Hotel was a resort located very closely to Nairobi. We were greeted by the bellman who was tall and had a red uniform. He said: Salam which meant hello in Swahili. But we later noticed that most people use Jambo to say hello instead.

We checked in the nice lobby that had a big statue of an elephant. Then we went through the garden all the way to our hotel room. Everything was beautiful and well set, except that it looked very old and needed serious renovations. The design looked to me like it was conceived in the 70s, because of the colours and choices of material. I had seen nicer hotels.

We walked around the garden for a bit. There was an outside restaurant, almost empty, with an acrobatic show. We didn’t stay out for long. We went back to the room, watched a bit of news on BBC and went to sleep.

We woke up early in the morning and decided to go for an early workout at the hotel’s fitness center. As we started lifting weights, the gym’s trainer told us that the workout would each cost us 1500 schillings (about $30)! We stayed even if we thought the price was exaggerated, but when we checked out they forgot to bill us…

Picture taken from: Billbarnes01 on Picasa.

First Impressions of Kenya

Seven and a half hours later, the Swiss A-330 landed in Nairobi. It was the first time I set foot on the African continent.

After we came out of the airplane, everything seemed to be calm with no signs of conflict. It was 9 pm and the airport was nearly empty. The terminal was designed in a circular shape, just like I had seen in the guide book. There were a few European tourists waiting for their flights home.

As we were coming out of the gate, I saw a commercial about the Serengeti National Park, which only sounded familiar at the time and I was wondering where it was located and if we were going to visit it. I would later find out that The Serengeti was a Tanzanian park, the biggest one of the country, and it had a section that extended in Kenya: the Masai Mara that we would visit.

We took our luggage and went outside the airport to be greeted by Albert, our guide in Kenya. He was a calm and smiley man that spoke French very well. He had safari hats for Joumana and for me that he gave us.

Albert was to drive us to our hotel. He briefed us on Kenya’s political news. Things have seemed to calm down compared to a few weeks before, but the tension was still felt, and tourism in Kenya has suffered greatly.

It was dark outside so it was hard for me to see what Kenya looked like. There was a warm tropical sent in the air that wasn’t too familiar. I did notice that people drove on the other side of the road, just like in the UK. There were also a lot of nids de poule on the roads. Albert called them nids d’autruche, because some were very big!

Picture taken from: Fotolia.

Empty Flight to Kenya

After leaving the VIP lounge in Zurich’s airport, Joumana and I embarked the airplane and were soon flying on our way to Nairobi.

The airplane was almost empty. Many tourists have changed their plans after seeing the images on the news about the violence in Kenya. We had good first row seats. I didn’t feel like reading a lot, so I watched two movies: The Nanny Diaries and The Bourne Ultimatum. They were both very entertaining.

On the airplane, I was very excited because it was the first time I was travelling to Africa. Joumana had been to Morocco, but not the core of the continent yet. I watched the map on the airplane screens that showed where we were flying, crossing the Mediterranean Sea, going over Egypt and then Sudan.

I was also worried at moments because of the political instability Kenya was living at the moment. After the president Mwai Kibaki was declared winner of the Kenyan elections on December 27th 2007, supporters of the opponent Raila Odinga staged violent and non-violent protests throughout the country. The political and humanitarian crisis that had erupted was calming down, but aggression was still present in certain parts of the country.

Hopefully the crisis would subside, not only for the sake of our trip in Kenya, but also for the Kenyan population who would suffer mostly from the hostilities and the economic predicament.

Picture taken from: Marc Pichette's Blog.

Zurich’s Airport and VIP Lounge

We woke up very early, even before receiving the hotel’s wake up call. We packed quickly and went to the lobby to check out and have breakfast. We arrived at 6:30 am and the restaurant wasn’t supposed to open before 7:00 am, but we were served breakfast anyway, the cook even made us omelettes, and we ate quickly so we can leave the hotel on time.

A taxi took us to the airport. It was early and still dark. A few people were going to work but there was no traffic.

The girl at the Swiss checking counter talked French in a cute way. She gave us good seats in the economy section. She was kind to answer all my airplane questions about our flight. Joumana was patient enough to wait, not without adorably rolling her eyes!

Zurich’s airport was beautifully designed. I remembered it was ranked among the 10 best airports in the world. It was clean, practical and cosy. A subway train took us to terminal E. On our way, Joumana and I spotted a handsome tanned man in his early 40s, who had a child with him. We nicknamed him papa.

We waited for our flight in Swiss’s VIP lounge, where we had cookies and tea, checked our emails, and read the newspapers. The lounge was very spacious, with high ceilings covered with solar panels. It is always pleasant to sit in a well designed lounge before taking a long flight. If there were shower facilities, I would have freshened up, even if I had already washed myself in the hotel room about two hours before!

Picture taken from: Salons en Suisse.