The downtown the Kenyan capital of Nairobi is fully dotted with high-rise buildings like other metropolises. Cars move slowly during rush hour traffic. Like Bangkok where hawkers roam the streets when the traffic light turns red, some vendors in Nairobi held bags of snacks or even fresh bananas to sell to commuters.
But unlike other major cities, Nairobi is where you can spot wildlife in their habitat on one side of the road and a large ghetto on another.
"Look! Do you see the giraffes?," asked my travel companion with excitement while we were in the car, leaving the Nairobi Airport behind, heading to Hemingways Nairobi Hotel. Our driver nodded his head. He further explained that the animals lived in the Nairobi National Park.
"It's the first national park in Kenya," he said.
Feeding a giraffe is quite fun as it will gently receive food from you, leaving your fingers wet with its saliva. The Giraffe Centre has two places where visitors can feed Rothschild giraffes. One is the raised platform, which is quite popular because you can take a selfie with the giraffe. The other spot is on the ground.
Established in 1946, the park is located in the southern part of the city or about 7km from the city centre. It covers an area of 117.21km² with electric fences. I also saw buffaloes lying under the shade of trees. Our guide told us that the park had a wide variety of wildlife including lions, leopards, zebras and hundreds of bird species.
"This is your first day. It is just the beginning of your safari trip. Don't worry, you will have more chances to be more excited when you see countless numbers of wildlife especially in Masai Mara National Reserve," he said.
Our city tour in Nairobi served as an introduction to a Kenyan safari.
Karen Blixen called the house 'Bogani' or 'Mbogani', which means a house in the woods. Constructed in 1912, the house has a stone structure with a large veranda in the front. The entrance to the house has a small exhibition showing items about Karen Blixen such as a Danish stamp with her portrait. Step inside, you will see a cosy dining area, a study room, a bedroom of Baron Blixen and another bedroom of Karen Blixen, which also displays outfits worn by Meryl Streep in the film Out Of Africa.
Our programme started with a visit to a popular attraction that motivated me to visit Kenya since I was young. The Karen Blixen Museum was the place. It was once home to the Danish author Karen Blixen, who is best known for Out Of Africa (1937), a memoir of her life as an owner of a coffee plantation. The novel became an Oscar award-winning movie starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep in 1985.
"The movie helped market Kenya as a tourist destination while Ngong Hills where her house is located on the foothill is credited as one of the most romantic places for honeymoons in Africa," said Enosh the museum guide.
Born in Denmark with five siblings, the author moved to Kenya and got married to her second cousin Baron Blixen in 1914. They ran a coffee plantation. But their marriage hit a rough patch. After living together for eight years, they separated. In 1918, she met Denys Finch Hatton, her lover. It was also the same year that Blixen built a school for 200 families, said the guide.
The black rhino is blind. It was rescued from the Nairobi National Park after being rejected by the mother when it was three months old because of his blindness. 'We try to help him with surgery, but without success. The rhino has blindness genes. So he can't go back to the wild. He has to stay with us all of his life,' said a handler at the David Sheldrick Elephant and Rhino Orphanage. The rhino is now 12 years old. It has an average lifespan of 35-40 years.
In 1925 Blixen received the divorce letter from her husband. It was also the same year the new husband acquired a pilot license. Karen made a landing field for him just 500m away from the house. The relationship went well until 1931 when he died because of an aircraft crash.
"It was also the same year when Karen went bankrupt and was forced to sell the farm. With the great loss, she went back to Denmark," he said, adding that she turned her interest in writing and the famous autobiography Out Of Africa was her second book.
The farmhouse in Nairobi was purchased by the Danish government in 1964 and given to the Kenyan government as an independence gift. After the movie, the house was turned into the museum.
"It is the first house museum in Kenya and is ranked as the most visited house museum in Africa," he said.
At the David Sheldrick Elephant and Rhino Orphanage, elephant calves are released to the forest at 6am. They are accompanied by their handlers. The elephants will be in the wild for feeding and will return to the centre at 11am to noon to milk feed and take a mud bath. They will return to the forest again in the afternoon and come back to the facility around 5pm. After they are in their living space, they continue eating leaves. Visitors are allowed to touch them if they stand next to the fence. They are quite friendly. After sunset, handlers will cover each calf with a blanket to keep them warm.
