October 17th, 2006 Dubai - Nairobi, Kenya

October 17, 2006
Dubai, UAE – Nairobi, Kenya

Last night we got to the airport almost 4 hours early. Still, we encountered an incredibly large line to check in. After over an hour in line we made our way through several lines of security and ended up at a nice restaurant where we had a long dinner. Eventually, we were able to board our plane, though we had to take a bus from the terminal to our plane…

The plane ride was long and I slept for most of it. I was awoken for breakfast at 4:30 in the morning! After eating, I quickly fell back asleep…when I got woke back up we were landing in Kenya!

After clearing customs and securing our luggage, we found Jared (B's Mom's friend) and his buddy, Ben. They gave us a ride to a guesthouse on the outskirts of Nairobi. Once we got a little more food, B and I went to our room for a nap.

We met back up with Jared and Ben at around 12:00. We then made a tip to the post office to ship some stuff back home. After getting run around and spending more time than we wanted, we got our stuff in the mail.

It was then time for an African lunch. We went to a local place where B and I were the only white people. The food was pretty cheap and totally amazing. I had a fried fish and a variety of other things (not quite sure what everything was) but it was really good.

We then headed for a place called the Giraffe Center. It was an insanely cool! I could not help but think of Jackie (since her favorite animal is the giraffe) and how much she would have liked it.

All of the giraffes at the center were Rothschild Giraffe’s, identified by their “white socks”. We spent a long time feeding and petting the long necked creatures. We even got a kiss! Also, we went totally picture crazy and took more than 100 photos at the center!

In addition to giraffes, the center had a lot of warthogs. While really cool creatures, they were overshadowed by the majestic giraffes.

Eventually we tore ourselves away from the giraffes and went into the gift shop. Everything was super cool and I was tempted to purchase a lot of souvenirs. I suppressed the urge and we continued on our way.

We got back to the hotel room at 18:00 and were totally exhausted (B and I even fell asleep in the car on the ride home). For the rest of the night we plan on just chilling out and taking it easy. We have to get to bed early tonight because tomorrow we are getting up at 5:00 and taking an 8-hour bus ride to Jared’s village.

I doubt there will be much internet in the village…but we will see!


NOTE: Nairobi has a much more comfortable climate than I anticipated. It is in the low 80's during the day and drops to about 65 at night. It is a nice change from the blistering heat of Dubai. This climate is due to the fact that Nairobi is almost 6000 feet above sealevel (Another fact of which I was unaware!!)

PS - Owen, I couldnt click on the link to your website - email it to me bro!!