The Travel Adventure has Begun!

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The Eagle has landed

Well, it was more like a wet pigeon, really.....

Heather and I landed in London at 11:00am, a little tired from the Air Canada Economy class flight. Food, service, babies crying and everything was pretty average for Air Canada, so can't say much there. At Heathrow, we decided to start the adventures early by taking a quick trip into London. We grabbed the Heathrow Express and got into Paddington station in 15 minutes. A few Underground tube station changes and we were on our way out to Brick Lane on the east end of London. Very good Indian food out there and the atmosphere was very ethnic and energetic. We walked around and saw some great sights, then headed back to downtown London and Picadilly Circus. A quick walk to St. James Church and a few pictures under the statue of Eros and we headed back to Paddington. We stopped at a cool little Fish & Chips place and bought some original London eats, plus a can of Foster's each, and walked across the street to the Norfolk Park for a picnic. A young group of teenage boys took up position on the park bench beside us to roll a marjuana cigarette and we were regailed by a display of hoots, undressing, some rap sessions, expressive conversations and, finally, a quick scattering when the park warden came along. All in all, an entertaining start to the trip!

Back on the Heathrow Express and we were boarding the Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi at 8:00pm. To our amazement, our tickets turned out to be (accidentally?) booked as Business Class tickets so we rode 1st class all the way to Nairobi even though we had paid the economy fares. I have a gook booking agent.... :-)

It was very sweet! Glasses of champaign, meals from a menu, unlimited service, and a seat that folded back into a full bed. Ooohhhh La La!! We had been awake for 25 hours already, and the extra 3-4 hours of comfortable sleep was needed. We landed a bit groggy in Nairobi at 6:30am in the morning. Despite having all of the luggage and suspicious looking eyes (bloodshot red is my favourite colour while travelling) we made it completely through without a hitch. Jennifer also made it through easily the night before, so this all bodes well for a good trip ahead of us.

Heather and I looked for our driver who, as we later found out, was standing right in front of us with the sign with my name on it. However, neither of us could see him. It was weird. Anyway, I went out and grabbed a quick cab to Nairobi and we got a very good price (1500 Shillings). We checked into our hotel and everything was fine.

Our schedule was very packed and the more that we could do on the front end of the trip, the better. So we spent the first part of the morning on some business. We went to the Forex (several, that is, as each one seems to have a different policy and process for cashing Traveller's Cheques), to the Easy Coach station to purchase our bus tickets for Friday to Bumala, and to complete some other banking business for One Child's Village. Having finished early enough in the day, I then decided to take the girls on a quick sightseeing trip.

The first place we went was the Karen Blixen Ranch (from the movie "Out Of Africa"). It was a great experience for the girls and it was quite a sight to see. However, an additional treat came when the Crown Princess of Thailand decided to stop by and we got to see the whole entourage of security, press, attendents, and the whole works flood into the premises. So we got two sights for the price of one. :-)

The next we went to the Giraffe Park. This was a wonderful little park where you could go up on a high platform and feed the griaffe standing at their head level. The best part came when Heather and Jennifer got to feed the giraffe with their mouths. The griaffe were quite experienced at plucking the food pellets from between their lips. The one that Jennifer was feeding was particulalry astute at using his tongue, and I think there was more going on there than just a friendly encounter! At any rate, it was a real treat.

Then, back to the hotel where we had a nice supper and, realizing that we had been awake for 36+ hours, it was time to turn in!

Stay tuned for an exciting 2nd day.

Todd

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Comments

[anonymous]

I wish I were there. I miss it so much.I have to work on going with yu one time Todd. Amazing