Employed women in Kazuri are quite skilful with colourful ceramic beads. They are segmented to several zones including carving, baking and colouring. The beads factory provides salary and healthcare services for them and their families. The prices of their products might be higher than typical beads, but they are handmade. Every purchase contributes to their welfare.
Located about 10km from the museum is the Giraffe Centre. It is a well-known place where you can feed Rothschild giraffes, a near-threatened species. The giraffe got the name after the London noted zoologist Lionel Walter Rothschild who described the giraffe subspecies in the early 1900s.
Located on a 60-acres land, the giraffe sanctuary is operated by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife founded in 1979 by the late writers and conservationists Jock and Betty Leslie-Melville. The couple aimed to help protect the animal by educating children.
The Rothschild giraffe differs from other giraffe species because of its dark brown patches with areas of beige while the lower part of each leg is white. Another unique element is that the giraffe has five ossicones or horns, including two on top of the head like other giraffes, but also one in the centre of its forehead and another behind each ear.
The centre provides buckets of processed food for every visitor to grab some to feed the giraffe. There is a raised platform where you can easily feed the tallest animal on earth.
If you want to try original Kenyan food, our host Sky Safari by Elewana recommended Nyama Mama restaurant. Choices of food and drink are plenty like spicy traditional salad, braised lamb shank with Kenyan flavours, fried snapper fish and sukuma wiki, which is made of collard greens, onions and spices and served with ugali (cornmeal porridge).
"Take one piece of the food at a time to give it to the giraffe," said a staff of the centre.
Once noticing the food, a giraffe quickly turned its head and put its long tongue out to get the food. It disappeared in the mouth very quickly.
The giraffe sanctuary also has a breeding programme. They released the calves to national parks when the giraffes are three years old. So far, the centre has set free more than 40 Rothschild giraffes.
About 7km away from the Giraffe Centre is the place where they raise orphaned elephants. Called the David Sheldrick Elephant and Rhino Orphanage, the facility is located in the western area of Nairobi National Park. It was operated by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust founded by the late Dame Daphne Sheldrick in 1977 with an aim to continue the conservation work of her late husband, David Sheldrick, the founding warden of Tsavo East National Park.
"Our mission is to rescue orphaned elephants, raise them in the protected area for three years before we send them back to the national parks or rainforests," said a handler at the centre.
The calves were orphaned for many reasons including poachers killing the mother, illegal wildlife trafficking or human-and-wildlife conflict. The centre has released more than 240 elephants to the wild over the past 40 years. They also have a team to monitor the calves for five years after releasing them or until they are accepted into a heard.
Our city tour could not be complete without a stop at Kazuri, the bead factory.
The facility was founded by Brit Susan Wood in 1975 to create jobs for struggling women, most of whom are single mothers. So far, it has employed more than 340 women, said John, a factory guide.
Kazuri is a Swahili word meaning small and beautiful. The name matches very well to the ceramic beads and other products they produce.
"The products here are different from other mass production you may find in other outlets. It is because in Kazuri every ceramic bead is made by hand. We get the clay from Mount Kenya," he said. "Our products are the perfect gift for any visitor."
Although a day trip in Nairobi for me was too short, its first impression will last a long time.
TRAVEL INFO
- Kenya Airways provides a daily direct flight with Boeing 787-8 aircraft between Bangkok and Nairobi. The outbound flight departs Suvarnabhumi airport at 1am and will arrive in Nairobi at 6.10pm. The return flight will depart at 11.59pm and will arrive in Bangkok at 1.30pm. The flying time is about nine hours. Visit kenya-airways.com or call 02-630-4545 for more details.
- Karen Blixen Museum is open daily from 9am to 6pm. Advanced booking is required. Visit http://museums.or.ke/karen-blixen.
- The Giraffe Centre is open every day from 9am to 5pm. Visit giraffecentre.org.
- The David Sheldrick Elephant and Rhino Orphanage is open daily during 11am to noon and by appointment at 5pm. Visit http://sheldrickwildlifetrust.org.
- Kazuri Beads Factory is open daily. Visit http://kazuri.com.
- For more information about tourism in Kenya, visit Kenya Tourism Boards' website at http://magicalkenya.com.
