Behaving badly in Kenya
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2008
1
77
116
Trip End
Aug 01, 2009
Nairobi,
Kenya
Thursday, April 2, 2009
I have not behaved well today and I feel badly. With the Zanzibar fiasco still fresh on my mind, I allowed my imagination and some inconsistencies to get the better of me. Yesterday we were supposed to start our safari here in Kenya. We were going to be picked up at 10am and taken to Nakuru National Park where we would do a game drive, and sleep in Nakuru. Early the next morning we would travel to Maasai Mara game reserve and do a game drive, sleep somewhere in the park, and do another early morning game drive before heading back to Nairobi. That was the plan.
By noon our truck arrived. A 4WD is needed because it has been raining a lot in the Mara, and the roads are poor. Little did we realise what 'poor' meant! For some strange reason we left the farm, saying goodbye to Martin, and went to Eldoret (the wrong way). We went to a bank where we sat for an hour waiting for Martin to arrive! We had just left him and could not figure out why we had to wait for him. We finally decided to use our time wisely and go to a bank, after which Martin called to say he is picking us up and taking us to Nakuru himself. The owner of the truck had not agreed on the price we were to give him for the use of his vehicle. We would be met in Nakuru by another driver who was to be there waiting for us. When In Africa, you must go with the flow. We had requested a budget style safari, with thrifty accommodation as we were there to see the animals, not have a fancy hotel. When we arrived in Nakuru we tried to check into our hotel, but they could not find our reservation. We made the most of our waiting time by using the free wifi and printing our e-tickets for our upcoming flight to Cairo. We were pleased with this idea of having wireless internet for the evening as we could catch up on some things. We waited two hours for the driver to show up, and when he finally did, we learned we have no reservation and went in search of another hotel, one that is not so expensive. It was a good thing they hadn't booked us at this, the most expensive hotel in Nakuru according to the lonely Planet at between 250-300 dollars! Another thing that Unicef was holding a conference in this hotel, so an awful lot of pennies and nickles collected by grade eights around the world on Halloween night were used to pay for these fancy hotel rooms for these high end Unicef staff. The cheaper hotel we got was 7,500Ksh ($110.00)per night!! (We paid 2,200Ksh-about $32.00-in Nairobi) We met our driver, Peter, set up the pick up time for the morning and then treated Martin to supper. It was the least we could do after he waited with us for the hotel to be sorted out.
Peter, our driver was at the hotel early, and we had breakfast and left shortly after 7am. When we got to the park, we learned that we had to pay for our entry fee, over $250.00CAD, even though we were assured that it was an all inclusive safari. We had already paid 30,000Ksh ($440.00CAD) to Martin and though we didn't really expect that would be all we'd pay we didn't expect to pay so much more, and we still have to see the Maasai Mara. Jim insisted on holding onto the receipt since he paid, and while doing so he realised that it was for 1000Ksh less than he'd paid. Hmmmm there is something fishy going on here. On the way out of the park Jim went to the ticket office to ask for a receipt for the extra 1000Ksh. The clerk said, 'Oh, yes, I noticed the mistake right away'. So why didn't he give us the money then? Peter was there during the transaction, speaking Swahili to the clerk, so was he in on it? Jim was handed a 1000Ksh bill and the original receipt.
After driving through Nakuru for a couple of hours it was time to leave for the Maasai Mara. We drove through a small town called Narok where Peter is from and we stopped there for lunch. Peter dropped us off at a bank, told us to walk to the restaurant and he'd meet us there. All of us had different ideas about when he said he'd arrive there. I thought he'd beat us there as he was going to get gas, and the restaurant was at a gas station. After some time and Peter still wasn't there, I became very agitated with thoughts of Peter and his son rifling through our backpacks which were in the back of his truck. If he had already been dishonest with us, I felt I could not trust him with our unlocked bags. I worried that he may not even come back to pick us up. I tried to call him, but his cell phone was off, even more reason for my panic to rise.
As it turned out Peter showed up, having eaten lunch and expecting to leave, but we weren't ready to go. I had been trying to top up my cell phone, but wasn't able to because the sim card was Tanzanian. I was unable to call Martin because of this. I was really causing the kids distress, but couldn't help but to feel that all was not well. Only time would let us know that all really was not well, we had no idea how badly we would feel at the end of this trip, one that we had been anticipating for many years. A safari is one of those 'once in a lifetime events', partly due to the distance one travels to undertake a safari, and partly due to the cost of the safari itself. We knew it would be a splurge, and we were prepared for the sacrifice.
