Dream trip Reality

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I felt that if we leave Africa having been simply across the border from the big game parks of East Africa, without visiting them, I would be full of regret. Thus we traveled to Kenya on holiday and had an amazing trip. Seeing elephants, lions, giraffes etc firsthand living free in the wild was a moving, once in a lifetime experience. However, somebody commented about our “dream vacation” - well, for credibility I should share additional experience from our trip. I define “dream vacation” as hassle free - having travel logistics taken care of and you are simply left to enjoy the sights and sounds and experiences of your travel destination. Traveling in Africa on a shoestring budget with 5 children is not stress free. I am sure that we’ll entertain friends with these stories that we can laugh at in hindsight, but when they are happening, it’s not necessarily funny.

As examples:
- Upon arriving I needed to pay the balance for the 1st 4 days of rental car and hotel. Surprisingly, we could not find a Kenyan bank to exchange our Ethiopian currency. The US dollars we brought were too “old”. The 4 ATMS in the airport and downtown were dry of cash. The 2 online banking options required security passwords/codes/account numbers that we could not remember, and my credit card was blocked for use in Kenya. Ugh! 4.5 tense hours later we paid our bill, together with hefty surcharges and fees and were on our way.

- One poor child has stomach flu symptoms for almost the entire trip. I was awoken in the middle of the night by calls from the neighboring tent to help our child who has gotten sick on the bedding, bed, mosquito net, whole bathroom. This same child endured the agony of ferry rides and bus trips holding in explosive diarrhea. Oi!

- To save money, we ate peanut butter, tuna, bananas, and water for lots of the trip, but we still did not avoid stomach ailments. We spent a whole day in Nairobi - some in bed sick; other wandering around the city all day.

- Budget travel in Africa requires lots of patience. To travel to the coast, we jostled 1.5 days in a crowded public bus. African hip hop music was blaring (on an overnight bus!) - not very restful…but we arrived safely .

- Our train trip was great, except that the 8 hours Nairobi to Mombasa turned into 24 hours because of a derailed train preceding our train ahead of us on the tracks…Well, nothing to do but wait and enjoy the view of the countryside. Later we realized that we were forsaking picture postcard views of Indian ocean beachfront for these views on the train and public buses - heavy sigh…

- We regretfully tore ourselves away from fabulous living on the beaches on Kenya’s coast for the 2 day trip back to Nairobi’s airport. Upon arriving, we learned that due to cancelled flight and scheduling errors, surprise - we had 2 more days in Nairobi. Aw man -

- The car plus driver that we hired to visit a national park 100 km from Nairobi drove us to the park’s front gate and demanded 50% more money to go further. Ugh -

- Tadas had a showdown with a corrupt policeman looking to pressure us into giving up some extra cash. Vasara was in tears and the rest of us were sweating, but Tadas held his ground and the policeman backed down. Score: Ethics 1, Corruption 0

So that’s part of the experience of travel - learn to relax, enjoy the moment, be happy with what you have - observe, learn, marvel. There’s more to seeing the world than the picture postcard views, and taking the bad with the good, we experience a country fully. Despite some challenges, we feel very, very fortunate to have experienced Kenya’s treasures. It is a beautiful country with fantastic nature, wildlife, people, and culture.

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