Africa Begins

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  Nairobi, Kenya
Thursday, May 31, 2007

Well, as a last insult from Egypt, we arrived at the airport two and a half hours early as requested by our airline.  With the confirmation number for our e-tickets in hand we proceeded to the airline counters for check-in only to be stopped by security.  In Cairo, check-in is behind security.  We showed our confirmation numbers and explained the e-ticket concept, but this fell on deaf ears.  We needed "paper" to show our eligibility to pass the first checkpoint.  This really blew my mind since it was Egypt Air that couldn't do e-tickets from Singapore (where they work) and only issued e-tickets from Cairo (where they don't work).  So begrudgingly we trodded to the Egypt Air sales office to obtain a paper printout.  We were met with a packed room, a number machine (take your ticket and wait), and a system where the number seemed to apply only if you weren't an Egyptian with money in your hands or a big-breasted, scantly clad French-woman flaunting your assets over the edge of the counter.  After about 45 minutes of polite waiting, Laura became more irritated with the crowd than I have been with the street touts and began an aggressive campaign of enforcing the number system.  You could say she busted out a can of whoop-ass.  Egyptian men were a bit taken back by this strangely aggressive behavior from a female (standing up and walking over seemed to help when she scolded them), but once the campaign began, others politely waiting added their support until it was a mini-mob enforcing the "get a number and wait your turn" system.  The staff of Egypt Air acted totally dumb.  While 40 people waited, half the staff watched from their computers because counter help "wasn't their job."  A Vietnamese family could sure give a lesson to these guys about teamwork!  I just think they were waiting for an offer of baksheesh to get off their collective asses!  So after nearly two hours of waiting, our number was finally called (263!  263!).  We got our paper e-tickets and worked our way through the check-in process to arrive at our gate 10 minutes prior to departure.  Fearing the pilot training would be equally as bad as the counter help, we opted for sleeping pills for the flight so if it did crash we wouldn't know it was coming.  We awoke upon the announcement of our approach to Nairobi.  The moral of the story is that Egypt Air can kiss my *$!, and the money you save using their cut-rate airline is payed in kind by your increase in blood pressure. 

So begins the Africa adventure!

We landed in Nairobi around 4 a.m.  This is the most civilized place we have been in a while.  It was so nice it was to get off the plane and be greeted by a man with a beautiful smile carrying a sign that said Ms. Sainz & Mr. Raab.  We made it out to our "hotel" by 5:30 a.m.  Unfortunately, the "hotel" didn't open until 7 a.m., but our driver kept us company while we waited.  The hotel is really a combo hotel/camp ground.  A lot of the overland (i.e. safari) companies stop here and camp.  It is located in the suburb called Karen which is a posh suburb of Nairobi.  The area is full of large houses and compounds, so the hotel is really a compound that has been converted to a house/campsite.  The back has a large grassy area with room for tents.  There are dorm rooms, and some rooms with baths (en-suite).  It was really interesting talking to our driver while we waited, even though we were both half asleep.  The most interesting part was watching his face light up when he talked about how much the city (Nairobi) has changed since 2002 (their latest elections).  He was saying things like, "Now you can use your cell phone anywhere and no one will steal it from you and kill you!  People can walk around at night...and you can just feel the energy of the city."  I've NEVER met anyone more happy with democracy and their government in general.  It really puts things in perspective...And he was such a breath of fresh air after the requests for tips, etc. in Egypt.
 
Once the hotel staff showed up, we immediately booked a double and went straight to bed!  We woke up at 1 p.m. and ordered breakfast.  The first thing we ordered was bacon.  Since we have been in Egypt, an Islamic country, there has been a "shortage" shall we say, of pork.  Also, lucky for us, they were serving roast pork for dinner.  We complemented that with an excellent African lager.  Delicious!
 
Anyway, it appears that more people from our tour will be arriving today (Saturday) and tomorrow.  The tour officially starts at 8 a.m. Monday morning.  For now, we are enjoying the quiet at the hotel - reading the local paper and figuring out our itinerary.  We got a glimpse of our future home for 56 days, the Africa Trails (our tour company) overland truck.  We are both ecstatic to be in East Africa and very excited about our coming safari adventure. 
 
Right now we are in town (Karen) using an Internet cafe, which is in a very nice little shopping center (complete with a Mexican restaurant - Oh my Buddha! - as they say in Vietnam).  We are going to stock up on "supplies" like peanut butter and almonds.  I imagine the food on the overland trip will be fairly limited.  Although the food is already way better than Egyptian food!  Hooray!

Since we don't know how often we'll be able to update, here is the itinerary of our overland trip.

AFRICA:

www.footprint-adventures.co.uk/Adobe%20PDF/Africa%20in%20Dep th.pdf

Talk to you all soon!

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