When we got to the Maasai Mara game reserve we thought we were driving to our accommodation and were surprised when Peter talked to another 4WD driver and we turned around. We wondered if our accommodation was closed, full, not expecting us?? We saw giraffes, wildebeests by the hundreds, zebras and Thompson's Gazelle. We took a road which looked more like a river bed, which actually was a river bed, and we drove on it where possible and around it where necessary. Peter was a very skilled driver and got us out of a deep mud hole without us having to get out. We couldn't believe that he had tried to go through! We were making our way down to the river and the rocky stream bed we were travelling on was very frightening. I could see how we managed to negotiate it, albeit with difficulty, going down, but I envisioned being stuck out here for days trying to get back up again. I could not imagine how the truck, even a 4WD truck would manage with the steep slope and the massive rocks that we slowly made our way over. With growing anxiety I asked Peter if we come back up this way to which he replied, Yes. It had been raining on the Mara for a week or more, and we could see rain approaching as we drove. My imagination saw the river level rising. We negotiated the concrete bridge over the Mara (?) river and soon we pulled into camp. We were greeted with wet towels and a fancy glass of juice. Within minutes the rain started and we watched as the walkways of the mud huts that were to be our home for the night turned into swiftly flowing rivers as the water rushed around the deep trenches dug around each building and flowed along the stone pathways. We were under a thatch roof and though there were some leaks we were reasonable comfortable for awhile. We were surprised by how cool it got with the mist from the heavy rain and the wind blowing on us. We were not prepared to sit in such a temperature as the day was hot and we were lightly dressed, our warmer clothing in our hut, out of reach with this amount of rain coming down. We did our best to keep warm and had supper consisting of stew, cabbage salad, and tea. After supper and when the rain had slowed we made a dash for our hut. We were given a brochure and were very surprised to see the cost quoted per person for staying here. The word 'budget' came to mind, and I wondered what they thought that word meant. 5,500Ksh ($81.50CAD) per person or $326.00CAD for the night was the quoted price on the brochure. I imagined that Martin must have negotiated a much lower price for us, being that he and David, the tour operator were friends.
In the morning we ate bread, jam, tea, orange slices and bananas. They were about to bring out more food and asked how we like our eggs, but we were keen to see animals and said we didn't want any more food. We hopped into the truck and were on our way. One of the Maasai from the camp rode along with us. We saw many animals that morning over the three hours we were there. The most impressive were the 15 lions, the hyenas which are impressive and much larger than I thought, and the warthogs who looked just like Lion King's 'Pumba' when they ran! We were not able to see any elephants, the one big animal that I was looking forward to. We had had three hours in the Mara whereas most safari's are three to five days. I couldn't help but to feel disappointed, knowing I won't be back to do this again.
The daytime sun was hot, and soon we were on our way to Nairobi. We anticipated large volumes of traffic due to it being Good Friday. We were to meet with the tour operator, David to settle the account for the safari. We had had in total 4.5 hours in a game park viewing animals. When we were introduced to David things quickly went downhill as we realised that we were on the hook for a huge amount of money. The first thing that David told us was that Martin paid him 25,000Ksh and we immediately knew that something was wrong. We gave Martin 30,000Ksh who was to have forwarded it onto David. We called Martin who confirmed that he still had 5,000Ksh. Our heads swam with confusion, anger and disbelief. Why would Martin with hold the money? The final price that David was asking for was four times what we were quoted in Nairobi a week ago. We wanted to support a local outfitter instead of one foreign owned. When you walk anywhere in Nairobi the safari touts are everywhere trying to sell their trips. We found out that about $100.00CAD per person per day is the going rate. We were standing in the parking lot with Peter, David, and the Maasai who had accompanied us to Nairobi arguing over the details. We were told things like the truck alone is worth $350.00 per day, and that David had to cancel another trip because we needed the 4WD for the Mara. We certainly did need the 4WD, we'd still be there were it not for the 4WD! If David cancelled a pre-arranged trip so that we could use the truck, then he is a very bad business man and I would avoid any further bookings with him. However, in hindsight I think this was just to further his case of 'how much we cost him' and get the money from us. We paid all that he asked as well as the 5,000Ksh that Martin had with held. We had other issues with Martin and we would collect the 5000 later. Remember, there were three burly men waiting to be paid. We didn't feel we had much power to negotiate. We were still a long way from our hotel and with night fall approaching, we didn't want to be left here! Being out on your own after dark in Nairobi is something everyone warns you about.
The more we hash this story around in our minds looking for clues and inconsistencies, I think we were simply scammed from the beginning to the end. Peter, our driver came back to the truck after being paid by David, complaining that he'd only gotten enough for the gas and truck but nothing for wages, I think just another ploy to get a tip from us who were to have felt sorry for him. We gave him nothing extra. Martin, who refused to tell us the total price of the safari left us vulnerable and without any negotiating power by doing so.
Do you want to go on a safari? Don't go to Kenya! Go to Tanzania, or South Africa, or anywhere else. The Kenyan people don't deserve our business, they are far too desperate. Like Martin himself told us, "Kenya has known better times than these, people are used to having things and now the standard of living has fallen greatly. The people are willing to steal what they used to have."
In hindsight, I may have been behaving badly, but I realize now that my sixth sense was alerting me to the inconsistencies that we experienced. I am not sure what we could have done about it when we were in Narok when it bothered me so much, but at least I don't feel so badly about mistrusting the events that day and behaving so badly.
